Democratic Party's Socialist Patriarchs

"We Socialists are not reformers; we are revolutionaries. We Socialists do not propose to change forms. We care nothing for forms. We want a change of the inside of the mechanism of society, let the form take care of itself." (p. 7) "When the economic law that asserts itself under the system of private ownership of the tool has concentrated these private owners into about eight percent of the nation's inhabitants, has {sic} thereby enabled this small capitalist class to live without toil, and to compel the majority, the class of the proletariat, to toil without living; When finally, it has come to pass in which our country now finds itself, that...ninety-four percent of the taxes are spent in'protecting property'--the property of the trivially small capitalist class--and not in protecting life;...then the modern government, the capitalist government--is equipped mainly, if not solely, with the means of suppression, of oppression, and tyranny!" (p. 10) "[W]hen the instruments of production shall be owned no longer by the minority, but shall be restored to the Commonwealth...no longer the minority, or any portion of the people, shall be in poverty and classes, class distinctions and class rule shall...have vanished, that then the central directing authority will lose all its repressive functions and is bound to reassume the functions it had in the old communities of our ancestors, become against a necessary aid, and assist in production." (p. 11) "Socialism recognizes in modern society the existence of a struggle of classes, and the line that divide the combatants to be the economic line that separates the interests of the property-holding capitalist class from the interests of the propertiless class of the proletariat." (p. 14)

"The Socialist revolution demands...the public ownership of all the means of transportation." (p. 15) "Labor alone produces all wealth. Wages are that part of labor's own product that the workingman is allowed to keep. Profits are the present and running stealings perpetrated by the capitalist upon the workingman...Capital is the accumulated past stealings of the capitalist, cornerstoned up his'original accumulation'." (p. 43) "Between the working class and the capitalist class, there is an irrepressible conflict, a class struggle for life...There being no'common interests,' but only hostile interests, between the capitalist class and the working class, the battle you are waging to establish'safe relations' between the two is a hopeless one." (p. 45) "[T]he aim of all intelligent, class-conscious workingmen must be the overthrow of the system of private ownership in the tools of production because that system keeps them in wage slavery." (p. 53)

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"The cardinal demand of Socialism is the abolition of private ownership in the principle sources and instruments of wealth production, and there was practically no physical basis and no rational justification for such a demand before about the beginning of the nineteenth century." (p. 9) "The machines, factories and plants, the land, mines and railroads--in brief, all the modern sources and instruments of wealth production are owned and controlled by a class of persons other than the workers." (p. 11) "The ills of our society are the direct and inevitable results of a system that allows one group of persons to own the tools which are indispensable to the lives of all persons, and thus make the few the absolute masters of the many...He toils or he loafs, he robs or is robbed, according to his place in the general industrial scheme...The evil outgrowths of the capitalist system can only be cured by the removal of its main source and cause--the private ownership of the special tools of wealth production." (p. 21) "[T]he Socialist program requires the public or collective ownership and operation of the principal instruments and agencies for the production and distribution of wealth--the land, mines, factories and modern machinery. This is the main program and the ultimate aim of the whole Socialist movement and the political creed of all Socialists. It is the unfailing test of the Socialist adherence, and admits of no limitation, extension or variation. Whoever accepts this program is a Socialist, whoever does not, is not." (p. 25) "The Socialist program does not deal with consumable wealth but with productive wealth; it does not assail wealth as a means of private enjoyment, but wealth as an instrument of social oppression and exploitation. The Socialists would socialize the tools of production, not the products." (p. 27) "The common ownership of the sources and instruments of wealth production would necessarily mean a more equitable distribution of wealth among the people and greater economic security for all human beings. It would thus do away with the mad competitive struggle for individual gain, and would remove the principal cause of civic and political corruption, crime, vice, brutality and ignorance." (p. 33) "The feudal regime in its very bloom contained the germs of the capitalist system, and capitalism even today germinates a new and superior social order--Socialism." (p. 36) "The modern principle of control and regulation of industries by the government indicates the complete collapse of the purely capitalist ideal of non-interference, and signifies that the government may change from an instrument of class rule and exploitation into one of social regulation and protection. Like the industries, the government is becoming socialized. The general tendency of both is distinctly toward a Socialist order." (p. 43) "What the Socialists advocate is not government ownership under purely capitalist administration, but collective ownership under a government controlled or at least strongly influenced by political representatives of the working class." (p. 74) "Socialism has never been'tried' and has never'failed,' just as little as the twenty-first century has been'tried' or has'failed." (p. 77)

"[U]nder the present capitalist system, we have three classes, roughly speaking. The first class is the plutocracy composed of wealthy bankers, railway magnates, corporation directors, trust magnates, etc., or people who are doing nothing and inherited their wealth. The next class is the middle class, composed chiefly of small manufacturers, merchants, farmers and some professional men. The third class is the proletariat, made up of wage workers and some persons in professional occupations." (p. 9) "Socialism is defined as the collective ownership of the means of production and distribution. It is the name given to the next state of civilization, if civilization is to survive." (p. 15) "But as long as the instruments of production--land, machinery, raw materials, railroads, telegraphs, etc.--remain private property, only comparatively few can be sole owners and masters thereof. And so long as such is the case, they will naturally use this private ownership for their private advantage...there is but one deliverance from the rule of the people by capitalism, and that is the rule of capital by the people...This is called Socialism." (p. 16) "Socialism must create a new kind of property--the collective property." (p. 20) "[T]he Socialist society can give the opportunity for the formation of co-operative associations, which together with the model industries conducted by the state, will raise the level of the working class to a degree hardly credible at the present time." (p. 26) "All industries of national magnitude would be carried on by the government." (p. 28) "Socialism will control only our capital, not our property. A Socialist Commonwealth will not do away with the individual ownership of property, but only with individual ownership of capital." (p. 35)

"They will be able to save just as much as they wish; they will be able to utilize their savings in any manner they choose with one single exception. They will not be able in any possible way to'invest' their savings--that is to say, they will not be able to use their savings to make profit." (p. 38) "[W]e all know that competitive business is by its very nature corrupt...About 90 per cent of all business men at least once in their lives go into bankruptcy." (p. 85) "It is not so much the fact that there are rich and poor in the world under the present system, but the fact that the poor have to depend upon the rich for a living, that makes us all servants and slaves. It is the terrible economic power of the capitalist class that keeps us from becoming free. Only Socialism can help us." (p. 87)

• Economic identity-politics drives class conflict; race- and gender-based politics has now been added to the mix;
• Government ownership of the means of production is more productive and equitable than free enterprise; and,
• The false claim that Socialism has never been tried remains in play, despite the colossal failures of Socialism throughout the 20^th Century, and now into the 21^st .

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