*THE
WORKER*
Brisbane
September 1, 1894
BYSTANDERS'
NOTEBOOK.
THE
UNAVOIDABLE TREND OF THE AGE.
Notwithstanding
all the abuse that has been heaped upon Socialist agitators the
movement still goes on apace. Now it may be said that the public mind
has been of late filled to repletion with literature, essays,
lectures and what not on Socialism, but still an original idea or two
upon this momentous and all-absorbing subject may not be out of
place. It may, I think, be taken for granted that if the great mass
of mankind could make a fair living on individualistic lines they
would never trouble their heads about Socialism. Nay, even as long as
they were able to exist at all it has been hard to convert them to
any great degree of Socialism. Man has been in all ages a
conservative being – loth to give up old customs, traditions and
usages. No – thing but the most imperative necessity has ever been
sufficient to rouse him from his normal apathy. The hungry bellies of
twenty million Frenchmen 100 years ago had more to do with the French
Revolution than any sentimental grievances against kingcraft,
priestcraft, or the rule of feudal lord. “Lelat c'est moi,” said
Louis the Fourteenth, “ I am the State,” and the people heeded
not; he could call himself King of the Universe for all they cared,
but when Fouloa told the twenty million of hungry Frenchmen to eat
grass, ah, there came the rub, then the last straw that broke the
patient camels back was laid on.
FIDELE.
*
* *
MUST
BE THROWN ON THE STREETS.
And
so it will fare with latter-day Socialism. Not until thousands of the
patient and ox-eyed multitude are thrown out on the streets,
literally to die of starvation, will they commence to realise that
something is wrong. And I say it advisedly that the onward march of
modern science, with its corollary of labour-saving machinery in
every branch of industry and art, combined with the ownership of
these immense labour-saving appliances in private hands, can have no
other effect but that of bringing the most frightful misery and
destitution upon thousands of unoffending men, women, and children.
Whether people like Socialism or not they will have to adopt a
considerable measure of it shortly for their own preservation. There
is no option or choice in the matter. Grim necessity will compel them
to do so. And all the patriotic leaguers, and all the Labour
agitators in existence are the merest flotsam and jetsam on the
irresistible current of coming events. They can
neither
stop the current on the one hand or add to its momentum very
materialiy on the other. Steam and electricity are responsible for
more modern Socialism than the efforts of all the modern Socialists
from Robert Owen downwards. These men are simply the effect of a
cause. They did not appear upon the stage earlier because the time
was not ripe for them. If mere writing alone was to bring about
Socialism we ought to have had a Socialistic system in vogue in
England since the time that Sir Thomas More wrote his “Utopia.”
FIDELE.
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