Page:May Walden - Socialism and the Home (1900).pdf/18

 18 Many are the evils which come from his system of private ownership. One of them is the large number of crimes which at present are frightening the people. The "hold-ups," the burglaries, the kidnapping, the murders committed for money, the threatening letters demanding bags of coin, the robbing of postoffices, banks and government and private offices. Do you think if these men had always had a chance to work at something that would give them all that they earned, they would have become thieves and murderers? I do not think they would. "But," you say, "these men wouldn't work if they had a chance; they want to get rich without working. They would rather rob and murder and run the risk of being caught than do any useful work." In doing that I do not think they are worse than the owners of coal mines who do not take care to prevent accidents in their mines where hundreds of men are killed every little while because they must work there or starve. Nor are these outlaws any worse than the factory owners who get rich on the profits taken from their poorly-paid "hands." But the outlaws commit these crimes only when driven to desperation. We want to get rid of all of these evil things and I think you can see the way to do it is to give every human being a chance to earn a decent living.

Another one of the evils of capitalism is the necessity for children to carn their own living and help support the family so they never have a chance to go to school, or to play. They know nothing except how to tend a machine. They cannot have strong, healthy bodies because they breathe the bad air of the factory all day long and eat poor food since they cannot afford to buy better. They have no time to study, and are too tired when their day's work is done if they had time; or they want a little fun to make them