The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-02-26
DEBS BREACHES SOCIALISM
WELL KNOWN LABOR AGITATOR AD-
 DRESSES 4 LARGE AUDIENCE. =


 Wrong, and Points Out Socialism as the
 Resolutions Adopted by the
 Meeting to be Sent to the Families of ZOla and Dreyfus.
 Eugene V. Debs, the we'll known la bor agitator, addressed large meet ing held under the auspices of the so- cial democracy in the new Music hall on Court street last evening. The hall was we'll filled. Secretary Sylvester Keliher of the National Social Democra- cy spoke briefly, outlining the need and the purposes of the organization.
 MT. Debs was then introduced. While few people would agree with MT. Debs in many of the statements he makes and the conclusions he draws, he is a good deal of a platform genius of the type of the old time stump speaker. Tall and rather slender, his length of body and limb serves him well in his speech making, for they are in constant motion to emphasize his words. He speaks very deliberately his slowness of speech adding to the effect of what he has to say. He has way of coin- ing phrases which one will be apt to remember.
 Last evening he said in part: '"These times in which we live are the most marvellous in the history of the world. There is a vast amount of wealth in the country in which we live, but it is unjustly distributed The man who does the most gets the least and the man who does the least gets the most. The rich man is just as much a prod uct of the system as the poor man, and I am not sure but that he is just as much in need of emancipation. Let us compare the condition of labor to- day with what 1t was years ago. Then each laboring man might hope that in time he would become the proprietor of shop and an employer of labor him. self. The introduction of machinery has diminished the need for laborers; women have taken the places of men, and children of women in the factories because of the constant demand for cheaper production under our competi- tive system. The men out of employ ment are driven forth to tramp the country. The question used to be with the employer, how much wages would enable the laborer to live comfortably; to-day it is how little wages will keep his soul in his rebellious body. The laborer used to labor in the expectation of being the proprietor of a shop him. self some day. Does the factory hand to-day or the clerk in the department store dream that he will ever own the factory or the department store? No! His condition is that of slave. His employer fixes the price of labor When man sells labor he sells life'' The speaker eulogized the tramp, saying he always sympathized with them as the victims of the system. He should be one himself if this system continued he said. He next denounced the present competitive system as i'm moral. saying that any system under which a man cannot obtain labor ought to be abolished. He referred ito the sweat shops in New York, which he had visited as proof that we are not yet civilized. As a remedy for all these evils he preached the socialistic cure government ownership of all the means of production. Some of the views he expressed in this connection are as fol- lows: Under the coming system profit and robbery will be considered synonymous terms" Under our pres ent economic system we have developed in J. D. Rockefeller more powerful despot than any king in Europe" Re- ferring to the appointment of receivers for railroads by the government, he said, "The government has been turn ed into a kind of repair shop of other peoples roads. Why may it not repair its own roads?" Under this system 1t is every man for himself and his satan ic majesty takes the hindmost man. Cooperation, he said, is the law of the universe. Supposing our solar sys- tenn should run on competitive princi- pie: what smash there would be. So- cialism, he said, would be brought about by the trusts, which are pervert- ed forms of socialism, and by the peo- pie, who would be led or compelled by the apprehensiveness of the present system to aid in the movement
 | The following resolutions were adopt ed by the meeting and will be sent to 1 the family of M. Emile Zola:
 Whereas Emil Zola, the greatest citizen l and patriot of this age in France, is now under conviction of Imprisonment and fine | for exercising his right and duty in inform l ing the world at large of the ways and means by which Captain Dreyfus was con victed by a so-called court martial in 1 France;
 Whereas, The court martial which con- yicted Captain Dreyfus was the most dis | graceful use of the tools of an oppressive government in existence in this enlightened | century, and service not only to the citizens of France, but also to the world at large and par 1 ticularly to the citizens of the United States | in showing to them how a government in | republic can assume and exercise powers ! and prerogatives which the most absolute 1 monarchy In the world would not dare to 1 assume and exercise,
 | It is therefore resolved, That we, the | citizens of New Haven, in mass meeting assembled, hereby express our heartiesi l sympathy to Emil Zola In his confinement l encourag ging him with the reminder of the | fact that all reformers and defenders of | the rights of the people from Christ down | to the present age have suffered and were l finally recognized and adored, as he surely | will be.
 Resolved, That copies of these preambles and resolutions be forwarded to Mrs. Emil | Zola and Mrs. Captain Dreyfus with ouI profound sympathy in their grief
 | Not to Occupy Hai-Nan.
 | London, Feb. 25.-In the house ot