Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 10.djvu/244

 THE WORLD'S FAMOUS ORATIONS

ing temptation by having the government take all these monopolies itself and furnish the serv- ice which they now furnish, and thus not only save our institutions, but have the great profits which now go into the pockets of private cor- porations turned into the public treasury.

But the corruptionists, the monopolists, and all men who are fattening on the existing rot- tenness and injustice, cry angrily, "Why, that would be socialism, rank socialism, and we are opposed to it!" Some of these men know the meaning of socialism and some do not, but they control all those men who cling to the skirts of wealth.

Socialism has been as a system of govern- ment in which the competitive system is entirely abolished and the principle of associated effort is applied to everything. According to the standard authorities, socialism is an ideal state founded on justice, and in which the benefits of modern invention and of monopoly shall be shared by all the people instead of being con- trolled by the few and used by these few to make themselves the absolute masters of the many. The word "socialism" is used as a term of derision only by the ignorant or the servile.

During the former administration of Lord Salisbury as premier of England it was once charged that the tendency of the government was socialistic; that there was a tendency for the government to do those things which always had been left, and should be left, to the individual; 210

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