Page:Friedrich Adolf Sorge - Socialism and The Worker (1876).djvu/9

 for advancing a common purpose. Experience teaches, that, in doing so, they do admirably well; every one of them, who will reflect a little, must confess, that his own welfare is greatly advanced by such institutions of common usefulness. What would people be without common roads, common schools etc., that is such as are built and instituted at the cost of the community for common use? We would be in a terrible situation, if all at once the different Insurance-companies would cease to exist, whose object is, to transfer a calamity, by which a person might be struck heavily or perhaps be ruined, from his shoulders to the shoulders of many. If I chose, I could mention here a thousand other things, but the above named common institutions will be sufficient. Now, all these institutions are nothing but Communism. For Communism is nothing but the principle of common interests. In every day life everybody looks out for his own interest, even at the cost of his fellow-men; here cold, ugly egoism is dominant. The large cottonmills have ruined thousands and thousands of weavers:—but who cares for hundreds of honest, industrious, happy people, who get ruined by one mill? Who cares, how many honest shoemakers are deprived of a living by the large shoemanufacturers? What does the usurer care for the victims of his avarice? What do the speculating swindlers care for the fate of the shareholders, after their hardearned savings are gone? Nobody ever thought of caring for such things, and it is my firm belief, that a business man, in our days, who would show any consideration for the welfare of his fellowmen in his transactions, would be certain to become a laughingstock. Egoism rules supreme. Everybody thinks of his own welfare, and does not care, whether, by doing so, he destroys the welfare of others. "What business have I, to care for others, if I am comfortable." In spite of the prevalence of Egoism, the common interest of mankind is irrepressibly gaining ground. More and more people unite to cultivate it, more and more associations are formed, the activity of the state and community is extending its influence over more and more objects. Who would have thougt in former times of all the different associations, which are formed to day to advance any number of common interests of every description? Who had an idea in former years, that whole countries would be cut in all directions by railroads, that telegraphs would communicate news to the remotest parts of the world in an instant; who could predict the admirable development of our system of mails? Who thought of waterworks or of gas? Who had an idea of the modern arragement of the fire department? The root of all these is Communism. They represent the victory of common interests over hideous Egoism.

To turn institutions of common interest to the use of all, is the tendency of the age, and however people may curse at communism, they are bent to obey its mandates. Everywhere common interests press their claims and communism, proudly elvating its head, marches on triumphantly with all conditions of human life in its attendance.

He who declares himself an ennemy of communism, declares