Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-11-19
THE SOCIALIST VOTE
Increase From $4,000 to
100000 in Four Years.
TO BE RECKONED WITH
MORRIS HILQUITH TELLS ABOUT
THE MOVEMENT.
Method of Conducting the Propaganda
Explained-Debs Sets Forth the
Aims of the Party.
TO BE RECKONED WITH

Four years ago the total socialist vote on
| the presidential ticket, in the entire coun-
| try was 81 100 This week the socialist
| leaders met in New York city and tabulated
| the returns of the recent election, and 1t
| was found that the total socialist vote for
I the country on the presidential ticket was
| close on to 100000.
| The returns showed that Illinois and New
! York had made the largest gains. Illinois
| showed an increase in four years from 1857
| to 10000: New York. from T., 500 to 10000
| These gains were not unexpected by the So
| cialist leaders. They prophesy that four
| years more will show an overwhelming in
| crease in the popuist vote.
| Since the recent election, with the practi-
! cal destruction of the present organization
| Of the democratic party and with Bryan,
Watson and Debs pushing to the front,
great many thoughtful people have express
| ed the belief that socialism will have to be
reckoned with in the next national cam
| paign.
| The Socialist Propaganda.
| A member of the Stars staff, in the recent
campaign, took occasion while in New York
| to look into the socialist movement, with
| reference to it's management and to ascer-
| tain how the propaganda was being direct
| ed The inquiry led first to big Office
| building in lower Broadway, where. In
/ law office, the brains of the socialist move
| ment in New York were found. In the per-
/ son of a man whose name is known to So
/ cialists over the world, Morris HilQuith. An
| educated man, lawyer, master OF half
| dozen languages, courteous, able and terri
| bly, in earnest, he is the guide, philosopher
| and friend of the organization.
| He told how the movement had grown in
| the past four years. and why they expected
1t to continue to spread, since the two old
| parties showed no appreclable margin of
| difference in their doctrines. He explained
| the method Of conducting the propaganda
| a regular national organization, state or
| ganizations everywhere with minor local
| establishments, all supported by small vol
! untary contributions from workingmen-
| dimes and. nickels and quarters, constantly
| coming in to swell a fund for printing and
| circulating socialist literature and sending
| abroad socialist takers.
He told how the socialist speakers stumped
| the country, veritably obeying the scriptu-
| raj injunction to go without staff or script
| in many cases, and always leaving behind
| them some heart fired with the tenets of
| socialism to keep the light burning. The
party has newspapers, and publishes great
deal of literature that is sold at and 10
cents pamphlet.
Socialist Literature.
| The correspondent was directed to the So
cialist printing office, down in William
street below the Brooklyn bridge, where
/
! where the literature is distributed. The WIS.,
itor wac courteously received and given
| samples of all kinds of socialist publica-
| tionS.
! The trade mark of these publications is
| barred brawny arm holding aloft a torch.
| One of the leading publications is entitled
| "Unionism and Socialism, by Eugene V.
Debs, the candidate for President of the So
| cialist party. 1t is a pamphlet of forty-four
| pages and following are some extracts, to
/ Of
| SOCIALISM is first of all a political move
| ment of the working class clearly defined
| and uncompromising, which aims at the
| overthrow of the prevailing capitalist sys-
| tenn by securing control of the national
| government and by the exercise of the
! public powers, supplanting the existing
capitalist class government with socialist
| adminfstration-that Is to say, changing
| republic in name into a republic in fact.
| Socialism also means coming phase of
| civilization, next in order to the present
one, in which the collective people will own
and operate the sources and means of
| wealth production. in which all will have
| equal right to work and all will cooperate
| together in producing wealth and all will
| enjoy all the fruit of their collective labor.
The Present Social System.
'In the present system Of society, called
| the capitalist system, since 1t is controlled
| by and supported in the interest of the
capitalist class, we have two general class
| es of people; first, capitalist and second.
workers. The capitalists are few, the
workers are many: the capitalists are
| called capitalists because they own the
| productive capital of the country, the
lands. mines, quarries, Oil and gas wells.
| mills, factories, shops, stores. warehouses;.
| refneries, tanneries, elevators, docks,
wharves, railroads. street cars steamships.
| smelters. blast furnaces brick and stone
| yards stock pens, packing houses, tele-
| graph wires and poles, pipe lines and all
| other sources, means and tools Of produc-
| ton, distribution and exchange. The cap
| italist class who own and control these
| things also own and control, OF course, the
| millions Of Jobs that are attached to and
| inseparable from them.
! The capitalist does no work himself;
! that Is, no useful or necessary work. He
| spends his time watching other parasites
| in the capitalist game of dog eat dog, or
! who use his tools give him all the wealth
they produce and he allows them a suf-
| fcient wage to keep them in working or
| der.
| The simple truth is that competition
| in Industrial life belongs to the past, and
| is practically outgrown. The time is ap-
! preaching when 1t will be no longer pos
| sible
A Socialists Characterization.
| "One side get the profit. grow rich,
| live in palaces, ride in yachts, gamble at
| Monte Carlo drink champagne, choose
1
rupt politics. build universities, endow
libraries, patronize churches, get the
| gout, preach morals and bequeath the
| earth to their lineal descendants.
| "The other side do the work, early and
| late, in heat and cold; they sweat and
| groan and bleed and de-the steel billets
| they make are their corpses. They build
the mills and all the machinery; they man
| the plant, and the thing of stone and steel
begins to throb. They live far away in the
outskirts. In cottages. just this. side Of the
novels where gaunt famine walks with de-
spair and Les Miserables leer and mock. at
/ civilization. When the mills shut down
| they are out Of work and out of food and
out of home, and when old age begins to
| steal away their vigor and the step is no
| longer agile nor the sinew strong nor the
hand cunning; when the frame begins to
| bend and quiver and the eye to grow dim,
! and they are no longer At as labor power
| to make profit for their masters, they are
pushed aside into the human drift that
lempties into the gulf of despair and death.
i .'The system once adapted to human needs
has outlived its usefulness and IL now an