|
EUGENE V. DEBS RALLYING IN CANTON,
OHIO - 1918
Emancipation of the Working Class
 |
Comrades, friends
and fellow-workers, |
for this very
cordial greeting, this very hearty reception, I
thank you all with the fullest appreciation of
your interest in and your devotion to the cause
for which I am to speak to you this afternoon.
To speak for labor; to plead the cause of the
men and women and children who toil; to serve
the working class, has always been to me a high
privilege; a duty of love.
I have just returned from a visit over yonder,
where three of our most loyal comrades are
paying the penalty for their devotion to the
cause of the working class. They have come to
realize, as many of us have, that it is
extremely dangerous to exercise the
constitutional right of free speech in a country
fighting to make democracy safe in the world.
I realize that, in speaking to you this
afternoon, there are certain limitations placed
upon the right of free speech. I must be
exceedingly careful, prudent, as to what I say,
and even more careful and prudent as to how I
say it. I may not be able to say all I think;
but I am not going to say anything that I do not
think. I would rather a thousand times be a free
soul in jail than to be a sycophant and coward
in the streets. They may put those boys in
jail—and some of the rest of us in jail—but they
can not put the Socialist movement in jail.
Those prison bars separate their bodies from
ours, but their souls are here this afternoon.
They are simply paying the penalty that all men
have paid in all the ages of history for
standing erect, and for seeking to pave the way
to better conditions for mankind.
If it had not been for the men and women who, in
the past, have had the moral courage to go to
jail, we would still be in the jungles.
This assemblage is exceedingly good to look
upon. I wish it were possible for me to give you
what you are giving me this afternoon. What I
say here amounts to but little; what I see here
is exceedingly important. You workers in Ohio,
enlisted in the greatest cause ever organized in
the interest of your class, are making history
today in the face of threatening opposition of
all kinds—history that is going to be read with
profound interest by coming generations.
There is but one thing you have to be concerned
about, and that is that you keep foursquare with
the principles of the international Socialist
movement. It is only when you begin to
compromise that trouble begins. So far as I am
concerned, it does not matter what others may
say, or think, or do, as long as I am sure that
I am right with myself and the cause. There are
so many who seek refuge in the popular side of a
great question. As a Socialist, I have long
since learned how to stand alone. For the last
month I have been traveling over the Hoosier
State; and, let me say to you, that, in all my
connection with the Socialist movement, I have
never seen such meetings, such enthusiasm, such
unity of purpose; never have I seen such a
promising outlook as there is today,
notwithstanding the statement published
repeatedly that our leaders have deserted us.
Well, for myself, I never had much faith in
leaders. I am willing to be charged with almost
anything, rather than to be charged with being a
leader. I am suspicious of leaders, and
especially of the intellectual variety. Give me
the rank and file every day in the week. If you
go to the city of Washington, and you examine
the pages of the Congressional Directory, you
will find that almost all of those corporation
lawyers and cowardly politicians, members of
Congress, and misrepresentatives of the
masses—you will find that almost all of them
claim, in glowing terms, that they have risen
from the ranks to places of eminence and
distinction. I am very glad I cannot make that
claim for myself. I would be ashamed to admit
that I had risen from the ranks. When I rise it
will be with the ranks, and not from the ranks.
When I came away from Indiana, the comrades
said: "When you cross the line and get over into
the Buckeye State, tell the comrades there that
we are on duty and doing duty. Give them for us,
a hearty greeting, and tell them that we are
going to make a record this fall that will be
read around the world."
The Socialists of Ohio, it appears, are very
much alive this year. The party has been killed
recently, which, no doubt, accounts for its
extraordinary activity. There is nothing that
helps the Socialist Party so much as receiving
an occasional deathblow. The oftener it is
killed the more active, the more energetic, the
more powerful it becomes.
They who have been reading the capitalist
newspapers realize what a capacity they have for
lying. We have been reading them lately. They
know all about the Socialist Party—the Socialist
movement, except what is true. Only the other
day they took an article that I had written, and
most of you have read it, most of you members of
the party, at least—and they made it appear that
I had undergone a marvelous transformation. I
had suddenly become changed—had in fact come to
my senses; I had ceased to be a wicked
Socialist, and had become a respectable
Socialist, a patriotic Socialist, as if I had
ever been anything else.
What was the purpose of this deliberate
misrepresentation? It is so self-evident that it
suggests itself. The purpose was to sow the
seeds of dissension in our ranks; to have it
appear that we were divided among ourselves;
that we were pitted against each other, to our
mutual undoing. But Socialists were not born
yesterday. They know how to read capitalist
newspapers; and to believe exactly the opposite
of what they read.
Why should a Socialist be discouraged on the eve
of the greatest triumph in all the history of
the Socialist movement? It is true that these
are anxious, trying days for us all—testing days
for the women and men who are upholding the
banner of labor in the struggle of the working
class of all the world against the exploiters of
all the world; a time in which the weak and
cowardly will falter and fail and desert. They
lack the fiber to endure the revolutionary test;
they fall away; they disappear as if they had
never been. On the other hand, they who are
animated by the unconquerable spirit of the
social revolution; they who have the moral
courage to stand erect and assert their
convictions; stand by them; fight for them; go
to jail or to hell for them, if need be, they
are writing their names, in this crucial hour,
they are writing their names in faceless letters
in the history of mankind.
Those boys over yonder—those comrades of
ours—and how I love them! Aye, they are my
younger brothers ; their very names throb in my
heart, thrill in my veins, and surge in my soul.
I am proud of them; they are there for us; and
we are here for them. Their lips, though
temporarily mute, are more eloquent than ever
before; and their voice, though silent, is heard
around the world.
Are we opposed to Prussian militarism? Why, we
have been fighting it since the day the
Socialist movement was born; and we are going to
continue to fight it, day and night, until it is
wiped from the face of the earth. Between us
there is no truce, no compromise.
But, before I proceed along this line, let me
recall a little history, in which I think we are
all interested.
In 1869 that grand old warrior of the social
revolution, the elder Liebknecht, was arrested
and sentenced to prison for three months,
because of his war, as a Socialist, on the
Kaiser and on the Junkers that rule Germany. In
the meantime the Franco-Prussian war broke out.
Liebknecht and Bebel were the Socialist members
in the Reichstag. They were the only two who had
the courage to protest against taking
Alsace-Lorraine from France and annexing it to
Germany. And for this they were sentenced two
years to a prison fortress charged with high
treason; because, even in that early day, almost
fifty years ago, these leaders, these
forerunners of the international Socialist
movement were fighting the Kaiser and fighting
the Junkers of Germany. They have continued to
fight them from that day to this. Multiplied
thousands of Socialists have languished in the
jails of Germany because of their heroic warfare
upon the despotic ruling class of that country.
Let us come down the line a little farther.
You remember that,
at the close of Theodore Roosevelt's second term
as President, he went over to Africa to make war
on some of his ancestors. You remember that, at
the close of his expedition, he visited the
capitals of Europe, and that he was wined and
dined, dignified and glorified by all the
Kaisers and Czars and Emperors of the Old World.
