Excerpt from Socialism
The invitation with which I have been honored by The National Civic Federation of New York to deliver a short series of addresses on those modern economic theories which, under the name of socialism, are enjoying so considerable a vogue both in this country and in Europe, is an invitation which I have accepted with a pleasure proportionate to the interest of the subject.
What socialism really means, in so far as it means anything distinctive, definite, and coherent, is a question I will discuss presently. But whatever it means, it stands, on its practical side, for some scheme for bettering the condition of the majority of the human race, by reorganizing society on a basis substantially different from that on which it rests now, and on which it has rested always, from the beginnings of civilization till to-day.
Now, any scheme of this kind which aims at the practical introduction of some radically novel principle, however practical may be its object, and however strongly it may appeal to the practical and concrete passions, necessarily implies and rests upon certain intellectual judgments or theories with regard to the facts and forces of society and of human nature. One of the greatest groups of changes that have taken place in modern times are those which rest on the introduction and the perfecting of the steam engine. The steam engine and the steam printing press may be called the physical basis of that diffused knowledge and that force of public opinion which in many minds arouse such unbounded enthusiasm. But on what rested the possibility of the introduction of the steam engine and the steam printing press?
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