May Walden

“ Why is it that thousands of people work in sweat-shops making clothes that they can never wear because they haven't enough money to pay for them? It didn't cost these manufacturers much to have the clothes made, that is certain. Why is it that thousands of other workers stand over counters day in and day out, selling this sweat-shop clothing, and do not and cannot earn enough to keep soul and body together without selling their virtue too? It is because of profits, my dear friends, profits! The workers are not paid what they earn. They are paid only enough to keep themselves alive. ”

“ When profits are done away with, this grinding process will cease. That will be only when the people own co-operatively the means of production. Then join the Socialist party that is working to abolish the profit system, and to establish the Co-operative Commonwealth.
Women are slaves socially because they cannot do as they choose in society. We are slaves to custom and to public opinion. We marry to get a home, and we stay in it because we consider ourselves the possession of the man who furnishes our food and clothes. We bring unwelcome children into the world because we are sex slaves. ”

“ I think it is perfectly right to help any human creature in distress, be it tramp, drunkard or prostitute! But I think it is damnable to perpetuate a system which MAKES these unfortunates, and then tries to reform them in a faint-hearted way. I think that "charity" is degrading to both giver and receiver. The giving of charity implies a condition of poverty on the one side, of wealth on the other; it implies class distinction. It shows a spirit of brutal selfishness on the part of one and weak dependence on the part of the other. ”

“ Any one who has been in one of the stores and formed a part of the struggling, sweating crowd, hauling and pulling goods over trying to find something that suits both taste and pocketbook, will be ready to exclaim as I heard one shop girl do to another, "Don't it make you sick!" Doesn't it make you sick, my fellow women, to think of thousands of our class pinching, scraping, drudging in order to ape the fashions of those drones for whom we slave and whom we support in their idleness and folly? ”

“ Imagine, if you can, a society where each individual has the opportunity to develop himself or herself to the fullest degree; where the miseries of poverty, child labor and female labor do not exist; where co-operation takes the place of competition; where the brotherhood and sisterhood of man and woman is a reality; where peace and equity abide, and there you will have Socialism. ”

“ We hear people say, "Yes, Socialism is a beautiful dream; it would be all very well if you could change human nature, but since you can't, the dream is impossible." And you hear others say, when some colony has failed whose members tried to co-operate end make life on earth more bearable, "There's an experiment in Socialism for you; it never can succeed; it is too impractical." But Socialism is neither a dream, nor a colony of Utopians. And Utopians, you must know, are people who think out a plan of ideal living; a society where everyone and everything is perfect, and try to live up to it. ”

“ BY THE CLASS STRUGGLE. Socialism is not a theory, it is the next stage in the devolpment of society. In every stage of society the state has been in the hands of the ruling class. And the only way we can control the state is to replace capitalist legislators by those of the working class. "Then the working class will be on top and things will be as bad or worse than before!" No, because in establishing socialism, all will have equal opportunities, and from an economic standpoint all classes will be abolished. ”

“ All workers are in one class without regard to sex. There is no spot in the United States where a worker without money may take hold and make something without first asking if he or she may do it. If he is refused he is without means to earn his bread and butter. He must either beg it or steal it. It is not just that any man or woman shall be denied the right to earn a living. How shall we make things just? By making these means of production the common property of all the people and letting all have a right to work, and a right to all they make—no more, no less. ”

“ Would any girl, unless she was forced to do it through necessity, slave from morning till night for $6.00 a week making beautiful dresses that she can never wear? or stand all day in the stuffy air of a department store receiving insults from women, who, because they are on the other side of the counter, consider themselves superior to a saleswoman, and sell hundreds of dollars' worth of goods a week for which she gets the magnificent sum of $5.00 or $6.00? ”

“ THE LAW OF SURPLUS VALUE. If each human being worked alone, with only such tools as he could make, to produce things he needs, he could barely produce enough to keep himself alive. By working together with improved machinery, each worker produces a large SURPLUS VALUE over and above what he needs to keep himself alive. This surplus is now taken from him by the capitalist class; we propose to abolish that class and let each worker keep for himself and his loved ones the surplus value that he creates. ”

“ It is rather a plea for the establishment and preservation of the home in its most perfect form. The home without love is a hell. And love can never come to its fullest and most beautiful fruitage until woman is free. ”

“ When woman is socially free, free to accept or reject motherhood as her instincts incline her, can we look for the best and fullest development of the human race. Do not mistake this for an attack upon the home, which the capitalists are continually telling you the Socialists mean to destroy. ”

