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015 - Political Appeal to American Workers · Labor and Freedom

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Speaker 1: Political Appeal to American Workers by Eugene V. Debs. This
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Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Opening speech of
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Speaker 1: national campaign, Riverview Park, Chicago, June sixteenth, nineteen twelve. Friends, comrades,
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Speaker 1: and fellow workers, We are today entering upon a national
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Speaker 1: campaign of the profoundest interest to the working class and
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Speaker 1: the country. In this campaign, there are but two parties
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Speaker 1: and but one issue. There is no longer even the
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Speaker 1: pretense of difference between the so called Republican and Democratic parties.
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Speaker 1: They are substantially one, and what they stand for. They
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Speaker 1: are opposed to each other on no question of principle,
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Speaker 1: but purely in a contest for the spoils of office
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Speaker 1: to the workers of the country. These two parties in
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Speaker 1: name are one in fact, they or rather it stands
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Speaker 1: for capitalism, for the private ownership of the means of subsistence,
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Speaker 1: for the exploitation of the workers, and for wage slavery.
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Speaker 1: Both of these old capitalist class machines are going to pieces,
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Speaker 1: having outlived their time. They've become corrupt and worse than useless,
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Speaker 1: and now present a spectacle of political degeneracy never before
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Speaker 1: witnessed in this or any other country. Both are torn
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Speaker 1: by dissension and rife with disintegration. The evolution of the
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Speaker 1: forces underlying them is tearing them from their foundations and
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Speaker 1: sweeping them to inevitable destruction. We have before us, in
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Speaker 1: this city and at this hour an ex submission of
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Speaker 1: capitalist machine politics, which lays bare the true inwardness of
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Speaker 1: the situation in the capitalist camp. Nothing that any socialist
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Speaker 1: has ever charged in the way of corruption is to
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Speaker 1: be compared with what Taft and Roosevelt have charged and
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Speaker 1: proven upon one another. They are both good Republicans, just
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Speaker 1: as Harmon and Brian are both good Democrats, and they
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Speaker 1: are all agreed that socialism would be the ruination of
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Speaker 1: the country. Puppets of the ruling class, Taft and Roosevelt,
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Speaker 1: in the exploitation of their boasted individualism and their mad
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Speaker 1: flight for official spoils, have been forced to expose the
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Speaker 1: whole game of capitalist class politics and reveal themselves in
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Speaker 1: the whole brood of capitalist politicians in their true role
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Speaker 1: before the American people. They are all the mere puppets
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Speaker 1: of the ruling class. They are literally bought, paid for,
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Speaker 1: and owned body and soul by the powers that are
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Speaker 1: exploiting this nation, and enslaving and robbing its toilers. What
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Speaker 1: difference is there, judged by what they stand for between Taft, Roosevelt, Laffoulette, Harmon, Wilson, Clark,
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Speaker 1: and Bryan. Do they not, all alike stand for the
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Speaker 1: private ownership of industry and the wage slavery of the
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Speaker 1: working class. What earthly difference can it make to the
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Speaker 1: millions of workers whether the republican or democratic political machine
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Speaker 1: of capitalism is in commission. That these two parties differ
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Speaker 1: in name only and are one in fact is demonstrated
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Speaker 1: beyond Cavill Whenever and wherever the Socialist Party constitutes a
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Speaker 1: menace to their misrule. Milwaukee is a case in point,
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Speaker 1: and there are many others confronted by socialism, these long
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Speaker 1: pretended foes are forced to drop their masks and fly
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Speaker 1: into each other's arms twin agencies of Wall Street. The baseness,
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Speaker 1: hypocrisy and corruption of these twin political agencies of Wall
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Speaker 1: Street and the ruling class cannot be expressed in words.
