workers awakened to
their power, armed with knowledge, with education, and, above all,
with the power to make the laws, the government, what they will, can
anybody doubt what the outcome will be?

It is impossible to believe that we shall continue to leave the things
upon which all depend in the hands of a few members of society. Now
that production has been so organized that it can be readily
controlled and directed from a few centers, it is possible for the
first time in the history of civilization for men to live together in
peace and plenty, owning in common the things which must be used in
common, which are needed in common; leaving to private ownership the
things which can be privately owned without injury to society. _And
that is Socialism._

I have explained the philosophy of social evolution upon which modern
Socialism is based as clearly as I could do in the space at my
disposal. I want you to think it out for yourself, Jonathan. I want
you to get the enthusiasm and the inspiration which come from a
realization of the fact that progress is the law of Nature; that
mankind is ever marching upward and onward; that Socialism is the
certain inheritor of all the ages of struggle, suffering and
accumulation.

And above all, I want you to realize the position of your class, my
friend, and your duty to stand with your class, not only as a union
man, but as a voter and a citizen.

As a system of political economy I need say little of Socialism,
beyond recounting some of the things we have already considered. A
great many learned ignorant men, like Mr. Mallock, for instance, are
fond of telling the workers that the economic teachings of Socialism
are unsound; that Karl Marx was really a very superficial thinker
whose ideas have been entirely discredited.

Now, Karl Marx has been dead twenty-five years, Jonathan. His great
work was done a generation ago. Being just a human being, like the
rest of us, it is not to be supposed that he was infallible. There are
some things in his writings which cannot be accepted without
modification. But what does that matter, so long as the essential
principles are sound and true? When we think of a great man like
Lincoln we do not trouble about the little things--the trivial
mistakes he made; we consider only the big things, the noble things,
the true things, he said and did.

But there are lots of little-minded, little-souled people in the world
who have eyes only for the little