Socialistic experiments have not been much of a success.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: _The English-Speaking Peoples_, p. 203.]




SOCIALISM--IS IT AMERICAN?

I

ITS CONFLICT WITH THE IDEA OF EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY


One of the main difficulties in discussing Socialism is to find a
working definition; for this political or social movement is based upon
a system of a priori reasoning which often is vague and lacking in
deductions from practical experience. Socialism also is unreal in its
assumptions and impractical in its conclusions, so that a person finds
it almost impossible to give a definition that will include within its
scope all the Socialistic vagaries and explain all the suppositions
based upon nonexistent facts. Bearing this difficulty in mind, perhaps
the following will serve as a working definition for the purposes of
the present discussion. Socialism is the collective ownership (exerted
through the government, or society politically organized) of the means
of production and distribution of all forms of wealth. This means wealth
not alone in mere terms of money but in the economic sense of everything
that is of use for the support or enjoyment of mankind. Of course