The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-10-15
DEBS IS GLOOMY.
Sees Little Encouraging In
Present Conditions.
Neither Republicans Nor Demo-
Gratis Would Help.
BANE OF COMPETITION
Has Developed All the Bad in
Man.
BANE OF COMPETITION
G. C. Clemens Violent TRADE
Against the Newspapers.

The second presidential candidate to
speak in Topeka this year, Eugene Y.
Debs. Social Democrat, addressed about
1900 people in the Auditorium Saturday
night.
The crowd began to gather at 7.3O
O'Clock and continued to come long after
8 o'clock, the hour set for the meeting
to be called to order. 1t was $50 before
Mr.. Debs and G. c. Clemens stepped to
the platform and the audience was get
ting uneasy. Mr.. Clemens promptly
stepped forward and said: 4 have the
pleasure as we'll as the privilege Of in
Producing the Social Democratic candi-
date for president of the United States,
Eugene v. Debs." The audience appre-
ciated the brevity of the introduction for
they were tired from the long wait and
were not anxious to hear Mr.. Clemens
crate.
Mr.. Debs began his address with: "a
mighty social revolution is in progress;
the era. of the small producer and of
vate monopolieS rule the land" He
then went on to say that the revolution
while quiet was powerful, and that the
present conditions served only to add
strength to it.
In the present political conflict said
Mr.. Debs, 1.-The American people are di-
vided into three classes: the Republican,
or dominant class; the Democratic, or
middle class; the Social Democratic, or
working class; and each party is COM
mitted to the class it represents. The
Republican party is in favor of the
trusts, the Democratic party says 1t VIII
dissolve them, and the Social Democratic
party proposes to absorb them
Mr.. Debs then went on to say that the
Republican party favored expansion, or
a retention of the Philippines, in order
that there might be a place in which to
dispose of the surplus Product Of this
country. He said that the overproduc-
ton was the result of machinery, and
that with modern machines this country
would soon be able to supply the world,
provided it could get the market, but
that competition was so great that IN
order to compete successfully the wage
of the working man was reduced. In
order to more successfully manage the
markets monopolies are formed and
every monopoly privately owned is
vicious institution, for it reduces the
wage of the laboring class.
TRUSTS are the result of economic de-
velOpment and under our present SyS-
tenn cannot be avoided. The Democratic
solve the trusts, but they would at once
develop again if that could be done
That proposed remedy is no remedy at
all. They have no legal standing; how
can they be dissolved as Mr.. Bryan pro-
poseS2 In the case of the mines in Penn
sylvania the miners are getting less to-
day less than than one dollar for a days
work, while thirty years ago. before
trusts were formed, the miner received
SIS for a, days work. Competition has
cut down the wages until the working
man who developed the mine is in state
Of poverty. What does the Social Dem
ocratic party propose to do about it?
There is but one thing to do-the people
must own the mines AS long as the
mines are privately owned the men who
work in them will starve, while a few
who own the mines will get rich.
Our railroads are owned by lords,
dukes, counts and no accounts who live
on the other side. and they care little
for the man employed on their property
SO long as they get the dividends to
spend The railroads are sOullesS cor
porations, but they are necessary. They
are the great veins of commerce which
supply this nation with it's life blood
The smaller roads have been absorbed
by the greater They are consolidating
troll this greatest of all public necessity.
This consolidation cannot be dissolved
while it is privately owned. Under So
cia1 Democracy the railroad would be
owned by the people and operated by
the people. The man who worked on it
would be able to support his family, the
wife would be queen of the home, and
the children would be educated We will
all be something besides a cog in the
wheel of modern industry.
Modern machinery is responsible to a
great extent for the present condition.
Machinery now does all and more than
was formerly done by the man with the
tools, the expert workman. The ma
chine makes our shoes, our hats, our
clothing: in fact, it makes everything we
wear or use, and it does it cheaper and
better than could be done by the man
with the tools. A child can operate the
machine, and under the present system
the child feeds the machine while the
machine starves the child.
when man owned his tools the more