Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-10-25

tendents and directors. and they know
their employee and there is still the
semblance of mutual interest. Then
comes the next step, the big combine
the trust. A number Of corporations
are swallowed up and absorbed; per-
haps one or more of the plants are clos
ed down. The former proprietor, man
ager, superintendent or director has
simply become profit taker. He no
longer has control, he no longer knows
his employees, he no longer has a voice
in the direction OF affairs. He may
live in Europe, Africa or New Jersey,
months he receives his share OF your
labor He performs no duty, has no
control, but. receives and spends the
proceeds of capitalization that is
nearly always fictitious, and usually
two for one. That is the trust, and
we have it with us"
1.-THE speakers of the old parties
when out on the stump, never refer to
| the only real issue of their campaign.
I'll tell you what it is. It's the tool of
production. See! Just keep your eye
| on that tool of production. This cam
paign the only question Is: Shall the
tool of production remain in the pos
session of the moneyed few or shall
it resolve back into the hands Of the
laboring classes of the people, to whom
it belongs by right? The speakers OF
the old parties don't talk about this
issue, but they fiaunt old Glory In
your faces and appeal to your patriot
ism. We don't want your support un
less you think over this matter and
fully realize what you are supporting.
But don't be slave to any party.
Don't be a Republican just because
your father was. The time is coming
around when your eyes will be opened
and you will come around to our side
all right. You want to know what
system we Socialists will adopt to bring
this change about. Never mind. Well
attend to that
A little further along he said:
I'VE Socialists have nothing to con-
ceal. We want the capitalists to know
what we want. we want the earth,
and will get it. The middle classes
will be with us in a few years. All
we need is one or two more panics,
during which the little corporations
will be compelled to go to the wall"
A little later on he discussed the con-
centration Of the railroads in the hands
of few great corporations, when a
! voice in the audience asked:
How about governmental control -
Mr. Debs replied:
you don't want governmental con-
troll of the railroads so long as the
money power is in control of the gov
eminent. You would simply be ex-
changing masters. Let me illustrate.
thousand railroad employees in this
country. The directors and manage
ment of all these roads might resign,
and you would never know it If you
did not read 1t in the newspapers. Ev-
cry train would leave on time, just the
same as usual Every executive officer
might resign, and there would be no
effect. But let the eight hundred and
fifty thousand employees stop work for
just one moment, and the country
would be paralyzed, for not wheel
would turn: Why should not those
eight hundred and fifty thousand men
have a voice in the matter of running
those roads? They are the men who
actually run them-the profits go to
others Governmental management at
present would be no substantial i'm
provement, but with Social Democracy
In charge and control of the govern
uient the people, who create the wealth,
would control it, and the public would
be the beneficiaries.
''But majority of you will say, that
is impossible, or impracticable. the
majority has always said that Forty
years ago the majority Of mankind
would have said that electric light was
impossible and impracticable, yet there
1t burns. One hundred and twenty
five years ago. when Adams, and JET
ferson, and the other men who believed
in freedom, said we ought to be indie
pendent Of England, majority Of the
colonists said it was mpossible-what
would we do for king. And the Tory
press-the capitaiistic press of that
period-the press of the Intelligencer
stripe-said that it was impossible and
impracticable. and yet the few persever-
ed in independence won. If you can
6cl NlluOuL Ming III
you can get along without capitalist
in industry"
Again he said:
There was time when seventy-five
per cent. of the people owned the prop
erty of this country. Then ii dwindled
to fifty per cent. Now it is about TWEEN
ty-five per cent. Bye-and-bye 1t will
be ten per cent, and the number Of
property owners will continue to dwin-
die by degrees until the very few own
the substantial and visible wealth of
the land, and then one OF NO things
will happen-The masses will be help
less or they will assert themselves, and
Social Democracy will come into its
own
The socialists mean to make the
modern machinery the tool of produc-
ton of the working class and the own
ership of the collective people. Then
there will be work for all, shorter
work day and time for exercising the
brain as we'll as the body. In every rev.
olution during the past the working
class has installed some other class
in power. This time he will install him
self in power instead. Then John B
Rockefeller will work for an honest
living. Mr.. Rockefeller will work tor
what he gets, and the workingman will
get what he works for"