66 Knowledge is the only fountain both of the love and the principles of human liberty." "Where law ends, tyranny begins." WM. PITT. "Of what avail the plough and sail, WEBSTER. "O Liberty! Liberty! how many crimes are committed in thy name!" MADAME ROLAND. "Man is not the creature of circumstances. Circumstances are the creatures of men." DISRAELI. "Sail on, O Ship of State! With all the hopes of future years, THE BUILDING OF THE SHIP. XIII. SOCIALISM AS A POLITICAL SYSTEM. THERE are few terms in common use so elastic in definition, and which signify so many different things to different minds, as socialism. In its root meaning and derivation, it is both harmless and attractive. To be social is creditable. It carries the idea of friendliness, companionship, brotherhood, neighborly interest, and even unselfishness. These are some of the ideal qualities of humanity, and it is impossible to over-estimate their importance and beauty. If socialism promised their general embodiment, it would be supremely desirable and could not come too soon. There are some philanthropists who call themselves "socialistic," and persuade themselves that, in some way, the government can take hold of the matter and speedily usher in the reign of these delightful conditions. There are sentimental clergymen, who look upon business from the outside, and know little of its inherent self-regulative and compensatory laws, who wish to see a New Order, from the fact that they are unable to discriminate between the present natural system and its abuses. They forget that everything normal has its negatives and violations. There are "Christian Socialists" who are unmindful that He whom they regard as their perfect and complete Model labored entirely within the domain of human life and character, and not at all in external political affairs, which, in their very nature, are only expressive and resultant. Some enthusiastic theorists hail every little widening of state or municipal functions — made necessary by advan cing civilization - as "socialistic," and harbor the pleasant illusion that society is shortly to be reconstructed by a short-cut process. But the beautiful social qualities before enumerated are not political, but moral and personal. Their location is in the individual, and their exercise comes through voluntary growth and unfoldment. Yielding to no one in our admiration for socialistic qualities in moral character, socialism is here considered as a political system. This is its claim, and there is no other logical method. The accepted definition of the term involves the fundamental political reconstruction of society. Any such radical change must necessarily be coercive and not evolutionary. Socialism, as a system, means not merely a friendly interest in our neighbor's welfare, but a formal and forcible one. Instead of natural liberty, it signifies artificial interference, even though imposed in the name of brotherhood. It would ignore inherent, elastic, self-regulative forces, which are omnipresent, and prescribe everything by mechanical metes and bounds. Ignoring spontaneous individual growth, it would furnish universal moulds casting all shapes in stiff and arbitrary form. Socialism, as a possible political framework, is not only fatal to all evolutionary social development, but is paralyzing to all ideal human brotherhood. If it were possible to make men altruistic by legislation, all its sweetness would vanish with the loss of its voluntary and spontaneous spirit. But legislation piled Ossa on Pelion will not change human character. As well galvanize a decaying body into youthful vigor as to inspire brotherly love, or even morality, by coercive legalism. As properly call a stick of timber a tree, as to denominate political socialism brotherhood. A "whited sepulchre " is a sepulchre still. Were it possible to put in motion an entire paraphernalia of outward balances, checks, weights, and measures, living benevolence and unselfish service would become extinct. A non-recognition of the self-regulative and educational forces of Natural Law, everywhere present, leads many to conclude that there is but one way to get rid of injustice, and that is to pass legal enactments against it. It is like building a dam across a stream. As the water behind it rises they would build it higher, and patch it here and brace it there. But if it be not swept away, the current, in full volume, soon flows over it. Mistaking abnormities, which come from human distortion, for normality, they would raise an artificial wall to forever stop the rising flood of evils. Legislation is invoked to cure all the ills "that flesh is heir to." Is there injustice? let us make a law against it. Are hours too long? shorten them by law. Is there too much competition? put it down by law. Are there trusts ? wipe them out by law. Are times hard? improve them by law. Is money tight? make more by law. Is the millennium slow in coming? invoke the law. An able writer, in a recent article, characterizes the proposed phenomenal legislation as the modern tower of Babel. He says:— "And now there comes a band of earnest men and women who see plainly the evils of the times, and who would give up much to help their fellow-men. 'Come brothers,' they say, 'let us be brothers indeed. We will make a tremendous, a sky-reaching, an all-powerful law, that all men are and shall be brothers; that no one shall have more of this world's goods than another; that each shall give his best work and his best endeavors for the common good of all. We will all work for the Government, and the Government will feed us all. We will have no more poverty and no more riches, but all shall work and eat at the nation's table, and none shall be kept back in idleness or go away in hunger.' This is the plan of the Nationalist. It is the loftiest structure of its kind that the mind of man ever sought to rear; for socialism thinks to outwit Mother Nature herself, and to legislate the law of the survival of the fittest off the face of the earth. It is the modern tower of Babel. But it is not to be built of bricks, but of men; and the mortar of legislation never can make a man stay put. The law of evolution is superior to the laws of men. Before man was, it was, and yet, like the Babel builders of old, he thinks to overtop it." As a moving body seeks the line of least resistance, the average man will make a living with as little exertion as possible. Nine times out of ten, as has often been demonstrated, if he were in the man's shoes whom he regards as an "oppressor," he would be the harder man of the two. What every live man needs is not more law but less. He wants natural freedom, consistent with the freedom of others, and has no use for arbitrary trammels. The two wings of the socialistic propaganda are very unlike. At one extreme is a small band of earnest souls, sincere and benevolent, though impractical. They are filled with a fraternal spirit themselves and wish every one else to be. But under the same banner, though ten times as numerous, are those to whom socialism means, not more fraternity, but a grand divide. Avarice and envy are covert elements in human character which sway men powerfully, even though often unconsciously. The vast majority of socialists whose ranks shade through different degrees into red anarchism, gather encouragement and strength from the little section of sentimentalists who comprise the wing that is in sight and does the theorizing. The crowded socialistic columns that loom up in the dark background are looking forward to the time, when, through the forms of law, the estates of the more thrifty may be confiscated, which they imagine will give them governmental support and an easy time. It is idle to claim that the ignorant and unassimilated alien elements which form the great bulk of the socialistic party of America are actuated by a fraternal or unselfish spirit. Their lurid declamations against property and capital, and the spirit, even of their best literature, are conclusive on this point. Their prevailing animus is distinctly |