Your pay envelope

by John Richard Meader

In the first place, John, it is scarcely probable that any Socialist will deny that all means of production, distribution and exchange will be in the hands of the collective state. This means that all the manufacturing will be done by the communal authorities acting for the people; that all the methods of disposing of these products, through shops or otherwise, will be under the same direction, and that all means of transportation—railways, steamships, etc.—will, like the Post Office to-day, be in the hands of the people or their representatives. So far, in all probability, we shall meet with no denial from the Socialists.

In the matter of land, however, our Socialist authorities are not so thoroughly in agreement. For example, when they are talking with the farmer, or other small land owner, who does not wish to have his real estate expropriated, some Socialists are quite willing to admit that their program makes no provision for the confiscation of farm lands. As you have seen, however, the Socialists are quite ready to hide any feature in their scheme that seems likely to arouse opposition in the minds of the small property holders. Yet, land being invariably included in “means of production” by all authoritative Socialists, it is not easy to see how any real Socialist can promise to exclude farm lands from the general plan of confiscation. It is far easier to assume that the Appeal to Reason and the Socialist propagandists who write propaganda matter to induce the farmer to vote the Socialist ticket are not telling him the truth about this phase of the question.

Then, too, when we remember the Socialist proposition that all labor in the Co-operative Commonwealth shall be performed collectively and not under the direction of an employer, it is pretty difficult to imagine how a farmer will be able to operate a farm when he is prevented from employing others to help him. Certainly, Mrs. Besant’s suggestion is the more logical one—farm lands must be expropriated and the industry of agriculture pursued on great farms, operating on the bonanza farm basis which has already proved such a gigantic failure in this country.

With all means of production, distribution and exchange in the hands of the Commonwealth, there would naturally be but one source of employment for labor—The Commonwealth. If you wanted a job, John, you would have to go to the employment bureau of the Commonwealth and present your application, upon which you would be assigned to such a position as might chance to be open at the time your application was received. You are a machinist, but it might chance that machinists are not much in demand on the day you apply for the job. Accordingly, you would be sent to paint houses, or to build streets; anything that happened to be open would be assigned to you and you would have to take it or starve to death, because the Commonwealth, as we have seen in a previous letter, could not be expected to find for every applicant the particular kind of work that he preferred to perform.

Under our present system, inadequate as it is in some respects, a man can select the work that he prefers, and there is no limit to the heights that he can ascend, provided he shows an ability to occupy a higher position in the industrial world. To-day merit counts; to-day knowledge and initiative, as well as industry, mean something. But, under the system that Socialism proposes, it would be the favor of the bosses or, at least, the votes of one’s associates that could alone secure promotion.

Election of bosses by popular vote may sound all right in theory, but I seriously fear that the scheme would not operate successfully if applied practically. Popularity would be a poor substitute for proficiency, especially in view of the fact that it would probably be the easiest boss and not the most exacting boss, who would secure the votes of the most people. Try to picture what would happen under these conditions, and you will have taken the first step toward a clear understanding of industrial conditions under Socialism.

But, let us suppose, for argument’s sake, that you have secured employment at a trade that is fairly satisfactory to you and that the more important industrial problems have been reasonably well adjusted. At the end of the work-week you receive the labor check which represents the “full value” of the products which have been produced. We have already seen how difficult the Socialists will find it to determine the full value of the work of each operative and to measure it for exchange, so there is no need to emphasize this question further. We will suppose that the apparently insurmountable difficulties have been satisfactorily overcome, and that you are well pleased with the share you receive in your labor check.

Now, what are you going to do with it?

We are told that the laborer will be permitted to purchase whatever he pleases—as much or as little as he has a mind to buy. Of course he can buy only from the State because everything—all the stores, shops, factories, farms, etc.—will be owned and operated by the government. “Our cities cannot give us to-day two things so simple as pure water and clean streets,” remarks Father Kress. “By what magic will they be made capable of doing the thousands of things implied in production and distribution?”

Imagine yourself, your pay check in your hand, going in to the gigantic government warehouse, or as Mrs. Besant prefers to call them, “public stores for agricultural and industrial products.” The fact that you are to be permitted to buy anything you like, or can, with the amount in hand, presupposes that everything you desire will be kept in stock. But what if you do not find it? The clerk could not promise to get it for you, because it is not impossible that the committee on manufactures may have decided that you ought not to have it. Caviare and Limburger cheese are two commodities that are extremely pleasing to some people’s palate, while there are other people who could not be induced to eat them for pay. Suppose the committee on manufactures was composed chiefly of persons who saw no excuse for the existence of caviare or Limburger cheese. Is it likely that they would take the trouble to see that the supply of these commodities did not run short, especially when, in a Commonwealth where there was no competition, there is no need to make any special effort to please purchasers?