News and Comment from Everywhere.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 15, 16 June 1911, Page 14

News and Comment from Everywhere.

Frances Willard a Socialist.

Exact words cf a Much-disputed

Confession of Faith

In nil address at Buffalo in 1897, -before tho National Convention of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of which she was the president, Frances Willard said :— "Ijook about you. 1"ho products of labor aro on overy hand. You could not maintain for a moment a well ordorod life without thorn. Every object in your room lias in it for discerning eyes tho marl; of ingenious tools and the pressure of labor's- hands. But is rt nob tho criiellesb injustice for the wealthy, whose lives aro surrounded and embellished by labor's work, to have a superabundance of the money which represents tho aggregate of labor in any country, while the* laborer lunies.'.'lf is. kept so steadily a'- work that he has no time, to acquire the education and refinements of lifo that woxild make, him and his family agreeable companions to tho rich and cultured?

'•'Thi\ reason why I am a Socialist comas in just here. I would take, not by force, but Ivy the slow process of lawful acquisition through better legislation as the outcomo of a wiser ballot in the hands of men and women, the entire plant that we call civilisation, all that has b-een achieved on this continent in the 400 years sineo Columbus wended his way hither, and make it the common property oi" till tile people, requiring all to work enough with their hands 10 givo them the finest physical development, but not to bcconw burderasome in any case, and permitting all to share aliko the advantages of education and refinement. I believe this to be perfectly practicable ; indeed, that any other method is simply a relic of barbarism.

"1 believe that competition, is doomed. The trusts, whoso single object is to abolish competition, hnvo proved that we aro better without than with it, and the moment corporations control the supply of any product they combine. "What the Socialist desires is that the corporation of humanity should control all production. Beloved comrades, this is the frictionless way. It is the higher way. It eliminates the motives for a selfish life. It enacts into our everyday living the ethics of Christ's Gospel. Nothing else, will do it; nothing else can bring the glad day of universal brotherhood.

''Oh, that I were young again, and it would have my life 1 Ifc is God's way out of the wilderness and into the promised land. It, is the very marrow of Christ's Gospel. It is Christianity applied."