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Speaker 1: The imagination is taxed in contemplating their crimes. There is
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Speaker 1: no depth of dishonor to which they have not descended,
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Speaker 1: no depth of depravity they have not sounded to the
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Speaker 1: extent that they control elections, the franchise is corrupted and
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Speaker 1: the electorate debauched. And when they succeed in power, it
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Speaker 1: is but to execute the will of the wall street
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Speaker 1: interests which finance and control them. The police, the militia,
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Speaker 1: the regular army, the courts, and all the powers lodged
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Speaker 1: in class government are all freely at the service of
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Speaker 1: the ruling class, especially in suppressing discontent among the slaves
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Speaker 1: of the factories, mills and mines, and keeping them safely
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Speaker 1: in subjugation to their masters. How can any intelligent, self
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Speaker 1: respecting wage worker give his support to either of these
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Speaker 1: corrupt capitalist parties. The emblem of a capitalist party and
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Speaker 1: a working man is the badge of his ignorance, his servility,
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Speaker 1: and shame. Marshaled in battle array against these corrupt capitalists
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Speaker 1: parties is the young, virile Revolutionary Socialist Party, the party
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Speaker 1: of the awakening working class, whose red banners, inscribed with
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Speaker 1: the inspiring shibboleth of class conscious solidarity, proclaim the coming
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Speaker 1: triumph of international socialism and the emancipation of the workers
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Speaker 1: of the world. The two political forces contrast. These two
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Speaker 1: political forces and the parties through which these forces find
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Speaker 1: concrete expression. On the one side are the trusts, the corporations,
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Speaker 1: the banks, the railroads, the plutocrats, the politicians, the bribe givers,
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Speaker 1: the ballot box stuffers, the repeaters, the parasites, retainers and
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Speaker 1: job hunters of all descriptions. The corrupt funds, the filth,
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Speaker 1: slime and debauchery of ruling class politics, the press and
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Speaker 1: pulpit and college, all wearing capitalism's collar, and all in
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Speaker 1: concert applauding its patriotism and glorifying in its plundering and
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Speaker 1: prolificate regime. On the other side are the workers and
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Speaker 1: producers of the nation, coming into consciousness of their interests
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Speaker 1: and their power as a class, filled with the spirit
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Speaker 1: of solidarity and thrilled with the new born power that
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Speaker 1: throbs within them, scorning further affiliation with the parties that
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Speaker 1: so long use them to their own degradation, and looking
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Speaker 1: trustfully to themselves and to each other for relief from
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Speaker 1: oppression and for emancipation from the power which has so
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Speaker 1: long enslaved them. Honest toil, useful labor, against industrial robbery
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Speaker 1: and political rottenness. These are the two forces which are
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Speaker 1: arrayed against each other in deadly and uncompromising hostility in
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Speaker 1: the present campaign current capitalist politics. We are not here
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Speaker 1: to play the filthy game of capitalist politics. There is
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Speaker 1: the same relative difference between capitalist class politics and working
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Speaker 1: class politics that there is between capitalism and socialism. Capitalism,
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Speaker 1: having its foundation in the slavery and exploitation of the masses,
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Speaker 1: can only rule by corrupt means, and its politics are
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Speaker 1: essentially the reflex of its low and debasing economic character.
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Speaker 1: The Socialist Party, as the party of the working class,
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Speaker 1: stands squarely upon its principles in making its appeal to
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Speaker 1: the workers of the nation. It is not begging for votes,
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Speaker 1: nor seeking for votes, nor bargaining for votes. It is
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Speaker 1: not in the vote market. It wants votes, but only
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Speaker 1: of those who want it, those who recognize it as
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Speaker 1: their party and come to it of their own free will.
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Speaker 1: If as the Socialist candidate for president, I were seeking
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Speaker 1: office and the spoils of office, I would be a
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Speaker 1: traitor to the Socialist Party and a disgrace to the
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Speaker 1: working class. To be sure, we want all the votes
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Speaker 1: we can get and all that are coming to us,
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Speaker 1: but only as a means of developing the political power
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Speaker 1: of the working class in the struggle for industrial freedom,
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Speaker 1: and not that we may revel in the spoils of
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Speaker 1: office political power. The workers have never yet developed or
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Speaker 1: made use of their political power. They have played the
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Speaker 1: game of their masters for the benefit of the master class.
