SOCIALISM IN HISTORY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2086, 11 January 1908, Page 6 (Supplement)

SOCIALISM IN HISTORY.

THREE CHEAT EXAMPLES. (|sv T.S.K.. in the London “Daily ' * ' Mail.”) (The writer oi this article thinks that the following examples of the practical application of Socialist prin ciplc.s may lie found useful by those who are interested in the question, without having leisure for research.) About the year 130 8.C.. though the Roman Empire was prosperous and still expanding, grave economic difficulties had appeared in Italy. The wars of conquest hid brought into the country large numbers of slaves, who were employed on the estates of the great landed piiqirictoi:-:, with tlie result that the freehorn 1 1 borers of Italy were thrown out of employment. IN ROME: MAKING THE I’OOH PAY LESS. To.remedy the distress that encmed, an agitator named Gracchus brought, about a day on which every I'recy:lmj:m;,Rt>man'.:,citi:sen,;.,w.as.: entitled t o

tity of corn at half the marKot price. The result was soon seen. The working people were pauperised,congested districts ■ made worse, the streets v>> I ionic were filled with an idle mil dissipated crowd of vagrants, anil, eventually, demagogues made lavs by which the corn-doles wore ctulribated free. In tho time of Julius Caesar (about 55 8.C.) it was found that 350,000 poisons in Rome, cf a population of a million, were in receipt. of this outdoor relief —mare than a third of the entire population.

The moral effect of this bit et Socialism was soon in tho year 4 A.D.— ono hundred and twenty-seven yen vs after the introduction of corn-ini, s. A Homan army was defeated and cut to pieces in Germany, and at, historian of the period describes what followed : “Then Augustus, when he heard of the calamity of Varus, rent his garments, and was in great affliction for the troops he had lost, and for' terror respecting the Germans and Gauls. 11 is chief alarm wis that lie expected them to push on against Italy and Homo, and there remain no Homan youth Jit for military duty that were worth speaking of, and the allied populations that were at all .serviceable had been wasted away. \et he prepared for the emergency as well as his means allowed. And when none of the citizens of .military age were willing to enlist, lie mado them cast lots, and punished by confiscation of goods and disfranchisement every fifth man of those under thirty-five, and every tenth man of those above the age. Ami when lie tonml that even thus so could not make many come forward, he put some to death, ib’o lie made a conscription of discharged veterans ami emancipated slaves, and collecting as large a force as lie could sent them'with all speed under Tiberius into Germany.”—(Dion Cassius, quoted by Sir E. Creasy.) In other words, after a hundred and twenty-seven years of "making tile poor pay less," the lower classes of Rome and Italy had become enervated, debased loafers and wastrels. Bar may be an evil, but it is the greatest possible test ol national worthiness—as the great German Socialist Hebei admits —and tried bv the great tost the Romans of I A.D were lotted wanting. In 13. C. 215, seventyseven years before the law of the corn-doles, Rome and Italy could furnish -100,000 soldiers, every one afree man. After a century - ami a halt ot corn-doles, the loss of 10,000 or 15,000 men could not be replaced without drawing on emancipated slaves and discharged veterans. At last the inevitable happened, and iho Roman Empire fell. It will not do for Socialists to point out that they would not- give corn tree to the have-nots. These free doles at Rome were not the original scheme. That offered corn at reduced ]irices. It was no more and no joss than the Socialist doctrine of 'make the poor pay less.” IN ATHENS: MAKING THE RICH PAY At ORE. In the fifth century B.C. Athens was tihe wealthiest State in Greece, tier taws obliged all citizens possessing incomes of more than a stated amount to submit to “.public burdens i. 0., in addition to the rogul.w taxation, to find, for example’, a ship for the Navy or produce a play in the State theatre or erect a new public building. In times of prosperity this w.i.s all very well, but as the State became more and more democratic these public burdens became more exacting and led to a great impoverishment of the well-to-uo. Tlie result was that when had times came and the enemies of Athens combined against her her revenues were goon exhausted ownm to the impoverishment of the former principal taxpayers, and she foil before her enemies.

The conclusion to he drawn is that the principle advocated bv Socialists ot relieving the lower classes from taxation bv adding to the imposts on tlie wealthier tends to impoverish the community (I) bv driving the more wealthy, out of tlie country; v4> oy impoverishing those who st l'v • and (3) by checking the desire to make a large fortune; for, though a man may be bound to sunuort hi<t relatives, lie will certainly 'not work to support- others, nor will he thrive to make money, that lie cannot spend tor Ins own enjoyment. PERU: A SOCIALIST STATE. When the Spanish explorers discovered Peru in 1515, they found a nation run on Socialist lines, m which all labor was for tho public good. Everyone had to work, and to work for the benefit of his neighbors. According to the great historian, tho late AY. H. Prescott, “they were unacquainted with money, and had nothing that deserved to be called property.” The potter made his earthenware, the weaver wove his fabrics; the agriculturist raised his crops—and earthenware, cloth, and grain were removed to large •Government stores and graparies, from which the officials in charge issue to each mail as much as would suffice for his needs. “No man might ho rich, no man could be poor in Peru, but all might enjoy and did enjoy a competence.” The people were set to work at the age of five, and at- sixty were excused from further labour.' “Idleness was punished, industry rewarded. Unwholesome labor, such as that in mines, was so regulated that tihe health of tho laborer suffered no detriment. It was -impossible, in tho opinion of a high Spanish authority, to improve upon tho system of distribution, so carefully was it accommodated to the comliton and comfort of the artisan.”

In other words, the Indians of Peru had evolved a state of ideal Socialism. A. competence for all, the right to work, a premium set on industry, sloth punished ; old age pensions and factory Acts—an ideal Socialist community! But how was it that, when Pizarro seized tlie person of the Emperor ot Peru the whole great Empire submitted without- a blow, while in individualistic Mexico a similar act of violence by Hernando Cortez brought, the Indians raging upon tbe Spaniards, who only conquered them after a- desperate struggle? This brings us to the seamy side of their Socialism.

The Peruvian bad no personal freedom ; the grqat incentivo to honest industry, tho desire to better one’s condition, was missing; his intellect had never been sharpened by fighting the battle of life. In a word, he lacked manliness. He was a mere animated machine; a slave during work hours; one who had nothing to say as to the disposal of liis wares or. his crops; a child to whom necessaries were doled out from the public stores' as it were by a nurse. It was impossible that after generations of tliis Socialistic nursing, men, who had never bad a prospect of rising and never known tlie fear of want, should display either energy or patriotism in defence of a country in which they had no stake. Tlie Empire of the Incas fell at the first blow. And when the native social system was wrecked by the Spanish conquest, the Peruvians are described as being idle and licentious. Never [having learned self-restraint, they fell into habits of vice as soon as tlieir laws were relaxed. The conclusions in this cu.m are: That the ideal (socialist State can only be made practicable by a most complicated system of laws and a numerous, bureaucracy. Tli a t the ideal Socialist State is incompatible with personal liberty. It produces not men, but human machines! it tends to destroy manliness, energy, and indeiiendenee of character; it is iniin’cal to social or personal progress, and does not make for scientific or intellectual advancement.