Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1908-11-15

long nose and chin, kind eyes, a fne
forehead and a smile--oh such a SMILE
The smile of a woman and man, o.
child and an angel, all combined, the
sort OF smile that makes us want to-
hug somebody. And that is Debs.
A Capital Talker. III
1t was several years before saw
him again. It was then in Denver. He
is capital talker, puts his heart into
1t, warns up to his work, but does not
monopolize the conversation. In fact.
he warns his visitor up to his work
also and has him keeping up his end
of the conversational load. He talks
about socialism, too; believes in It
from his toes to his fingers and up to
the roots Of his hair. If had not been
such dyed in the wool individualist--
But, there; am not dealing with my
own opinions. Neither am I dealing
with those of Mr.. Debs. / am treating
Of the man, not his theories.
OF course went to hear him speak.
One cannot talk with him in private
without wanting to hear him talk in
public. In the old sense of the term he
is not an orator, yet In all the essen
:tialst he is an orator, ana a good one.
He has faculty Of making an eco,
:nomfc theory human document 10
do that requires high order of abil-
fty. Debs takes something that some
body else has issued out Of his head,
absorbs it and reissues it out of his
own heart. He does not belong to the
statuesque school of speakers. He
talks with his hands, his body, his
face and his eyebrows. He is as busy
with his arms as Uncle Joe Cannon.
He doubles up like a jackknife and
talks SO hard that he sweats like q
field hand. But his words are well
chosen. He makes everybody feel his
mental honesty, and, more important
still, he leads them to think that he
thinks he has the greatest cause In the
world. Debs loves the whole human
race, and his audiences know it-know
1t from the first look Of his kindly face,
know it all the time he is talking and
know it forever afterward. He never
expects to be elected to anything, and
he doesn't care. He is happy in doing
just the work he is doing. Essentially
a propagandist, he is building what he
is sure will make better day for the
human race. What is an Office. com
pared to that? ~. IEs
For all his kindness, gentleness and
sweetness Eugene V. Debs Is dam
gerous man; dangerous to existing In
stitutions. for he is one who believes
in his cause and is capable of going to
any lengths for it. He will do this If
he stands for truth and to do it just
the same If he only thinks he stands
for truth, but is mistaken. Go to jail?
Pah. that is nothing! He would go to
battle or to death or even to universal
Misrepresentation and abuse for his
cause. 1t is his religion, his vocation,
his recreation and his life. I:
Would Danish Capitalism.
Debs would do away with the CAPT
talist wholly and altogether. Do not
understand me to say that he would
do away with the individual capitalist.
He would not hurt a fly. He would
only create system In which there
would be no capitalists. In his scheme
only those who toll, either with the
hand or the brain, should have the re-
wards. The product should go to the
producer. In the stock definition he
would have all the tools Of production
and distribution socially owned. Now,
just what does that mean? l don't
know. Do you? have asked several
Socialists, Debs among the rest, and
every one Of them gave me a different
answer. They are only agreed that
they want to get rid Of capitalism
and vote for Debs. Every mothers
son Of them will do that, just as every
daughter would IL she had a chance.
In the Socialist political heaven there
Is no sex distinction. The women
are even more enthusiastic than are
the men for social ownership, class
consciousness, economic determinism,
throwing hard words at the present
'bourghwa" system and all the rest Of
the programme, including vote for
Debs every four years They cannot
vote now, the dears, but they can
make 1T mighty warm for those who
do. ss III. @
1t may be imagined from all the
above that / believe in socialism; but,
alas, ! do not. Rather, should say,
do not know whether / do or not. 1t
sounds all SO much like one Of Hans
Christian Andersen's fairy tales. I
dote on Andersen to this day; but, as
for constructing a system Of govern
ment on the basis Of his stories, that is
different proposition. Socialism is
the finest dream that ever made q
bunch Of people cheer themselves
hoarse, pay 10 cents a month and
march to political rallies, but one
might as well vote for Hegel or Plato
or build political platform out of
Herbert Spencer's Data Of Ethics" as
to think Of erecting new civilization
to order out Of few distractions,
fine phrases, book speculations and red
flags. Civilizations are not built in
that way, but through lonp. pafnf,1l