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Speaker 1: And now many of them, disgusted with their own blind
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Speaker 1: and stupid performance, are renouncing politics and refusing to see
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Speaker 1: any difference between the capitalist parties financed by the ruling
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Speaker 1: class to perpetuate class rule, and the Socialist Party, organized
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Speaker 1: and financed by the workers themselves as a means of
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Speaker 1: resting the control of government and of industry from the
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Speaker 1: capitalists and making the working class the ruling class of
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Speaker 1: the nation and the world. The Socialist Party enters this
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Speaker 1: campaign under conditions that could scarcely be more favorable to
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Speaker 1: the cause it represents. For the first time, every state
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Speaker 1: in the Union is now organized and represented in the
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Speaker 1: National Party, and every state will have a full ticket
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Speaker 1: in the field. And for the first time, the Socialists
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Speaker 1: of the United States have a party which takes its
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Speaker 1: rightful place in the great revolutionary working class movement of
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Speaker 1: the world. Four years ago, with a membership of scarcely
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Speaker 1: four thousand, we succeeded in polling nearly half a million votes.
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Speaker 1: This year, when the campaign is fairly opened, we shall
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Speaker 1: have one hundred and fifty thousand dues paying members, and
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Speaker 1: an organization in all regards incalculably superior to that we
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Speaker 1: had in the last campaign. We are united, militant, enthusiastic
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Speaker 1: as never before. From the Eastern coast to the Pacific shore,
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Speaker 1: and from the Canadian Line to the Mexican Gulf. The
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Speaker 1: red banner of the proletarian revolution floats unchallenged, and the
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Speaker 1: exultant shouts of the advancing hosts of labor are born
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Speaker 1: on all the breezes. There is but one issue. There
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Speaker 1: is but one issue that appeals to this conquering army,
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Speaker 1: the unconditional surrender of the capitalist class. To be sure,
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Speaker 1: this cannot be achieved in a day, and in the meantime,
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Speaker 1: the party enforces, to the extent of its power, its
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Speaker 1: immediate demands, and presses steadily onward toward the goal. It
12:53
Speaker 1: has its constructive program, by means of which it develops
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Speaker 1: its power and its capacity, step by seizing upon every
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Speaker 1: bit of vantage to advance and strengthen its position, but
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Speaker 1: never for a moment mistaking reform for revolution, and never
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Speaker 1: losing sight of the ultimate goal. Socialist reform must not
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Speaker 1: be confounded with so called capitalist reform. The latter is
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Speaker 1: shrewdly designed to buttress capitalism, the former to overthrow it.
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Speaker 1: Socialist reform vitalizes and promotes the social revolution. The National Convention,
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Speaker 1: the National Convention of the Socialist Party recently held at Indianapolis,
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Speaker 1: was in all respects the greatest gathering of representative socialists
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Speaker 1: ever held in the United States. The delegates there assembled
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Speaker 1: demonstrated their ability to deal efficiently with all the vital
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Speaker 1: problems which confront the Party. The Convention was permeated in
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Speaker 1: every fiber with the class conscious revolutionary spirit, and was
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Speaker 1: thoroughly representative of the working class. Every question that came
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Speaker 1: before that body was considered and disposed of in accordance
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Speaker 1: with the principles and program of the international movement, and
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Speaker 1: on the basis of its relation to and effect upon
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Speaker 1: the working class. The platform adopted by the Convention is
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Speaker 1: a clear, incogent enunciation of the party's principles and a
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Speaker 1: frank and forceful statement of the party's mission. This platform
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Speaker 1: embodies Labour's indictment of the capitalist system and demands the
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Speaker 1: abolition of that system. It proclaims the identity of interests
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Speaker 1: of all workers and appeals to them in clarion tones
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Speaker 1: to unite for their emancipation. It points out the class
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Speaker 1: struggle and emphasizes the need of the economic and political
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Speaker 1: unity of the workers to wage that struggle to a
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Speaker 1: successful issue. It declares relentless war upon the entire capitalist
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Speaker 1: regime in the name of the rising working class, and
