The Common Sense of Socialism: A Series of Letters Addressed to Jonathan Edwards, of Pittsburg — John Shaqi
The Common Sense of Socialism: A Series of Letters Addressed to Jonathan Edwards, of PittsburgSpargo, John
General
The Common Sense of Socialism: A Series of Letters Addressed to Jonathan Edwards, of Pittsburg
Spargo, John
Socialism
That is the best the workingman can hope for as a result of his own
labor under the very best conditions. To attain that level of comfort
and decency he must deny himself and his wife and children of many
things which they ought to enjoy. It is not too much to say that none
of your fellow-workmen in Pittsburg, men known to you, your neighbors
and comrades in labor, have been able to attain such a condition of
comparative comfort and security except by dint of much hardship
imposed upon themselves, their wives and children. They have had to
forego many innocent pleasures; to live in poor streets, greatly to
the disadvantage of the children's health and morals; to concentrate
their energies to the narrow and sordid aim of saving money; to
cultivate the instincts and feelings of the miser.
The wives of such men have had to endure privations and wrongs such as
only the wives of the workers in civilized society ever know.
Miserably housed, cruelly overworked, toiling incessantly from morn
till night, in sickness as well as in health, never knowing the joys
of a real vacation, cooking, scrubbing, washing, mending, nursing and
pitifully saving, the wife of such a worker is in truth the slave of a
slave.
At the very best, then, the lot of the workingman excludes him and his
wife and children from most of the comforts which belong to modern
civilization. A well-fitted home in a good neighborhood--to say
nothing of a home beautiful in itself and its surroundings--is out of
the question; foreign travel, the opportunity to enjoy the rest and
educative advantages of occasional journeys to other lands, is
likewise out of the question. Even though civic enterprise provides
public libraries and art galleries, museums, lectures, concerts, and
other opportunities of recreation and education, there is not the
leisure for their enjoyment to any extent. For our model workman, with
all his exceptional advantages, after a day's toil has little time
left for such things, and little strength or desire, while his wife
has even less time and even less desire.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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