The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1898-12-28
In that way we would soon get clear of
the evil effects of the revolution Of 1776,
and that Populist document. the Decla-
ration of Independence.
OvERPRODUCTION AND EXPANSION.

Wv AMI AAtANSAVNs
Capitalists and their daily organs are
strongly urging national expansion and
this fact alone should cause the masses
to examine carefully and with suspicion
all their arguments. It is we'll under
stood that these same classes have
claimed production was the cause
of closed mills, stagnated industries
and enforced idleness. The masses of
tOilers have been slow to see and slower
to admit that there could be at the same
time over-production of the necessaries
There has appeared to be a lack of con-
sistency between OVERLOOKING granaries
and starving multitudes, an er-produc-
ton of clothing and rags and nakedness,
an production of homes and those
manufactured products that make home
homelike and the millions of homeless
tramps.
Thoughtful and philosophic minds have
at once suggested unequal distribution
and underconsumption as more reason
able explanation of these apparent in
constituencies. If labor produces for the
capitalist employer profits worth a
million dollars and receives back in
wages only two-thirds of this sum it
should be clear and automatic propo-
sition that the laborers can purchase for
their own consumption only two-thirds
of what they have produced and that
the capitalist employer must have left
as profits one-third the product for which
he must seek a foreign market. This
one-third profit that labor is unable to
buy is what the capitalist calls cover
production 1t is a surplus wrongfully
extorted from the toiling classes in the
nature of stolen goods and the expansion
idea Of it's plutocratic advocates is born
of the necessity of finding foreign mar
ket for these fruits of extortion. The
Omaha platform declared that wealth
belongs to him who creates it,
The Socialists demand public owner
ship of the means of production and dis
tribution. Populists declare for a prin-
ciple and Socialists point the way to
attain it. Populists and Socialists are
agreed that the wages paid labor should
be sufficient to absorb all this so called
production or surplus. They are
agreed that under proper and equitable
ducers would enjoy the full fruits of
their own toll. There would be no &C
cumulations of surplus in the hands OF
a greedy few Exported staples of this
country would bring back to the pro-
ducers of such staples fair exchange of
imported luxuries.
To this end Populists and Socialists
demand that the improved means of pro-
duction, transportation and communica
ton shall be so socialized that the bene-
fits shall inure to the toiling masses
rather than to the idle, scheming few.
They demand that private ownership of
these things in the interests of few
shall give way to public ownership in
the interests of all. Trey demand that
all trusts be embraced within one great
universal government trust
On the contrary eXpansionists contem-
plate continued and greater extortion
from the masses by the few, an enlarg
ed outlet for the disposal of their ILL
gotten gains and the maintenance at the
expense of these same toilers of an i'm
mense army and navy to keep these for
eign outlets open for their benefit They
propose that labor shall be robbed and
shall then be compelled to pay an army
to protect the robbers and their stolen
property and for several elections yet to
come American voters will vote for
these results under the spur of social
ed patriotism. e. A. T.