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Speaker 1: demands in uncompromising terms, the overthrow of wage slavery and
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Speaker 1: the inauguration of industrial democracy. In this platform of the
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Speaker 1: Socialist Party, the historic development of society is clearly stated
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Speaker 1: and the fact made manifest that the time has come
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Speaker 1: for the workers of the world to shake off their
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Speaker 1: oppressors and exploiters, put an end to their age long servitude,
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Speaker 1: and make themselves the masters of the world. To this end,
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Speaker 1: the Socialist Party has been organized to this end. It
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Speaker 1: is bending all its energies and taxing all its resources
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Speaker 1: to this end. It makes its appeal to the workers
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Speaker 1: and their sympathizers throughout the nation. The capitalist system condemned
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Speaker 1: in the name of the workers. The Socialist Party condemns
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Speaker 1: the capitalist system in the name of freedom. It condemns
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Speaker 1: wage slavery, in the name of modern industry. It condemns poverty, idleness,
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Speaker 1: and famine in the name of peace. It condemns war
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Speaker 1: in the name of civilization. It condemns the murder of
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Speaker 1: little children. In the name of enlightenment, it condemns ignorance
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Speaker 1: and superstition. In the name of the future, it arraigns
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Speaker 1: the past at the bar of the present. And in
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Speaker 1: the name of humanity, it demands social justice for every man,
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Speaker 1: woman and child. The Socialist Party knows neither color, creed, sex,
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Speaker 1: nor race. It knows no aliens among the oppressed and downtrodden.
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Speaker 1: It is first and last the party of the workers,
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Speaker 1: regardless of their nationality, proclaiming their interests, voicing their aspirations,
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Speaker 1: and fighting their battles. It matters not where the slaves
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Speaker 1: of the earth lift their boded bodies from the dust
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Speaker 1: and seek to shake off their fetters or lighten the
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Speaker 1: burden that oppresses them. The Socialist Party is pledged to
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Speaker 1: encourage and support them to the full extent of its power.
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Speaker 1: It matters not to what union they belong, or if
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Speaker 1: they belong to any union. The Socialist Party, which sprang
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Speaker 1: from their struggle, their oppression, and their aspiration is with
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Speaker 1: them them through good and evil, report, in trial and defeat,
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Speaker 1: until at last victory is inscribed upon their banner fighting
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Speaker 1: labour's battles, whether it be in the textile mills of
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Speaker 1: Lawrence and other mills of New England, where men, women
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Speaker 1: and children are ground into dividends to gorge a heartless
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Speaker 1: mill owning plutocracy, or whether it be in the lumber
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Speaker 1: and railroad camps of the far Northwest, where men are
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Speaker 1: herded like cattle and insulted, beaten, and deported for peaceably
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Speaker 1: asserting the legal right to organize, Or in the conflict
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Speaker 1: with the civilized savages of San Diego, where men who
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Speaker 1: dare be known as members of the industrial workers of
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Speaker 1: the world are kidnapped, tortured, and murdered in cold blood
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Speaker 1: in the name of law and order. Or in the
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Speaker 1: city of Chicago, where that gorgon of capitalism, the newspaper Trust,
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Speaker 1: is bent upon crushing and exterminating the Pressmen's Union, Or
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Speaker 1: along the Harriman lines of railroad, where the slaves of
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Speaker 1: the shops have been driven to the alternative of striking
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Speaker 1: or sacrificing the last vestige of their manhood and self respect.
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Speaker 1: In all these battles of the workers against their capitalist suppressors,
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Speaker 1: the Socialist Party has the most vital concern, and is
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Speaker 1: freely pledged to render them all the assistance in its power.
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Speaker 1: These are the battles of the workers in the war
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Speaker 1: of the classes, And the battles of the workers, wherever
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Speaker 1: and however fought, are always and everywhere the battles of
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Speaker 1: the Socialist Party. When Moyers, Heywood, and Petabone were seized
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Speaker 1: by the brutal mine owners of the Western States, and
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Speaker 1: by their prostitute press consigned to the gallows, the Socialist
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Speaker 1: Party lost not an hour in going to the rescue.
