Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 277, 10 September 1891 — SOCIALISM. [ARTICLE]

SOCIALISM.

A number of our friends have become a trifle alarmed at the apparently radical tendencies of some ofthe Leo*» articles and expresfcion that we are bordering on eommuriism nr socialiem. To the majority of people who have given the euhject no thought or study, these two ieeuee convey the idea of anarchy, dynamit<*, pillage and a g*neral 4estruction of *ociety. But only an accidental featupej^Vi« / progreBs of socialistie doctrinefe, caused bv fanat9cal agi-

tators more or less eommon to all great innOratioDB, and no more iepresent the purpose and theory of 80cialism, than bloody revoiutions embody the spirit of political liberties.

Socialism is a modern cult, a political science, a philosophy, the realization of whieh is being gradūftljy and slowly but surely reached as the worldprogresseg. It must not'be in our gpneration or in the next, but there ia a , certain revolution or evolution going' on in the eeonomie affairs of the world whieh will eventually culminate in a triumph for the teachings and writings of the modern socialist or soeial democrat.

Socialism had its genesis in the industrial progress and revolution whieh began in England in the latter part of the 18th, century, but it is essentially a feauture of the 19th century, the word having been coined in England in 1835 by Robert Owen and his school, at whieh time the theories of social improvement and reconstruction heeame agitated and established as a political thoughi and factor and has eome into real contact with the public history of the world. Owen was followed in France by Saint Simon. Fourier and Louis Blanc, and later in Germany by the greatest and raost influential of them all, Karl Marx. All of these leaders and writers have founded powerful schools of thought and action that are now agitating the world.

The couiplaint of socialism is that for centuries the producing classes have been excluded from the possession ofland and capital, and have been held ip subjection as workers depending only on precarious wage labor; the world has been a vast proletariat struggle for subsistence and living in ignorance and degredation while supporting in idleness and luxury a small body of wealthy capitalists. To alleviate this condition and to secure a more equitable distribution of liberty, equality and happiness } the socialist propose that land and capital, — the requisites fbr labor and the source of wealth, — should becomethe property of the Sfcate, and that all industry and enterprise should be governed and eontrolled by the State for the benefit of all. Laveleye says: u ln the first plaee, every socialistic doctrine aims at introducing greater equality in social conditions, and in the second plaee at realizmg those reforms by the law or the state." Kirkup saye* u Socialism is usually regardcd as a phase of the struggle for the emancipation of labor, for the complete participation of the working classes in the material, intellectual, and epiritual inheritance of the homan raoe." In brief the easenoe of socialism is state contrOf of .l|ftikd and associated produetion through a collective capital with the view to an equitable distribution of the results. v

Thc progreaB towards the realization of this theory of socialism is apparent in overy civilized eountry, but it ni3V be noted more particularly in England where stop by step the state has :»bsorbed wholly or partially functions that were formefly left to private enterprise. Beside the arniy t navy and poliee. thc state controls and di«

rects the Post Office, telegrapbs parcels deHvery t surveys shipbuilding, stock-broking, bankirig, farming, money lending, the making, sweeping, Jighting, and reparing of streets; roads and bridges, life instirance, annuities, coinage, midwifery, nursery, education, board and lodging, public worship, amusements and interment/ museumparks, art galleries, libraries, eoncert balis, markets, fire engines, ]fgbthousees, pilots, ferries, life boats, cemeteries, public baths, wash-houses, pounds, harbors, wharves? hospitals, diepenasries gas works, Water-works, tramwajps, telegraph cables, &c. &c. ac., and in the eoloniea ttie loeāl governbaent provideSv railways, canals, pawnbroking, theatre&, forestry, sinchona and tea farms, irrigation, casinos, ptlblie baths 4 immigration, and deals in ballast, guano, quinine, salt, &c., &c. Tn other countries the state has also taken up gun powder, tohaeeo, matches, etc. In eaeh one of these services or eHterprises the puhlie is better served and benefitted than if they were conductqd by private enterprist*T " State interference between capital and labor in enacting laws to nfotect the laborer and rectify the brutal abuses that formerly existed is also another advance of the sociali?tic idea. The tendency of the times to eomhination of capital in cooperative societies, jomt stock companies, corporations and trusts, whieh in time have to submit to lcgislative enactments, is another rapid advance in the evolution of socialism. In factthe whole world is under social tendencies, or return to first principles in the formation of human societ3 r .

Wo have tlie highest respect for the doctrines of the ruodern soeial democrat, —not the eominon demagogue—and we believe that, in the contiuued struggle of labor against capital, of the maspes against the ciasses, of the starving proletariat against the idleness and viciousness of the wealthy aristocracy or upstart plutc«;iaey, will in process of time evolve a eoeial revolution that will establish forms of government upon the basjß of socialism. But the Leo is not advocating the socialistic doctnne in liawaii in its In fact, we are in direct collision with its piineipal feature, for we favor the individual peasant proprietorship the soil, believing that in our present state of progreBs, our future wealth and prosperity ean only be built upon this basis and that socialigtti will oot eome in conflict with our eeonomie conditions for a few decades at least. Secondly we do not eonsider that Hawaii is yet ripe for that full interference of the state io affairs now conducted by private capital. The Lko's articles whieh kave alarmed our friends are nofc bascd on socialism, stUl less on eommunism, nihilism or any similar isnaB, but on tho modern principles of poliiieil democracy, that seek to plaee the powers of gov6mment in the hands of the people, to be administered forthe be&efit of all on the principles. of liberty |ind lity, bi|t at the dictatk>n> of & majoritv <|f constitutional voters. Thutj inissionary sugar Barons, are andobnoxious ovidenco: deoorated for die ti nguish«Hl serviceē rendered, the state bv leastinp ber Majesty6n htu* roval tour. ' i .