“ A woman who has not freed herself from these marks of indolence and frivolity can have no idea of the independence, exhilaration and energy of mind and body that come from adopting a rational mode of dress. We workers, men and women, must join ourselves together to rid the world of this system which gives a few rich people so much leisure and many poor ones too much hard work; and which makes it necessary for the rich class, whether willingly or not, to own another class by owning the things they must use to earn a living. ”

“ True, in most states women have no vote. It is also true that the Socialist party is a political party. Nevertheless, we Socialists insist that women should join the party and work shoulder to shoulder with the men for our emancipation.
The freedom that we crave, and which we must have, is economic freedom. We working people are all slaves, and women are in greater slavery than men, for we are slaves politically, economically and socially. ”

“ The children cannot go to school nor run errands if they are taunted all the time by better dressed companions, I think one who has not suffered from this taunting can never measure the ache which the sensitive little hearts hold, nor sympathize with the bitter rebellion against poverty which the young girl feels when her girl friends, or worse, the young men, smile scornfully at her shabby clothing. ”

“ There is still one other necessary qualification that a Socialist must have, and that is her consciousness of these principles, and her desire and determination to change affairs so that there shall no longer be a system of wage-slavery; of a master class and a subject class; but there shall be established a system of co-operation, not only in the production of necessities but in the distribution of them, so that each man, woman and child in the world shall have a decent living, and no man, woman or child shall have millions more than they can ever use. ”

“ Is it any wonder that she blames the husband who is himself ground down by business worries and the responsibilities of his growing family, and thinks to herself, "I wish I had never got married; I wish there was a way I could earn money of my own so I could have a penny to spend when I want it." When she asks for money to get some necessaries, she gets a gruff answer and a few dollars grudgingly given that makes her heart ache for days and weeks afterwards. ”

“ They smother their natural instincts and desires and drag out a wretched existence that too often ends in an insane asylum. Unless she were socially a slave do you think a woman would starve her mother-instinct when her whole nature craved the comfort of a baby's clinging touch? ”

“ A man with no property is looked down upon as the scum of the earth by the people who have inherited some, or have skinned their fellow creatures, or have acquired it under the conditions which capitalism gives.
Suppose by working and scrimping it could be possible for you to buy a home, would it be best to do it? With the present system of living where we must beg for a chance to work, I should say "no." Factory owners try to get their "hands" to buy homes near the factory so they will not be able to move away. They want them to have their money tied up in property so they will have to stay. ”

“ The perplexing thing about the whole matter to the Capitalist politicians is the steady growth in the membership of the Socialist party. So frightened are they at this awakening of the working class that they try to deceive themselves and each other into thinking that Socialist political activity is dying out instead of rapdly increasing. ”

“ It is from the fact that always another class has owned the things that the workers must have in order to live—the land, the tools, the machines, the railroads, the factories, the mines—in fact everything needful to the production and distribution of life's necessities. It is plain then to everyone that these things must be owned collectively in order that the workers may be able to use the full product of all that they produce. ”

“ As you go about on the street cars, or in a crowd, study the pinched, care-worn faces about you, made unbeautiful by want and drudgery. Listen to the remarks their owners make about the things they would like and cannot afford, then try to believe if you can that there is "prosperity enough to go around" and that "the working people of the United States produce two thousand millions of dollars more each year than they can consume." ”

“ Among your fellow teachers, arouse a sentiment in favor of free text books, free lunches, free clothing, less wasteful methods of education, consolidated schools for the rural districts, free transportation and the like.
There is work for all, whatever talent or ability you may possess, and to the limit of your enthusiasm and endurance. Work in the way that suits you best, by talking, singing, speaking, writing or thinking, only remembering the three principles of International Socialism which are to be mastered and never forgotten. ”

“ Now these newspapers and periodicals, which are collectively spoken of as "the press" are, almost without exception, owned and controlled by the present ruling class—the capitalists—who are very careful to form a public opinion that suits their own interests. These interests are embodied in the principle that capitalist private property is sacred. ”

“ Before we answer this question let us review a little differently the history we have just had of the evolution of industry.
In every one of the social stages I have described to you, the owning class (that is the class that owned first the slaves, then the land, then the machines) ruled society and made laws, and formed institutions for the benefit of that class. During the feudal period, the land owners were the powerful people, and they arranged customs, made laws, formed religions and wrote literature that furthered their own interests. ”