He visited Potsdam while the Kaiser was there,
and, according to the accounts published in the
American newspapers, he and the Kaiser were soon
on the most familiar terms. They were
hilariously intimate with each other, and
slapped each other on the back. After Roosevelt
had reviewed the Kaiser's troops, according to
the same accounts, he became enthusiastic over
the Kaiser's legions and said: "If I had that
kind of an army, I could conquer the world." He
knew the Kaiser then just as well as he knows
him now. He knew that he was the Kaiser, the
Beast of Berlin. And yet, he permitted himself
to be entertained by that Beast of Berlin; had
his feet under the mahogany of the Beast of
Berlin; was cheek by jowl with the Beast of
Berlin. And, while Roosevelt was being
entertained royally by the German Kaiser, that
same Kaiser was putting the leaders of the
Socialist Party in jail for fighting the Kaiser
and the Junkers of Germany. Roosevelt was the
guest of honor in the White House of the Kaiser,
while the Socialists were in the jails of the
Kaiser for fighting the Kaiser. Who then was
fighting for democracy? Roosevelt? Roosevelt,
who was honored by the Kaiser, or the Socialists
who were in jail by order of the Kaiser?
"Birds of a feather flock together."
When the newspapers reported that Kaiser Wilhelm
and ex-President Theodore Roosevelt recognized
each other at sight, were perfectly intimate
with each other at the first touch, they made
the admission that is fatal to the claim of
Theodore Roosevelt, that he is the friend of the
common people and the champion of democracy;
they admitted that they were kith and kin; that
they were very much alike; that their ideas and
ideals were about the same. If Theodore
Roosevelt is the great champion of democracy—the
arch foe of autocracy—what business had he as
the guest of honor of the Prussian Kaiser? And
when he met the Kaiser, and did honor to the
Kaiser, under the terms imputed to him, wasn't
it pretty strong proof that he himself was a
Kaiser at heart? Now, after being the guest of
Emperor Wilhelm, the Beast of Berlin, he comes
back to this country, and wants you to send ten
million men over there to kill the Kaiser, to
murder his former friend and pal. Rather queer,
isn't it? And yet, he is the patriot, and we are
the traitors. I challenge you to find a
Socialist anywhere on the face of the earth who
was ever the guest of the Beast of Berlin,
except as an inmate of his prison—the elder
Liebknecht and the younger Liebknecht, the
heroic son of his immortal sire.
A little more history along the same line. In
1902 Prince Henry paid a visit to this country.
Do you remember him? I do, exceedingly well.
Prince Henry is the brother of Emperor Wilhelm.
Prince Henry is another Beast of Berlin, an
autocrat, an aristocrat, a Junker of
Junkers—very much despised by our American
patriots. He came over here in 1902 as the
representative of Kaiser Wilhelm; he was
received by Congress and by several state
legislatures—among others, by the state
legislature of Massachusetts, then in session.
He was invited there by the capitalist captains
of that so-called commonwealth. And when Prince
Henry arrived, there was one member of that body
who kept his self-respect, put on his hat, and
as Henry, the Prince, walked in, that member of
the body walked out. And that was James F.
Carey, the Socialist member of that body. All
the rest—all the rest of the representatives in
the Massachusetts legislature—all, all of
them—joined in doing honor, in the most servile
spirit, to the high representative of the
autocracy of Europe. And the only man who left
that body, was a Socialist. And yet , and yet
they have the hardihood to claim that they are
fighting autocracy and that we are in the
service of the German government.
A little more history along the same line. I
have a distinct recollection of it. It occurred
fifteen years ago when Prince Henry came here.
All of our plutocracy, all of the wealthy
representatives living along Fifth Avenue—all,
all of them—threw their palace doors wide open
and received Prince Henry with open arms. But
they were not satisfied with this; they got down
and groveled in the dust at his feet. Our
plutocracy—women and men alike—vied with each
other to lick the boots of Prince Henry, the
brother and representative of the Beast of
Berlin. And still our plutocracy, our Junkers,
would have us believe that all the Junkers are
confined to Germany. It is precisely because we
refuse to believe this that they brand us as
disloyalists. They want our eyes focused on the
Junkers in Berlin so that we will not see those
within our own borders.
I hate, I loathe, I despise Junkers and
junkerdom. I have no earthly use for the Junkers
of Germany, and not one particle more use for
the Junkers in the United States.
They tell us that we live in a great free
republic; that our institutions are democratic;
that we are a free and self-governing people.
This is too much, even for a joke. But it is not
a subject for levity; it is an exceedingly
serious matter.
To whom do the Wall Street Junkers in our
country marry their daughters? After they have
wrung their countless millions from your sweat,
your agony and your life's blood, in a time of
war as in a time of peace, they invest these
untold millions in the purchase of titles of
broken-down aristocrats, such as princes, dukes,
counts and other parasites and no-accounts.
Would they be satisfied to wed their daughters
to honest workingmen? To real democrats? Oh, no!
They scour the markets of Europe for vampires
who are titled and nothing else. And they swap
their millions for the titles, so that matrimony
with them becomes literally a matter of money.
These are the gentry who are today wrapped up in
the American flag, who shout their claim from
the housetops that they are the only patriots,
and who have their magnifying glasses in hand,
scanning the country for evidence of disloyalty,
eager to apply the brand of treason to the men
who dare to even whisper their opposition to
Junker rule in the United Sates. No wonder Sam
Johnson declared that "patriotism is the last
refuge of the scoundrel." He must have had this
Wall Street gentry in mind, or at least their
prototypes, for in every age it has been the
tyrant, the oppressor and the exploiter who has
wrapped himself in the cloak of patriotism, or
religion, or both to deceive and overawe the
people.
They would have you believe that the Socialist
Party consists in the main of disloyalists and
traitors. It is true in a sense not at all to
their discredit. We frankly admit that we are
disloyalists and traitors to the real traitors
of this nation; to the gang that on the Pacific
coast are trying to hang Tom Mooney and Warren
Billings in spite of their well-known innocence
and the protest of practically the whole
civilized world.
I know Tom Mooney intimately—as if he were my
own brother. He is an absolutely honest man. He
had no more to do with the crime with which he
was charged and for which he was convicted than
I had. And if he ought to go to the gallows, so
ought I. If he is guilty every man who belongs
to a labor organization or to the Socialist
Party is likewise guilty.
What is Tom Mooney guilty of? I will tell you. I
am familiar with his record. For years he has
been fighting bravely and without compromise the
battles of the working class out on the Pacific
coast. He refused to be bribed and he could not
be browbeaten. In spite of all attempts to
intimidate him he continued loyally in the
service of the organized workers, and for this
he became a marked man. The henchmen of the
powerful and corrupt corporations, concluding
finally that he could not be bought or bribed or
bullied, decided he must therefore be murdered.
That is why Tom Mooney is today a life prisoner,
and why he would have been hanged as a felon
long ago but for the world-wide protest of the
working class.
Let us review another bit of history. You
remember Francis J. Heney, special investigator
of the state of California, who was shot down in
cold blood in the courtroom in San Francisco.
