“ But I do not believe in the Socialist practice of forcing the ripening of that fruit. In other words, I do not believe the world is ready to do away with capitalism. And I do not believe in the inopportunism of Socialists. I do not believe in tearing off the husks of capitalism before human intelligence is ripe for expression on the higher plane. As long as Socialists hold aloof, and will not co-operate with capitalism they show themselves unfit to co-operate with all the people in the world in the making of an ideal government without capitalism. ”

“ I am a Socialist because it is quite apparent that the great fundamental sources of the necessities of life, on which all alike are dependent, are social and public in their nature, and should be open to all. They should belong to the nation, accessible on the same terms to all who need them, without giving monopolistic advantage to any.
I am a Socialist because I cannot understand why one man should be subject to another as slave, serf or wage-earner. No man is good enough, said Lincoln, to have the control of another man's life. ”

“ I am in favor of Socialism because I believe in equal opportunities for all children born into the world, and that each should be able to use all his natural gifts according to his ability.
I believe in Socialism because I detest all forms of monopoly and exclusiveness, not being able to see why the minority should possess property and the majority should be deprived of its advantages. If it is good for any, it is good for all. ”

“ There can be no real or lasting peace between capital and labor until society recognizes the common rights of all in natural resources, until we meet the marvelous multiplication of human effort through mechanical invention with social ownership and democratic control of the machine, and until the whole industrial order is organized so as to eliminate the waste of competition not in the interest of a few great industrial barons, but in the interest of the whole body of laborers. ”

“ Fortunes so vast as to stagger the imagination for a few; dire, ever-increasing poverty for the masses is now and will be increasingly the result of this development unless—
Unless we look at it in the sane way, as a development toward a new order, where the people will, in their collective capacity, own and operate and democratically manage all industry. That will be Socialism. There is no other way of escape in sight. Socialism is not, however, inevitably the outcome. There must be conscious action by the people to turn this evolution away from its present tendency. ”

“ I work and vote for Socialism. Every age has its special problems, its special tyranny to combat, its own liberty and independence to preserve, to hand down to its descendants. The machine has destroyed hand labor and association in labor is inevitable. The machine, too large and complex to be owned by individuals, has made necessary combinations of owners. Combinations of owners destroyed competition, and, through resultant economy and increase of production and profit, became rich and powerful corporations. These corporations control the means of life of over nine-tenths of the people. ”

“ But the Socialist Movement, at all times, the world over, stands for social and industrial justice. Jesus implanted in the consciousness of man the worth of the individual life. Socialism will make possible the true development of the individual unto a complete life. Socialism will throw around every individual a wall of protection against the rapacity of the strong, greedy, selfish individual, and it will put into the hands of every one the means of life whereby he may rise to the full stature of his being, there being none to hinder or oppress him. ”

“ Our country should be a republic, industrially as well as politically, and liberate the wage slave by the abolition of the capitalist.
As a writer, I shall continue to defend the interests of the masses instead of the classes, and as a Temperance Suffragette Socialist lecturer, I shall endeavor to inspire my audiences above the misty horizon of all other political parties to the star line of true reform, which is "the hoe of promise" and basis of a nation's greatness. ”

“ I am opposed to Capitalism, because it is social and economic slavery; because it is in accord with the doctrine of human greed and selfishness; because it robs the workers and the industrious and rewards the shirkers and the exploiters ”

“ I might also add that it is necessary for me to advocate Socialism to square myself with my profession; I am a minister of the Gospel; as such I advocate before men that there is a loving Father in Heaven; that Jesus was the divine, ideal man; that human beings have souls that will not die with the body. I could not advocate these things without blushing if I did not at the same time condemn the existing social order—for the existing social order kills the souls in men, the ideals of Jesus cannot live in it, and should it continue we could not believe in a loving Father who rules things. ”

“ The next great religious awakening will come from preaching the one sadly neglected truth of this age—economic justice and brotherhood. It will be greater, more fundamental, more stupendous in its effects than any reformation or revolution of the past. It is inevitable.
This coming emancipation of man—dethronement of competition and dollar rule—the new moral, social and religious [27] awakening—these give my life its greatest joy, its highest hope, and its greatest inspiration to service. I am in favor of Socialism. ”

“ Just how fast the public should assume control of public utilities I am not clear, but I feel quite sure that we should move in that direction and keep public ownership in mind as an ideal. Whatever embarrassments may arise, and certainly embarrassments must arise in any change of program, I feel that the disadvantages would be more than offset by the education of the public and by the cultivation of public spirit which would naturally accompany the gradual introduction of public control. ”

“ I am not alone in the thought that a temperance plank added to the Socialist Platform would cause the greatest majority to leave other parties, as Socialism would be more attractive than ever, to the very finest and best representatives of society everywhere, while justice would flower and bloom and the Dove of Peace perch upon our banners. ”

“ A study of social evolution leads clearly in the direction of Socialism. But it is when we carefully consider the economic situation that we become aware of the fallacy of the capitalist system and realize that the wealth producing majority will in time inevitably demand, as a matter of justice, the co-operative commonwealth; that is, will insist that the wealth producer receive the wealth he produces—that the capitalist, who as capitalist receives usury thereby commanding, without labor, wealth produced by others, must cease to be a parasite on labor. ”

