Page:Friedrich Adolf Sorge - Socialism and The Worker (1890).pdf/15

 munism is right. When Stephenson more than fifty years ago built the first railroad, he certainly did not plan all the locomotives, rails, signals, stations, &c., such as we find them to-day; but his idea was right, and it conquered the world. Thus the idea of Socialism will conquer the world, for this idea is nothing but the real, well understood interest of mankind. It is an injustice that a large majority to-day must work hard and suffer want in order to procure a superabundance of enjoyment for a small minority of people who do not work. And who would deny that, if it is everybody's duty to work, if the production of unnecessary, nay even of injurious, articles is abolished, if production is organised in conformity with the real wants and pleasures of mankind—who would deny, I ask, that the standard of life of the whole human, race might be raised infinitely above its present grade, that the great mass of human beings might enter into that sphere of life worthy of a human being, from which they have been rigorously excluded so far?

Let me point out to you an example of organised labour in one branch, to show the benefit of such an arrangement. How would it be possible to send a letter to any place in the United Kingdom for a penny, a postcard for a half-penny, a letter to America for 2½d., if the postmasters in the different parts of the world were private contractors like the merchants and manufacturers of to-day, if we had not the communistic arrangement of the post? Formerly the post was also a private business in nearly all the countries of Europe, like our railroads, and the owners of this institution derived a princely income from it, although its use was very limited. And well arranged as our post-office may be, it might be better yet, and will be more convenient in time.

Similar benefits would arise from the reorganisation of all branches of human activity. Look at our railroads—might they not be the property of the community at large as well as the high roads, instead of being a monopoly in the hands of private persons, whose sole object is to enrich themselves at the cost of their fellow-citizens? If so, it has been proved that you could go to any part of these islands with a shilling ticket, just as a letter goes now by post with a penny stamp. In this manner one branch after the other will be organised according to the ideas of Communism, perhaps by classes of people who are far from admittirg the truth of the principles of Socialism, of Communism, by classes who are inimical to it—because they do not understand it—and who are still narrow-minded enough to shut their ears and their eyes to everything that does not tend to their private interest.

This is not yet enough. All means for transportation, such as ships, &c., must come into the hands of the community at large; so must all means for production. This demand of Socialism has caused people to accuse the Socialists of hostility to property, even to the property of those who own but a little. But who is it that actually drives the owner of small means from his house, from his soil? Is it the Socialist? It is the large capitalist, the large landowner! As the magnet attracts iron filings. so large capital attracts