The truth about socialism

by Allan L. Benson

That is all that the private ownership of property does for Mr. Rockefeller more than it does for anybody else. The beefsteak upon his plate is no more secure from outside attack than is the food upon the plate of the poorest laborer. But the industrial machinery that Mr. Rockefeller owns enables him to get, every time his watch ticks, the equivalent of $2 worth of food, or clothing, or anything else.

We stupid people who permit the private ownership of industrial machinery should be exceedingly thankful to Mr. Rockefeller and men of his type. To these gentlemen, are thanks especially due from those persons who believe that the constitution of the United States represents the last gasp of wisdom and should not, therefore, in any circumstances, be changed. Under the constitution and laws of this country, as they stand to-day, Mr. Rockefeller and his associates could legally starve us to death, if they were so minded. Each of them could go abroad, deposit $1,000,000 in the Bank of England, then cable instructions to close down every industry they own, which would mean every industry of importance in the country, including the railroads. No one would have a legal right to trespass upon their premises, and their hoarded wealth would be sufficient to enable them to live comfortably abroad to the end of their days, while the people of America were starving to death.

Of course, the people of America would not starve to death. Law or no law, the people of America would break into the abandoned properties and operate them. Without extended delay, they would change the law, including the federal constitution, to justify their action. But the theoretical possibility of such abandonment is sufficient to illustrate the absurdity of our present laws with regard to the ownership of private property.

When the constitution was adopted, even no such theoretical possibility existed. It is true that we were then almost exclusively an agricultural people, and some of the best families had stolen millions of acres of the most available land. But back of the most available land were untold millions of acres of other land upon which human life could be sustained—land that could be had for the taking and clearing. The factory age had not dawned. Every home was its own factory, in which cloth was woven and clothing was made. Aside from the stolen land which was privately owned, almost nothing was privately owned that was not suitable for private ownership. That was largely due, of course, to the further fact that there was not, at that time, much wealth in the country.

But, viewed from any angle, the unrestricted private ownership of property is a curse to the people and always has been. If it were not a curse, in the sense that it enables some to rob others, no one who is in his senses would be in favor of it. The desire to use property is a legitimate reason for wishing to own it, but the desire to own property that one does not use can arise from no other motive than a purpose to use such ownership as a bludgeon with which to rob the users.

Apply this test and it will be found never to fail. The landlord owns land because he wants to live in idleness from the fruits of those who till the land. The multimillionaire owners of industrial machinery want to own the industrial machinery because they want to use such ownership to appropriate part of what their employees produce. If private ownership did not give this advantage to the owners, the owners would not care to own. If it does give this advantage to the owners the workers have a right to object. Moreover, the workers have a right to insist that such ownership cease.

It is not enough to reply that a man has a right to own any physical property that he can buy. Some burglars have enough money to buy dark lanterns and “jimmies,” paying for the same in perfectly lawful coin of the United States. But merely because the private ownership of burglars’ tools is not for the good of the people, we have laws forbidding such ownership, and if the laws be violated, we seize and confiscate the tools.

Some day, the fact may dawn upon us that, for every dollar taken with burglars’ tools, a million dollars is taken—quite legally, of course—by the owners of industrial tools.

It may be a sore blow, of course, to a man who under capitalism, has never been able to own a coffee grinder, to tell him that, under Socialism, he would not be permitted to own a steel mill. If so, let the blow fall at once. He might as well know the worst now, as later. But if there be those who are interested in owning homes, furniture, clothing, motorboats, automobiles, and so forth, let them be interested in Socialism. Socialism, by no means, guarantees that every laborer shall go to his work in a six-cylinder car, while his wife does the marketing in a limousine, but it does guarantee that Socialism would not prevent him from privately owning all such property that he could earn.

We realize, of course, that this is but a small bait to hold out to a man whom capitalism has given the “right” to own the earth. Among gentlemen who would like to own the earth, perhaps we shall therefore make little progress. But among gentlemen who have been promised the earth and are getting only hell, we may do better. The time may come when they will tire of piling their bones at the foot of the precipice of private property. The time may come when they will realize that it would be no more absurd to have private undershirts owned by the public than it is to have the public’s industrial machinery owned by private interests. Then we shall have Socialism.