ould
establish and the private properties it could have no object in taking
away, which it would rather foster and protect. I have tried simply to
illustrate the principle for you, so that you can think the matter
out for yourself. It will be a very good thing for you to commit this
rule to memory.--

_Under Socialism, the State would own and control only those things
which could not be owned and controlled by individuals without giving
them an undue advantage over the community, by enabling them to
extract profits from the labor of others._

But be sure that you do not make the common mistake of confusing
government ownership with Socialism, friend Jonathan, as so many
people are in the habit of doing. In Prussia the government owns the
railways. But the government does not represent the interests of all
the people. It is the government of a nation by a class. That is not
the same thing as the socialization of the railways, as you will see.
In Russia the government owns some of the railways and has a monopoly
of the liquor traffic. But these things are not democratically owned
and managed in the common interest. Russia is an autocracy. Everything
is run for the benefit of the governing class, the Czar and a host of
bureaucrats. That is not Socialism. In this country we have a nearer
approach to democracy in our government, and our post-office system,
for example, is a much nearer approach to the realization of the
Socialist principle.

But even in this country, government ownership and Socialism are not
the same thing. For our government is a class government too. There is
the same inequality of wages and conditions as under capitalist
ownership: many of the letter carriers and other employees are
miserably underpaid, and the service is notoriously handicapped by
private interests. Whether it is in Russia under the Czar and his
bureaucrats, Germany with its monarchial system cumbered with the
remnants of feudalism, or the United States with its manhood suffrage
foolishly used to elect the interests of the capitalist class,
government ownership can only be at best a framework for Socialism. It
must wait for the Socialist spirit to be infused into it.

Socialists want government ownership, Jonathan, but they don't want it
unless the people are to own the government. When the government
represents the interests of all the people it will use the things it
owns and controls for the common good. _And that will be Social