The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-10-17

| Debs said there was some talk of pros
perity. He said he would admit that
| more men We're employed this year than
| there were last, but declared that so
| long as a million men had to depend
on the whims of a few for permission
| to live there could be no real pros
| perity.
In Butte" he said. you have I'M
| usually favorable conditions, but is
| there one miner in this city VINO gets
| more than he is entitled to? How
| many men are there who have been
| here for 10 years who have $1,000 il
the bank or even perfectly comfortable
| homes? How many of them go to Eu-
rope on pleasure trips? And yet II ne
is not entitled to a pleasure trip, VINO
is? Living expenses here are cores
| pondingly high and at the end of the
| month you are not much ahead OF your
| Eastern brothers. I have been down in
| a pit in a mine, 400 or 800 feet UNDER
| ground and I have heard the miners
| pick It sounded to me like the NUT
fed drum at funeral march, ana
| said to myself that man is following
| his own hearse to the potters field.
| 1t is a life of danger and a position
| of uncertainty. His job depends on
a very slender thread, and any hour
| or minute he may find himself out of
work. When he loses his job he goes
| to the next town, but he will not ride
| in a Pullman car, although he may
| have built it. There is one class who
| can afford to pay for it, but it rides
| free and on passes; the middle class
| buys mileage, and the poor man pays
| full fare or walks.
THE man in search of new job
goes from place to place until his last
cent is gone and hope and self respect
leave him and at last he becomes a
| tramp. The tramp is a result of this
| system. Political speakers tell the
| hard-handed son Of toll that the drops
| of sweat on his brow are more precious
than the jewels in queenly crown,
| but they are not very anxious to ac-
cumulate any of them Under the
| present system no one envies the wage
| workers lot and no one is anxious to
| take his place. That is why so many
of us prefer to be parasites than to
| work. 1t is better to work those that
| work. The child is raised Ito be any
| thing but a workingman. The odor
of honest labor is fatal to social am
| bition. The man who visits the capital
| of the nation may be told that every
| man has an equal chance to become
| president, just as though there were
not thousands who would gladly swap
| their chances for the presidency Tor a
ham sandwich.
No dignity attaches to the man
| whose labor is sold in the open market
| His condition is worse than slavery.
The old slave was not afraid of losing
his job nor was he confined in a bull
pen for asserting his right to a sutfi-
cient wage to keep his soul in his body.
| The black slave was placed on block
and sold to the highest bidder, but the
modern wage slave is placed on the
| block and sold to the lowest bidder.
| THE laboring man now produces 20
| times as much as he did a. half century
| ago. Why does he not have 10 times
as much as he had then? Because he
| does not own the product or have a
share in what he produces. He gets in
wage sufficient only for his necessities
and to keep him in order and to per-
! petuate his species. The labor saving
machine is becoming more perfect daily
! and over production is becoming great
err and the opportunities for employ
ment are growing less, but the system
of distribution remains the same. That
is why John D. Rockefeller has been
| able to amass fortune of $3.50, 900, 900.
While we are not ruled by a czar or
king, we are ruled by an economic
monarch. We are in the habit of quot
ing the Declaration of Independence.
1t says that all men are created equal
and are entitled to life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness. If a man Is en-
titled to life he is entitled to work with
which to sustain that life"
| Mr.. Debs said capitalism was run
ming its course. Capitalism was born
of feudalism and is the parent of So
cialsm. Speaking of the trusts he said
| every line of commodity had been mo-
nopolized and small manufacturers.
dealers and the middle classes were
| slowly but surely being driven to the
wall.
Trusts are not a creation Of the law
and cannot be abolished by the law
said he. They are the creation of la
Dor. They are the latest form of pro-
duction, the concentrated mass of ma
chinery. The trust is the great fac
tory that is still crushing out the
smaller enterprises. The middle class
is struggling to get up among the capt.
talists. One in a thousand may sue
coed and the other 999 will be forced
down into the already overcrowded
ranks of labor
He spoke of the department stores
and said the people of Butte had a
taste of that system, but would have
more as the weeks and months passed
by; small dealers would soon be forced
i out OF business because the department
stores could sell cheaper than he coult
buy. Last year there We're nearly 14,00(
failures among the middlemen. On
trust makes another necessary, and NJ
power in this country can stop thei
progress. The trust can no more be leg
slated out of existence than the corpo
| ration could.
TT is not desirable to crush the trus'
If we could" said Mr.. Debs. LAS {
socialist I would not lay as much a:
a straw in it's way. The trust repre-
sents the modern means of production
production consolidated. The trust il
legal if the ordinary partnership Is lie
gal. If you can keep millionaires from
forming partnerships you can keep thu
ordinary man from doing so. Even l.
they could be abolished, what gair
would it be to the workngman? Will
unrestricted competition production
would increase, prices would necessaril!
be reduced and wages cut and the la
borer would again bear the burden
The people are not going to destroy thu
trusts. They are going to get posses
sion of them. The capitalists are do
ing good work in bringing that enc
about"
Mr.. Dehs predicted the climax Of the
trust formations in A rev years, wher
there would be great collapse
!, throughout the country: then the PEG.
pie would rise up and take possession