INACTIVITY SOCIALISM'S FAULT

Mrs. Florence Kelley, author of "Some Ethical Gains Through Legislation," spoke yesterday in Agassiz House, Radcliffe, in the first of a series of joint meetings of the Harvard and Radcliffe socialist organizations.

Mrs. Kelley's subject was "The Current Task of American Socialists" and frequently she brought up her experiences as a social worker at the Henry street settlement in New York. As secretary of the National Consumers' League she mentioned her broad acquaintanceship with the Socialists of the country and their work.

"As one well acquainted with socialism, I know the weaknesses of the movement," said Mrs. Kelley, "and Socialism's greatest fault is its present inactivity. There are two kinds of socialists, those who believe that the only way to promote their cause is through a revolution and those who consider socialism will come only through a long series of transitional steps."

The great solution for the social injustices of the day according to Mrs. Kelley is the formation of co-operative commonwealths. At length she considered the injustices done to the wage earners of the great New York public in the corporations, textile mills, and contracting concerns.

"The great problem of the socialists today is to find the first to those transited steps which lead to socialism," said Mrs. Kelley, "We must get away from the fatalistic attitude towards socialism and begin on the transitory methods which will lead us onward to the proper goal. The cry that there are practical barriers to all socialistic propositions must be buried. University and socialist literature must be published throughout the land; such news as the University of Wisconsin in several of its departments has recently undertaken. The public school system and the slight democraticism of one branch of the national government, the senate, are steps towards socialism."

At the close of the meeting Paul Blanchard said a few words on the present Nashua strike and made an appeal for financial support for the sufferers.