What is Socialism Author:James Boyle Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III IN ANCIENT DAYS Aboriginal Communism. Socialism is as old as history, in the sense that ever since recorded time there have been aspirations a... more »nd struggles to attain the Ideal State. Prof. LeRossignol (University of Denver) observes in Orthodox Socialism that "the inequality of man is the most striking fact in human history." The communal holding of property can be traced back to the beginning of history; but, so, also, can the existence of private property. The claim of Socialists that the establishment of Collectivism would only be a reversion to original conditions is supported by some eminent authors, but is questioned and indeed denied by others. Principally from the inborn desire for other men's possessions, tribes went to war, captives were made slaves, and were looked upon as chattels;'vand one of the Marxian assumptions is that the origin of capital was the profit derived from slave labor. During the evolution of primitive society, there was common possession of such things as boats and tents and articles of food, as well as of flocks and herds. When savagery gave place to barbarism, and when the roaming, hunting tribe developed into a pastoral and later on into an agricultural community, there was common possession—or, rather, common occupation and use—of land. In time, the tribes confederated into nations; and there was an accompanying change involving one of the most important facts in the whole sociological history of man. During the era of savagery and in the early period of barbarism, sexual matters had concerned the tribe rather than the individual members. But, gradually, with the organization of society, the relationship between man and woman became individually exclusive and mutual. This change marks the beginning of a modification in the princ...« less