The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1906-03-02
Advises laboring Men to Make More
8 and Better Use Of Brains.
=
HANDLE THE BALLOT CAREFULLY
Points Out Q Beautiful System, But
He Fails to Show Its
~ Construction.
AAA,.k

From Fridays Daily.
A large audience gathered at the
opera house last evening to listen tt
what Eugene V. Debs of Terra Haute
Ind, the noted socialist and labor agi
tator, had to say on Socialism and IT.
q Mission in This World" Judge NJ. j
Severance introduced Mr.. Debs in a briel
talk, in which he said that he thought
that the speaker advocated that social
!. ism that is to exalt human labor ant
establish relation between the produc
er and the one who uses the product
that is based on justice. This is the
Kind of socialism that appeals to humar
sympathy. The laborers of antiquity re
ceived only the coarse food that they
ate, and their condition did not improve
much until $50 years ago. Twenty five
years ago the knights of Labor wa;
started in America and its principle
: have since gone careering across the
world to every nation except Russia
Mr.. Debs is one of the most distinguish
ed Knights of Labor. He introduced the
speaker as the uncrowned king of la.
Dor. -Fit
Mr.. Debs is an entertaining speaker
and very much of an orator. His ad.
dress did not advocate anarchistic doc.
trine, but socialism pure and simple
Like others of that party, he found it
an easy matter to point out weaknesses
in the present system, but when he
came to making suggestions for another
system to take its place, he was very
general in his statements, avoiding any
thing that savored of detail, and wind.
ing up by saying how beautifully the
new system would work. 1t has always
been easier to tear down than to re.
construct, and it is likely that the
changes that are pretty sure to come
win be gradually and cautiously made
Gradually evolving something better.
Mr.. Debs opened by saying that the
age in which we live is a wonderful one
filled with mechanical progress. The
history of the human race consists OF
a long series of class distinctions class
rule and class subjugation. Man is fur.
Their advanced than what he was in
primitive times, but is not yet free. 1t
is labor that produces the wealth of the
country, and it should take Joy of hope
for the cross is bending, the light is
coming.
Mankind in its ignorance has almost
invariably crowned the oppressor and
crucified the saviour. This has beer
true of every nation, and notably true
of America. During the American Revo
luton the majority of the commoners
We're true to King George. The leaders
of the revolution were then called agi
tators, but are now revered, while the
majority sleep forgotten. Those who
opposed slavery were denounced, ira
duced and even mobbed, yet they are
now honored. King George and slavery
+. were overthrown, but we are not yet
free. Humane society is subject to the
laws of evolution. Heretofore society
has been organized on the basis of the
exploitation of the working class. The
brand of inferiority has been placed Oh
the brow of labor. The feudal lord SAID
that his system would exist forever
just as the modern capitalist fatters
himself that the present system will
prevail forever. The present system was
evolved from the past, and now a new
social order is slowly evolving from the
competitive system. The history of the
development of mankind is largely writ
ten in the development of the tools that
it uses. There was not millionaire OF
a tramp when George Washington LIVED
and died. There are modern terms lately
coined, and the one is the concompeten'
of the other. The tool is now owned
by the man who don't use it, and used by
body of men who don't own it.
In the great class struggles are being
wrought out the supreme questions Of
today. John D. Rockefeller is full
fledged capitalist, who does nothing use
full, but who has acquired the natura
fecourees and thousands work for him
Andrew Carnegie is another example Of
the man who owns the tool. Work
tools and production have been socializ
ed, but the ownership of the tool still