May Walden

“ 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. ”

“ 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? ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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? ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ So, the workers, ever watchful for an opportunity to benefit their: own class, agitate, organize, and educate their fellow men and women for the coming change from Capitalism to Socialism. And never before in the world's history has such a movement been created, for whereover Capitalism has obtained a foothold, there the organization of wage workers into economic and political parties follows as surely as day succeeds the night; until now there are branches of the Socialist party in almost every country on the globe. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is only in a state of society where woman is looked upon as the private property of man, that such perversions of woman's nature can be found; the prostitute, the childless woman, and the worn-out over-burdened mother. ”

“ The Republican party is the party of the great trusts which kill off the smaller business concerns by ruinous competition and throw their managers into the wage earning class or drive them to suicide. The Democratic party represents the smaller business concerns that clamor for a suppression, or for a regulation of the monopolies, so they can keep on competing with each other. But both parties want profits. They want the chance to rob the worker of the surplus that he creates. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ A great deal, for as I said in the beginning, the Socialist philosophy recognizes that the advancement of the race is dependent upon the changes in the form of industry, and that all of the changes in society have followed, and have been the results of the evolution of industry. ”

“ Women probably suffered more during this period than at any time since savagery. Many sold themselves as indentured servants to people in America.
Important inventions at this time, especially the application of steam as a motive force to machinery, brought in the Factory System, and the evolution from the hand tool to the ponderous machine. This brought about a revolution in the relation of woman to society; for the first time in civilization her value as a worker was made equal, and in some industries superior, to that of man. ”

“ We dare not maintain the right to our own bodies because we have taken a vow to obey our husbands and to cleave to them until death parts us, no matter what the exactions or the abuse they heap upon us! ”

“ The Domestic System marks the rise of the middle man who bought goods and sold them for a profit, instead of making them for use, as had been done in all previous systems. The master-guilders could not look to customers for the sale of goods, but had to depend upon the middleman and the state of the market. The workers could go wherever they chose. They were not bound to a certain master, but had to offer their labor in competition with all other laborers, for their hands and their tools were the only sources of their living. ”

“ Unlike the Republican, Democratic and Prohibitionist parties, the members of the Socialist party all over the world support their party by paying monthly dues. This money is used to keep lecturers and organizers in the field, and to pay the salaries of the state and national secretaries who direct the work. No person is excluded from membership because he or she is too poor to pay dues, but everyone who can pay is expected to, because the party must depend upon the working class to emancipate itself from slavery. ”

“ This amount we call "surplus value," and while many of the supporters of the capitalist system deny the theory of surplus value, proofs can be piled on proofs to show that the workers do not get the full value of all that they produce.
Every effort that the workers make to get higher wages is an effort to get more of this value that they have created. This is the cause of the strikes that are so common in manufacturing communities. ”

“ Scientific Socialists, as we call ourselves, do take account of these changes, and we realize that all of our institutions change as the form of industry changes. But to explain this to you, I shall have to take you back to the beginning of the world's history.
Society has not always been in the stage in which we find it to-day. ”

“ Is the sight of our little ones toiling in the shops, mines and on the streets so comforting and so reassuring that we long to have them there? If we could vote, would. we consent to elect a mayor or aldermen who connive with wealthy corporations to deprive us of taxes that should go to support schools for our children? ”

“ And this desire on the part of every Socialist to better the conditions under which we live, calls for the help of every person, high or low, black or white, Jew or Gentile, who has a spark of the feeling of brotherly love in his or her make-up! ”

“ Upon this belief there has been built a great mass of ideas and ideals, and of institutions that are intended to preserve the present system of wages and profits. The workers are set to thinking about petty details and are divided into parties that quarrel over whether we shall have a Republican or a Democratic president, or whether we shall use gold or silver, or paper money, or have a two-cent tax or a five-cent one, in order to keep them from seeing that neither the one or the other will give them all that they produce. ”

“ In the nest step, the machines into which the tools had developed, are themselves private property. The workers, now factory hands, are free to offer themselves to any master. but they are none the less slaves because without access to the machines they are powerless to earn their living. ”

“ The Socialists argue that there is a better way for everybody to live than by robbing and being robbed. They do not argue this from any vision, but from a logical conclusion of the principles of industrial evolution that I have outlined to you. ”

“ Do you not know many attractive ones who would make excellent wives and mothers, but who are unmarried because no man has ever come to claim them? The cost of living is so great that men and women dare not take upon themselves the responsibility of a family. ”

“ Not much food could be raised by these primitive methods, so the tribe produced nothing to sell. But as the tools were made more perfect, and more food could be raised, some of the slaves could be spared to do other work besides agriculture: and in this way handicraft arose. Women learned to spin the fibres of plants, to weave the grasses, to sew together the skins of animals with needles fashioned from bones of animals ”

“ He divides the life of mankind upon the earth into three distinct periods: First, savagery ; second, barbarism, and third, civilization. Savagery and barbarism he again subdivides into three periods each, which he describes as the lower, middle, and upper status. ”

“ But in our youth, when our wants increase and we are restless under restraint, we are obliged to go from home to find a master: one who by sweating the life out of us can add to the profits he is so eagerly grasping. ”

“ There are fifty-four Socialists in France representing the party. England has thirty-two in the House of Commons. Finland has the honor of having the largest percentage of Socialist representatives in parliament of any nation in the world. After a tremendous struggle for universal suffrage—which contrary to the usual meaning of the term included women as well as men—the first elections under the new law resulted in the election of eighty Socialist representatives out of a total of 114. Eighteen women were elected. of whom nine are Socialists. ”

“ People's Ideas are formed very largely by what they hear others say whom they look upon as authorities, or by what they read in books or papers for which they have great respect. At the present time when newspapers are so cheap and plentiful, the information that is contained in them, and the opinions that are expressed by them, have a powerful effect in determining people's beliefs on certain questions. ”

“ Whatever money was made was kept, as it did not have to be divided with a middleman. As the system developed, however, the master-guilders became more wealthy and tyrannical, and their apprentices and journeyers took sides against them in self-protection. ”

“ Spain and Japan; in Argentine, Australia, Canada and other countries, the Socialist party is organized and at work trying to better the conditions of the common people. The Socialists of the United States number almost half a million voters, although not all of them are dues-paying members of the party. ”

“ Her weaker muscles are sufficient to run the machine, and her patience and persistence, learned through her long centuries of slavery, make her a more dependable worker. But the Factory System has also made another change in her condition. ”

“ These changes in society from one period to the next above it are called revolutions. Politics, art, literature, religion, political science, philosophy, education, and other institutions have all passed through changes following industrial changes in society. ”

“ All villages were forbidden to let rooms to single men and women, and the latter could be cast into prison if they refused to become servants, even if they were employed at any other work. such as sowing seeds for the peasants at daily wages, or even buying and selling corn. ”

“ As time passed, the master-guilders joined themselves into trade leagues, and became very powerful in controlling commerce so that the evolution of industry passed from the Guild system into that of the Domestic System. ”

“ Ever since the division of society into classes there have been people who have tried to fashion an ideal state. Plato, who was a Greek, and lived 400 years before Christ was born, was one of the greatest of these dreamers. ”

“ She does it because she is an economic slave; because she cannot make a living except by applying to some one who owns the machines, or the goods she must work with, in order to make her living.
In order that this product may be sold for a profit, the girl by competing with others who want to make a living also, must work as cheaply as possible. ”