The Principles of Socialism Made Plain; And Objections, Methods, and Quack Remedies for Poverty Considered (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1888 edition. Excerpt: ...to be changed, because it would be impossible any longer to say my coat, my book, or my anything else. It is sufficient to say that socialists ought to know what they mean better than their opponents, and they entirely repudiate any such notion. Communism may be consistent with Socialism, and so may vegetarianism, but neither the one nor the other are essential to it. Not only in a socialistic state, might everj' individual own his own, toothbrush and other articles of personal convenience and enjoyment; but he might accumulate as much wealth of any kind as he was able, so long as he did not use that wealth as a means of living idly on the labour of others; and this would be prevented, not by direct enactment, but by the simple fact that no one would work for him on terms which would leave him any profit, when by working for the community, that is, for themselves, they could obtain the entire produce of their labour. The antagonism is not as is commonly supposed between Socialism and Individualism, which would in fact, for the first time have a chance of asserting itself, but between Socialism and Capitalism, which simply means living on the labour of others. To clear away minor matters first, it is obvious that an object may be perfectly good and praiseworthy, although the means employed to obtain it may be foolish, or even wicked. Material wealth is itself a very good instance, and illustrates the point in more ways than one. It is conceded almost universally to be a legitimate object of men's desires, and none the less so that many men, in their haste to get rich, overstep the limits which all honest men recognise as lawful. The socialist's desire is that all men should have such a sufficient share of material wealth as to remove any excuse...