Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1908. SOCIALISM.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 43373, 15 September 1908, Page 2

Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1908. SOCIALISM.

This above all—to thine oton self be true, \nd 1 1 must follow as the night the day Jhou canst not then be false to any man Shakespeare.

With perhaps more people than is commonly suspected Socialism has passed the stage of being “in the air,” and is thoroughly “in the blood.” And that is one of our reasons for saying that it is high time that those who feel in a vague, but intense way that Socialism is going to be a very bad thing for us, gave a little more attention to the subject, and informed themselves as to what Socialism really is, and what its aims are.

“ There’s something in the world amiss,.’ which ought to “ be unriddled by and bye.” no honest observer will deny, but that to substitute collective ownership of land, of raw maleria’s, of values and resources accumulated from the past; that to make private property to be of a terminable nature, reverting to the community, and subject to the general welfare, that to effect all this is to unriddle the present economic puzzlo will take some showing. For one thing what guarantee is there that the “ Getter,” the man with a propensity for accumulating “ value,” if his power becomes limited by the State in the direction of money getting, will not somehow employ his capacity for getting some other thing. To a man with a large acquisitive faculty money is not the only thing in life. If he cannot get that he may decide that power, which money has hitherto represented, will do very well. And what a perfect system that would need to be which could circumvent the un-' scrupulous “ getter,” the man with a mania for acquisition, from getting too much of the one, while it successfully coped with his desire to get too much of the other.

Why is it that under ihe present system some men have been able to accumulate fortunes which it ought to make a man blush to name whi'e his fellows arestarving by thousands? It is because those men exploiting the weaknesses of the existing system for their own greedy ends have

“ Dropped off gorged from schemes,” which sent aged men and women shivering to their wretched matresses, on bitter nights for want of coal. But is Socialism such a transcendency far-reaching science that it can be applied without fail to the wicked propensities which lead clever men to '* corner the coal,” and

s‘op them cornering “ votes ” which might concievably please them quite as well as money. For ymi may aller the basis of human operat : on without, eradicating human cunning and selfishness You may substitute one scheme of social and commercial economy for another without delivering the community from the machinations of irreclaimably antisocial man.

One thing is clear, namely, that by Socialist and Anti-Socialist alike the “ madness of extremes ” must be avoided. One thing mire s beyond dispute, namely, that the economic problems which are already vexing us, and have agonized the Old Wold with its teeming millions, must be faced, if not for ourselves, then for po terity. And in a devout, yet scientifically dispassionate spirit, every offer of help, every honest scheme of alleviation must be canvassed for the sake of the assistance which may perchance be found therein. So that by patiently taking the precious from the vile we may have wierewith to build up the happier fortunes of the coming men and women.