Socialism : with preludes on current events

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Contents

LECTURES.

PAGE SocIALISM AND UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE . ; ree ( SocIALISM A PoLiITICAL BLUNDER . : 4 < iR SELF-HELP, Not STATE-HELP, THE HOPE OF THE io) 2 : : : : : A rea | CO-OPERATION AS A HELP FOR THE PooR . As i Co-OPERATIVE SAVINGS BANKS IN GERMANY . 130 DEATH-TRAPS AND FEVER-DENS IN City SLuMs. 155 HieguH ScHOOLS AND A UNITED CITIZENSHIP . . 196 TRAMPS, SUNDAY LAWS, AND THE PooR . - 229 ALCOHOL AND THE HUMAN BRAIN . : - 256

SocIALIsM, TEMPERANCE, AND WoMAN’S Yorn . 292

I. Socialism And Universal Suffrage

THE ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIRST LECTURE IN THE BOSTON MONDAY LECTURESHIP, DELIVERED IN TREMONT TEMPLE, JAN. 13.

Cease to brag to me of America, and its model institutions and constitutions. America, too, will have to strain its energies, crack its sinews, and all but break its heart, as the rest of us have had to do, in thousand-fold wrestle with the Pythons and mud-demons, before it can become a habitation for the gods. America’s battle is yet to fight. New spiritual Pythons, plenty of them; enormous Megatherions, as ugly as ever were born of mud, loom huge and hideous out of the twilight future on America; and she will have her own agony and her own victory, but on other terms than she is yet quite aware of.— CARLYLE: Latter Day Pamphlets.

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SOCIALISM.

I.

SOCIALISM AND UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE.

PRELUDE ON CURRENT EVENTS.

Ir is an Arabian legend, that, when the ostrich was told to carry a load, it answered, “I cannot, I am a bird;” and, when it was told to fly, it answered, “I cannot, lam a camel.” It is also an Arabian legend, that, when the rats were taxed, the bat said, “I am a bird;” and, when the birds were taxed, the bat said, “I am a rat.” The National Liberal Infidel League says it is not the Free Religious Association, and the Free Religious Association says it is not the National Liberal League. I am perfectly aware that they are two organizations, and that they are no more nearly connected than father and son. [Applause.] But why is the Free Religious Association now anxious to disown the National Liberal League?

In the city of Berne, in Switzerland, there is a statue of a hideous ogre eating a child. The pockets

. * of the monster are filled with girls and boys waiting for the cracking of their bones and the extraction of their marrow between the teeth of the cannibal. This ghastly figure is a fit representation of the god which American infidelity, in clamorously demanding the repeal of all laws against the infamous use of the mails, has lately set up for public worship. It is a matter of painful notoriety, that, according to the testimony of an alarmed and protesting minority, a large majority of the National Liberal League of infidels have formally entered the service of this god of the slimiest part of the pit. Their lecturers and newspapers are his hierophants. The youth of the land, so far as he can reach them, are between his — teeth. Unspeakably loathsome and abominable men and women, whose trade is the corruption of the young, dare to petition Congress, in the name of a free press, to abolish all laws against a debauched use of the mails; that is, to allow this fiend, as odious as Astarte and as cruel as Baal, to reach his prey without let or hinderance. A majority of the National Liberal League of infidels seconds this desire. The greed of the pocket and the greed of the teeth are combined.

1. Of course it is evident, even to a mind uneducated in the law, that there must be a federal regulation concerning the use of the mails, if we are to keep the United States Government itself from assisting moral cancer-planters. Whoever sells infamous publications in any State of the American Union becomes amenable to the laws of that State.

If, however, a ghoul of the slums sends his wares from one State to another by the mails, it is in most cases difficult or impossible to convict him under the laws of either. Even when the laws allow such conviction, it usually becomes impracticable on account of the difficulty of proof, and of ferreting out and securing the offender. Venders of infamous literature, therefore, do their business as much as possible » through the mails. Purify the post-office from this traffic, and you confine it to comparatively narrow limits. The shield of State rights is greatly coveted by the corrupters of youth, and their scheme is to clamor against any federal regulation as to the transmission of their wares through the mails.

In 1873 Congress passed an excellent law forbidding venders of infamous literature to tamper with the national mails, and appointing an efficient postal expert, specially charged with the duty of exposing the violators of the statute.

It is highly significant that nobody complained, and nobody thought of complaining, of the law, except infidels, free religionists, and corrupt publishers.

