University of Santa Clara - Redwood Yearbook (Santa Clara, CA)

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THE REDWOOD. 11 In the second alternative or local au- tonomy where distribution would be from stations operating over a small territory, such a compilation of statis- tics might possibly be accomplished, but in this event, another and even more serious objection arises. Through the happenings of time and chance, ability and management, various in- equalities in productive wealth would arise in the divers municipalities or districts. Santa Clara, for example, would be making 20 per cent more than San Francisco and Socialists are con- fronted once more with the inequality they seek to abolish. Nor could this be remedied by allowing the com- rades to migrate to any community they saw fit ; for to be successful the Collectivist plan necessitates a rigid fixity in the number of workers and consumers. For to provide employ- ment to an ever fluctuating population would be an impossibility. Hence eith- er one could move about freely when and where he chose or he could not. Under the former hypothesis the So- cialist state could not operate. Under the latter the individual would be re- duced to something like slavery. 2. The second difficulty of the Col- lectivist state which flows as a neces- sary consequence from the nature of the plan, is that of supplying different wants. Under the present system of distribution we have numberless trad- ers large and small catering to the in- dividual tastes of their consumers un- der the incentive of greater profit. How different, however, under the commun- istic order would be the state of affairs. Each person would present his or her labor ticket or money if it is used, and obtain a community chair, a commun- ity hair brush or a community overcoat. Such a system is destructive of person- al liberty and grown men and women would be reduced to boarding school children and dealt with as soldiers in a presidio. Some Socialists, however, claim that one will be able to obtain whatever he chooses, providing he has worked the necessary labor time to pay for it. But this answer brings us back to the clerical difficulty wherein each individual want must be determined every week. For we must not forget that there will not be the countless traders and manufacturers to ascertain the desires of the people, but all pro- duction will be operated by the Collect- ivist state, managed by state officials who will have no personal interest in their work and who will only be too glad to finish their day ' s work and have it over with. If, on the other hand, the state produces without determin- ing exactly the consumptive capacity of the people they fall into the error of haphazard production whereby vast quantities of goods would lie idle and unconsumed in the state or communal storehouse and be a drain upon those whose tastes were not so finicky. 3. The third objection to the Social- istic state is in assigning employments. Who is to do what? Here the com- monwealth would have the Hercu-

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10 THE BEDWOOD. movement make their strong appeal. The state which they hold out and the condition of society under it is indeed alluring and purposely concocted to at- tract those dissatisfied with the present state of affairs. For this reason it can- not be amiss to critically examine this proposed state and determine a few of its necessary consequences. Victor Cathrein, in his admirable work on Socialism, has summed up the numberless difficulties with which the Socialists ' state will be confronted upon its inauguration. These difficul- ties may, however, in the main be re- duced to five principal heads which I in the ensuing pages shall briefly out- line. These difficulties are, in order: 1. Difficulty of organization. 2. The difficulty of supplying dif- ferent wants. 3. Difficulty of the assignment of employments. 4. Difficulty of assigning remunera- tion. 5. Difficulty of supplying a motive to work. l have said necessary consequences because So- cialists tliemseives are very reserved in statements as to the future condition of their state and the manner in which they will conduct it. Bellamy in his novel Looi ing Backward received harsh criti- cism and denunciationfrom his comrades for the Utopia he pictured, and Socialists all over the world pro- nounced him a dreamer. There are, however many necessary consequences attendant upon the adop- tion of Socialism which must follow a Collectivist state in which all the means of production are na- tionally owned. These necessary difficulties therefore are real ar- guments against the doctrine, Hilquit and Bernstein to the contrary noth withstanding. 1. To state briefly the difficulty of organization, either all the productive property of the United States would be worked from one center as one business, keeping work and wages uniform or else each state, dis- trict, county or town would be granted local autonomy. In the first instance such a system would require a huge amount of clerical work to determine the various demands and necessities of the commonwealth. In meeting this contention Socialists are wont to point to our huge corporations, syndicates and industries with their el- aborate systems, but they overlook the important fact that there exists an im- mense chasm between one company run for one purpose and a common- wealth made up of several millions of such companies. Compare for example the difference in time and labor in com- piling the smallest details as to articles of clothing, underwear, food and so on which every family needs, with the dif- ficulty of coinpiling a simple census which in itself is a huge task. Then again such an ascertainment of neces- sities would be required at least every month and even then there are many necessaries which cannot be foreseen and which would provoke weekly and even daily statistics. The entire ar- rangement would call for an army of officials bound by no private interest to the faithful administration of their office and subject to gross blunders which might prove fatal to the entire plan.

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12 THE REDWOOD. lean task of apportioning work of all conceivable degrees of difficulty and disagreeableness among the workers. For freedom of choice would be an im- possibility, else everyone would flock to the most pleasant, enjoyable and agreeable. But how could this be done without engendering a vmiversal discon- tent that would he fatal to the plan at its very inception? Dissatisfaction would exist, for human nature is such that man cannot be thoroughly satis- fied with his surroundings. The dan- ger is that without proper means for its ' expression, this dissatisfaction would grow and spread beneath the surface of society until, having no other vent, it would at last break out in rev- olution. If on the other hand, change of employments were allowed, an im- mense waste of human power would re- sult by thus undoing the division of la- bor. The increase of annoyance and discomfort would far exceed all the losses and waste of the present com- petitive system. Again, supposing for the sake of ar- gument, the employments were all as- signed. How could one tell which per- sons were particularly suited for such and such a profession or trade? In the beginnings of Socialism this difficulty would not obtain for we know by ex- perience what men are particularly adapted for a given line of work. But what of the rising generation? Who knows the talents of this particular man? Who can say to him, you serve as a blacksmith apprentice, or you be- come a statesman? How are we to test his talents? And, who again, would be this grand dictator, who would say you do this and you do that? The simple outcome of the whole affair would be that our Edisons would be sweeping chimneys and our Shakes- peares cleaning streets. 4. Briefly, our fourth contention is this: either all must receive the same wage or else there must be a discrim- ination. In the first case there is a complete discouragement of both intel- ligence and skill for will not the farm- er, the laborer, the physician all receive the same compensation for their labor time? And in the second case who is to be trusted in arranging an elaborate system or sliding scale of wages in every imaginable industry in the world. There will not even be a trades union under the Socialist state with which a comparison could be made. Again, how can any one say that curing the measles in a certain instance on the part of a doctor is a result of the same labor time which would produce two waterbacks for your kitchen stove on the part of the plumber? We should simply be forced to entrust our good fortune to the arbitrary decision of gov- ernment officials, who, perhaps, might be the very men (and it is highly prob- able) who are least capable of pro- nouncing such a judgment. 5. If we turn our attention to his- torical man we will find that he is one who appears an idle, careless and self- indulgent personage save where he has