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Speaker 1: But for its prompt and vigorous action and the resolute
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Speaker 1: work of its press, another monstrous crime against the working
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Speaker 1: class would have blackened the pages of American history. Persecution
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Speaker 1: of loyal leaders. In the increasing struggle of the workers
20:33
Speaker 1: with their exploiters, the truly loyal leaders are always marked
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Speaker 1: for persecution. Joseph Etter and Arturo Giovinti would not now
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Speaker 1: be in jail awaiting trial for murder had they betrayed
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Speaker 1: the slaves of the Lawrence Mills. They were staunch and true.
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Speaker 1: Their leadership made for industrial unity and victory, And for
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Speaker 1: this reason alone, the enraged and defeated mill owners are
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Speaker 1: now bent upon sending them to the electric chair. These
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Speaker 1: fellow workers of ours, who are now on trial for murder,
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Speaker 1: are not one whit more guilty of the crime with
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Speaker 1: which they are charged than I am. The man who
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Speaker 1: committed the murder was a policeman, an officer of the law.
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Speaker 1: The victim of the crime was, as usual, a striker,
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Speaker 1: a wage slave, a poor working girl. Eder and Giovanniti
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Speaker 1: were two miles from the scene at the time, and
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Speaker 1: when the news came to them, they broke into tears.
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Speaker 1: And these two working men, who would have protected that
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Speaker 1: poor girl's life with their own, are now to be
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Speaker 1: tried for her murder. Was ever anything in all the
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Speaker 1: annals of heartless persecution more monstrous than this? The mill
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Speaker 1: owner's gone stark mad. Have they, in their brutal rage,
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Speaker 1: become stone blind? Whatever the answer may be, it is
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Speaker 1: certain that the Socialist Party and organized labor in general
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Speaker 1: will never see these two innocent workers murdered in cold blood,
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Speaker 1: nor will their agitation and protests cease until they have
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Speaker 1: been given their freedom. The campaign now opening in the
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Speaker 1: Great Campaign now pending, the people, especially the toilers and producers,
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Speaker 1: will be far more receptive to the truths of socialism
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Speaker 1: than ever before. Since the last national campaign, they have
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Speaker 1: had four years more of capitalism, of political corruption, industrial stagnation,
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Speaker 1: low wages, and high prices, and many, very many of
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Speaker 1: them have come to realize that these conditions are inherent
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Speaker 1: in the capitalist system, and that it is vain and
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Speaker 1: foolish to hope for relief through the political parties of
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Speaker 1: that system. These people have had their eyes opened in
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Speaker 1: spite of themselves. They have been made to see what
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Speaker 1: the present system means to them and to their children,
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Speaker 1: and they have been forced to turn against it by
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Speaker 1: the sheer instinct of self preservation. They look abroad, and
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Speaker 1: they see this fair land being rapidly converted into the
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Speaker 1: private preserves of a plutocracy, as brutal and defiant as
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Speaker 1: any privileged class that ever ruled in a foreign despotism.
23:46
Speaker 1: They see machinery and misery go hand in hand. They
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Speaker 1: see thousands idle and poverty stricken all about them, while
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Speaker 1: a few are glutted to degeneracy. They see troops of
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Speaker 1: child slaves ground into luxuries for the rich, while their
24:04
Speaker 1: fathers have become a drug on the labor market. They
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Speaker 1: see parasites in palaces and automobiles, and honest workers in
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Speaker 1: hovels or tramping the ties. They see the politics of
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Speaker 1: the ruling corporations dripping with corruption and putridity. They see
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Speaker 1: vice and crime, rampant prostitution, eating like a cancer, and
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Speaker 1: insanity and disease sapping the mental and physical powers of
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Speaker 1: the body. Social and involuntarily, they cry out in horror
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Speaker 1: and protest, this is enough. There must be a change,
24:48
Speaker 1: And they turn with loathing and disgust from the Republican
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Speaker 1: and Democratic parties, under whose joint and several maladministration these
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Speaker 1: appalling conditions have been wrought upon the country. The message
25:04
Speaker 1: of socialism, which a few years ago was spurned by
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Speaker 1: these people, falls today upon eager ears and receptive minds.
