Page:Meta Stern Lilienthal - Women of the Future - 1916.pdf/7



It is not lawlessness, violence and the destruction of all tender human relations. It is not one of those terrible things that you, dear reader, may have suspected it of being.

Socialism is a social and economic theory, founded on historical development. It is science applied to practical life. Its object is to hasten human progress and to make this world of ours a better place to live in.

Socialism stands for the social ownership of all things that are socially used. It does not stand for the social ownership of things that are privately used. Socialism does not deny my right to own my dress and my watch, my desk and my fountain-pen. These things are used by me personally, and my private ownership of them does not cause any suffering to my fellowmen and women. But Socialism does deny my right to own a piece of land or a mine, a railroad or a factory, because these things are not used by me personally. Alone by my individual labor, I could accomplish nothing with the land and the mine, the railroad and the factory. Only by the help of great numbers of my fellowmen and women can the land be cultivated, can the railroad be run, can the mine and the factory be operated. Because the joint labors of millions of human beings are required to conduct modern industry, commerce and agriculture, Socialism denies the right of individuals to own that which is produced by the millions and whereby the millions must live.

To-day the millions cannot work in the factories and the mines, on the railroads and the land, unless the owners