The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1897-01-22
WHY pEss LEFT.

WHY DEBS LEFT.
He Gives His Reasons for Supporting Bryan
and Now Leaving the Populists to Become
Socialist.
In his letter in the Railway Times
in which Eugene Debs announced his
departure from the peoples party to
become a socialist, he says he support
ed Bryan not because he believed free
silver to be panacea for national ills,
but because he believed the election Of
Bryan would ''banish from the high
ways Of human endeavor many black
flag"
The free silver issue furnished rail-
lying cry and common ground against
the trusts, syndicates and corpora
tions, and once united they could press
forward against industrial slavery.
As evidence that he was right in this
conclusion he points to the consterna-
ton among the ''shylocks and robbers
which enabled Mark Hanna to collect
more than SIC. OOO, 900 to prevent the
election of Bryan"
He says: Eighty per cent of the
organized wage-earners voted for
Bryan. That the result of the cleo
fact that unorganized la Dor overwhelm-
ingly outnum bered those who were or
ganized and who had been educated
and drilled in the tactics of the enemy
and would not be coerced. intimidated
or stampeded from voting their own
convictions. The result of the election
has convinced every intelligent wage
worker that in politics, per Sc, there is
no hope of emancipation from the de-
grading curse of wage slavery"
Mr.. Debs says that the defeat which
more than 5000, 900 men sought to
avert proclaims that what is to be
called a defeat is to be a flaming SYM
Dol of victory, because all over this
broad land it served to arouse the mind
forces of millions Of men. The ballot,
however much it has been euloyized,
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 in industrial bondage.
He belives there is way out of this
Labyrinth, tortuous, binding and
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
socialist. His socialistic convictions
have grown upon him as he has become
convinced that the competitive system
is utterly cannibalistic- Human be-
ings are set against one another and
the heartless proceeding has to be done
in self-defense. Under the regime of
private capital he declares property
has become sacred and human life has
been reduced to valueless commodity.
1.-The producing many have been SUBJ
jugated by degrees until millions work
bv permission and millions of others
are tramping and starving to paupers'
graves"
He holds that men have a right to
work-the same inherent right that
they have to breathe They have a
right to all they produces; if any part is
taken from them without their ex-
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 co-opera-
ton instead of competition! collective
ownership of land. capital and all the
means of production and distribu lion.
It proclaims the coming of the coop
erative commonwealth to take the
place of wage slavery"
He confesses to no hope for the toll
ing masses except by the pathway
mapped out by socialists To continue
in the old rut, he says, is but to reach
profounder depths of poverty until
tagged, mum bered and branded, the
managers OF trusts, syndicates and
com bines will at no distant day call
the roll of their white slaves.
Commenting upon Mr.. Debs' views,
n. w. Young. editor of the Indepen-
dence Oian-) Star and Kansan says:
while 1 agree entirely with the
principles enunciated by Mr.. Debs in
another column, 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 teing 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 little leaven
Ieaveneth the whole lump The idea
that government must care more for
human beings and less for property, is
one that is bound to work it's 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 arraved AGAINST / he m @ n who
live by others toll. The line will be
more and more clearly drawn here
after. The men who la Dor will not al
ways be deluded by the lies of those
who are robbing them. Organized Ia
Dor was with us in the last election
Why should not all la Dor be with us in
the next?"
breaches PLAINLY.
Chicago Divine Gives His CONGREGATION