25:13
Speaker 1: Their prejudice has melted away. They are now prepared to
25:17
Speaker 1: cast their fortunes with the only political party that proposes
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Speaker 1: a change of system, and the only party that has
25:25
Speaker 1: a right to appeal to the intelligence of the people.
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Speaker 1: First Socialist Congressman. The political beginning of the Socialist Party
25:38
Speaker 1: in this country is now distinctly recognized by its most
25:41
Speaker 1: implacable enemies. A single socialist congressman has been sufficient to
25:48
Speaker 1: arouse the whole nation to the vital issue of socialism
25:51
Speaker 1: which confronts it. Victor L. Berger, as the first and
25:55
Speaker 1: until now, the only representative of labor, has had the power,
26:00
Speaker 1: single handed and alone, to compel the respectful consideration of
26:05
Speaker 1: the American Congress for the first time in its history
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Speaker 1: of the rights and interests of the working class. To
26:14
Speaker 1: be sure, the capitalists do not relish this, and so
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Speaker 1: they have consolidated the Republican and democratic forces in Burgher's
26:22
Speaker 1: district to defeat him. But the rising tide of socialism
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Speaker 1: will overwhelm them both and not only triumphantly re elect Burger,
26:32
Speaker 1: but scores of others to make the next Congress resound
26:35
Speaker 1: with the demands of the working class. Now is the
26:40
Speaker 1: time for the workers of this nation to develop and
26:43
Speaker 1: assert their political as well as their economic power. To
26:47
Speaker 1: demonstrate their unity and solidarity. Back up the economic victory
26:53
Speaker 1: at Lawrence with an overwhelming victory at the ballot box,
26:58
Speaker 1: sweep the minions of the mill owners from power, and
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Speaker 1: fill every office from the ranks of the workers. Deliver
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Speaker 1: a crushing rebuke to the hireling officials of San Diego
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Speaker 1: by a united vote of the workers that will rescue
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Speaker 1: the city from the rule of the degenerates and place
27:17
Speaker 1: it forever under a working class administration. The only democratic party,
27:27
Speaker 1: the Socialist Party, is the only party of the people,
27:31
Speaker 1: the only party opposed to the rule of the plutocracy,
27:35
Speaker 1: the only truly democratic party in the world. It is
27:40
Speaker 1: the only party in which women have equal rights with men,
27:44
Speaker 1: The only party which denies membership to a man who
27:47
Speaker 1: refuses to recognize woman as his political equal. The only
27:53
Speaker 1: party that is pledged to strike the fetters of economic
27:56
Speaker 1: and political slavery from womanhood and pay the way for
28:01
Speaker 1: a race of free women. The Socialist Party is the
28:05
Speaker 1: only party that stands a living protest against the monstrous
28:10
Speaker 1: crime of child labor. It is the only party whose
28:14
Speaker 1: triumph will sound once and forever the knell of child slavery.
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Speaker 1: There is no hope under the present decaying system. The
28:25
Speaker 1: worker who votes the Republican or Democratic ticket does worse
28:29
Speaker 1: than throw his vote away. He is a deserter of
28:33
Speaker 1: his class and his own worst enemy. Though he may
28:38
Speaker 1: be in blissful ignorance of the fact that he its
28:41
Speaker 1: faults to himself and his fellow workers, and that sooner
28:45
Speaker 1: or later he must reap what he has sown wages
28:52
Speaker 1: and cost of living. The latest census reports covering the
28:57
Speaker 1: year nineteen o nine show that the six million, six
29:02
Speaker 1: hundred fifteen thousand, forty six workers in manufactories in the
29:08
Speaker 1: United States were paid an average wage of five hundred
29:13
Speaker 1: and nineteen dollars for the year, an increase of not
29:17
Speaker 1: quite nine percent in five years and an increase of
29:22
Speaker 1: twenty one percent in ten years. But the average cost
29:26
Speaker 1: of living increase more than forty percent during the same time,
29:31
Speaker 1: so that in point of fact, the wages of these
29:35
Speaker 1: workers have been and are being steadily reduced in the
29:39
Speaker 1: progressive development of production under the capitalist system. And this
29:45
Speaker 1: in spite of all the resistance that has been or
29:49
Speaker 1: can be brought to bear by the federated craft unions.