You remember that dastardly crime, do you not?
The United Railways, consisting of a lot of
plutocrats and highbinders represented by the
Chamber of Commerce, absolutely control the city
of San Francisco. The city was and is their
private reservation. Their will is the supreme
law. Take your stand against them and question
their authority, and you are doomed. They do not
hesitate a moment to plot murder or any other
crime to perpetuate their corrupt and enslaving
regime. Tom Mooney was the chief representative
of the working class they could not control.
They own the railways; they control the great
industries; they are the industrial masters and
the political rulers of the people. From their
decision there is no appeal. They are the
autocrats of the Pacific coast—as cruel and
infamous as any that ever ruled in Germany or
any other country in the old world. When their
rule became so corrupt that at last a grand jury
indicted them and they were placed on trial, and
Francis J. Heney was selected to assist in their
prosecution, this gang, represented by the
Chamber of Commerce; this gang of plutocrats,
autocrats and highbinders, hired an assassin to
shoot Heney down in the courtroom. Heney,
however, happened to live through it. But that
was not their fault. The same identical gang
that hired the murderer to kill Heney also hired
false witnesses to swear away the fife of Tom
Mooney and, foiled in that, they have kept him
in a foul prison hole ever since.
Every solitary one of these aristocratic
conspirators and would-be murderers claims to be
an arch-patriot; every one of them insists that
the war is being waged to make the world safe
for democracy. What humbug! What rot! What false
pretense! These autocrats, these tyrants, these
red-handed robbers and murderers, the
"patriots," while the men who have the courage
to stand face to face with them, speak the
truth, and fight for their exploited
victims—they are the disloyalists and traitors.
If this be true, I want to take my place side by
side with the traitors in this fight.
The other day they sentenced Kate Richards
O'Hare to the penitentiary for five years. Think
of sentencing a woman to the penitentiary simply
for talking. The United States, under
plutocratic rule, is the only country that would
send a woman to prison for five years for
exercising the right of free speech. If this be
treason, let them make the most of it.
Let me review a bit of history in connection
with this case. I have known Kate Richards
O'Hare intimately for twenty years. I am
familiar with her public record. Personally I
know her as if she were my own sister. All who
know Mrs. O'Hare know her to be a woman of
unquestioned integrity.' And they also know that
she is a woman of unimpeachable loyalty to the
Socialist movement. When she went out into North
Dakota to make her speech, followed by
plain-clothes men in the service of the
government intent upon effecting her arrest and
securing her prosecution and conviction—when she
went out there, it was with the full knowledge
on her part that sooner or later these
detectives would accomplish their purpose. She
made her speech, and that speech was
deliberately misrepresented for the purpose of
securing her conviction. The only testimony
against her was that of a hired witness. And
when the farmers, the men and women who were in
the audience she addressed—when they went to
Bismarck where the trial was held to testify in
her favor, to swear that she had not used the
language she was charged with having used, the
judge refused to allow them to go upon the
stand. This would seem incredible to me if I had
not had some experience of my own with federal
courts.
Who appoints our federal judges? The people? In
all the history of the country, the working
class have never named a federal judge. There
are 121 of these judges and every solitary one
holds his position, his tenure, through the
influence and power of corporate capital. The
corporations and trusts dictate their
appointment. And when they go to the bench, they
go, not to serve, the people, but to serve the
interests that place them and keep them where
they are.
Why, the other day, by a vote of five to four—a
kind of craps game—come seven, come ‘leven —they
declared the child labor law unconstitutional—a
law secured after twenty years of education and
agitation on the part of all kinds of people.
And yet, by a majority of one, the Supreme Court
a body of corporation lawyers, with just one
exception, wiped that law from the statute
books, and this in our so-called democracy, so
that we may continue to grind the flesh and
blood and bones of puny little children into
profits for the Junkers of Wall Street. And this
in a country that boasts of fighting to make the
world safe for democracy! The history of this
country is being written in the blood of the
childhood the industrial lords have murdered.
These are not palatable truths to them. They do
not like to hear them; and what is more they do
not want you to hear them. And that is why they
brand us as undesirable citizens , and as
disloyalists and traitors. If we were actual
traitors—traitors to the people and to their
welfare and progress, we would be regarded as
eminently respectable citizens of the republic;
we would hold high office, have princely
incomes, and ride in limousines; and we would be
pointed out as the elect who have succeeded in
life in honorable pursuit, and worthy of
emulation by the youth of the land. It is
precisely because we are disloyal to the
traitors that we are loyal to the people of this
nation.
Scott Nearing! You have heard of Scott Nearing.
He is the greatest teacher in the United States.
He was in the University of Pennsylvania until
the Board of Trustees, consisting of great
capitalists, captains of industry, found that he
was teaching sound economics to the students in
his classes. This sealed his fate in that
institution. They sneeringly charged—just as the
same usurers, money-changers, pharisees,
hypocrites charged the Judean Carpenter some
twenty centuries ago—that he was a false teacher
and that he was stirring up the people.
The Man of Galilee, the Carpenter, the
workingman who became the revolutionary agitator
of his day soon found himself to be an
undesirable citizen in the eyes of the ruling
knaves and they had him crucified. And now their
lineal descendants say of Scott Nearing, "He is
preaching false economics. We cannot crucify him
as we did his elder brother but we can deprive
him of employment and so cut off his income and
starve him to death or into submission. We will
not only discharge him but place his name upon
the blacklist and make it impossible for him to
earn a living. He is a dangerous man for he is
teaching the truth and opening the eyes of the
people." And the truth, oh, the truth has always
been unpalatable and intolerable to the class
who live out of the sweat and misery of the
working class.
Max Eastman has been indicted and his paper
suppressed, just as the papers with which I have
been connected have all been suppressed. What a
wonderful compliment they pay us! They are
afraid that we may mislead and contaminate you.
You are their wards; they are your guardians and
they know what is best for you to read and hear
and know. They are bound to see to it that our
vicious doctrines do not reach your ears. And so
in our great democracy, under our free
institutions, they flatter our press by
suppression; and they ignorantly imagine that
they have silenced revolutionary propaganda in
the United States. What an awful mistake they
make for our benefit! As a matter of justice to
them we should respond with resolutions of
thanks and gratitude. Thousands of people who
had never before heard of our papers are now
inquiring for and insisting upon seeing them.
They have succeeded only in arousing curiosity
in our literature and propaganda. And woe to him
who reads Socialist literature from curiosity!
He is surely a goner. I have known of a thousand
experiments but never one that failed.
John M. Work! You know John, now on the
editorial staff of the Milwaukee Leader! When I
first knew him he was a lawyer out in Iowa. The
capitalists out there became alarmed because of
the rapid growth of the Socialist movement. So
they said: "We have to find some able fellow to
fight this menace." They concluded that John
Work was the man for the job and they said to
him: "John, you are a bright young lawyer; you
have a brilliant future before you. We want to
engage you to find out all you can about
socialism and then proceed to counteract its
baneful effects and check its further growth."
