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016 - The Fight for Freedom · Labor and Freedom

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Speaker 1: The Fight for Freedom by Eugene V. Debs. This LibriVox
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Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Campaign speech, paps Park, Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
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Speaker 1: July twenty first, nineteen twelve. Friends, fellow socialists, and fellow workers.
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Speaker 1: The existing order of things is breaking down. The great
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Speaker 1: forces underlying society are steadily at work. The old order
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Speaker 1: has had its day, and all the signs point to
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Speaker 1: an impending change. Society is at once being destroyed and recreated.
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Speaker 1: The struggle in which we are engaged today is a
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Speaker 1: struggle of economic classes. The supremacy is now held by
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Speaker 1: the capitalist class, who are combined and trusts and control
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Speaker 1: the powers of government. The middle class is struggling desperately
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Speaker 1: to hold its ground against the inroads of its trustified
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Speaker 1: and triumphant competitors. This war between the great capitalists, who
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Speaker 1: are organized in trusts and fortified by the powers of government,
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Speaker 1: and the smaller capitalists who constitute the middle class, is
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Speaker 1: one of extermination. The fittest, that is to say, the
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Speaker 1: most powerful, will survive. This war gives rise to a
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Speaker 1: variety of issues of which the tariff is the principal one,
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Speaker 1: and these issues are defined in the platforms of the
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Speaker 1: Republican and Democratic parties. With this war between capitalists for
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Speaker 1: supremacy in their own class and the issues arising from it,
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Speaker 1: the working class have nothing to do, and if they
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Speaker 1: are foolish enough to allow themselves to be drawn into
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Speaker 1: these battles of their masters, as they have so often
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Speaker 1: done in the past, they must continue to suffer the
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Speaker 1: consequences of their folly. Parties express economic interests. Let us
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Speaker 1: clearly recognize the forces that are undermining both of the
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Speaker 1: old capitalist parties, creating a new issue and driving the
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Speaker 1: working class into a party of their own to do
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Speaker 1: battle with their oppressors and the struggle for existence. Parties
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Speaker 1: but express in political terms the economic interests of those
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Speaker 1: who compose them. This is the rule. The Republican Party
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Speaker 1: represents the capitalist class, the Democratic Party the middle class,
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Speaker 1: and the Socialist Party the working class. There is no
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Speaker 1: fundamental difference between the Republican and Democratic parties. Their principles
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Speaker 1: are identical. They are both capitalist parties and both stand
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Speaker 1: for the capitalist system, and such differences as there are
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Speaker 1: between them involve no principle, but are the outgrowth of
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Speaker 1: the conflicting interest of large and small capitalists. The Republican
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Speaker 1: and Democratic parties are alike threatened with destruction. Their day
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Speaker 1: of usefulness is passed, and they among them who see
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Speaker 1: the handwriting on the wall and call themselves progressives and insurgents,
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Speaker 1: are struggling in vain to adjust these old parties to
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Speaker 1: the new conditions. Two economic classes. Broadly speaking, there are
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Speaker 1: but two economic classes, and the ultimate struggle will narrow
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Speaker 1: down to two political parties. To the extent that the
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Speaker 1: workers unite in their own party, the Socialist Party, the
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Speaker 1: capitalists large and small are driven into one and the
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Speaker 1: same party. This has happened already in a number of
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Speaker 1: local instances, notably in the city of Milwaukee. Here there
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Speaker 1: is no longer a Republican nor Democratic party. These merged
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Speaker 1: in the same party, and it is a capitalist party,
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Speaker 1: by whatever name it may be known. Temporarily, this united
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Speaker 1: capitalist party, composed of the two old ones, may stem
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Speaker 1: the tide of socialist advance, But nothing more clearly reveals
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Speaker 1: the capitalist class character of the Republican and democratic parties,
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Speaker 1: to their own undoing and the undoing of the capitalist
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Speaker 1: system they represent. The great capitalists are all conservatives, stand patters.
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Speaker 1: They have a stranglehold upon the situation with no intention
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Speaker 1: of relaxing their grip. Taft and Roosevelt are their candidates.