A petition was sent to Congress in 1878, in favor of the repeal of the postal law of 1873. The New York agent of the Society for the Prevention of Vice was very much surprised to see, in the list of signatures to it, the names of several important firms who had usually been his friends. He asked these personally, if it was indeed true that they had petitioned for the repeal of the regulations of 1878. “We have never put our names down on any such petition,” was the reply. ‘Are you willing to say so in writing?” They were of course not unwilling to place themselves outside the black ranks of those who had signed this petition. The leading firms gave him written authority to say that their names on the document were forgeries. He appeared before. a committee of Congress with this evidence, and in a very short speech defeated the petition. In New York so much forgery of this kind is done, that the procedure is regarded as an old trick; and, if public attention has not been called to it through newspaper discussion, it is because fraud of the sort has been so frequently attempted by corrupt publishers and infidel societies in large cities.

An official document, in which a committee of Congress recommends that the postal laws of 1873 should not be changed, contains, as a fly in amber, and in the evil conspicuity of an irreversible public record, the name of the foremost infidel lecturer in the United States.

“ Forty-fifth Congress, second session: House of Representatives, Report No. 888. Repeal of certain sections of the Revised Statutes. May 31, 1878, laid on the table, and ordered to be printed.

“Mr. Bicknell, from the committee on the Revision of the Laws, submitted the following report : —

‘The committee on the Revision of the Laws, to whom was referred the petition of Robert G. Ingersoll and others, praying for the repeal or modification of sections 1785, 3878, 3893, 5389, and 2491, of the Revised Statutes, have had the same under consideration, and have heard the petitioners at length.

“In the opinion of your committee, the post-office was not estab-

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SOCIALISM AND UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE. T lished to carry instruments of vice or obscene writings, indecent pictures, or lewd books.

“Your committee believe that the statutes in question do not violate the Constitution of the United States, and ought not to be changed: they recommend, therefore, that the prayer of said petition be denied.”

The unimpeachable authority of this document shows what was asked for, and who asked for it, and why it was not granted.

Under the law of 1873, it is possible to prevent the sending of corrupt matter from State to State, or by mail at all. If you can only execute the federal law against the corrupt use of the mails, you can do much to confine the corrupting of youth to cities. You now have on this topic legislation connecting Commonwealth with Commonwealth, and inter-State in all its operations. ‘The execution of this most necessary and righteous federal law is what pinches cancer-planters; and it is of that, or of that chiefly, that they make complaint.

2. In Boston, in November, 1877, there was an infamous convention of a lepers’ league at Nassau Hall. In the course of its proceedings, a woman, not a lady, who was the wife of a man recently pardoned out of Dedham Jail, stood at the front of the platform, and in the presence of two hundred men and boys disgraced herself by language which cannot be reported here, and could not be indicated even dis- _ tantly without giving great offence. One of the friends of the law of 1873 happened to be in the audience, and went out for a policeman; and when the president of the gang who were governing that convention —some of them ex-convicts, others of them sellers of corrupt literature — appeared in the anteroom, he was arrested. On learning the news, even that audience heartily applauded. He was tried, and, as you know, sent to Dedham Jail. There was a very full discussion of his case. Judge Clark first decided against him. The character of the paper he had been publishing at Princeton in this State was brought forward as one evidence of his immoral character. He advertised to sell a book, the name of which I shall not advertise by mentioning it; and called for “agents—girls and women particularly successful.” The publication demands the abrogation of all laws against infamous crimes. It preaches the “natural right of man to commit adultery.”

It was claimed that the law under which this criminal was convicted was unconstitutional. Delay was requested; and the judge presiding at the trial postponed the final disposition of the case until Judge Clifford, the senior justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, could be here, and assist in determining that question. After full consideration, both judges decided that the law was clearly constitutional. (See “Daily Advertiser,” leading article, July 31, 1878.) By the concurrence of both of them, the defendant, on the 25th of June last, was sent to Dedham Jail for two years’ hard work, and fined one hundred dollars.

He was not in vigorous health. The newspaper statement was, that it was feared that he would die in jail. Some of the persons who started the forged petition in New York City started another. One or two criminals who have been in prison in New York and New Jersey came to Boston as drummers; and by forgery, or by a very vigorous canvass among persons of their own opinions, they obtained a petition which it is claimed had seven thousand signatures, asking for the release of this criminal from Dedham Jail.

- At the instigation of the cancer-planter gang, items were published saying that Judge Clifford had signed the petition. He has denied this charge in a letter over his own name.

