Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1902-07-09
DEBS THE SOCIALIST.
breaches Hard Times and the Blood
Red Flag as a Means to Better.


Red Flag as a Means to Better.
Minneapolis Journal.)
Eugene Debs, in his speech at
Denver on Monday to the workingmen
of that city, showed that he had ad
vanced several degrees in radical so
cialism and was in a rather pessimis
tic state of mind. He has no longer
any use for the word reform" He
declares himself a revolutionist march
ing under "the blood red flag of inter
national socialism"
This has a very bad sound. One re
calls Ferdinand Lasalle's threat in
Germany some forty years ago to the
effect that, II universal suffrage was
not granted socialism or the social rev
olution would "in due time break In
upon us amid violent commissions, WITH
hair wildly waving, and with brazer
sandals upon its fest" lLasalle's OBJ
ject was universal suffrage and he
predicted that he would compel Herr
Won Bismarck to play the role of Rob
ert Peel and proclaim, in addition. uni
versal and direct suffrage.
Germany has universal suffrage and
the socialist party has grown to for
midable dimensions and has impressed
its influence upon considerable
amount of Legislation, but its lead
ers are not as radicala as Eugene Debs
is today. Mr.. Debs, in his revolu
tionary mood, is inclined to misrep
resent the condition of labor in thi;
country today. 1t certainly requires 2
tremendous effort of the Imagination
to behold a vision of American work
ingmen reduced to mendicancy ant
rags and starvation. reduced as Debl
says ito the very dead line of degra
dation" and such degradation, he says
as the world has never before seen
Every man who finds something to dc
is selling himself into bondage.
Mr.. Debs says the workingmen mus
go into politics and vote their program
as they have failed to accomplish any
thing by strikes and boycots.
The number of men unemployed in
this country is comparatively small
There are workingmen out on strikes
in the anthracite coal region and in a
few other localities, but these have oi
their own accord quit work. The con
dition of labor in the United States
is more favorable as to opportunity
wages and social betterment than Il
has ever been. II exists under more
favorable conditions than labor ex
lists in any other country on the globe
1t is true It so exists. not through the
adaptation of the principles of Kar
Marx, or the program of the Saint
Simonians. or of the Fourierists, Com
munists and other visionaries of the
Louis Blanc order, but because there
has been a preponderance of common
sense in national apd state legislation
affecting labor interests, and a com
mendable degree of doubt as to the
doctrine of that rosy-hued 1caria, an
imaginary paradise, where money
Is not needed, private capital is nc
more, and where labor is tenderly
dandle in the arms of the state and
the results of easy toll are deposited
In magazines for equal distribution
among the citizens, while want
wearines and discord are unknown
These sanguine conceptions OF
amelioration have never been ac
tualized They will never be.
In our country tens of thousands OF
men have risen from the humblest toll
to affluence and influence and to be
the employers of working men. They
have so risen. not through the agencies
of rainbow socialistic theories, but
through the exercise Of patient toll
thrift and keen observance OF the op
portunities which present themselves
to. every alert, observing and indust
rious worker. There are natural Inc
qualities in health, strength. talent and
energy which keep some men back and
will continue to do so through all time
THE blood-red flag of international
socialism" may be menacingly waved
but II does not possess the power and
never will possess the power to change
the oider of nature. Social ameliora
tion comes through the observance OF
economic law and. obviously. of divine
law also.
The ARGUS Job department 10 com
plete. We have spared neither expen
se nor effort to secure the best line OF
paper stock and the newest, nobbIest
line Of type faces. We have the men,
the machinery and the material to do
fine work and do II promptly. All we
ask 10 o trial.