SOCIALISM.

Feilding Star, Volume XVII, Issue 220, 20 March 1896, Page 2

SOCIALISM.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE STAR. Sir, — In your issue of 11th instant I notice that Mr George Wilks argues against Socialism on the ground that it is opposed to the natural law of the " survival of the fittest," or, what he considers the same thing, competition ; and, as .this is one of the stock arguments usually brought against Socialism, I should like, with your permission, to answer him. In the first place the question arises : Who are the men most fit to survive —whether they are to be judged from a physical or .mental standpoint; and, secondly, whether the present industrial competition ia the best method of assisting the working out of the natural law, as it is a common occurrence for a man to be forced by it into employment for which he is totally unfitted, with, of course, the result that he fails ; whereas, if he had an opportunity of utilising bis talents in another direction, he would be well able to hold his own. If we follow Mr Wilks' argument out to a logical conclusion it would mean that the workman who is surpassed in his occupation by others should cease to be employed and be allowed to starve to death, as he did not come up to the standard of the " fittest," and it is therefore not desirable that he should survive. If Mr Wilks' idea of the law of the " survival of the fittest " is the correct one, it would appear that all human-made laws are in opposition to this natural law, and a proper condition of society would only be when He shall take who has the power, And he shall keep who can. I, however, have no doubt that Mr Wilks would strongly object to this state of things, as he would probably consider it highly undesirable that he might be called upon at any moment to do battle for his house and home, and to test by physical force who was the most fitted to hold possession — himself or the intruder. Competition is at present by no means a free competition, as it is limited by the monopoly in land and capital. Under proper conditions, the fact of one man being able to produce twice as much as another would debar the latter from producing at all, and any man who is not physically or mentally incapacitated is able, if he has the opportunity, to produce sufficient to support himself; but under present conditions production is only carried on for the benefit of monopolists (landowners and capitalists), and as the requirements of these do not necessitate the employment of all the workers the latter have consequently to compete with each other for the limited work required by the monopolists, whose requirements for labour, owing to the displacement of labour by machinery, are continnally decreasing, with the result that the number of unemployed throughout the world is continually increasing. If Mr Wilks will look into the results of the present industrial competition he will see that practically all the evils which oppress society at the present time are caused by it, and that it is really the most expensive and wasteful way in which production can be carried on. Is it not a fact that it is now almost impossible to procure a manufactured article which is uob adulterated in some form or other "?— eouajiefcitiou having lowered the price of the articles to such a low figure that it is impossible to manufacture it honestly. Then again I think it is obvious to anyone thai! competition is responsible for the hellish sweating dens which exist in ail

luge towns, where men and women have to slave their lives out in order to procure a bare existence. Mr Wilts says that competition was ordained by the Supreme Being, but I say that it is blaspheming against the Almighty to hold him responsible for the horrors which are the result of this pernicious system. If Mr Wilks can find anything in the teachings of Jesus Christ (whose divinity I assume he believes in) to justify his assertion I shall be much surprised. The teachings of Christ are the highest form of ideal Socialism, and we Socialists claim that uo one can be a true Christian who is not also A Socialist. March 14th, 1896.