It is exceedingly unusual for a criminal to be pardoned without reference being made to the judge who sentenced him. Go to the lawyers who are acquainted with this case, and you will find them expressing indignation on account of the abandonment of all established usages in the granting of this pardon. Never but once before has any criminal convicted in this federal court been pardoned without reference of the case back from Washington to the authorities here for the facts. It is a wholly unwar-. ranted abuse of the pardoning power, to discharge a criminal with no effort to hear both sides.

Judge Clifford’s decision could have been supported by a most significant petition, if only time had been allowed. The proper department at Washington was informed of this-fact. Who ever heard before of a pardon being granted a criminal who avowed no penitence, but said he would repeat his offence ?

The decision of Judge Clifford was a very mild one. The penalty fixed by Congress was a fine of not less than one hundred nor more than five thousand dollars, and imprisonment for not less than one year and not. more than ten years. In view of all the circumstances, since it was the first offence, and since the defendant could not be sentenced to the State Prison with the hope that the offence would not be repeated, the court sent the criminal to Dedham Jail fora year. ‘This disposal of the case was ap- _ proved by all the respectable press of this city. “ The spirit of the law,” said Judge Clifford, “is for the protection of the community; and the court cannot overlook the community in passing this sentence.”

It is said that Attorney-General Devens was imposed upon. No time was given for another petition. It was supposed that nothing lacking in respectability could come from Boston. Perhaps the good name of Boston, and the fear that the criminal would die in jail, were the chief influences causing his liberation. The management of the petition was in New York more than in Boston, and chiefly in the hands, in both places, of ex-convicts whose imprisonment was inflicted for the violation of the United States postal laws. Cancer-planters had the ear of the pardoning power, and filled it with lies. This is very frank speech, my friends; but there is a public necessity for candor on this theme. If you do not care to be responsible for what is said here, I do; and am entirely-willing to take all the blows that may come. [ Applause. ]

SOOTALISM AND UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE. 11

8. It is fair to apply the epithet “free religious” to the majority of the National Liberal Leagues who clamor for the abrogation of the righteous postal laws of our nation. I open the infidel newspaper which now so justly criticises the majority of these leagues, and I read that this journal is “devoted to free religion.” That is the language of its prospectus. If a newspaper announces that it is devoted to the interests of the Republican party, is it not a Republican newspaper? If it affirms that its purpose is to advance the interests of the Democratic party, is it not a Democratic paper? And if it says in its prospectus, as this paper does, that its object is to promote free religion, is it not a free religious paper? Is it not perféctly fair to call it such? This same prospectus says, “In addition to its general objects, the pfactical object to which this paper is specially devoted is the organization of the Liberals of the country. ... This paper will henceforth have for its chief practical aim the organization of a great national party of freedom.” It is perfectly well understood, that the local leagues constituting the National Liberal League were organized chiefly through the discussions contained in this sheet. If, now, a Democratic paper says that its chief object is to organize leagues, I conclude that these leagues when organized by a Democratic paper will be Democratic leagues. If a Republican paper announces that its chief business is to found leagues, I conclude that it means Republican leagues. So, when a paper which is devoted to free religion announces that its ew:

chief work is to form leagues, I must infer that these leagues when formed will be free religious leagues; and defy any man, who is straightforward, to question my right to do so.

No connection, indeed, between free religion and the National Liberal Leagues! Several of the officers of the two associations are the same. Here is the authorized report of the Free Religious Association for 1874, and I find in it the following very significant language (p. 15): —

“This is specially a report of what has been done by your committee during the past year, in behalf of the principles for which the Free Religious Association was organized. But we can hardly forbear mentioning other signs of activity in the same general direction, though outside of their immediate proceedings, and which help to mark the year as one of progress; as, for instance, the organization of some twenty or more liberal leagues in different parts of the country, the starting of several local free religious societies for Sunday meetings, the building of the new and elegant hall by the old Free Society at Florence, the dedication of the fine Parker Memorial building in Boston.”

These movements are all closely affiliated. The publications of the National League, and of the Free Religious Association, are sold in Boston from the same street-number. ‘This report says that an assistant editor of the paper which has founded the leagues “has generously and faithfully had charge of the sales-table, and responded to such orders for our publications as have been sent to the office, and for this painstaking service he deserves the gratitude of our Association. The office, being up three flights of stairs, 1s too difficult of access for entire satisfaction ; yet, notwithstanding this disadvantage, has already proved itself a great convenience, not to say necessity, and, all things considered, very well answers the present needs of the Association.”

Of course I know the Free Religious Aoncnistitn: as such, refused to send representatives to a convention of liberal leagues at Philadelphia. I know there have been protests by individuals in the Free Religious Association, against the action of the majority at Syracuse. I know very well that there is a minority who now assert that the majority has gone over to the worship of the cannibal god.