John at once provided himself with Socialist
literature and began his study of the red
menace, with the result that after he had read
and digested a few volumes he was a full-fledged
Socialist and has been fighting for socialism
ever since.
How stupid and shortsighted the ruling class
really is! Cupidity is stone blind. It has no
vision. The greedy, profit-seeking exploiter
cannot see beyond the end of his nose. He can
see a chance for an "opening"; he is cunning
enough to know what graft is and where it is,
and how it can be secured, but vision he has
none—not the slightest. He knows nothing of the
great throbbing world that spreads out in all
directions. He has no capacity for literature;
no appreciation of art; no soul for beauty. That
is the penalty the parasites pay for the
violation of the laws of life. The Rockefellers
are blind. Every move they make in their game of
greed but hastens their own doom. Every blow
they strike at the Socialist movement reacts
upon themselves. Every time they strike at us
they hit themselves. It never fails. Every time
they strangle a Socialist paper they add a
thousand voices proclaiming the truth of the
principles of socialism and the ideals of the
Socialist movement. They help us in spite of
themselves.
Socialism is a growing idea; an expanding
philosophy. It is spreading over the entire face
of the earth: It is as vain to resist it as it
would be to arrest the sunrise on the morrow. It
is coming, coming, coming all along the line.
Can you not see it? If not, I advise you to
consult an oculist. There is certainly something
the matter with your vision. It is the mightiest
movement in the history of mankind. What a
privilege to serve it! I have regretted a
thousand times that I can do so little for the
movement that has done so much for me. The
little that I am, the little that I am hoping to
be, I owe to the Socialist movement. It has
given me my ideas and ideals; my principles and
convictions, and I would not exchange one of
them for all of Rockefeller's bloodstained
dollars. It has taught me how to serve—a lesson
to me of priceless value. It has taught me the
ecstasy in the handclasp of a comrade. It has
enabled me to hold high communion with you, and
made it possible for me to take my place side by
side with you in the great struggle for the
better day; to multiply myself over and over
again, to thrill with a fresh-born manhood; to
feel life truly worthwhile; to open new avenues
of vision; to spread out glorious vistas; to
know that I am kin to all that throbs; to be
class-conscious, and to realize that, regardless
of nationality, race, creed, color or sex, every
man, every woman who toils, who renders useful
service, every member of the working class
without an exception, is my comrade, my brother
and sister—and that to serve them and their
cause is the highest duty of my life.
And in their service I can feel myself expand; I
can rise to the stature of a man and claim the
right to a place on earth—a place where I can
stand and strive to speed the day of industrial
freedom and social justice.
Yes, my comrades, my heart is attuned to yours.
Aye, all our hearts now throb as one great heart
responsive to the battle cry of the social
revolution. Here, in this alert and inspiring
assemblage our hearts are with the Bolsheviki of
Russia. Those heroic men and women, those
unconquerable comrades have by their
incomparable valor and sacrifice added fresh
luster to the fame of the international
movement. Those Russian comrades of ours have
made greater sacrifices, have suffered more, and
have shed more heroic blood than any like number
of men and women anywhere on earth; they have
laid the foundation of the first real democracy
that ever drew the breath of life in this world.
And the very first act of the triumphant Russian
revolution was to proclaim a state of peace with
all mankind, coupled with a fervent moral
appeal, not to kings, not to emperors, rulers or
diplomats but to the people of all nations. Here
we have the very breath of democracy, the
quintessence of the dawning freedom. The Russian
revolution proclaimed its glorious triumph in
its ringing and inspiring appeal to the peoples
of all the earth. In a humane and fraternal
spirit new Russia, emancipated at last from the
curse of the centuries, called upon all nations
engaged in the frightful war, the Central Powers
as well as the Allies, to send representatives
to a conference to lay down terms of peace that
should be just and lasting. Here was the supreme
opportunity to strike the blow to make the world
safe for democracy. Was there any response to
that noble appeal that in some day to come will
be written in letters of gold in the history of
the world? Was there any response whatever to
that appeal for universal peace? No, not the
slightest attention was paid to it by the
Christian nations engaged in the terrible
slaughter.
It has been charged that Lenin and Trotsky and
the leaders of the revolution were treacherous,
that they made a traitorous peace with Germany.
Let us consider that proposition briefly. At the
time of the revolution Russia had been three
years in the war. Under the Czar she had lost
more than four million of her ill-clad,
poorly-equipped, half-starved soldiers, slain
outright or disabled on the field of battle. She
was absolutely bankrupt. Her soldiers were
mainly without arms. This was what was
bequeathed to the revolution by the Czar and his
regime; and for this condition Lenin and Trotsky
were not responsible, nor the Bolsheviki. For
this appalling state of affairs the Czar and his
rotten bureaucracy were solely responsible. When
the Bolsheviki came into power and went through
the archives they found and exposed the secret
treaties—the treaties that were made between the
Czar and the French government, the British
government and the Italian government,
proposing, after the victory was achieved, to
dismember the German Empire and destroy the
Central Powers. These treaties have never been
denied nor repudiated. Very little has been said
about them in the American press. I have a copy
of these treaties, showing that the purpose of
the Allies is exactly the purpose of the Central
Powers, and that is the conquest and spoilation
of the weaker nations that has always been the
purpose of war.
Wars throughout history have been waged for
conquest and plunder. In the Middle Ages when
the feudal lords who inhabited the castles whose
towers may still be seen along the Rhine
concluded to enlarge their domains, to increase
their power, their prestige and their wealth
they declared war upon one another. But they
themselves did not go to war any more than the
modern feudal lords, the barons of Wall Street
go to war. The feudal barons of the Middle Ages,
the economic predecessors of the capitalists of
our day, declared all wars. And their miserable
serfs fought all the battles. The poor, ignorant
serfs had been taught to revere their masters;
to believe that when their masters declared war
upon one another, it was their patriotic duty to
fall upon one another and to cut one another's
throats for the profit and glory of the lords
and barons who held them in contempt. And that
is war in a nutshell. The master class has
always declared the wars; the subject class has
always fought the battles. The master class has
had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the
subject class has had nothing to gain and all to
lose—especially their lives.
They have always taught and trained you to
believe it to be your patriotic duty to go to
war and to have yourselves slaughtered at their
command. But in all the history of the world
you, the people, have never had a voice in
declaring war, and strange as it certainly
appears, no war by any nation in any age has
ever been declared by the people.
And here let me emphasize the fact—and it cannot
be repeated too often—that the working class who
fight all the battles, the working class who
make the supreme sacrifices, the working class
who freely shed their blood and furnish the
corpses, have never yet had a voice in either
declaring war or making peace. It is the ruling
class that invariably does both. They alone
declare war and they alone make peace.
Yours not to reason why;
Yours but to do and die.
That is their
motto and we object on the part of the awakening
workers of this nation.
If war is right let it be declared by the
people. You who have your lives to lose, you
certainly above all others have the right to
decide the momentous issue of war or peace.