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Speaker 1: It may be objected that Roosevelt is a progressive. This
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Speaker 1: is sheer Buncombe. Roosevelt was president almost eight years, and
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Speaker 1: his record is known. When he was in office and
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Speaker 1: had the power, he he did none of the things,
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Speaker 1: nor attempted to do any of the things he is
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Speaker 1: now talking about so wildly. On the contrary, a more
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Speaker 1: servile functionary to the Trust than Theodore Roosevelt never sat
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Speaker 1: in the presidential chair. LaFollette versus Roosevelt. Senator la Folette
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Speaker 1: now makes substantially this same charge against Roosevelt, But by
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Speaker 1: some strange oversight, the senator did not discover that Roosevelt's
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Speaker 1: presidential record was a Trust record until after Roosevelt threw
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Speaker 1: him down in the Progressive scramble for the Republican nomination.
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Speaker 1: When Senator la Follette supposed he had Roosevelt's backing, he
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Speaker 1: pronounced him the greatest man in the world. And it
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Speaker 1: was only after he fell victim to Roosevelt's duplicity that
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Speaker 1: he made the discovery that Roosevelt had always been the
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Speaker 1: tool of the trusts and the enemy of the people.
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Speaker 1: Test of parties. There is one infallible test that fixes
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Speaker 1: the status of a political party and its candidates, who
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Speaker 1: finances them. With this test applied to Theodore Roosevelt, we
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Speaker 1: have no trouble in locating him. He is, above all
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Speaker 1: a practical man. He was practical in allowing the Steel
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Speaker 1: Trust to raid the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company. He
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Speaker 1: was practical when he legalized the notorious Alton Steel. He
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Speaker 1: was practical when he had Harriman raise two hundred and
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Speaker 1: forty thousand dollars for his campaign fund. And he is
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Speaker 1: practical now in having the Steel Trust and the Harvester Trust,
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Speaker 1: who made an ante room of the White House when
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Speaker 1: he was president, pour out their slush funds by millions
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Speaker 1: to put him back in the White House and keep
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Speaker 1: him there financed by the trusts. Tafton, Roosevelt and the
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Speaker 1: Republican Party of which they are the candidates are all
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Speaker 1: financed by the trusts. And is it necessary to add
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Speaker 1: that the trusts also consists of practical men, and that
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Speaker 1: they do not finance a candidate or a party they
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Speaker 1: do not control. Is the man not foolish to the
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Speaker 1: verge of being feeble minded who imagines that great trust
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Speaker 1: magnets such as Perkins, McCormick, and Munzie are flooding the
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Speaker 1: country with Roosevelt money because he is the champion of
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Speaker 1: progressive principles and the friend of the common people. The
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Speaker 1: truth is that if the bull moose candidate dared to
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Speaker 1: permit an itemized publication of his campaign contributions in his
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Speaker 1: present mad and disgraceful pursuit of the presidency, as he
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Speaker 1: has been so often challenged to do by Senator LaFollette,
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Speaker 1: it would paralyze and scandalize the nation. Roosevelt must stand
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Speaker 1: upon the record he made when he was president and
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Speaker 1: had the power, and not upon his empty promises as
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Speaker 1: a ranting demagogue and a vote seeking politician. For the
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Speaker 1: very reason that the trusts are pouring out their millions
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Speaker 1: to literally buy his nomination and election and force him
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Speaker 1: into the White House for a third term and if possible,
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Speaker 1: for life, the people should rise in their might and
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Speaker 1: repudiate him as they never have repudiated a recreant official
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Speaker 1: who betrayed his trust so much for the Republican Party
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Speaker 1: led by Lincoln half a century ago, as the party
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Speaker 1: of the people in the struggle for the overthrow of
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Speaker 1: chattel slavery and now being scuttled by Taft and Roosevelt
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Speaker 1: in base servility to the plutocracy. The Democratic Party. The
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Speaker 1: Democratic Party, like its Republican ally, is a capitalist party,
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Speaker 1: the only difference being that it represents the minor divisions
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Speaker 1: of the capitalist class. It is true that there are
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Speaker 1: some plutocrats and trust magnets in the Democratic Party, but
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Speaker 1: as a rule it is composed of the smaller capitalists
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Speaker 1: who have been worsted by the larger ones and are
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Speaker 1: now demanding that the trust be destroyed and in effect,
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Speaker 1: that the laws of industrial evolution be suspended. The Democratic Party,
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Speaker 1: like the Republican Party, is financed by the capitalist class. Belmont, Ryan,
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Speaker 1: Roger Sullivan, Taggart, and Hinky Dink are liberal contributors to
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Speaker 1: its fund. The Tammany Organization in New York, notorious for
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Speaker 1: its corruption and for its subserviency to the powers that
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Speaker 1: rule in capitalist society, is one of the control rolling
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Speaker 1: factors in the Democratic Party. Woodrow Wilson is the candidate
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Speaker 1: of the Democratic Party for president. He was seized upon
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Speaker 1: as a progressive, as a man who would appeal to
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Speaker 1: the common people, but he never could have been nominated
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Speaker 1: without the votes controlled by Tammany and the predatory interests
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Speaker 1: so fiercely denounced in the Convention by William Jennings Bryan.
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Speaker 1: It is true that Woodrow Wilson was not the first
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Speaker 1: choice of Belmont, Ryan Murphy, and the Tammany corruptionists, but
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Speaker 1: he was nevertheless satisfactory to them, or they would not
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Speaker 1: have agreed to his nomination. And since the convention it
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Speaker 1: is quite apparent that Wilson has a working agreement and
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Speaker 1: a perfect understanding with the predatory interests which Brian sought
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Speaker 1: to scorge from the convention. Brian and Wilson, in his
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Speaker 1: speech before the delegates denouncing Ryan, Belmont, and Murphy, solemnly
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Speaker 1: declared that no candidate receiving their votes and the votes
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Speaker 1: of Murphy's ninety wax figures, could have his support. Woodrow
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Speaker 1: Wilson received these votes, and without these and other votes
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Speaker 1: controlled by the interests, he could not have been nominated.
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Speaker 1: And if Brian now supports him, he simply stultifies himself
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Speaker 1: before the American people. Mister Wilson is no more the
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Speaker 1: candidate of the working class than is mister Taft or
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Speaker 1: mister Roosevelt. Neither one of them, has ever been identified
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Speaker 1: with the working class, has ever associated with the working class,
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Speaker 1: except when their votes were wanted, or would dare to
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Speaker 1: avow himself the candidate of the working class. When the
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Speaker 1: recent strikes occurred at perth Amboy and other industrial centers
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Speaker 1: in New Jersey, Governor Woodrow Wilson ordered the militia out
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Speaker 1: to shoot down the strikers, just as Governor Theodore Roosevelt
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Speaker 1: ordered out the soldiers to murder the strikers at Croton Dam,
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Speaker 1: New York, for demanding the enforcement of the state laws
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Speaker 1: against the contractors. They reek with corruption. Both the Republican
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Speaker 1: and Democratic parties reek with corruption in their servility to
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Speaker 1: the capitalist class, and both are torn with strife in
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Speaker 1: their mad scramble for the spoils of office. The Democratic
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Speaker 1: Party has had little excuse for existence since the Civil War,
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Speaker 1: and its utter impotency to deal with present conditions was
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Speaker 1: made glaringly manifest during its brief lease of power under
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Speaker 1: the Cleveland administration. Should this party succeed to national power
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Speaker 1: once more, seething as it is with conflicting elements which
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Speaker 1: are held together by the prospect of official spoils, its
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Speaker 1: career as a national party would be brought to an
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Speaker 1: early close by self destruction. The Republican Convention at Chicago
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Speaker 1: and the Democratic Convention at Baltimore were composed of professional politicians,
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Speaker 1: office holders, office seekers, capitalists, retainers, and swarms of parasites
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Speaker 1: and mercenaries of all descriptions. There were no working men
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Speaker 1: in either convention. They were not fit to be there.
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Speaker 1: All they are fit for is to march in the mud,
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Speaker 1: yell themselves horse, and ratify the choice of their masters
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Speaker 1: on election day. The working class were not represented in
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Speaker 1: the Republican Convention at Chicago or the Democratic Convention at Baltimore.
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Speaker 1: Those were the political conventions of the capitalist class, and
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Speaker 1: the few flattering platform phrases in reference to labor were
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Speaker 1: incorporated for the sole purpose of catching the votes of
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Speaker 1: the working class. Let the American workers remember that they
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Speaker 1: are not fit to sit as delegates in a Republican
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Speaker 1: or Democratic national convention, that they are not fit to
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Speaker 1: write a Republican or Democratic national platform. That all they
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Speaker 1: are fit for is to elect the candidate of their
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Speaker 1: masters to office, so that when they go out on
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Speaker 1: strike against starvation, they may be shot dead in their
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Speaker 1: tracks as the reward of their servility. To their masters
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Speaker 1: and their treason to themselves. Vital issue ignored, The vital
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Speaker 1: issue before the country in the world, is not touched
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Speaker 1: nor even mentioned in the Republican or Democratic platforms. Wage
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Speaker 1: slavery under capitalism, the legalized robbery of the workers of
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Speaker 1: what is produced by their labor, is the fundamental crime
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Speaker 1: against modern humanity. But there is no room for the
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Speaker 1: mention of this vital fact, this living issue, in the
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Speaker 1: platforms of the Republican and Democratic parties. They continue to
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Speaker 1: babble about the tariff and other inconsequential matters to obscure
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Speaker 1: the real issue and wheedle the workers into voting them
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Speaker 1: into power once more. These parties have been in power
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Speaker 1: all these years. Why have they not settled the tariff
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Speaker 1: and the currency and such other matters as make up
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Speaker 1: their platform pledges. Let them act now. While the Republican
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Speaker 1: Convention was in session at Chicago, and while the Democratic
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Speaker 1: Convention was in session at Baltimore. The Republican and Democratic
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Speaker 1: Congress was also in session at Washington. These parties already
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Speaker 1: have the power to make good their promises. Then why
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Speaker 1: do they not exercise that power to redeem their pledges
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Speaker 1: and afford relief to the people. In other words, why
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Speaker 1: do not the Republican and Democratic parties perform at Washington
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Speaker 1: instead of promising at Chicago and Baltimore. How many more
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Speaker 1: years of power do they require to demonstrate that they
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Speaker 1: are the parties of the capitalist class, and that they
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Speaker 1: never intend to legislate in the interests of the working
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Speaker 1: class or provide relief for the suffering people. The Republican
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Speaker 1: and Democratic platforms are filled with empty platitudes and meaningless phrases,
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Speaker 1: but they are discreetly silent about the millions of unemployed,
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Speaker 1: about the starvation wages of factory slaves, about the women
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Speaker 1: and children who are crushed, debased, and slowly tortured to
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Speaker 1: death by the moloch of capitalism, about the white slave traffic,
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Speaker 1: about the bitter poverty of the masses and their hopeless future,
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Speaker 1: and about every other vital question which is worthy of
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Speaker 1: an an instant's consideration by any intelligent human being. The
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Speaker 1: Socialist Party. In contrast with these impotent, corrupt, and senile
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Speaker 1: capitalist parties, without principles and without ideals, stands the virile,
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Speaker 1: young working class Party, the International Socialist Party of the World.
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Speaker 1: The Convention which nominated its candidates and wrote its platform
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Speaker 1: at Indianapolis was a working class convention. The Socialist Party
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Speaker 1: is the only party which honestly represents the working class
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Speaker 1: in this campaign, and the only party that has a
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Speaker 1: moral right to appeal to the allegiance and support of
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Speaker 1: the workers and producers of the nation. I am not
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Speaker 1: asking you to give your votes to this party, but
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Speaker 1: only that you read its platform, study its program, and
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Speaker 1: satisfy yourselves as to what its principles are, what it
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Speaker 1: stands for, and what it expects to accomplish. The Socialist Party,
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Speaker 1: being the political expression of the rising working class, stands
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Speaker 1: for the absolute overthrow of the existing capitalist system and
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Speaker 1: for the reorganization of society into an industrial and social democracy.