The history of free religion in the United States is so suggestive, however, that we must not permit the story to be thrown into confusion by any use of the tactics condemned in the Arabian legends. The glory of our country, it is pretended, is likely to be injured by legislation against the freedom of the press and of speech. If our civilization is once Gallicised and Romanized in the corrupt sense, out of free - mails will come, I do not know what; but in old Rome free poison came out of them, and free daggers! American civilization is not so sweet that we can be easily wheedled into speaking of a mild and gentle assassination or a pious devil. ‘The gauze of reverence for free speech thrown over the cannibal god Cancer-Planter, this ogre eating the youth of the land, is so thin, that, like the gauzes. worn in India,

twenty of them would not make a decent veil. Go to the superb scholar who is at the head of

5 i» Ma the highest school for girls in Boston, and he will tell you that his institution publishes no catalogue, and for the same reason that the resplendent school I cited here the other day publishes none. Correspondence received in seminaries of certain grades is often examined before it can be safely delivered. I was told the other day, by a lady who had just passed through a female-seminary, that she thought it a great hardship that her mail was examined. It was not always opened, but it was sometimes. There was a right to open it, and the parents justified the arrangement. Facts hke these make the blood run cold.

On the part of the Boston free religious newspaper which has founded the liberal leagues, there has been any amount of clucking, as from a broodhen, to draw her young chickens under her wings again; but with all her clucking in the last two months, since the separation at Syracuse, she has now only five chickens under her wings, that is, only five out of some seventy-five local leagues; and all the rest, according to her own confession, are brooded by the black angels. [Applause.]

I read in this Boston infidel sheet, that the criminal lately pardoned out of Dedham Jail, and who asserts his natural right to commit adultery, has a heavy account to settle with the conscience of the community. Thank God that a little sense has been left to the small and timorous infidel minority! But, as to the liberal leagues which this editor denounces, one of the foremost literary men, who was once friendly to the Free Religious Association, said to me, “ They are all his own chickens.”

On the list of officers of the Free Religious Association, are the names of several men who are supposed to be ashamed of their position. Even Mr. Frothingham has lately said that he does not care to be represented any longer in any way such as will make him responsible for what the majority of these liberal leagues may do. He is, perhaps, as radical a person as there is among any men known to the public on these lists of officers; but he is not radical enough to strike hands with quack doctors and the publishers of corrupt literature, and cancer-planters recently from jail, and who stand before the nation offering incense to the cannibal god. The fact I emphasize, however, is that the overwhelming majority are of utterly different opinions, and are having their own way.

4. There is little effective opposition now, by the feeble infidel minority, to that large infidel majority which the minority itself has denounced as corrupt.

5. Out of free religion has grown free irreligion, and, out of infidel liberalism, immorality.

Nothing can be done, you say? In two hundred cases where arrests have been made, only five have failed, so perfect has been the evidence, and so are juries united. More than three-quarters of the infamous publications once on sale have been driven utterly out of the market. Infidel attack on the purity of the mails not preventable? Why, this cannibal god can be buried under the mire, if you please,

’ as the old Germans buried the adulterer alive! It is our duty to bury him so deep that he will be out

Nee A= of the reach of the spades of all those of his gang who pretend to be moved solely by reverence for free speech and a free press. [Applause.] I undertake to say to those here who respect free religion, that if they wish to prove their free religion to be literally and strictly free irreligion, they have only.to go on in the course which has been pursued by the majority of the infidel liberal leagues of this country for the last twelve months. [Applause.] The minority is the witness against the majority.

THE LECTURE.

Henry IV. of France once said— and the remark has been gratefully remembered for two hundred years — that he hoped the day would come when every peasant in his kingdom might have, as often as he pleased, a chicken for dinner. If there is a political ruler in the civilized part of the world who would not say this now, he is as much an exception to the drift of the age, and to the tendencies of history for the last two hundred years, as the Gulf Stream is to the general drift of the Atlantic. But, when Henry IV. said this, the speech was a very singular one for a great ruler to make. Every. thing in history for the last two centuries illustrates God’s pity for the poor, and the progress of democratic ideas. When every peasant can have, as often as he pleases, a chicken for dinner, will not both the pauper and the millionnaire be improved off the face of the earth? [Applause.] So thinks socialism; and, if God thinks so, the result will be accomplished. What God thinks, we find out after he has acted. De Tocqueville said he regarded the progress of democratic principles in government as a providential fact, the result of a divine decree. It was universal. It was enduring. It was irresistible. All men and all events contributed to its progress. He found in it the sacred characteristics of a providential fact; and, although not given to superstition, he stood in awe before this current in history. But the progress of democratic ideas is only one illustration of God’s pity for the poor. The day has come, for nearly the whole world that can be called civilized, when to say what Henry IV. said, is to say nothing singular.