Rose Pastor Stokes! And when I mention her name
I take off my hat. Here we have another heroic
and inspiring comrade. She had her millions of
dollars at command. Did her wealth restrain her
an instant? On the contrary her supreme devotion
to the cause outweighed all considerations of a
financial or social nature. She went out boldly
to plead the cause of the working class and they
rewarded her high courage with a ten years'
sentence to the penitentiary. Think of it! Ten
years! What atrocious crime had she committed?
What frightful things had she said? Let me
answer candidly. She said nothing more than I
have said here this afternoon. I want to admit—I
want to admit without reservation that if Rose
Pastor Stokes is guilty of crime, so am I. If
she is guilty for the brave part she has taken
in this testing time of human souls I would not
be cowardly enough to plead my innocence. And if
she ought to be sent to the penitentiary for ten
years, so ought I without a doubt.
What did Rose Pastor Stokes say? Why, she said
that a government could not at the same time
serve both the profiteers and the victims of the
profiteers. Is it not true? Certainly it is and
no one can successfully dispute it.
Roosevelt said a thousand times more in the very
same paper, the Kansas City Star. Roosevelt said
vauntingly the other day that he would be heard
if he went to jail. He knows very well that he
is taking no risk of going to jail. He is
shrewdly laying his wires for the Republican
nomination in 1920 and he is an adept in making
the appeal of the demagogue. He would do
anything to discredit the Wilson administration
that he may give himself and his party all
credit. That is the only rivalry there is
between the two old capitalist parties—the
Republican Party and the Democratic Party—the
political twins of the master class. They are
not going to have any friction between them this
fall. They are all patriots in this campaign,
and they are going to combine to prevent the
election of any disloyal Socialist. I have never
heard anyone tell of any difference between
these corrupt capitalist parties. Do you know of
any? I certainly do not. The situation is that
one is in and the other trying to break in, and
that is substantially the only difference
between them.
Rose Pastor Stokes never uttered a word she did
not have a legal, constitutional right to utter.
But her message to the people, the message that
stirred their thoughts and opened their
eyes—that must be suppressed; her voice must be
silenced. And so she was promptly subjected to a
mock trial and sentenced to the penitentiary for
ten years. Her conviction was a foregone
conclusion. The trial of a Socialist in a
capitalist court is at best a farcical affair.
What ghost of a chance had she in a court with a
packed jury and a corporation tool on the bench?
Not the least in the world. And so she goes to
the penitentiary for ten years if they carry out
their brutal and disgraceful graceful program.
For my part I do not think they will. In fact I
feel sure they will not. If the war were over
tomorrow the prison doors would open to our
people. They simply mean to silence the voice of
protest during the war.
What a compliment it is to the Socialist
movement to be thus persecuted for the sake of
the truth! The truth alone will make the people
free. And for this reason the truth must not be
permitted to reach the people. The truth has
always been dangerous to the rule of the rogue,
the exploiter, the robber. So the truth must be
ruthlessly suppressed. That is why they are
trying to destroy the Socialist movement; and
every time they strike a blow they add a
thousand new voices to the hosts proclaiming
that socialism is the hope of humanity and has
come to emancipate the people from their final
form of servitude.
How good this sip of cool water from the hand of
a comrade! It is as refreshing as if it were out
on the desert waste. And how good it is to look
into your glowing faces this afternoon! You are
really good looking to me, I assure you. And I
am glad there are so many of you. Your tribe has
increased amazingly since first I came here. You
used to be so few and far between. A few years
ago when you struck a town the first thing you
had to do was to see if you could locate a
Socialist; and you were pretty lucky if you
struck the trail of one before you left town. If
he happened to be the only one and he is still
living, he is now regarded as a pioneer and
pathfinder; he holds a place of honor in your
esteem, and he has lodgment in the hearts of all
who have come after him. It is far different
now. You can hardly throw a stone in the dark
without hitting a Socialist. They are everywhere
in increasing numbers; and what marvelous
changes are taking place in the people!
Some years ago I was to speak at Warren in this
state. It happened to be at the time that
President McKinley was assassinated. In common
with all others I deplored that tragic event.
There is not a Socialist who would have been
guilty of that crime. We do not attack
individuals. We do not seek to avenge ourselves
upon those opposed to our faith. We have no
fight with individuals as such. We are capable
of pitying those who hate us. We do not hate
them; we know better; we would freely give them
a cup of water if they needed it. There is no
room in our hearts for hate, except for the
system, the social system in which it is
possible for one man to amass a stupendous
fortune doing nothing, while millions of others
suffer and struggle and agonize and die for the
bare necessities of existence.
President McKinley, as I have said, had been
assassinated. I was first to speak at
Portsmouth, having been booked there some time
before the assassination. Promptly the Christian
ministers of Portsmouth met in special session
and passed a resolution declaring that "Debs,
more than any other person, was responsible for
the assassination of our beloved President." It
was due to the doctrine that Debs was preaching
that this crime was committed, according to
these patriotic parsons, and so this pious
gentry, the followers of the meek and lowly
Nazarene, concluded that I must not be permitted
to enter the city. And they had the mayor issue
an order to that effect. I went there soon
after, however.
I was to speak at
Warren, where President McKinley's double-cousin
was postmaster. I went there and registered. I
was soon afterward invited to leave the hotel. I
was exceedingly undesirable that day. I was
served with notice that the hall would not be
opened and that I would not be permitted to
speak. I sent back word to the mayor by the only
Socialist left in town—and he only remained
because they did not know he was there—I sent
word to the mayor that I would speak in Warren
that night, according to schedule, or I would
leave there in a box for the return turn trip.
The Grand Army of the Republic called a special
meeting and then marched to the hall in full
uniform and occupied the front seats in order to
silence me if my speech did not suit them. I
went to the hall, however, found it open, and
made my speech. There was no interruption. I
told the audience frankly who was responsible
for the President's assassination. I said: "As
long as there is misery caused by robbery at the
bottom there will be assassination at the top."
I showed them, evidently to their satisfaction,
that it was their own capitalist system that was
responsible; the system that had impoverished
and brutalized the ancestors of the poor witless
boy who had murdered the President. Yes, I made
my speech that night and it was well received
but when I left there I was still an
"undesirable citizen."
Some years later I returned to Warren. It seemed
that the whole population was out for the
occasion. I was received with open arms. I was
no longer a demagogue; no longer a fanatic or an
undesirable citizen. I had become exceedingly
respectable simply because the Socialists had
increased in numbers and socialism had grown in
influence and power. If ever I become entirely
respectable I shall be quite sure that I have
outlived myself.
It is the minorities who have made the history
of this world. It is the few who have had the
courage to take their places at the front; who
have been true enough to themselves to speak the
truth that was in them; who have dared oppose
the established order of things; who have
espoused the cause of the suffering, struggling
poor; who have upheld without regard to personal
consequences the cause of freedom and
righteousness.
