The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1899-07-06
SOCIALISTIC
TRUSTS ARE THE MOST POWERFUL
FACTORS MAKING FOR PROGRESS
IN THE INDUSTRIAL AND
POLITICAL WORLD.
CHE DAWN OF SOCIALISM WILL
BREAK INTO THE FULL LIGHT
OF A BRIGHTER DAY
IN 1908.
AOCKEFELLER, HAVEMEYER AND
CARNEGIE ARE SOCIALISTS IN
PRODUCTION But NOT IN
DISTRIBUTION.

DISTRIBUTION.
ADDRESS BY EUGENE v. DEBS AT
ST. PAUL, JUNE 25.
(Reported for The Representative by
DR.. H. B. Fay.)
A tree is known by it's fruit. BY the
same rule we must judge our economic
system. If it results in true prosperity,
holiness, justice, it is a good system,
otherwise it should be condemned But
of our system it is too true that, as Rob-
ert Burns says, Mans inhumanity to
man makes countless thousands
mourn" Under this system it is the
man who does the least productive work
that receives the most pay.
1t is only within the last few years
that the locomotive has brought about
the present revolution. Before that
time the laborer could get sufficient
work and receive the fruit of his toll.
There was neither millionaire nor
tramp. I never see tramp but what
pity him. l pity him for two reasons:
First, because he is made what he is by
our present machine industry, and Sec
ond, because under his rags I can see
all of us as we are being driven into
same unjust system. "Never mind,
Mary" the tramp says to his wife, Il
will get another job" Yet within his
heart of hearts he feels that work will
be denied him under his weak and USE
less competitive struggle against mod
ern machinery. He knows in advance
that he cannot get honest work, even by
begging, under the present competitive
system. This is the first scene enacted
by competition. He has not learned to
knock the dust from his knees by using
the ballot box for his own emancipa-
ton. So the tramp is driven from town
to town. He goes on foot or on the
trucks. He is denied free ride even
in box cars, if discovered. Under the
present system it is only the wealthy
who are allowed to ride free. The
system drives self-respect from tho
tramp. The CALLING injustice rankles in
his bosom. He has reached the next
door to crime. And yet on reaching a
certain city, this same tramp saved the
life of a lady, who was crossing the
tracks before an oncoming train. while
his own body was crushed to pulp. In
bots oh ri n q
that he had come from respectable
family. Beneath his rags he had great
soul.
Men who expose the deviltry of the
present system are denounced as "agi-
tators." Yet they are the pathfnders
of the future. They are the crests of
the wave of popular movement that
is to revolutionize the world. Those
on the other hand, who declare that
prosperity has come, show themselves
by such talk to be absolutely ignorant
of the economic tendency of modern
industry. The intelligent student of po-
litical economy knows that times were
never so bad as now; he knows that
whatever of prosperity is here is only
artificial, due to a temporary stimulant;
that it is not natural. When we see the
extremes of life walking our streets, the
result of competition, we see signs OF
disease.
The great middle class of the United
States is fast disappearing. Only one
out of ten of the middle class is able to
push into the capitalistic class, while
the other nine are sinking farther and
farther into the proletariat class. Last
year there were 14,25O commercial fall
ures, indicating the crushing out of the
middle men. The declaration that all
men are endowed with "the inalienable
right of life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness" has become glittering
generality in our day. In the days of
Jefferson our economic conditions we're
so primitive that men could have what
Jefferson preached; but now, as hand-
work has passed into machine-wo.E, c.
operation of the alI-powerful capiralis-
tic class has taken all hope away from
wage slaves Their condition becomes
more and more precarious. Their very
life hangs on a slender string. Owners
OF machines can successfully compete
q against the hand-laborer. Capitalistic
machines have driven two and hat
millions of children in the United States
into the factories. In many cases 1t
takes the work of the father, mother
and all of the children to support the
family. What is going to be the result
for our country? Is the family to fall
That was the cause of the downfall of
Rome. At present the result is urivcr.
sal Generalization. There never was a
time when SO many are out Of work