Even the Socialist will admit that under existing laws confiscation would be illegal. So long as they live under the present system they may be willing to abide by these laws--at least to the extent of not openly violating them and so subjecting themselves to the danger of incarceration in capitalist prisons. They insist, however, that as these laws were made for the protection of property-holders, there is no reason why they should not change them and so make the ownership of property just as great a crime as the theft of property is to-day. All they wait for is the power to accomplish this purpose. In other words, they stand for the principle that might makes right, and as you know, John, might doesn’t do anything of the kind. In taking this position, Socialism proposes to violate natural right. A majority might do this; a majority might compel a minority to relinquish the rights that are inherent in natural law; but Socialism has no more right to do this thing than it has to re-establish slavery. Natural right does not depend upon a vote of a majority, but is grounded on primary law, and is eternal, no matter what majorities may say to the contrary. That the contrary is the position of Socialists upon this question is fully attested by that eminent apostle of Socialism, Eugene V. Debs. In _The International Socialist Review_ (February, 1912), Debs says: “As a revolutionist, I can have no respect for capitalist property laws, nor the least scruple about violating them. I hold all such laws to have been enacted by chicanery, fraud and corruption, with the sole end in view of dispossessing, robbing and enslaving the working class. But this does not imply that I propose making an individual law-breaker of myself and butting my head against the stone wall of existing property laws. That might be called force, but it would not be that. It would be mere weakness and folly. If I had the force to overthrow these despotic laws, I would use it without an instant’s hesitation or delay, but I haven’t got it, and so I am law-abiding under protest--not from scruple--and bide my time.” That the great majority of Socialists take the same position upon the question of confiscation will scarcely be denied by those who are at all familiar with the Socialist trend of thought. That they are serious in their effort to incite disrespect for all property laws is shown by the efforts that are made to teach the children in their Sunday schools that all rent, profit and interest are no more than so many forms of robbery. “The Red Catechism,” used in Socialist schools, holds up to execration all those who are supposed to stand in the way of the revolution. They are referred to as the “landlord class” and the “capitalist class,” and in these categories everybody is included who owns anything, however little, or who employs another person for a wage, even though it be but the bellows-boy or a humble dressmaker’s assistant. Thus, “The Red Catechism” asks: