The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1897-01-22
Why rEBs LEE

WI -~e~~s
he Gives His Rease. for s.nnorti,g Rgvs.
a',e gov s-1aviHg thu P0pHlisss 10 Become
s0o,--..iIst.
IN his letter in the Railway Times
| in which Eugene Debs announced his
departure FROM the peoples party 60
become a socialist. he says he support
ed Bryan not because be believed free
silver TO be a psnacea for national Ills,
but because he believed the election OF
Bryan would "banish from the high
ways of human endesvor many a Black
| flag"
The free silver issue furnished a raj.
lying cry and common ground against
the trusts, syndicates and corpora
lions, and once united they could press
forward against industrial slavery.
As evidence that he was right in this
eesclusion he points TO the consterna.
zion among the ''shylocks and robbers
which enabled Mark Hanna to collect
more than sl6,OOO,OOl to prevent TIE
election of Bryan
He says: Eighty per cent of the
organized wage-earners voted for
Bryan That the result of the cleo
Ljea was not different was due to the
fact that unorganized labor overwhelm-
ingly outnum bered those who were Or
ganized and who had been educated
and drilled ia the tactics of the enemy
and would not be soerced, inundated
or stampeded from voting their own
convictions The result OF the election
has convinced every Intelligent wage.
worker that 10 politics, per Sc, there is
ne hops OF emancipation from the de-
grading cnrse of wage slavery"
Mr.. Debs says that the defeat which
more than 6,OJO.OO0 meA sought to
avert proelaims that What is to be
called defeat is 10 be a flaming sym
boil of victory, because ali over this
bread land it served to arouse the mind
forces of millions of men. The ballot,
however much it has been eulegiged,
he declares has been beaten to the
earth by Doodle and could not be relied
upon TO execute the will OF the people
while they are il industrial bondage.
He BELIEVES there is a way out Of this
"labyrinth, tortuous, binding aud
confusing maze" He says the leaders
of the socialist army have thrown open
the door of hope to the toiling masses.
Speaking for himself he says he is a
socialist His sociaIistic convictions
have grown upon him as he has become
convinced that the competitive system
IS utterly eannibalistie. Human be-
ings are set against one another and
the heartless proceeding has to be done
in self-delense. Under The regime of
private capital ne declares property
has become sacred and human life has
been reduced to a valueless commodity
"The producing many have been sub
jugated by degrees until millions work
by permission and millions of others
are trampiag and starving to paupers'
graves.
He holds that men have a right to
w0rk-the same inherent right that
they have to breathe. They have
right to all they produce; if any part is
taken from them without their ez-
press consent, it is robbery. The is
sue is socialism against capitalism,
Money constitutes no proper basis of
civilization, He says that he is aware
that socialism is a term little under
stood.
when analysed, it means eo.opera,
ton instead of competitiunl collective
ownership of land, capital aud ali the
means OF production and distriba ton.
It proclaims the coming Of the coop
erative commonwealth to take the
place Of wage slavery"
He eonfesses to no hope for the toll
ing masses except by the pathway
mapped out by socialists. 10 continue
ia the old rut, he says, is but to reach
profounder depths of poverty until
tagged. numbered and branded, the
managers of trusts, syndicates and
combines will at no distant day call
the roll of their white slaves.
Commenting upon MIR, Debs' views,
&, W, Young, editor of the Indepen.
dence (Kan.l Star and Kansan says:
while agree entirely with the
principles enunciated by Mr. Debs in
another column, I do not think he is
warranted in concluding that relief
from the injustice and evils of present
conditions is impossible by the ballot.
The people are eing slowly educated.
Such ideas of social conditions as Mr..
Debs expresses are so new, and so few
of the people have ever heard of them
even, much less studied them, that it is
futile to expect they can become domi-
nant at once. But a little leaven
leaveneth the whole lump. The idea
that government must care more for
human beings and less for property, is
one that is bound to work its way in
the world until it becomes the keynote
OF our legislation. There is no reason
to despair because we lost the first
election in which the men who toll
were ever arrayed against the men who
live by others toll. The line will be
more and more clearly drawn here
after. The men who labor will not al
ways be deluded by the lies of those
who are robbing them. Organized la
Dor was with us in the last election.
Why should not all labor be with US in
the next?"
breaches PLAINLY.