mer in full possession
of his farm and improve his position by making it possible for him to
get the full value of his labor-products without having to divide up
with a host of idlers and non-producers. Socialism would not deny any
man the use of the land, but it would take away the right of non-users
to reap the fruits of the toil of users. It would deny the right of
the Astor family to levy a tax upon the people of New York, amounting
to millions of dollars annually, for the privilege of living there.
The Astors have such a vast business collecting this tax that they
have to employ an agent whose salary is equal to that of the President
of the United States and a large army of employees.

Socialism would deny the right of the English Duke of Rutland and Lord
Beresford to hold millions of acres of land in Texas, and to levy a
tax upon Americans for its use. It would deny the right of the
British Land Company to tax Kansans for the use of the 300,000 acres
owned by the company; the right of the Duke of Sutherland and Sir
Edward Reid to tax Americans for the use of the millions of acres they
own in Florida; of Lady Gordon and the Marquis of Dalhousie to any
right to tax people in Mississippi. The idea that a few people can own
the land upon which all people must live in any country is a relic of
slavery, friend Jonathan.

So you see, my friend, Socialism does not mean that everything is to
be divided up equally among the people every little while. That is
either a fool's notion or the wilful misrepresentation of a liar.
Socialism does not mean that there is to be a great bureaucratic
government owning everything and controlling everybody. It does not
mean doing away with private initiative and making of humanity a great
herd, everybody wearing the same kind of clothes, eating the same kind
and quantities of food, and having no personal liberties. It simply
means that all men and women should have equal opportunities; to make
it impossible for one man to exploit another, except at that other's
free will. It does not mean doing away with individual liberty and
reducing all to a dead level. That is what is at present happening to
the great majority of people, and Socialism comes to unbind the soul
of man--to make mankind free.

I think, Jonathan, that you ought to have a fairly clear notion now of
what Socialism is and what it is not. You ought to be able now to
distinguish between the social properties which Socialism w