It is they, the
heroic, self-sacrificing few who have made the
history of the race and who have paved the way
from barbarism to civilization. The many prefer
to remain upon the popular side. They lack the
courage and vision to join a despised minority
that stands for a principle; they have not the
moral fiber that withstands, endures and finally
conquers. They are to be pitied and not treated
with contempt for they cannot help their
cowardice. But, thank God, in every age and in
every nation there have been the brave and
self-reliant few, and they have been sufficient
to their historic task; and we, who are here
today, are under infinite obligations to them
because they suffered, they sacrificed, they
went to jail, they had their bones broken upon
the wheel, they were burned at the stake and
their ashes scattered to the winds by the hands
of hate and revenge in their struggle to leave
the world better for us than they found it for
themselves. We are under eternal obligations to
them because of what they did and what they
suffered for us and the only way we can
discharge that obligation is by doing the best
we can for those who are to come after us. And
this is the high purpose of every Socialist on
earth.
Everywhere they
are animated by the same lofty principles;
everywhere they have the same noble ideals;
everywhere they are clasping hands across
national boundary lines; everywhere they are
calling one another Comrade, the blessed word
that springs from the heart of unity and bursts
into blossom upon the lips. Each passing day
they are getting into closer touch all along the
battle line, waging the holy war of the working
class of the world against the ruling and
exploiting class of the world. They make many
mistakes and they profit by them all. They
encounter numerous defeats, and grow stronger
through them all. They never take a backward
step.
The heart of the international Socialist never
beats a retreat.
They are pressing forward, here, there and
everywhere, in all the zones that girdle the
globe. Everywhere these awakening workers, these
class-conscious proletarians, these hardy sons
and daughters of honest toil are proclaiming the
glad tidings of the coming emancipation,
everywhere their hearts are attuned to the most
sacred cause that ever challenged men and women
to action in all the history of the world.
Everywhere they are moving toward democracy and
the dawn; marching toward the sunrise, their
faces all aglow with the light of the coming
day. These are the Socialists, the most zealous
and enthusiastic crusaders the world has ever
known. They are making history that will light
up the horizon of coming generations, for their
mission is the emancipation of the human race.
They have been reviled; they have been
ridiculed, persecuted, imprisoned and have
suffered death, but they have been sufficient to
themselves and their cause, and their final
triumph is but a question of time.
Do you wish to hasten the day of victory? Join
the Socialist Party! Don't wait for the morrow.
Join now! Enroll your name without fear and take
your place where you belong. You cannot do your
duty by proxy. You have got to do it yourself
and do it squarely and then as you look yourself
in the face you will have no occasion to blush.
You will know what it is to be a real man or
woman. You will lose nothing; you will gain
everything. Not only will you lose nothing but
you will find something of infinite value, and
that something will be yourself. And that is
your supreme need—to find yourself—to really
know yourself and your purpose in life.
You need at this time especially to know that
you are fit for something better than slavery
and cannon fodder. You need to know that you
were not created to work and produce and
impoverish yourself to enrich an idle exploiter.
You need to know that you have a mind to
improve, a soul to develop, and a manhood to
sustain.
You need to know that it is your duty to rise
above the animal plane of existence. You need to
know that it is for you to know something about
literature and science and art. You need to know
that you are verging on the edge of a great new
world. You need to get in touch with your
comrades and fellow workers and to become
conscious of your interests, your powers and
your possibilities as a class. You need to know
that you belong to the great majority of
mankind. You need to know that as long as you
are ignorant, as long as you are indifferent, as
long as you are apathetic, unorganized and
content, you will remain exactly where you are.
You will be exploited; you will be degraded, and
you will have to beg for a job. You will get
just enough for your slavish toil to keep you in
working order, and you will be looked down upon
with scorn and contempt by the very parasites
that live and luxuriate out of your sweat and
unpaid labor.
If you would be respected you have got to begin
by respecting yourself. Stand up squarely and
look yourself in the face and see a man! Do not
allow yourself to fall into the predicament of
the poor fellow who, after he had heard a
Socialist speech concluded that he too ought to
be a Socialist. The argument he had heard was
unanswerable. "Yes," he said to himself, "all
the speaker said was true and I certainly ought
to join the party." But after a while he allowed
his ardor to cool and he soberly concluded that
by joining the party he might anger his boss and
lose his job. He then concluded: "I can't take
the chance." That night he slept alone. There
was something on his conscience and it resulted
in a dreadful dream. Men always have such dreams
when they betray themselves. A Socialist is free
to go to bed with a clear conscience. He goes to
sleep with his manhood and he awakens and walks
forth in the morning with his self-respect. He
is unafraid and he can look the whole world in
the face, without a tremor and without a blush.
But this poor weakling who lacked the courage to
do the bidding of his reason and conscience was
haunted by a startling dream and at midnight he
awoke in terror, bounded from his bed and
exclaimed: "My God, there is nobody in this
room." He was absolutely right. There was nobody
in that room.
How would you like to sleep in a room that had
nobody in it? It is an awful thing to be nobody.
That is certainly a state of mind to get out of,
the sooner the better.
There is a great deal of hope for Baker,
Ruthenberg and Wagenknecht who are in jail for
their convictions; but for the fellow that is
nobody there is no pardoning power. He is "in"
for life. Anybody can be nobody; but it takes a
man to be somebody.
To turn your back on the corrupt Republican
Party and the still more corrupt Democratic
Party—the gold-dust lackeys of the ruling class
counts for still more after you have stepped out
of those popular and corrupt capitalist parties
to join a minority party that has an ideal, that
stands for a principle, and fights for a cause.
This will be the most important change you have
ever made and the time will come when you will
thank me for having made the suggestion. It was
the day of days for me. I remember it well. It
was like passing from midnight darkness to the
noontide light of day. It came almost like a
flash and found me ready. It must have been in
such a flash that great, seething, throbbing
Russia, prepared by centuries of slavery and
tears and martyrdom, was transformed from a dark
continent to a land of living light.
There is something splendid, something
sustaining and inspiring in the prompting of the
heart to be true to yourself and to the best you
know, especially in a crucial hour of your life.
You are in the crucible today, my Socialist
comrades! You are going to be tried by fire, to
what extent no one knows. If you are
weak-fibered and fainthearted you will be lost
to the Socialist movement. We will have to bid
you goodbye. You are not the stuff of which
revolutions are made. We are sorry for you
unless you chance to be an "intellectual." The
"intellectuals," many of them, are already gone.
No loss on our side nor gain on the other.
I am always amused in the discussion of the
"intellectual" phase of this question. It is the
same old standard under which the rank and file
are judged. What would become of the sheep if
they had no shepherd to lead them out of the
wilderness into the land of milk and honey?
Oh, yes, "I am your shepherd and ye are my
mutton."
They would have us believe that if we had no
"intellectuals" we would have no movement. They
would have our party, the rank and file,
controlled by the "intellectual" bosses as the
Republican and Democratic parties are
controlled. These capitalist parties are managed
by "intellectual" leaders and the rank and file
are sheep that follow the bellwether to the
shambles.
In the Republican and Democratic parties you of
the common herd are not expected to think. That
is not only unnecessary but might lead you
astray. That is what the "intellectual" leaders
are for. They do the thinking and you do the
voting. They ride in carriages at the front
where the band plays and you tramp in the mud,
bringing up the rear with great enthusiasm.