If the growth of socialistic political parties is to be fostered by the growth of popular intelligence and democratic ideas in government, it is evident that the success of socialistic parties is certain. You think I am making a careless concession; but I am no socialist. Do you judge that the necessary result of the progress of intelligence among the masses, and of democratic ideas in government, must bring socialism to the front in our political organizations? Professor Fawcett, in opening his present course of lectures at _ Oxford, said that if the growth of the socialistic political yote progressed in Germany and in the United States for the next fifty years as it has for the last fifty, capital can do nothing effectual against socialism. [Applause.] You notice how parts of - this audience are aflame with the opinions of socialists, which I am perfectly willing should be expressed here. I shall not answer these pistol-shots except by artillery at long range. I have discussed labor; and, because I have been on the side of labor-reform, you may have thought that I am on the side of socialism. JI admit, with Professor Fawcett, that the growth of the socialistic political vote is very ominous, and that trouble surely lies ahead of us if the erowth continues to be as rapid as it has been; but I do not see that the great current which put De Tocqueville in awe, floats socialism. I see that it floats the cause of the poor. Because I am a defender of the poor, I am against socialism. [Applause. ]

What are the fundamental principles of American socialistic parties? Heretofore I have allowed our discussions to include Europe; but, in order to be definite, I must now draw your attention exclusively to the United States.

A distinction is to be made between the ultimate purposes and the preparatory measures of socialists seeking political power. I have conversed with many socialists, with many working-men, and with some leaders of trades-unions; and I find that nearly all who are endeavoring to promote socialistic measures or labor-reform through politics know very well the distinction between the thin end and the thick end of the wedge. In Europe this distinction is well understood, and it ill becomes the discussion of this platform to fail in emphasizing a distinction which the socialistic labor party in this country itself proclaims. It is important to draw a clear distinction ee — — between radicals, ringleaders, ultra men in socialistic ranks, and the average socialist. Thoroughgoing socialism means the abolition of inheritance, the abolition of the family, and ultimately the abolition of religion in any decent sense of the word. All these propositions can be proved from the public positions taken in Europe by ringleaders. ‘he most ultimate purposes of all are little discussed here as yet. A set of purposes just this side of these ultimate ones is privately proposed, but the preparatory measures are the chief matters publicly discussed.

The ultimate purposes of socialistic political parties in the United States are, according to their own statement : —

1. Abolition of inheritance of land or any other means of production, such as machinery, railroads, telegraph-lines, and canals.

2. Abolition of private property in land or any other means of the production of wealth.

3. Abolition of the wages system.

4, Abolition of the competitive system.

5. National ownership of all land and other means of production.

6. Governmental aid to co-operative associations.

T. A graded income tax.

8. Paper currency or fiat money.

After having read many socialist platforms in German and French and English, I have selected that of the socialistic labor party of the United States as the most definite and candid of them all.

I offer the text of it in proof of the correctness of my distinction between the ultimate purposes and the preparatory measures of Socialism, and of the justice of the analysis I have given of the ends at which the movement aims. The document, which I can read here only in part, but which will be printed in full in the authorized report of this lecture, is a curious sign of the times, and deserves study in detail. I quote it as it stands every week in ** The Socialist,’ of Chicago : —

PLATFORM OF THE SOCIALISTIC LABOR PARTY.

“ Labor being the source of all wealth and civilization, and useful labor being possible only by and through the associated efforts of the people, the means of labor should therefore, in all justice, belong to society.

“ The system under which society is now organized is imperfect, and hostile to the general welfare, since, through it, the directors of labor, necessarily a small minority, are enabled in the competitive struggle to practically monopolize all the means of labor,—all opportunities to produce for and supply the wants of the people, —and the masses are therefore maintained in poverty and dependence. ‘The industrial emancipation of labor— which must be achieved by the working classes themselves, independent of all political parties but pheir own —is consequently the great end to which every political movement should be subordinate as a means.

“Since the ruling political parties have always sought only the direct interests of the dominant or wealthy class, and endeavored to uphold their industrial supremacy, and to perpetuate the present condition of society, it is now the duty of the working people to organize themselves into one great labor party, using political power to achieve industrial independence. The material condition of the working people in all civilized