MR TREGEAR AtfD SOCIALISM.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12509, 23 May 1906, Page 5

MR TREGEAR AtfD SOCIALISM.

to the znrroa or "the raids." Sir —I havo been reading your editorial anent a private letter t-aid to have been written by Mr Tregear, Secretary for I-abour. I hope thi eaying is true. You say:—"lVar be it from us to attach too much importance to this moonstruqk nonsense. If it were uttered by a lamp-post orator, or ef en a Socialist candidate for the House, we should all treat it with the contempt it deserves." Do you still really believe that Socialism may be regarded with contempt P Consider a moment the ntagmI tude of its development. It is worldwide; has over nine million votes behind it, and many millions more who are non-voters. Its proportions cannot be considered contemptible. Socialism w based upon ethical principles which tho "Encyclopedia Britannioa" describes as identical with th<» ethics of Christianity; being so, it may not be classed aa, foolish or wicked, and so to be regarded with contempt. Socialism embraces, almost in a body, the "intellectuals" of. the world; by "intellectuals" is meant the people of letters, art, and science; these, relatively to numbers, are as a hundred to one of the manual workers. Surely, the intellectuals of the world may not lightly be bold in contempt. If you are going to oppoue Socialism, should you not first get an intelligent understanding of itP There is not a glimmer of evidence in this article that you have done so. Over-weening confidence and contempt sometimes lead to discomfiture. Witness the alarm and amazement of the Press of England, and of those who look to it for information and guidance, occasioned by the result of the late elections there, when fifty-one Labour members were sent to Parliament, most of them Socialists of just the same brand as Mr Tregear. If you examine Socialism on ite merits you will find it to bo an extremely fine cut moral issue. Briefly stated, Socialism stands for tho adjustment of our social system to the moral law. Th» existing social system is open denial and repudiation of moral law. Buskin says ours is the only instance in history of a peopie establishing a social system entirely opposed to their professed religion. In proof of this let us look at the moral, or immoraK basis of the present system of political economy as stated in Walker's "Political Economy," p. 16—this is the standard text book in most of the colleges and universities of America. Wo read: "Of every human passion or motive, political economy makes entire abstraction, love of country, love of honour, love of friends, love of learning, love of art, pity, honour, shame, religion, charity, will never, so far as political economy cares to take account, withstand in the slightest degree or for the shortest space of time, the efforts of the economic man to amass wealth." So, competent authority, each speaking for each, establishes the fact that existing political economy is in violation of, and the pob- | tioal economy of Socialism, the practical application of the ethics of Christianity. These things being true, a man should not hastily fjive expression to contempt and detestation of Socialism. * Socialism is not "moon-struck nonsense." Look at ite basic principles. It Tecognises and affirms that this earth is made for all men; not for come men; it affirms the equal risrbt of all men to life; that j.he realisation of thi6 right involves tbe equal right of all men to the means of life, food, clothing, shelter, and ail else; all these come from the land; it aflßrms that these undeniable rights constitute, beyond cavil, the equal right of each to the land, or products of the land. Here are specimen results, direct from the violation of this right, selected from English mortality reports and statements made by eminent Englishmen. Fifty-fivo per cent, of the children of tbe wage-workers of England die before five years of ago; and of the children of better fed, clothed, and housed, only eighteen per cent, die before that age. TTio workers them-

selves die at the average age of thirty two; non-workers (manual) at an avci ago. ago of fifty-five. Sir John Goret writes of "One-third of the people of England living lives of poverty and chronic misery," Sir H. Campbell-Ban-nerman speaka bf thirteen millions of people bolow the poverty line, under ted, under clothed, badly housed. In tho explicit language of tho Socialist, all these are murdered and robbed by the existing social system, and we defy successful contradiction. Contempt for such results, or for the advocate of a remedy for them cannot be considered commendable in any man. The term "slave" ii? correct as applied to t the man whose only capital is his labour power; such a man is unable to employ his labour power 6ave by consent of the possessor of land or machinery; he cannot obtain such consent unp less he surrenders some part of the product/" of his labour, and it %% the ci*» forced doing of this that constitutes the essenso of slavery. The Socialist cannot conceive of man or woman opposing it when they receive the light of knowledge concerning it—and the light is spreading—fast-.—Yours, etc., SOCIALIST. May 17th, 1906.