"First. The collective ownership of the means of producing the means of life."
"Second. The democratic management by the workers of the collectively owned means of producing the means of life."
"Third. Equal opportunities for all men and women to the use and benefits of these collectively owned and democratically managed means of producing the means of life."
Under the present order of society the means of producing the means of life are privately owned and controlled; the owners thereby forming a privileged class and are enabled to dictate the terms on which the means of life—land and the machinery of production—can be used.
As a result of this private ownership labor receives but a portion of the product, the larger part of wealth produced being either wasted in the strife of competition or retained by the capitalist in the form of interest, rent and profit.
The wealth we command merely through the ownership of stocks and bonds—so-called income producing capital—is wealth received which we do nothing to produce; hence this wealth must, of necessity, be produced by others who are deprived of a portion of their product. This wealth thus appropriated is wealth derived from profit in the employment of labor (surplus value). A thorough study of economics shows clearly that interest, rent, and profit result in exploitation of labor—the robbery of labor. It is this profit system which is strangling our civilization. Poverty and the greater portion of crime can be traced directly to this exploitive system.
The aim of the Socialist movement is the dethronement of capital and the capitalistic class by merging all humanity into one class, a producing class.
The exploited majority, the poverty stricken, the submerged, as now under capitalism, will under a Socialistic Republic come into their inheritance—equality of opportunity to the resources of wealth and production—and be enabled to retain the wealth they produce.
The capitalist class, in any fair view of the situation, while being obliged to surrender the privileges now retained through the private ownership of "the means of producing the means of life," will under a Social Republic receive indirect benefit which we claim will out-weigh any advantage they may now seem to possess.
Human nature does not stand in the way of the realization of a co-operative commonwealth. It is natural that mankind not only seek but demand that to which they are in equity entitled. Under capitalism the majority are exploited out of a good share of their product. As the producer awakens to an understanding of the present situation, it is this normal and justifiable self-interest—selfishness—which will prove to be a strong, if not the leading, factor in bringing about Socialism.