Socialism is the science of human association reduced to a practical program, based upon a profound study of the social organism. It is an interpretation of the past, a diagnosis of the present, and a forecast of the future. It recognizes that life in society as well as in the organic world, is constantly passing through a process of evolution. It is therefore founded upon an enduring basis of fact, against which the waves of prejudice beat impotently. It points out the great development of the moral qualities of the individual that will take place under the environment that will be created by its adoption. Its practical program is at once clear, revolutionary in the peaceful sense of the word, and aggressive. It declares that labor is the sole creator of value and that the laborer is entitled to the full social value of the things he produces. It teaches that the only way to attain the just distribution of wealth to those who produce it is through the collective or social ownership, control, and operation of the means of production and distribution, such as lands, mines, factories, railways, telegraphs, telephones, etc., etc. It asserts that this production should be for use and not for sale or profit, thus doing away with all private monopoly of the means of subsistence, and all forms of graft, corruption, and extortion in every department of society, and with a vast amount of unproductive labor and an immense number of useless and harmful occupations. Socialism would conserve and not abolish the private ownership of wealth as distinguished from capital. Thus homes and their furnishings and all personal belongings not used to produce more wealth would be individually and not collectively owned. The right to work would be universal. No man could be out of a job and thus would poverty and dependence be wholly eliminated. The finest minds in the world are in this movement. Its sweep is broad enough for city and country, and its principles have universal application. Every man is taken into its brotherhood and the Cooperative Commonwealth is its goal. In order to be understood this philosophy must be carefully studied. If you wish to oppose it, study it. No man has a right to be a Socialist or to criticize it without understanding the subject. — Preamble to the 1910 Platform of the Public Ownership (Socialist) Party of Duluth
Posted on: Mon, 22 Sep 2014 23:32:41 +0000
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