THE TRUTH ABOUT SOCIALISM BY ALLAN L. BENSON Author of “The Usurped Power of the Courts,” “The Growing Grocery Bill,” “Socialism Made Plain,” etc. [Illustration] NEW YORK B. W. HUEBSCH 1913 Copyright, 1912 BY THE PEARSON PUBLISHING CO. Copyright, 1913 BY ALLAN L. BENSON [Illustration] First printing, February, 1913 Second printing, March, 1913 Third printing, May, 1913 CONTENTS PAGE I TO THE DISINHERITED 1 II WHAT SOCIALISM IS AND WHY IT IS 4 III THE VIRTUOUS GRAFTERS AND THEIR GRAVE OBJECTIONS TO SOCIALISM 24 IV WHY SOCIALISTS PREACH DISCONTENT 43 V HOW THE PEOPLE MAY ACQUIRE THE TRUSTS 63 VI THE “PRIVATE PROPERTY” BOGEY-MAN 81 VII SOCIALISM THE LONE FOE OF WAR 99 VIII WHY SOCIALISTS OPPOSE “RADICAL POLITICIANS” 120 IX THE TRUTH ABOUT THE COAL QUESTION 139 X DEATHBEDS AND DIVIDENDS 153 XI IF NOT SOCIALISM—WHAT? 166 APPENDIX 183 The Truth About Socialism CHAPTER I TO THE DISINHERITED I am going to put a new heart into you. I am going to put your shoulders back and your head up. Behind your tongue I shall put words, and behind your words I shall put power. Your dead hopes I shall drag back from the grave and make them live. Your live fears I shall put into the grave and make them die. I shall do all of these things and more by becoming your voice. I shall say what you have always thought, but did not say. And, when your own unspoken words come back to you, they will come back like rolling thunder. This country belongs to the people who live in it. The power that made the Rocky Mountains did not so make them that, viewed from aloft, they spell “Rockefeller.” The monogram of Morgan is nowhere worked out in the course of the Hudson River. Nothing above ground or below ground indicates that this country was made for anybody in particular. Everything above ground and below ground indicates that it was made for everybody.