, 1901-06-05

ployed in the Sweat shops n lene
ment house districts, where mothers
after working founteen and sixteen
hours a day have been compelled tc
beg in the streets to supplement their
DEMONSTRATION wages. or depend on
charitable institutions when driven to
extremes.
The socialist believes the present
age must nave something better in
store for the producing classes, the
producers of all wealth.
Our Declaration day orators will
again proclaim that the American
flag is the emblem of freedom of sew
enty-six millions of people, which re-
minds me hat only a short time ago
was talking to an intelligent woman
in the state of Illinois who was COM
planning of injustice and discrimina-
ton. claiming hat she was burdened
to support the insolent and vicious ele-
ment in society. | quoted this part of
the Fourth of July orators speech. and
she replied: 1T was all bosh, that one
half of the American people are not
free; that only males whether drunk
or sober, educated or ignorant, have
the right to citizenship"
Socialists believe that it requires
| something more than the right to
citizenship to be free. An ignorant
a or woman is not free. A tramp
is not free. A man who ices his wife
and children starving or begging is not
free. He who tolls from ten to twelve
hours a day in order to vegetate is
not free. He who is at the beck and
cal of a master everyday for a certain
number of hours in order that he may
produce wealth, is not free. Freedom
is something that the individual can
never achieve. 1t is something that
must be conferred on the individual
by a well organized body polite. So
cialism is the only plan that offers a
solution of this intricate problem; it
is the only plan that will evolve that
priceless good. freedom.
We know that the question of our
| rights to the products of our labor will
never be settled by the present school
of social or political economy, or by
the high officials with superior infor-
nation CO in whom we have trusted
| tLn,, LONG, ,,nnrc We Ernuy
that it must come from our W knowl-
edge of the true light. The worst tri-
bunal to which this truth could be sub
mitted is the regular school of social
and political economists. Did you
ever know n true school mar that did
not reject everything hat was not
found in his books. or that did not
originate with his party? The reason
that society has not advanced more
is because the scholars in all the reg
ular schools have been afraid to de-
part from the ideas whipped into their
grandfathers more than n hundred
years ago, for fear of bringing down
upon themselves the ire Of old fash
toned professors. While we find
many who are opposed to socialism,
we find that most people are no long
err frightened at the progress of hum
an knowledge. There are many who
honestly and conscientiously oppose
socialism, but hat is no proof that
their opposition is founded on correct
grounds. They may be in error and
be just as conscientious. We feel
charitable toward those who oppose
socialism without examining the prin-
ciples on which it rests. but who have
taken counsel from those who are
interested in d~ecieving them. Such
men, usually honest themselves, give
implicit credit to what they
deem the honesty of others without
any foundation on their part of the
charges preferred while the prime OBJ
ject of our enemies is to excite predju-
dice. knowing that this to a certain de-
gree suppresseS the spirit of inquiry.
The question is often asked by new
converts to socialism, what can we
do while we are so weak in power and
influence? Christianity was weak
when it first began in the family of a
poor mechanic.
The reformation was weak when it
began with a poor Monk. The
Abolitionists were weak when they
first began to advocate the abolition
of chattel slavery. The true discov-
erer of the movements of the heaven
ly bodies, the d]iscoverer of the circula-
ton of the blood, and of the true theory
of storms. in fact all those who ever
advocated new ideas or new reforms
had the modification of seeing their
ideas rejected, and their notions held
in contempt. Unless prompted by sell
fish motives all will admit that so far
as we have moved in the direction Of
the naturalization of public utilities,
we are getting better service at less
cost than when these utilities were
owned and operated by private enter
prise. We only wish to help humanity
take the next step in this onward
movement. We believe a state should
be regarded as a moral being pos
sessed Of a will, a conscience, and a
moral responsibility.