The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-06-26
MIR. DEBS' PROPHECY
HE THINKS THAT SOCIALISM WILL
BE A POLITICAL FACTOR
BY 1908
PRESENT KAISER THE LAST
Germany, He saysp VIII Throw OF
the Yoke 81 the Empire-The
United States It'd he Driven Into
Socialism " 3he rru.ts-Pre.-
ent ProspeEttX- Declared Ar

OAAieu states TO he Driven Into
Socialism By he Trusts-Pres-
ent Prosperity. Declared Ar
tifciai. Ell
Denied the benefit Of footlights. and
with huge chandelier behind him which
threw the speaker into dense shadow
on the stage of the Grand opera house.
Eugene V. Debs yesterday afternoon de-
l1Vered his lecture, on Labor and Lib
erty' to fair-sized audience. This was
not the first appearance of Mr.. Debs be-
fore st. Paul adience. But 1t is safe to
say that he has never before in this city
delivered more carefully studied ad-
dress. Early in the discourse the speaker
announced himself an advanced socialist.
ana the theme of socialism was the CEN
tral thought around which he wove de-
spa1ring pictures of the present condition
OF American labor. Robert Burns poem.
with the sad refrain, fs
Mans inhumanfty to man
Makes countless thousands mourn.''
was taken as poetical text of the ad-
dress. -'s'-s'1 ~
Mr.. Debs declared that the boosted
prosperity Of today was a false prosper-
ity, an artificial Industrial stfmulant IT
was mockery to claim prosperity for a
nation when coal miners in half a dozen
states were working forsan average wage
OF rs cents a day; when two lines In g.
want ad. in Chicago would bring respons-
es from hundreds" of intelligent. capable
men, some of them college graduates.
willing to work for S125 a day: when the
army Of tramps was increasing in ten
rold ratio, year by year., and when one
class was growing smaller and richer and
another larger and poorer. And even this
false prosperity, he said, was but tenn
porary. The present administration
would. of course, keep it alive until after
the next presidential election Then the
pcttom would faA1completely out.
am not one of ,thase.'' said Mr.. Debs.
VINO are opposed to trusts. These vast
combinations OF capital are but. stepping
stones to socialisn3.9fIR the end they will
necessarily. work, put the salvation of the
laporing classes. ut ts idle to- make laws
against them, for the reason that they
are founded upontthe principle. of indiyid-
ual rights. If msH. have the right to en-
ter into partnership with other men
these lesser combinations have the right
10 join with others, and there you have
the trust, perfectly legal combination
Of capital, as lawful ais a simple partner
ship In business"
But in the facesefSaIl this no man can
picture the. evils NJ trusts more adroitlv
than did Debs. He painted in eloquent
language the mercilAss greed and injus-
tee or these same trusts. He said that
their capitalization was nearly so per
cent or the entire amount of financial
investment in the United States. Thirty
one trusts had been organized in ona
week. Hundreds of commercial travellers
had been discharged. 1t had become up-
necessary for the trusts to seek Gus
toners by the Nold style Of competition.
People who wanted goods must come To
the trusts. Running expenses had been
reduced and prices advanced But the
outcome OF all such combinations would
De the reorganization of our govern
mental system on sociaIfstic lines. When
mat time came-and it is not far away
the machinery that now made a slave
OF the sWofktnEmant and drove him ont
INTO the highways and byways a tramn
would become the-slave of. the Iaborer
That which had been invented for the
purpose OF reducing the aggregate toll
OF the world would do so In reality in
stead OF becoming. labors worst, and
most MEMORABLE enemy.
The workingman, Mr. Debs said had
no social position In this city or in anv
other. The horny-handed son OF toll
imagined himself something of a factor
In politics. But how far was he such a
FACTOR? After the parade was over, after
the ballots were counted and the candi-
dates elected, did the workineman find
hlmsef within the sacred precincts of
the inaugural ball room? Oh, no. There
was an entirely different class of peo-
horny-handed sons OF toll. Their hands
were smooth and soft and lily white.
Inc speaker had been told that these
CLASS distinctions were necessities in the
economy of nature. that all were NOT
born to become educated and ornaments
to society. He opposed this sentiment
lie said that he would take 100 babies
selected from all classics of society from
the palace on the hilf to the hut in tha
Sums, and, giving them all equal edyan-
tages, would return them at the age OF
eighteen years and defy the stranger to
tell from which class of society each
Individual had originally sprung.
Reformers had always been; unpopular
In their lifetime Socrates and Christ
mad suffered martyrdom for the sake of
principles fully and : freely Endorsed in
la.er years: THOMAS Jefferson and John
Adams had beenn denounced as dema
gogues. Lovejoy had; been assassinated
for his anti-slavery views, but now a
noble monument TO his memory stands
at Alton, Ill. William Lloyd Garrison
mad been hooted through the streets of
Hartford and Boston by mob. Wendell
Phillips, born aristocrat, had made
common cause with the down-trodden
slave, and had been revfled and insulted
In public. But the cause of socialism
was advancing with mighty strides. That
system was not so far away as manv
might today imagine Germany would
never see another emperor, and in 1903
the socialistic' vote In the United States
with.
Following the lecture Mr. Debs held an
Informal reception in the opera house.
IN NETGHBORHOOD ROW.