The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1899-05-22
Delivered to Good-Sized Audience at the
Opera House.
--------
he DISCUSSES ECONOMIC QUESTIONS
And Tells of the Hardships Entnilcd
Upon the Lnborine Men by the
Combination of Capital.

The house was not In very inviting
condition for an audience. It having been
badly drenched the night before during
the fre and 1t was consequently damp and
disagreeable and the falling walls from
time TO time across the alleyway where
they were being pulled down as matter
of safety, caused two or three startling
alarms that Interrupted the lecture
In his address which lasted about an
hour and thirty minutes. Mr.. Debs COM
menced with primitive time and quoted
jefferson as saying that mo government
should be either extremely rich or ex-
tremely poor" There should be social
equality. but neither class nor caste. In
those early days the working man re-
ceived adequate compensation on exactly
what he produced Work was then done
with primitive tools, They cost but few
dollars and every laborer could easily
secure his own tools implements Of occu-
patton, from the surplus from his labor.
The American laborer was then an inde-
pendent man Then came the invention
OF labor saving machinery and began tho
great class struggle. when the little shops
expanded into vast factories.
In the early history of the Republic
to which lie referred there was not a sin
gle millionaire. nor a single tramp The
millionaires had come later and the word
tramp had been coined to represent his
antithesis--the most deplorahlo and mel
anoholy figure IN the entire horoscope OF
human society. a rebuke 10 our much
Wanted Christian civilization, As econo-
mic machinery increased. SO the army OF
unemployed labor Increased. A. the ma
chimes suporseding human labor became
more perfect. competition increased ana
wages decreased
He referred TO the difficulties of secur-
ing employment under existing conditions.
No man could appreciate these difficulties
unless he had been stranger in q strange
land looking for work, going from door 10
door begging for permission to earn
enough to keep his family from starvation.
Under present conditions II was almost re-
garded as q crime to be poor and the
man poorly dressed is discontinued
against and tabooed by society, no matter
how respectable he may be. He Is a
social outcast because his clothes are
shabby. II YOU arc not well dressed In
these days society IL against you, but
many man who vs. poor in money IS rich
in principle. A poor girl steals. a rich
girl is simply the victim OF kleptomanla.
The speaker told how Christ was the
friend of the poor and recited the story Of
the Magdalen.
This country. he said. was a vast bat
tlefield with the rich arrayed against the
poor the strong against the weak, and yet
they refer 10 the present situation as the
survival of the nttest, There Is even a
struggle OF the laboping classes among
themselves. DESPITE the biblical injunction
that We should love our neighhor as we
lovo ourselves, Tho present day rule Of
business is might against right, cunning
against counivance. Laboring men are
continually seeking to deprive each other
OF EMPLOYMENT
He referred TO iohn d. Rockefeller as
man who had it in his power to ok the
price of products and regulate the scale
Of wages. He keens labor in sublugation
He absolutely controls one OF the chief
necessities of life.
Up to the time machines made their
ndvcnt 1t was comparatively easy for
every man to earn a living. The child Of
The laboring man today feeds the machine
and the machines starves the child. The
machine was the first enemy to the
working man, by getting into the hands
OF capltalistic corporations who used them
10 reduce the wages of laborers. The ma
chine had even invaded the nrntng Of
ices and We're now doing work that n was
thought could only be done by hand and
Edison saws that within twenty years all
the work of the world Will he done by
machinery
There was time when one man by hand
made an entire pair shoes and he knew
exactly what the profit Of his labor
would he. Now shoes are made In facto-
ries and pair of shoes before it is com
pleted passes through seventy-two hands
and the profit that formerly went to ne
man must be divided IN into seventy two
parts
Under the present system our women
rhitdrAn n "a driVpu ,cfn ,,,A
bones are broken up because It requires
the combined labor OF an entire family to
support the household Homes are now
but adiuncts to factories Men will Insist
that the agitation OF the labor question
is senseless. That all men are enual and
the country is free one for men to do as
they please. This all sounds very pretty.
but at the same time our children are he
coming mere cogs in the wheels of IN
dustry. Our children get the munhcent
wage OF cents per day In the cotton mills
of the South and cents per day in furni-
ture factories making cane bottoms for
chairs, while men working In coal mines
get 90 cents per day.
The sneaker referred TO the rand
growth OF trusts. thirty-nve having been
formed during the past month and YOU
cant break up these trusts by any statu-
tory enactments. They are the natural
growth of the present competition system
But these trusts will eventually be alb
sorbed BY the people and we will then pass
from capitalism TO socialism. The force
OF present economic conditions will bring
about condition OF socialism. Rockefel-
Ter Is doing more to advanced the cause
of socialism than all the socialists COM
bined. Competition is being absolutely
DESTROYED In the concentration OF trusts.
The middle classes once referred to as the
great hulwark Of this country are being
crushed and are passing away Small
business concerns are being absorbed by
the trusts. The recent formation OF the
tobacco trust recently threw 1000 travel
ing men out OF employment That trust.
like all others. fixes the price they pay for
the raw material as we'll as the price al
which they sell their finished product
Pursuing the subject. he pointed out how
the system was being gradually extended
into new fields, The operation OF the
farm mortgage in eliminating the small
farmer was described Next he showed
how the department store was absorbing
the business OF the small shop keeper, He
then described the dishonesty among husl-
ness men, superInduced by the system
showing how cheating had become appar-
Emily an essential part OF business He
then passed 70 the subject OF co-operatlon
and asserted that socialism was spreading
over the world. He quoted figures 10
show. The extent OF socialism in different