THE WORKERS AND SOCIALISM.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13159, 4 July 1908, Page 10

THE WORKERS AND SOCIALISM.

♦ TO THE EDITOR OF "THE TRESS." Sir.—ln yonr leading article in this ■morning's issue, you state that Socialism would wreck the present industrial system and render it a hell for the worker, and a wilderness from which every employer would hasten to escape. You ignore the fact that there would still be left the two essentials for the production of all wealth—Land and Labour. Tho present industrial system is only wage slavery, and its wreck would clear the way for a more substantial institution. Our present experiments in Socialism have proved beneficial to the workers, and its further extension is to be eagerly hoped for.

If you were consistent you would urge tho repeal of our present little incursions into Socialism and advise tho sale of the State railways and coal mines.

Your alarm is not ill-founded; Socialism is very near.—Yours, etc..

V.R.v. [All political economists include a third essential which our correspondent has omitted, namely, capital. What wealth could one man or a hundred men oxtract from a thousiTul acres of the richest land without capital to buy tools, stock, seed, etc., and to keep the workers until they marketed the produce of tho land.— Ed. -The Press."]