29:54
Speaker 1: Here we are brought face to face with the imperative
29:57
Speaker 1: need of the revolutionary industrial union, embracing all the workers
30:02
Speaker 1: and fighting every battle for increased wages, shorter hours, and
30:07
Speaker 1: better conditions with a solid and united front, while at
30:12
Speaker 1: the same time pressing steadily forward in harmonious cooperation and
30:17
Speaker 1: under the restraints of self discipline, developing the latent abilities
30:22
Speaker 1: of the workers, increasing their knowledge, and fitting them for
30:26
Speaker 1: the mastery and control of industry, when the victorious hosts
30:30
Speaker 1: of labour conquer the public powers and transfer the title
30:34
Speaker 1: deeds of the mines and mills and factories from the
30:38
Speaker 1: idle plutocrats to the industrial workers, to be operated for
30:43
Speaker 1: the common good industrial unity. If the printing trades were
30:50
Speaker 1: organized on the basis of industrial unionism, the spectacle of
30:55
Speaker 1: local unions in the same crafts, pitted against each other
30:59
Speaker 1: to their mutual destruction would not be presented to us
31:02
Speaker 1: in the city of Chicago, and the capitalist newspaper trust
31:07
Speaker 1: would not now have its heel upon the neck of
31:09
Speaker 1: the union pressmen. For this lamentable state of affairs, the
31:14
Speaker 1: Craft Union and William Randolph Hurst, its chief patron and promoter,
31:20
Speaker 1: are entirely responsible. The Socialist Party presents the farm workers
31:26
Speaker 1: as well as the industrial workers, with a platform and
31:29
Speaker 1: program which must appeal to their intelligence and command their support.
31:35
Speaker 1: It points out to them clearly why their situation is
31:38
Speaker 1: hopeless under capitalism, how they are robbed and exploited, and
31:43
Speaker 1: why they are bound to make common cause with the
31:46
Speaker 1: industrial workers in the mills and factories of the cities,
31:51
Speaker 1: along the railways and in the mines, in the struggle
31:55
Speaker 1: for emancipation. The education or organization and cooperation of the workers,
32:03
Speaker 1: the entire body of them, is the conscious aim and
32:06
Speaker 1: the self imposed task of the Socialist Party. Persistently, unceasingly
32:13
Speaker 1: and enthusiastically, this great work is being accomplished. It is
32:18
Speaker 1: the working class coming into consciousness of itself, and no
32:23
Speaker 1: power on earth can prevail against it. In the hour
32:26
Speaker 1: of its complete awakening. Socialism is inevitable. The laws of
32:35
Speaker 1: evolution have decreed the downfall of the capitalist system. The
32:40
Speaker 1: handwriting is upon the wall in letters of fire. The
32:45
Speaker 1: trusts are transforming industry, and next will come the transformation
32:50
Speaker 1: of the trust by the people. Socialism is inevitable. Capitalism
32:56
Speaker 1: is breaking down, and the new order evolving from it
33:01
Speaker 1: is clearly the socialist commonwealth. The present evolution can only
33:07
Speaker 1: culminate in industrial and social democracy, and an alliance. Therewith
33:13
Speaker 1: and preparing the way for the peaceable reception of the
33:16
Speaker 1: new order is the socialist movement, arousing the workers and
33:21
Speaker 1: educating and fitting them to take possession of their own
33:25
Speaker 1: When at last, the struggle of the centuries has been
33:29
Speaker 1: crowned with triumph in the coming social order, based upon
33:35
Speaker 1: the social ownership of the means of life and the
33:38
Speaker 1: production of wealth for the use of all, instead of
33:42
Speaker 1: the private profit of the few, for which the Socialist
33:46
Speaker 1: Party stands In this and every other campaign, peace will prevail,
33:52
Speaker 1: and plenty for all will abound in the land. The
33:56
Speaker 1: brute's struggle for existence will have ended. The millions of
34:00
Speaker 1: exploited poor will be rescued from the skeleton clutches of
34:04
Speaker 1: poverty and famine. Prostitution, and the white slave traffic fostered
34:10
Speaker 1: and protected under the old order will be a horror
34:14
Speaker 1: of the past. The social conscience and the social spirit
34:20
Speaker 1: will prevail. Society will have a new birth and the
34:24
Speaker 1: race a new destiny. There will be work for all,
34:29
Speaker 1: leisure for all, and the joys of life for all.
