Page:Olive Malmberg Johnson - Woman and the Socialist Movement (1908).djvu/44



There is to-day no woman question, no religious question, no nationality question and no race question. There is only one question before which all the rest disappear or into which they dissolve themselves. That is the Labor Question, the Social Question.

When Socialism first became discussed in this country was airily put aside as un-American. "It could not grow on American soil." In Germany it was called un-German, in England un-English, in Russia un-Russian, and Japanese comrades tell us that in Japan it is called un-Japanese. To judge by that, one should think it was unworldly, indeed, and that those struck the keynote who said that before we could have Socialism we must change human nature and all people must become angels. But for all that Socialism proved not to be so easily put aside. It proves to be in America, Germany, England, Russia and Japan to stay as an agitational force until it can be fully established.

The social question faces us everywhere. Statesmen have to wrestle with it. It props up in Congress and in the judiciary. It has faced the present executive of this nation, as it has faced no one in that capacity before. When the Idaho-Colorado outrage was perpetrated against the officers of the W. F. of M. and he was deluged with protests calling upon him on his official dignity to stand up for the rights of citizenship that had been trampled upon and human rights that had been outraged, he became mightily angry and determined to squash it by putting his imperial foot hard down upon it. With one stroke of his authoritative pen he condemned all