“ A Socialist is one whose study of this scientific analysis has convinced him that society is progressing towards a co-operative commonwealth. My study extends over fifteen years, and I clearly see the gradual concentration of capital—the gradual consolidation of labor interests and the life and death struggle between them. As no question is ever settled until it is settled right, this can have only one result—the capturing of the wealth of the nations by the producers of wealth and the utilizing of it, not for the few, but for the whole people. ”

“ It is natural that mankind not only seek but demand that to which they are in equity entitled. Under capitalism the majority are exploited out of a good share of their product. As the producer awakens to an understanding of the present situation, it is this normal and justifiable self-interest—selfishness—which will prove to be a strong, if not the leading, factor in bringing about Socialism.
The unseemly antagonism and strifes so manifest today under capitalism are largely traceable directly to our conflicting economic interests occasioned by the private ownership of the means of life. ”

“ As history teaches us through the example of Jesus Christ and all who have rendered the greatest and noblest services to mankind, that, love of greed and personal gain is not an incentive, but a hindrance to noble deeds. I believe that Socialism, by removing this hindrance, will leave men free to follow the higher promptings of their nature, and through the noble incentives it offers, hasten the evolution of the race to a higher plane. ”

“ To endorse and accept all the various conflicting and even contradictory proposals loosely and popularly called Socialism would indeed be absurd and ridiculous. Nevertheless, on the whole the term Socialism has stood for constructive rather than destructive plans. What might be termed Christian Socialism, or perhaps still better constructive Christian Socialism, has ideals and aims that I unhesitatingly adopt as noble, just and right. When it comes to a program or plan to give practical application and realization to these ideals there is much room for debate and difference of opinion. ”

“ The ideal of Socialism, as I understand it, is a condition of society in which each individual will render his share of service in the production and distribution of wealth, and in which each will receive his proportionate share for consumption. ”

“ I don't think I am wholly in favor of Socialism, though I believe it would, even if actually in power, be better than the present reign of stark capitalism.
I am in favor of about nine-tenths of what Socialism advocates. Nearly all of the world's real troubles arise from selfishness. ”

“ This is the program of Socialism in a large way, a system of social service as against a system of private profit, of co-operation as against exploitation, whose threefold objective is to make every man a partner with every other man in the commonwealth of nature, in the common gain of the world's inventive genius which is fundamentally social and not individual in its origin, and in the organization of industrial life, which ought to be democratic and not autocratic or oligarchic in its end. ”

“ All good men—poets, artists, moralists, philosophers, scientists, economists, scholars—have in all ages proclaimed the ideal of a civilization, wherein all should help and protect each other, to develop intelligence and destroy ignorance, which is the root of all crime and misery. ”

“ It is consequently impossible that any government of man should be anything but a Socialism.
The people have lost sight of the fact that all property in a State belongs to the State. The exercise by every State of the right of eminent domain is an illustration of this. Modern governments customarily pay the private user or holder of property, when the property is taken for public use. This is always the rule when property is taken by corporations, or persons under a delegation to them of the right of eminent domain. It is only properly so delegated for public utilities in private hands. ”

“ A co-operative commonwealth demands that the able-bodied individual shall not be allowed to consume more wealth as measured in labor power, than he creates. Is not this so evidently reasonable that the system should command the approval of every fair mind? It doubtless would do so were we not born into and environed by the capitalist order, thereby being naturally prejudiced against an innovation so radically different as is Socialism. ”

“ As competition is based on man's selfishness and so is un-Christian, co-operation, based on man's brotherhood, the essence of Christianity, must supersede it.
The capitalistic system must consider profits first—business must pay—and men second. The last hundred years has traced the gradual rise of man and the next twenty-five will see him freeing himself from this system of wage slavery and evolving another which will dethrone the dollar and will enthrone the rights of man. ”

“ Under Socialism, one man is as good as another, and generally a good deal better. Poverty is a crime. Therefore, every poor man ought to be in jail. Socialism is a panacea for all the present ills. The trouble is, nobody wants to apply it. Under the present system, it is every man for himself, and the devil take the hindmost. Under Socialism every man is hindmost. Every honest man now is a Socialist. The trouble is, there are no honest men. I never knew but one honest Socialist editor, and he has just committed suicide. ”

“ As a result of this private ownership labor receives but a portion of the product, the larger part of wealth produced being either wasted in the strife of competition or retained by the capitalist in the form of interest, rent and profit.
The wealth we command merely through the ownership of stocks and bonds—so-called income producing capital—is wealth received which we do nothing to produce; hence this wealth must, of necessity, be produced by others who are deprived of a portion of their product. ”

“ The only way to strive for its realization is for each generation to do its part in promoting a spirit of temperance, co-operation, fairness and intellectuality. Society will then gradually realize [28] the waste, unfairness and barbarism of industrial competition, of inheritance and of unequal distribution and consumption. While man is thus slowly becoming civilized, he will naturally devise from time to time, such laws and such forms of government as will fit each stage of his development. ”