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Speaker 1: Death to wage slavery. This will mean an end to
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Speaker 1: the private ownership of the means of life. It will
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Speaker 1: mean an end to wage slavery. It will mean an
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Speaker 1: end to the army of the unemployed. It will mean
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Speaker 1: an end to the poverty of the masses, the prostitution
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Speaker 1: of womanhood and the murder of childhood. It will mean
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Speaker 1: the beginning of a new era of civilization, the dawn
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Speaker 1: of a happier day for the children of men. It
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Speaker 1: will mean that this earth is for those who inhabit it,
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Speaker 1: and wealth for those who produce it. It will mean
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Speaker 1: mean society organized upon a cooperative basis, collectively owning the
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Speaker 1: sources of wealth and the means of production, and producing
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Speaker 1: wealth to satisfy human wants and not to gorge a
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Speaker 1: privileged few. It will mean that there shall be work
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Speaker 1: for all the workers, and that all shall be workers.
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Speaker 1: And it will also mean that there shall be leisure
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Speaker 1: for the workers, and that all shall enjoy it. It
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Speaker 1: will mean that women shall be the comrades and equals
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Speaker 1: of men, sharing with them on equal terms the opportunities
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Speaker 1: as well as the responsibilities, the benefits as well as
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Speaker 1: the burdens of civilized life. The Socialist Party, the first
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Speaker 1: and only international party, is rising grandly to power all
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Speaker 1: around the world, in every land beneath the sun. It
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Speaker 1: is the party of the dispossessed, the impoverished, and the
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Speaker 1: heavy laden. It is the twentieth century party of human emancipation.
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Speaker 1: It stands for a worldwide democracy, for the freedom of
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Speaker 1: every man, woman and child, and for the civilization of
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Speaker 1: all mankind. The Socialist Party buys no votes. It scorns
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Speaker 1: to traffic and ignorance. It realizes that education, knowledge, and
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Speaker 1: the powers these confer are the only means of achieving
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Speaker 1: a decided and permanent victory for the people. A clean campaign.
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Speaker 1: The campaign of the Socialist Party is a clean campaign.
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Speaker 1: It is essentially educational, an appeal to intelligence, to manliness,
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Speaker 1: to womanliness, and to all things of good. Report. The
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Speaker 1: workers are opening their eyes at last. They are beginning
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Speaker 1: to see the light. They are taking heart of hope
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Speaker 1: because they are becoming conscious of their power. They are
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Speaker 1: rallying to the standard of the Socialist Party because they
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Speaker 1: know that this is their party, and that here they
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Speaker 1: are master, and here they sit at their own political
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Speaker 1: hearthstone and fireside. No longer can the workers be pitted
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Speaker 1: against each other in capitalist parties. By designing politicians to
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Speaker 1: their mutual undoing, they have made the discovery that they
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Speaker 1: have brains as well as hands, that they can think
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Speaker 1: as well as work, and that they do not need
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Speaker 1: politicians to advise them how to vote, nor masters to
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Speaker 1: rob them of the fruits of their labor. Slowly, but surely,
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Speaker 1: there is being established the economic and political unity and
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Speaker 1: solidarity of the workers of the world. The Socialist Party
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Speaker 1: is the political expression of that unity in solidarity unity
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Speaker 1: the keynote, I appeal to the workers assembled here to
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Speaker 1: day in the name of the Socialist Party. I appeal
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Speaker 1: to you, as one of you, to unite and make
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Speaker 1: common cause in this great struggle. To the extent that
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Speaker 1: you have made progress, to the extent that you have
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Speaker 1: developed power, and to the extent that you have achieved victory,
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Speaker 1: to that extent you are indebted to your own class
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Speaker 1: conscious efforts and your own industrial and political organization. To
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Speaker 1: the extent that you lack power, to the extent that
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Speaker 1: you are defeated and kept in bondage, to the extent
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Speaker 1: that you lack in social and political solidarity, to that
22:44
Speaker 1: extent you lack in economic and political solidarity. Rightly organized
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Speaker 1: and soundly disciplined on both the economic and political fields,
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Speaker 1: the working class can prevail against the world. The economic
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Speaker 1: organization and the political party of the working class must
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Speaker 1: both be revolutionary, and they must work together hand in hand.
