Page:May Walden - Woman and Socialism (1909).pdf/15

 Rh which is the struggle between capitalist and laborer for a greater share of the product.

There is still one other necessary qualification that a Socialist must have, and that is her consciousness of these principles, and her desire and determination to change affairs so that there shall no longer be a system of wage-slavery; of a master class and a subject class; but there shall be established a system of co-operation, not only in the production of necessities but in the distribution of them, so that each man, woman and child in the world shall have a decent living, and no man, woman or child shall have millions more than they can ever use.

And this desire on the part of every Socialist to better the conditions under which we live, calls for the help of every person, high or low, black or white, Jew or Gentile, who has a spark of the feeling of brotherly love in his or her make-up!

The question is then, how shall we go about it to better the present conditions? Before we answer this question let us review a little differently the history we have just had of the evolution of industry.

In every one of the social stages I have described to you, the owning class (that is the class that owned first the slaves, then the land, then the machines) ruled society and made laws, and formed institutions for the benefit of that class. During the feudal period, the land owners were the powerful people, and they arranged customs, made laws, formed religions