The capitalist system affects to have great
regard and reward for intellect, and the
capitalists give themselves full credit for
having superior brains. When we have ventured to
say that the time would come when the working
class would rule they have bluntly answered
"Never! it requires brains to rule." The workers
of course have none. And they certainly try hard
to prove it by proudly supporting the political
parties of their masters under whose
administration they are kept in poverty and
servitude.
The government is now operating its railroads
for the more effective prosecution of the war.
Private ownership has broken down utterly and
the government has had to come to the rescue. We
have always said that the people ought to own
the railroads and operate them for the benefit
of the people. We advocated that twenty years
ago. But the capitalists and their henchmen
emphatically objected. "You have got to have
brains to run the railroads," they tauntingly
retorted. Well, the other day McAdoo, the
governor-general of the railroads under
government operation; discharged all the
high-salaried presidents and other
supernumeraries. In other words, he fired the
"brains" bodily and yet all the trains have been
coming and going on schedule time. Have you
noticed any change for the worse since the
"brains" are gone? It is a brainless system now,
being operated by "hands." But a good deal more
efficiently than it had been operated by
so-called "brains" before. And this determines
infallibly the quality of their vaunted,
high-priced capitalist "brains." It is the kind
you can get at a reasonable figure at the market
place. They have always given themselves credit
for having superior brains and given this as the
reason for the supremacy of their class. It is
true that they have the brains that indicates
the cunning of the fox, the wolf, but as for
brains denoting real intelligence and the
measure of intellectual capacity they are the
most woefully ignorant people on earth. Give me
a hundred capitalists just as you find them here
in Ohio and let me ask them a dozen simple
questions about the history of their own country
and I will prove to you that they are as
ignorant and unlettered as any you may find in
the so-called lower class. They know little of
history; they are strangers to science; they are
ignorant of sociology and blind to art but they
know how to exploit, how to gouge, how to rob,
and do it with legal sanction. They always
proceed legally for the reason that the class
which has the power to rob upon a large scale
has also the power to control the government and
legalize their robbery. I regret that lack of
time prevents me from discussing this phase of
the question more at length.
They are continually talking about your
patriotic duty. It is not their but your
patriotic duty that they are concerned about.
There is a decided difference. Their patriotic
duty never takes them to the firing line or
chucks them into the trenches.
And now among other things they are urging you
to "cultivate" war gardens, while at the same
time a government war report just issued shows
that practically 52 percent of the arable,
tillable soil is held out of use by the
landlords, speculators and profiteers. They
themselves do not cultivate the soil. They could
not if they would. Nor do they allow others to
cultivate it. They keep it idle to enrich
themselves, to pocket the millions of dollars of
unearned increment. Who is it that makes this
land valuable while it is fenced in and kept out
of use? It is the people. Who pockets this
tremendous accumulation of value? The landlords.
And these landlords who toil not and spin not
are supreme among American "patriots."
In passing I suggest that we stop a moment to
think about the term "landlord." "LANDLORD!"
Lord of the Land! The lord of the land is indeed
a superpatriot. This lord who practically owns
the earth tells you that we are fighting this
war to make the world safe for democracy—he who
shuts out all humanity from his private domain;
he who profiteers at the expense of the people
who have been slain and mutilated by multiplied
thousands, under pretense of being the great
American patriot. It is he, this identical
patriot who is in fact the archenemy of the
people; it is he that you need to wipe from
power. It is he who is a far greater menace to
your liberty and your well-being than the
Prussian Junkers on the other side of the
Atlantic ocean.
Fifty-two percent of the land kept out of use,
according to their own figures! They tell you
that there is an alarming shortage of flour and
that you need to produce more. They tell you
further that you have got to save wheat so that
more can be exported for the soldiers who are
fighting on the other side, while half of your
tillable soil is held out of use by the
landlords and profiteers. What do you think of
that?
Again, they tell you there is a coal famine now
in the state of Ohio. The state of Indiana,
where I live, is largely underlaid with coal.
There is practically an inexhaustible supply.
The coal is banked beneath our very feet. It is
within touch all about us—all we can possibly
use and more. And here are the miners, ready to
enter the mines. Here is the machinery ready to
be put into operation to increase the output to
any desired capacity. And three weeks ago a
national officer of the United Mine Workers
issued and published a statement to the Labor
Department of the United States government to
the effect that the 600,000 coal miners in the
United States at this time, when they talk about
a coal famine, are not permitted to work more
than half time. I have been around over Indiana
for many years. I have often been in the coal
fields; again and again I have seen the miners
idle while at the same time there was a scarcity
of coal.
They tell you that you ought to buy your coal
right away; that you may freeze next winter if
you do not. At the same time they charge you
three prices for your coat Oh, yes, this ought
to suit you perfectly if you vote the Republican
or Democratic ticket and believe in the private
ownership of the coal mines and their operation
for private profit.
The coal mines now being privately owned, the
operators want a scarcity of coal so they can
boost their prices and enrich themselves
accordingly. If an abundance of coal were mined
there would be lower prices and this would not
suit the mine owners. Prices soar and profits
increase when there is a scarcity of coal.
It is also apparent that there is collusion
between the mine owners and the railroads. The
mine owners declare there are no cars while the
railroad men insist that there is no coal. And
between them they delude, defraud and rob the
people.
Let us illustrate a vital point. Here is the
coal in great deposits all about us; here are
the miners and the machinery of production. Why
should there be a coal famine upon the one hand
and an army of idle and hungry miners on the
other hand? Is it not an incredibly stupid
situation, an almost idiotic if not criminal
state of affairs?
We Socialists say: "Take possession of the mines
in the name of the people." Set the miners at
work and give every miner the equivalent of all
the coal he produces. Reduce the work day in
proportion to the development of productive
machinery. That would at once settle the matter
of a coal famine and of idle miners. But that is
too simple a proposition and the people will
have none of it. The time will come, however,
when the people will be driven to take such
action for there is no other efficient and
permanent solution of the problem.
In the present system the miner, a wage slave,
gets down into a pit 300 or 400 feet deep. He
works hard and produces a ton of coal. But he
does not own an ounce of it. That coal belongs
to some mine-owning plutocrat who may be in New
York or sailing the high seas in his private
yacht; or he may be hobnobbing with royalty in
the capitals of Europe, and that is where most
of them were before the war was declared. The
industrial captain, so- called, who lives in
Paris, London, Vienna or some other center of
gaiety does not have to work to revel in luxury.
He owns the mines and he might as well own the
miners.
That is where you workers are and where you will
remain as long as you give your support to the
political parties of your masters and
exploiters. You vote these miners out of a job
and reduce them to corporation vassals and
paupers.
We Socialists say: "Take possession of the
mines; call the miner to work and return to him
the equivalent of the value of his product." He
can then build himself a comfortable home; live
in it; enjoy it with his family. He can provide
himself and his wife and children with
clothes—good clothes—not shoddy; wholesome food
in abundance, education for the children, and
the chance to live the lives of civilized human
beings, while at the same time the people will
get coal at just what it costs to mine it.
Of course that would be socialism as far as it
goes. But you are not in favor of that program.
