Page:Raymond Augustine McGowan - Bolshevism in Russia and America (1920).pdf/41

 Rh Capitalism is, of course, true; but it stops a long way from common ownership of all the means of production and distribution, while even in those industries placed under public ownership a system of profit-sharing is to be installed.

Public ownership of some of the means of production and distribution is often mistaken for Socialism, and in the turmoil of today is frequently called Bolshevism. Public ownership mayor may not be a foolish policy; that is not the question here. But whether wise or foolish, it is not Socialism for the precise reason that it is public ownership of only some of the means of production and distribution. The field of private ownership in the means of livelihood is limited by it, but not destroyed.

Within the ranks of the labor unions during the last year and a half, there has sprung up a Labor Party in opposition to the political policy of the A. F. L. In November, 1919, a National Labor Party was formed at a convention in Chicago. The Declaration of Principles adopted by the convention calls for the nationalization "under democratic management" of unused lands, public utilities, basic industries and natural resources, and banking and credit systems. A steeply graduated tax on incomes and inheritances and a limitation of the amount of both is another principle of the party.

A short time after the Labor Party was organized, the Committee of 48 met in St. Louis for a conference. The first article of its platform is: "Public ownership of transportation, including stock yards, large abattoirs, grain elevators, terminal elevators, terminal warehouses, pipe-lines and tanks. Public ownership of other utilities and of the principal natural resources, such as coal, oil, natural gas, mineral deposits,