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Speaker 1: Industrial unionism means industrial solidarity, but craft unionism means division
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Speaker 1: and disaster. The printing trades, pitted against each other in
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Speaker 1: Chicago in their struggle with the newspaper Trust, furnish a
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Speaker 1: fatal illustration of the weakness and treachery of craft division
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Speaker 1: in the present industrial conflict, the workers of Milwaukee. The
23:39
Speaker 1: workers of Milwaukee have to an exceptional extent overcome the
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Speaker 1: obstacles to unity and have worked together with signal success
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Speaker 1: on both the economic and political fields. I appeal to them,
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Speaker 1: in the name of the future, to get closer and
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Speaker 1: closer together in the bonds of economic and political solidarity.
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Speaker 1: If they do this, their complete and final victory is assured.
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Speaker 1: The Socialist Party of Milwaukee has marched steadily to the
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Speaker 1: front since it first began its career. Its latest defeat
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Speaker 1: was its greatest victory. It forced the Republicans and Democrats
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Speaker 1: to unmask and to fly into each other's arms. There
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Speaker 1: is no Republican or Democratic party in Milwaukee. They are dead,
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Speaker 1: and in the coming election their remains, masquerading as a
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Speaker 1: party of the people will be buried by the Socialist Party.
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Speaker 1: The first Congressman, the Socialists of Milwaukee will always have
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Speaker 1: the distinction of having elected the first representative of the
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Speaker 1: working class to the Congress of the United States. Victor L.
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Speaker 1: Berger has made good at Washington for the first time
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Speaker 1: since he is a member. The voice of Labor has
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Speaker 1: been to distinctly heard on the floors of Congress, and
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Speaker 1: in every emergency when the working class needed a champion
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Speaker 1: at the seat of power, they found him ready and
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Speaker 1: eager to espouse their cause and defend their interests. It
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Speaker 1: was to defeat Berger's reelection that the Republicans and Democrats
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Speaker 1: in Milwaukee combined, just as they did to defeat Emil
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Speaker 1: Seidel for mayor, and drive the Socialist administration from power.
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Speaker 1: But Berger is making a record at Washington, and the
25:32
Speaker 1: Socialist administration made a record in Milwaukee that will stand
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Speaker 1: the test of time. And if the workers now rally
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Speaker 1: their forces in support of Berger, he will be triumphantly
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Speaker 1: re elected against the combined opposition of the old parties,
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Speaker 1: and in the next municipal election, the city of Milwaukee
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Speaker 1: will be permanently restored to a Socialist administration. Comrades, you
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Speaker 1: are face to face the greatest struggle you have ever
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Speaker 1: had since the Socialist Party was organized. You are now
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Speaker 1: to be tested in every fiber as to your fitness
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Speaker 1: to hold the ground you have gained and to press
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Speaker 1: on to greater victories. May you be permeated to the
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Speaker 1: core with the spirit of the socialist movement and enter
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Speaker 1: the fray, resolved that victory shall be inscribed upon your banners.
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Speaker 1: Etter and Giovanniti. I must not fail, in the presence
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Speaker 1: of all these workers to speak of Joseph Etter and
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Speaker 1: Arturo Giovanniti, the leaders of the Lawrence Strike, who are
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Speaker 1: in prison and soon to be tried upon the charge
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Speaker 1: of murder, of which they are as innocent as if
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Speaker 1: they had never been born. This infamous charge has been
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Speaker 1: trumped up against them by the defeated mill owners for
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Speaker 1: no other reason than that they stood up bravely and
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Speaker 1: fought sccessfully against great odds the battles of the wage
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Speaker 1: slaves of the mills. Unless the workers unite in support
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Speaker 1: of these two leaders, they may be sent to the
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Speaker 1: electric chair. Should we suffer these brave comrades to fall
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Speaker 1: victim to such a monstrous crime, it would be a
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Speaker 1: foul and indelible blot upon the whole labor movement. Let
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Speaker 1: us arouse the workers of the nation in their behalf
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Speaker 1: and prove to them, when their trial takes place, that
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Speaker 1: we are as true to them as they were to
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Speaker 1: the wage slaves in the industrial battle at Lawrence. Comrades,
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Speaker 1: this is our year. Let us rise to our full stature,
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Speaker 1: summon our United Powers, and strike a blow for freedom
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Speaker 1: that will be felt around the world. End of the
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Speaker 1: Fight for Freedom s