Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1908-09-17
TREND OF SOCIALISM
CUMMENT ON A RECENT Speech
OF CANDIDATE DEBS.
Go0dwiE'S weekly on The SotiaIistiC
iheory. Theories Rest Upon the
raise Assumption That All That
IS has Been Created by Manual
Labor.

Debs has been here and made his
talk. He is the oniy presidential cam
didate that has SO far honored MS bv
Il visit. What he said must be
Judged by his words first and next
in the light of the platform of his
party He was full of denunciation
and ridicule of both Taft and Brvan.
He affected to hold them as both un
der the domination of accumulated
wealth, both Under the restraint of
laws which were framed in the in
terest of wealth. The natural con-
clusion is that until there is a gen.
eral smashing of laws and a new ad-
Justment, Justice will wander desc
late and will have no home in this
republic. Some naturally good men,
who personally are scrupulously hon
est, believe in and endorse Eugene
Debs. This perhaps is not strange.
This glamOr of the dream of that i'm
possible time when there will be no
more poverty nor want and when
things will be so adjusted that there
will be no temptation to commit
crime, is doubtless very sweet to men
who believe that some changes in
legislation may bring around such a
result. But the rank and file of his
followers, the great majority are men
who are quite willing to eat bread
that they never earned and who are
not disturbed about the equities of
this world in the least so long as they
personally are favored.
The very foundation of the Debs
creed is false one, to-wit. that all
of it has come of manual labor. The
manual is not put in, but that is how
the great mass of the party construes
it. Hence, Immediately comes the
first conclusion that one man is as
good as another, and in the general
shuttle, is entitled to an equal re-
ward with all other men, and that all
will be that way when the govern
ment takes them into it's employ.
That is, of course. the leveling of all
the men and women of the world
to one plane. Under such a regime
what would become of the homes of
the country? Mr.. Debs tells of the
hundreds of thousands of fallen wo-
men in the land. But when all are
reduced to one level is that going to
vice? He assumes that most of these
have gone astray through want. He
ought to know enough of the world
to realize that this is the exception
and not the rule. The keepers of bag
MOS in this city report that they are
continually besieged by young wo-
men wanting admittance. And yet
it is almost impossible to secure the
services of women to do common
house work at the highest wages.
And still a competent woman can
get steady wages here, through which
with ordinary prudence she can lay
up more money in two years than had
either of any twenty families of those
men and women who cleared the for
ests and made homes between the At
lantic and the prairies. An army
without order and discipline soon be-
comes an irresponsible mob. Break
down the rules which make men re-
sponsible for their acts and chaos will
come. Take from men the incentive
to achieve something more than mere
bread, or a petty office, and progress
will stop in a day and degeneration
begin.
Again, government ownership is a
hobby with Debs. Now there is not
one public utility that it worth hav-
ing that has not reached it's present
position through the work of MASTER
full intellects. We. have been hearing
for years that men paw too much for
fares and freights on our railroads.
Railroads, at least some railroads,
have perpetrated many wrongs on
the public by way Of discrimination
and by being run, not as common
carriers, but as private property.
That is now in process of being cured
by law, but even now it is all that
the majority of the roads in the
country can do to keep out of the
hands Of receivers.
There are a thousand wrongs that
should be remedied and which will be
in time by natural action of law, but
never by general smash-up and d.
vision Of the worlds wealth among
the people, millions Of whom have
never tried to better either the