The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1897-06-19
DEBS' GREAT SPEECH
Delivered Before the A. K. u.
Cooperative Commonwealth
Convention in Chicago.
A CALL TO PRACTICAL WORK
r1asterly Statement of the Con-
ditiOn That Confront the
American People.
A CALL TO PRACTICAL WORK

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
FRIENDS AND CO-WORKERS:
We have assembled here in the para
gon city Of Chicago under the auspices
of the American Railway Union to de-
liberate upon. propositions which relate
to industrial and economic affairs.
We are here as the representatives
of Labor, which, overlapping the mar
rover limits of unions, lodges, divisions
and guilds, inscrbes upon it's banner
the conquering shibboleth, 'Humani-
ty," and goes forth to battle with one
supreme, overmastering purpose in
view, that of lettering the condition OF
men and women who work and whose
only capital is their brains and their
hands.
The toilers of all enlightened nations,
by which l mean those who comprehend
their unalienable right to life, liberty
and the pursuit Of happiness" by pro-
cesses of mind evolution, have arrived
at the conclusion that their mission in
the world is something superior to
eternal servitude; that they were de-
signed by their Creator to occupy po-
sitions superior to beasts of burden, to
dumb, driven CATTLE superior to the
it builds, superior to the worm that
spins silk, lays it's eggs to perpetuate
it's toiling race, and dies.
But they find that after all the CEN
turtles of toll, servitude and degrade
ton, conditions remain essentially un-
changed, except for those rare and
widely separated instances when they
have sought to achieve some measure
of emancipation from their thraldoms
by breaking the letters which their
masters had forged. = IS :, .
But history, that register of the
crimes, follies and misfortunes Of man.
kind" reveals the fact that the wage
system, which is of necessity slavery,
hoary with age and forever producing
the same results, has created and per-
petuated conditions at the mere men,
ton of which humanity shudders.
But I should do violence to the truth
and perpetuate the crime of ingrati-
tude if 1 were to intimate that amidst
all the gloom of the centuries the star
Of Hope had not held it's, place and
cheered humanity to struggle on for
better conditions and l should be UNI
true to my own convictions If 1 were
to deny that even now, as eighteen hum
dred years ago, there is heard above
all the sordid strife and tumult of the
world the promise, ION earth peace,
good will toward men,"
In the onward march Of civilization
and evolution, in the majestic muster
ing of the mind forces of the world,
whose achievements make facts more
wonderful than the creations Of fancy,
when the world, by the wires on which
electricity travels with the speed of
thought, is made whispering gallery,
when cities rise and flourish as if by
magic, when in all the earth there is no
terra incOgnita, when steam and elec-
tricity on the land and on the sea are
solving all the problems of commerce,
and man stands forth by the fiat of his
>-ewn genius the. crowned conqueror of
nature, 1 ask, in this period Of sublime
achievements, what benefits have come
to the great family OF toilers, without
whose work the world would roll in
space wilderness? I answer, they are
just where they were when the Pha-
raohs built the pyramids with their
slaves and kings built cities for their
Iown glory. s
The wage system, in spite of all the
refinements of sOphisticatiOn' is the
same in all ages, in all lands and in all
climes. Its victims work, propagate
their species, bear all the burdens and
perish.
I am not her to denounce capital, nor
am l her to exploit my views of the
rich, not even of that gentleman who
discarded the beggar at his gate, and
soon after lifted up his eyes in hell"
Men, as a rule, are the product of con-
diUOns, circumstances, environments,
and as these are favorable or unfavor-
able, men become useful or useless,
lie or ignoble, good or bad. 1t is,
fore, not with the individual that
to do, but with the system that
.,.uuuces him and is responsible for
him, and my purpose Is to discuss con-
ditions and aid as best 1 can in point
ing out means Of relief for those of my
fellow toilers who believe that the time
has come when better conditions for
multiplied thousands can be secured.
I am not unmindful of the fact that
ere are those who disagree with us
d who maintain that there can be no
lief while any part of the wage sys-
sem remains. They insist that the
present competitive system must be
ompletely overthrown and not a YES
tige of it left in any department OF
actitivy, on a foot of our soil, before
permanent relief to the suffering mass
IS can be provided. with these good
eople I have no quarrel. Indeed,
nong those who are pledged to the
cooperative Commonwealth and who
iffer as to method only, there is no &C.
aston for unfriendly feeling and all
aed say is that while we propose to
little with all our energy and zeal to
,rry out our plans for immediate re-
f, there will be no abatement in our
forts to further the cause of socialism
general until it's universal triumph
NORTHUMBERLAND We are impressed
the conviction that nothing here
,re attempted in our country is 50
calculated to augment the hosts in
fraternal faith and hasten the di-
day of deliverance as the work
are about to undertake. 1t is well
gh to extol the beauties Of the ideal
IN. but in the presence of existing
when millions are suffering,
m tortured by hunger
iven to desperation and
t. ALI this in sight of fabu-
esources, something should be
nd done now, and though the
orld cried out in opposition, L
till favor immediate action on
as common sense commended
ch an extent as ceaseless eff
'ndomitable will made pos
,rence to serene cOntempla-
horrors while awaiting
IN of the millennium by
rocesses in operation.
,fail-but we shall not
n ic &c cacro6 as ever