Page:Meta Stern Lilienthal - Women of the Future - 1916.pdf/8

 allow them to work. An expert weaver cannot weave unless the owners of a textile mill employ him. Yet, that weaver's wife and child may shiver for the want of cloth that he could weave. Yet, that weaver's brother may be overworked at weaving for the want of his assistance.

Socialism says: Let the nation own the land and the railroads, the factories and the mines, and let them be operated, not for the profits of individuals, but for the common benefit of all the people! Socialism says that when the means of production and distribution are publicly owned there will be employment for all, but overwork for none; all will have to perform socially useful labor, but none will be lacking the necessities of life. Socialism says that the social ownership of all things that are socially used will abolish poverty, and will abolish many evils that are a direct result of poverty: ignorance and intemperance, most social diseases, and many crimes.

Some people will tell you that Socialism is impossible because things have always been what they are at present and will always remain so. This statement is false. Things are not what they have been nor will they remain what they are. All life is marked by change. Indeed, change is the very essence of life. Mankind has struggled up from tribes of naked savages to nations of civilized men, and civilization will not stop at its present stage. It will move forward and onward to ever higher and better stages. Just as the feudalism of the middle ages was displaced by modern capitalism, so will capitalism be displaced by the coming order of society: Socialism.

The Socialistic order of society will be the first to recognize that labor is the most important and honorable function of human life. Former societies were established upon the principle of physical force. The soldiers and great war-lords of the world were the typical representatives of these past social orders. The state was a military organization. Present-day society rests on the power of wealth. Capitalists and the great captains of industry are its typical representatives. The state is an organization for the protection of property. The society of the future will be built upon the solid, broad