It is too visionary because it is so simple and
practical. So you will have to continue to wait
until winter is upon you before you get your
coal and then pay three prices for it because
you insist upon voting a capitalist ticket and
giving your support to the present wage-slave
system. The trouble with you is that you are
still in a capitalist state of mind.
Lincoln said: "If you want that thing that is
the thing you want"; and you will get it to your
heart's content. But some good day you will wake
up and realize that a change is needed and
wonder why you did not know it long before. Yes,
a change is certainly needed, not merely a
change of party but a change of system; a change
from slavery to freedom and from despotism to
democracy, wide as the world. When this change
comes at last, we shall rise from brutehood to
brotherhood, and to accomplish it we have to
educate and organize the workers industrially
and politically, but not along the zigzag craft
lines laid down by Gompers, who through all of
his career has favored the master class. You
never hear the capitalist press speak of him
nowadays except in praise and adulation. He has
recently come into great prominence as a
patriot. You never find him on the unpopular
side of a great issue. He is always
conservative, satisfied to leave the labor
problem to be settled finally at the banqueting
board with Elihu Root, Andrew Carnegie and the
rest of the plutocratic civic federationists.
When they drink wine and smoke scab cigars
together the labor question is settled so far as
they are concerned.
And while they are praising Gompers they are
denouncing the I.W.W. There are few men who have
the courage to say a word in favor of the I.W.W.
I have. Let me say here that I have great
respect for the I.W.W. Far greater than I have
for their infamous detractors.
Listen! There has just been published a pamphlet
called "The Truth About the I.W.W." It has been
issued after long and thorough investigation by
five men of unquestioned standing in the
capitalist world. At the head of these
investigators was Professor John Graham Brooks
of Harvard University, and next to him John A.
Fish of the Survey of the Religious
Organizations of Pittsburgh, and Mr. Bruere, the
government investigator. Five of these prominent
men conducted an impartial examination of the
I.W.W. To quote their own words they "followed
its trail." They examined into its doings
beginning at Bisbee where the "patriots," the
cowardly business men, the arch-criminals, made
up the mob that deported 1,200 workingmen under
the most brutal conditions, charging them with
being members of the I.W.W. when they knew it to
be false.
It is only necessary to label a man "I.W.W." to
have him lynched as they did Praeger, an
absolutely innocent man. He was a Socialist and
bore a German name, and that was his crime. A
rumor was started that he was disloyal and he
was promptly seized and lynched by the cowardly
mob of so-called "patriots."
War makes possible all such crimes and outrages.
And war comes in spite of the people. When Wall
Street says war the press says war and the
pulpit promptly follows with its Amen. In every
age the pulpit has been on the side of the
rulers and not on the side of the people. That
is one reason why the preachers so fiercely
denounce the I.W.W.
Take the time to read this pamphlet about the
I.W.W. Don't take the word of Wall Street and
its press as final. Read this report by five
impartial and highly reputable men who made
their investigation to know the truth, and that
they might tell the truth to the American
people. They declare that the I.W.W. in all its
career never committed as much violence against
the ruling class as the ruling class has
committed against the I.W.W.
You are not now reading any reports in the daily
press about the trial at Chicago, are you? They
used to publish extensive reports when the trial
first began, and to prate about what they
proposed to prove against the I.W.W. as a
gigantic conspiracy against the government. The
trial has continued until they have exhausted
all their testimony and they have not yet proven
violence in a single instance. No, not one! They
are utterly without incriminating testimony and
yet 112 men are in the dock after lying in jail
for months without the shadow of a crime upon
them save that of belonging to the I.W.W. That
is enough it would seem to convict any man of
any crime and send his body to prison and his
soul to hell. Just whisper the name of the I.W.W.
and you are branded as a disloyalist. And the
reason for this is wholly to the credit of the
I.W.W., for whatever may be charged against it
the I.W.W. has always fought for the bottom dog.
And that is why Haywood is despised and
prosecuted while Gompers is lauded and glorified
by the same gang.
Now what you workers need is to organize, not
along craft lines but along revolutionary
industrial lines. All of you workers in a given
industry, regardless of your trade or
occupation, should belong to one and the same
union.
Political action and industrial action must
supplement and sustain each other. You will
never vote the Socialist republic into
existence. You will have to lay its foundations
in industrial organization. The industrial union
is the forerunner of industrial democracy. In
the shop where the workers are associated is
where industrial democracy has its beginning.
Organize according to your industries! Get
together in every department of industrial
service! United and acting together for the
common good your power is invincible.
When you have organized industrially you will
soon learn that you can manage as well as
operate industry. You will soon realize that you
do not need the idle masters and exploiters.
They are simply parasites. They do not employ
you as you imagine but you employ them to take
from you what you produce, and that is how they
function in industry. You can certainly dispense
with them in that capacity. You do not need them
to depend upon for your jobs. You can never be
free while you work and live by their
sufferance. You must own your own tools and then
you will control your own jobs, enjoy the
products of your own labor and be free men
instead of industrial slaves.
Organize industrially and make your organization
complete. Then unite in the Socialist Party.
Vote as you strike and strike as you vote.
Your union and your party embrace the working
class. The Socialist Party expresses the
interests, hopes and aspirations of the toilers
of all the world.
Get your fellow workers into the industrial
union and the political party to which they
rightly belong, especially this year, this
historic year in which the forces of labor will
assert themselves as they never have before.
This is the year that calls for men and women
who have courage, the manhood and womanhood to
do their duty.
Get into the Socialist Party and take your place
in its ranks; help to inspire the weak and
strengthen the faltering, and do your share to
speed the coming of the brighter and better day
for us all.
When we unite and act together on the industrial
field and when we vote together on election day
we shall develop the supreme power of the one
class that can and will bring permanent peace to
the world. We shall then have the intelligence,
the courage and the power for our great task. In
due time industry will be organized on a
cooperative basis. We shall conquer the public
power. We shall then transfer the title deeds of
the railroads, the telegraph lines, the mines,
mills and great industries to the people in
their collective capacity; we shall take
possession of all these social utilities in the
name of the people. We shall then have
industrial democracy. We shall be a free nation
whose government is of and by and for the
people.
And now for all of us to do our duty! The
clarion call is ringing in our ears and we
cannot falter without being convicted of treason
to ourselves and to our great cause.
Do not worry over the charge of treason to your
masters, but be concerned about the treason that
involves yourselves. Be true to yourself and you
cannot be a traitor to any good cause on earth.
Yes, in good time we are going to sweep into
power in this nation and throughout the world.
We are going to destroy all enslaving and
degrading capitalist institutions and re-create
them as free and humanizing institutions. The
world is daily changing before our eyes. The sun
of capitalism is setting; the sun of socialism
is rising. It is our duty to build the new
nation and the free republic.
We need industrial
and social builders. We Socialists are the
builders of the beautiful world that is to be.
We are all pledged to do our part. We are
inviting—aye, challenging you this afternoon in
the name of your own manhood and womanhood—to
join us and do your part.
In due time the hour will strike and this great
cause triumphant—the greatest in history—will
proclaim the emancipation of the working class
and the brotherhood of all mankind.
More History
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