Page 23 - 1912 February - To Dragma

88 TO DRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI

the wage workers. These are absolutely dependent on the former
for employment, and competition compels the capitalist to make use
only of those laborers who can yield him a surplus of profit and to
make that profit as large as possible.

The natural remedy, say the Socialists, is to restore to the worker,
whether manual or intellectual, the means of production. Since it is
manifestly impossible, however, to parcel out the gigantic modern
industry preceived, there is but one way out,—namely, for the col-
lective organization of the workers, known as society or the state,
to assume control of the means of production for the benefit of all.
Accordingly the definition of Socialism is the ownership by society
of the principal means of production and their democratic manage-
ment in the interest of all the workers.

There are many questions to be answered, I know: How is the
change to be made? When? By what political agency? Some time
I hope you w i l l let some one answer these for you, but now may I
just tell you a few things that Socialism is not. I t is not anarchy,
but the bitter enemy of anarchy; it is not a plan for dividing up or
for equality of income; it does not propose any change in the form of
the family; and it has absolutely nothing to do with religious beliefs,
for or against.

I hope I have whetted your appetite for Socialist ideas, sisters. I f
so, will you read everything that comes in your way on the subject?
Whether it is Socialist or Anti-Socialist makes no difference, for we
have to hear both sides in any case before coming to a decision.

To DRAGMA is published under a Socialist mayor; most of you
know of the Socialist control in Milwaukee and of our first Socialist
Congressman, Victor Berger. This week I expect to attend the con-
vention of the Inter-collegiate Socialist Society, an organization that
a year ago had twelve chapters, and now enrolls thirty-three. The
colleges are waking up to Socialism and the world is waking up to it.
The working men and women are looking to it as the hope of deliver-
ance from poverty and the promise of the brotherhood of man. Do
you wonder that Socialism is my interest?