34:34
Speaker 1: Competition there will be not in the struggle for existence,
34:39
Speaker 1: but to excel in good work and in social service.
34:44
Speaker 1: Every child will then have an equal chance to grow
34:47
Speaker 1: up in health and vigor of body and mind, and
34:51
Speaker 1: an equal chance to rise to its full stature and
34:56
Speaker 1: achieve success in life. Socialist ideals. These are the ideals
35:05
Speaker 1: of the Socialist Party and to these ideals. It has
35:09
Speaker 1: consecrated all its energies and all its powers. The members
35:14
Speaker 1: of the Socialist Party are the party, and their collective
35:18
Speaker 1: will is the supreme law. The Socialist Party is organized
35:23
Speaker 1: and ruled from the bottom up. There is no boss,
35:28
Speaker 1: and there never can be unless the party deserts its
35:32
Speaker 1: principles and ceases to be a socialist party. The Party
35:37
Speaker 1: is supported by a dues paying membership. It is the
35:41
Speaker 1: only political party that is so supported. Each member has
35:46
Speaker 1: not only an equal voice, but has urged to take
35:50
Speaker 1: an active part in all the party councils. Each local
35:54
Speaker 1: meeting place is an educational center. The party relies wholly
35:59
Speaker 1: upon the power of education, knowledge and mutual understanding. It
36:05
Speaker 1: buys no votes and it makes no canvas. In the
36:09
Speaker 1: red light districts. The press of the party is the
36:13
Speaker 1: most vital factor in its educational propaganda, and the workers
36:17
Speaker 1: are everywhere being aroused to the necessity of building up
36:22
Speaker 1: a working class press to champion their cause and to
36:26
Speaker 1: discuss current issues from their point of view for the
36:30
Speaker 1: enlightenment of the masses. This is our year, comrades and friends.
36:40
Speaker 1: The campaign before us gives us our supreme opportunity to
36:44
Speaker 1: reach the American people. They have but to know the
36:48
Speaker 1: true meaning of socialism, to accept its philosophy, and the
36:52
Speaker 1: true mission of the Socialist Party, to give it their support.
36:57
Speaker 1: Let us all unite as we never have before, to
37:01
Speaker 1: place the issue of socialism squarely before the masses. For
37:07
Speaker 1: years they have been deceived, misled, and betrayed, and they
37:11
Speaker 1: are now hungering for the true gospel of relief and
37:16
Speaker 1: the true message of emancipation. This is our year in
37:22
Speaker 1: the United States. Socialism is in the very air we breathe.
37:28
Speaker 1: It is the grandest shibboleth that ever inspired men and
37:31
Speaker 1: women to action in this world. In the horizon of labor.
37:36
Speaker 1: It shines as a new risen sun, and it is
37:40
Speaker 1: the hope of all humanity. Onward, comrades, onward, and the
37:45
Speaker 1: struggle until triumphant Socialism proclaims an emancipated race and a
37:52
Speaker 1: new world. End of political appeal to American workers