Horace Greeley, and Other Pioneers of American Socialism

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1892 edition. Excerpt: ...growth, economic development and final evolution. His argument was that the distasteful labor of the world, such as mining, should receive higher recompense under the future system than those easier tasks which might fall to the lot of a select few. This, he apprehended, would lead, under wonderfully different conditions, to that true individualism, now stifled, which would recognize the noblest good in working for or considering others. Horace Greeley wished to make all industry ' attractive, believed in its accomplishment and presaged its triumph. Thus he writes: As yet, the Great Reform which shall abolish all Slavery, as it only can be effectually, really abolished, by leaving none coveting the position of a master, none possessing the soul of a slave, is in its infancy, silently and slowly but surely progressing to matured energy and vigor. Attractive Industry, the dream of the past age, the aspiration of the present, shall be the fruition and joy of the next. The reunion of Desire and Duty, divorced and warring since the Fall, restores Man at once to the unchanging, uncloying bliss of Eden. That this is a Moral renovation is, indeed, most true, but false is the deduction that it is wrought or endures, regardless of Physical conditions. Idly do the lips of the widow murmur expressions of contentment and thankfulness when her children pine for bread and have no prospect of procuring it; vainly does the forlorn wretch essay to thank that Providence whose ways he cannot fathom, but whose present results are to him famine, disease, and utter, hopeless destitution. Here and there the keen eye of Faith may pierce the deepest gloom of the Present, and rest exultingly on the compensating glories of the Future; but such are exceptions to the...