Title | Socialism summed up |
Creator (LCNAF) |
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Publisher | The H. K. Fly Co. |
Place of Creation (TGN) |
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Date | 1913 |
Subject.Topical (LCSH) |
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Genre (AAT) |
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Language | English |
Type (DCMI) |
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Original Item Extent | 110 pages: illustrations; 20 cm. |
Original Item Location | HX86.H77 1914 |
Original Item URL | http://library.uh.edu/record=b8304545~S11 |
Original Collection | Socialist and Communist Pamphlets |
Digital Collection | Socialist and Communist Pamphlets |
Digital Collection URL | http://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/scpamp |
Repository | Special Collections, University of Houston Libraries |
Repository URL | http://libraries.uh.edu/branches/special-collections |
Use and Reproduction | This item is in the public domain and may be used freely. |
File Name | index.cpd |
Title | Image 40 |
Format (IMT) |
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File Name | uhlib_2100825_039.jpg |
Transcript | 38 SOCIALISM SUMMED UP state governs best which governs least, and it tried to govern as little as possible, leaving it to the citizens of all conditions, ages and sexes to fight their own battles. "Administrative Nihilism," to borrow an expression from Huxley, was the rule of politics and legislation just as laissez faire was the law of industry. These conceptions of the functions of the state and legislation probably had some justification in the early phases of our era, when the social contrasts were not very marked, and the opportunities were abundant for all men. But when the unprecedented economic development of the last generations finally divided the population of every advanced country into distinct economic classes, the working class devoid of property and opportunity and dependent for the very right to live upon the powerful capitalist class, the owners of all national industries; when the struggle for existence became an unequal, cruel war between the weak and the strong, the principle of non-interference by state and legislation lost its justification. Gradually and steadily the government assumed the task of protecting its helpless and defenseless members from the oppression of their powerful and inconsiderate fellow men. Gradually it also began to realize that the work of providing food, clothing, shelter and other necessaries for the population is not individual sport, but a social function. The state and the legislatures have openly invaded the |