Communism; Industrial Workers of the World; Socialism
It may interest the reader to know that Socialists of the highest
authority inform us that in the new state women would be called upon to
work. The late August Bebel, one of the foremost of German Socialists,
says that as soon as society is in possession of all the means of
production, "the duty to work, on the part of all able to work, without
distinction of sex, becomes the organic law of socialized society."
["Woman Under Socialism," by Bebel, page 275 of the 1904 edition in
English.] Frederick Engels, in his book, "Origin of the Family," teaches
that the emancipation of women is primarily dependent on the
reintroduction of the whole female sex into the public industries.
["Origin of the Family," by Engels, page 90 of Untermann's 1907
translation into English.] In "The Call," New York, February 27, 1910,
it is stated that "the man who professes himself to be a Socialist, and
then says that under Socialism men will provide for women, is wide of
the mark."
Keeping clearly before their minds the fundamental principle of
Socialism, the people of America must be careful to distinguish between
Socialists ruling under our present form of government, and Socialists
ruling in a Socialist state. Possible success in the first case would by
no means indicate success in the latter. If our citizens are cautious in
this respect, the enemies of our country will not dare to boast of the
so-called success of Socialism in those places in which the members of
their party, elected to public office, may have given a good
administration under our constitutional system of government.
Though Socialism, in the strictest sense of the word, is concerned
exclusively with economics, still this does not mean that those who
profess it do not advocate, as part of their program, many pet projects
not appertaining to economics. By a vast majority, the members of the
Socialist Party either advocate atheism and opposition to religion, or
at least do not oppose those Socialists who do. Most of them, too, in
their cravings for what is base and low, are by no means adverse to
seeing free-love reign supreme in their contemplated state. The word
_Socialism_ is, therefore, frequently used in a broader sense, and is
made to include not only the common doctrine advocating the democratic
form of government under which the citizens would collectively own and
manage the principal means of production, transportation and
communication, but also those other doctrines that are taught or
silently approved by the majority. It is in this broader sense, then,
that the opponents of the Marxians justly claim that Socialism is
atheistic, anti-religious, and immoral.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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