The herald., 1897-06-24


| Correspondents are requested to cultivate
brevity as Tar a. IL consistent with the
proper expression OF their views)
"A Socialist on the Debs Scheme
To the Editor Of the Los Angeles Her
ald-At time when thousands of men
are out of work. when thousands more
have lost faith In the idea that Repub-
lican tarfff is going to help them any,
and when even the benefits to be de-
rived from free silver have become more
or less indistinct or relegated to dis
tant future. 1t certainly would seem, that
this socialistlc movement OF Debs is
worthy Of fairer treatment than 1t yes
terday received in the columns of The
| Herald. And by unfair treatment
mean simply that part of your telegraph
| report which, after giving an ac-
count of the election of officers and the
furtherance of plans for the movements
| of the socialistic army, referred to the
arrival of thirteen penniless negroes in
New York from Liberia, proving, as
you oracularly announced in your head
line, the failure of IA Similar Scheme" !"
Now, protest, as lover Of truth and
fairness, that such was not similar
scheme at all, and that in speaking of 1t
in this manner The Herald was guilty
of dirty niger trick" in no wise In
harmony with it's usualpolicy and repu-
tation. For, however much We may
disagree with the promoters of social
istic colonies In general we can see no
reason why this Debs movement. If
faithfully followed out, cannot be made a
splendid success. That 1t will at least
| hn fac iaf "a "a To- hNN
market of any scheme of recent years,
there can be no question. A colonization
scheme is always beneficial. taking, as
it does, large numbers of unemployed
from the congested districts of our large
cities, where for want of wholesome
work they are forced into the countless
avenues of crime, that are so easy to
enter and SO impossible to escape from.
Hence 1 protest as a socialist-and
we are all socialists at heart-that this
scheme of Debs is worthy Of our
heartiest sympathy and support. as
through it men will be given Dor. while
those who are now SO fortunate as to be
at work need no longer be obliged to give
half their earnings to the support Of
their idle brothers, or what Is worse. be
in constant risk of losing their jobs be-
cause their employers can find 100 idle
men ready to take the job for every one
that quits.
1t is vital sympathy with the scheme,
then, that 1 appeal for; its practical
management and fulfillment is another
matter, but neither is it q thing to gibe
and scoff at. The danger today lies not
in suggestions of this nature, that prom
Use the right to labor to every individ-
ual, but rather in that noxiouS inertia
and Dead Sea conservatism that affect
to see the head of anarchy rather than
the march of progress in whatever
movement is inaugurated tending to
the betterment of humanity. Ina word.
so long as people manifest their desire
for peaceful employment. L believe that
the great danger in this country today
lies not in the anarchy Of mobs or So
cialism, but in the anarchy of plutocracy
and indifference.
There are countless numbers today
seeking refuge-men who have played
the game of life and lost, and who
see no opportunity of starting again on
the basis that they themselves or their
fathers started. That day has gone by.
The machine by which men labor and
ny WHICH WCditA 10 PIO0uCCdt I6S OC-
come too complex and too costly for
them ever to hope to have hand again
in its ownership. Evolution has played
it's relentless role with them-from the
field to the little workshop, little work.
shop to factory, factory to the trust"
and from the "trust"-what next? The
business mems associations in various
cities would tell them that they must
now go backwards. Men who have
spent their lives selling groceries and
shoes look on in CONSERVATION, and get
up an anti-department store bill, or set
the poor devils of unemployed to work
making park-think Of it, a park!
But the men themselves, these poor, con-
temptible socialists, know better; their
very misfortunes have set them to study
ing the economic evolution by which
their disasters were brought about, and
which the egotistic groceryman, in his
temporary prosperity, has as yet had no
occasion to think of, and out of their
minds, bewilderment has come light and
strength. They stand united, swayed
neither to this side nor the other by the
first political ignis-fatuus that comes
along. They are not looking back
ward" any more than Mr.. Bellamy was
when he penned his first rousing appeal
to the fair-minded people of this coun-
try-but forward to the formation Of one
great trust" in which all the people
shall have stock, and which shall not be
obliged to earn dividends in order to be
a success. This is their position, their
politics, their religion.
DIR. HUBERT FULLER.