What Socialism Means.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 39, 1 December 1911, Page 18

What Socialism Means.

ELECTION POINTS TO REMEMBER

i Socialism does not mean, dividing up.. It does not mean all things in common. It does not mean getting something for nothing. It does not mean, free lust, atheism, or tlie ruin of the family. Socialism, means only. one thing—The, , Public Ownership of Public .Necessities. Socialism means the whole people owning their own industries, and producing, food and clothing, houses and .furniture, books and inusie, and everything we need for our own use. , To-day private people own the big industries and the Isxnjd of this- Dominion. , But as-every person, who has no wealth must wort in. order to live, the owners of . the "Capitalists"—can and do take three-fourths of the things ; produced by Labour. Their share is called rent, interest, profit, dividend,' ; bonus, etc.;" the share, Of the worker, whose labour alone creates all wealth, is his wages; .. '% . ,If the workerst-ythe whole peopleowned their own industries, they wculd not have to cease- work because someone 'else ordered them to. If the whole people were .working co-operatively, they would produce the .things Are now use, . not for profit, but for use. !' Socialists do not .want to divide up— they want to put a stop to the dividing up, and; give the Worker, all he produces. , And this-can be done only by the whole : people owning their own industries- : Socialism is not: a' ready-made scheme 'which some ha£r~brained faddists are go- '■ ing to force tlie people to accept. Social- ,- - ism -will come, "as every other reform worth having.has cbme, just as quick as the people want; it. The Socialists of the world last year cast over 8,000;0&U votes. The number 'of people in favour of owning., their own indtistries has grown, and is. growing. < steadily year by year—'in 1880 the number I wens 438,000; 1880, it was 1,600,000; in ; 1900, 4,600,000; in 1905, 7,000,000; in 1910,/ B,OGO,(XK). Workers of Auckland, Christ-" church North and East, Dunedin North, : the Grey, Ghinemuri, Otaki, Timaru, and ; Wellington Central-, vote for Savage, Howard, Cooke, Monro, Webb, Hickey, Robertson, Gould and Freeman respectively, and help burnt) up this total in 1911. |. Socialists; are of. all races and of every I creed. Socialism can be carried only by i a majority, the same as ivo-liicense, Liberalism, or any other ism. And when yon, hear aboixt Socialists being Godless, just remember, that in your beloved. Mother Country, ministers of every sect to the; number of over two hundred are preaching Socialism. When you hear that Socialism means free lust, just bear i in mind that Socialists-- have wives, sisi tears and daughters. .When you are told that Socialists are envious "have nots/ J wishing to take someone, else's belongings, cat! to mind the fact that whereas in New Zealand the whole working class average only about j>7s per head, that one hundred men, who do nothing,, receive .£27,000 each per annum, that 1.70 persons who do no work whatever, leceive in rents and dividends iiB,6U ! O,OCO, every year, and that 1733 idlers between them take every day of every year, Sundays included, .£25,000, the wages of over 58,300 workers at 10s per -. diay ! Show that yon iinderstand that this cialist and Federation of Labour candidates, who are pledged to put a stop to I ..such robbery. i