SOCIALISM—REPLY TO “RATIONIS.”

Shannon News, 9 May 1922, Page 3

SOCIALISM—REPLY TO “RATIONIS.”

(To the Editor.) Sir _No one, much less a Socialist, would deny the right, of “Rationis” or others to state their own opinions regarding the fallacy of Socialism or any other subject. On the other hand, the Socialist has a corresponding right to place the facts side by side with these opinions—of course, with the., kind permission of the Editor. I shall not- attempt to reply to each item of “Rationis” seriatim, as it would only result in weariness.. of the spirit. His effort in last Friday s issue shows what a fine, lofty column of words one can erect, the sum total of which is—naught. I will quote the kernel of “Rationis’s” matter, and that will do. He says: “The essence of Socialism is the collective administration of all rent and interest.” But the business of Socialism is not administration here, but the abolition of rent and interest. The essence of Socialism is the ownership of'all industries by the people themselves for their own benefit, instead of for the profit of a few bold profiteers. Has “Rationis” been studying his home lesson.-?, or just been playing marbles? This writer is entirely indifferent as to whether the great is called Socialism, Prussianisfn, or Kiss-me-on-my-whiskers-ism, so long as it is in harmony with the- age we are in. Why should the vested interests of a few stultify the progress and well-be-ing of the- whole? Capitalism has put in some fine and useful work in its heyday, but it is too primitive and aggressive for the more humane and much more complex age we are entering; therefore it will be relegated by evolution to those regions where all spent forces, good or bad, go, viz., to oblivion. It will go, without pushing by the Socialist or Communist. It goes because it must. It is said: “Fancy having the crowd to govern itself and us. What are we coming to? Kilkenny cats? Awfull Well, yes, the crowd must learn to work and govern at the same time, like the thousand million cells in the human body have ever done for the benefit of the whole body—hence the perfect athlete and beautiful Eve. If, instead, they only worked in the interests of a section of the body, or of a. few greedy unit-cells, we . should have, say, a . head like the dome of St, Paul’s and legs like bamboo sticks. This monstrous human shape would quickly hit its silly nose on the 1 concrete, which is the best thing it could do, “E pur si muove,” persisted Galileo—“and yet it moves.” Evolution is the universal move forward; it moults its . scaly old skins and bloody claws as it moves. . l*or the future the people have the opportunity left of choosing between a dictatorship of huge corporate trusts, whose motto is “Obey,” where the whole people, including our dignifiet shopkeepers, will be mere working slaves, with no say in making theii laws, or of choosing some form' of collectivism whare the people wi

own their own industries socially, -and freely govern themselves. There is no alternative.—l am, etc., SOCIALIST.