Montana news. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1904-191?, 1908-08-20
PLATFORM SOCIALIST
PARTY OF AMERICA
DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES

and factory. IL snatches their chill
dren from the Fairgrounds and
schools and grinds their slender bod
les and Uniformed minds into cold dol
lars. IL disfigures, mains and kills
hundreds of thousands OF working
men annually In mines, on railroads
and In factories. IL drives millions
OF workers into the ranks of the un-
employed and forces large numbers
OF them into beggary. vagrancy and
all forms of crime and vice.
To maintain their rule aver their
fellow men, the capitalists must keep
In their pay all organs OF .he pui,!ic
rowers, public mind and puolic con-
science. They control the dominant
parties and. through them. the elected
public officials. They select the ga
ecutives, bribe the legislatures and
corrupt the courts of justice. They
own and censor the press They
dominate the educational institutions
They own the nation politically aud
intellectually just as they own Il In
dustrially.
The struggle between wage workers
and capitalists grows ever fiercer and
has now become the only vital issue
between the American people. The
wage-working class. therefore, has
the most direct interest in abolish
ing the capitalist system. But in
abolishing the present system the
workingmen will free not only their
own class, but also all other class ss
OF modern society: The small farm
er. who Is today exploited by large
capital more indirectly. but not less
effectively than is the wage laborer:
the small manufacturer and trader,
who is engaged In a desperate and
losing struggle Tor economic inde-
pendence in the face OF the all-con-
quering power of concentrated cap
ts..l. k. a0afN ltas n aalf
who is the slave of his wealth rather
than its master. The struggle of the
working class against the capitalist
class, while IL Is a class struggle, is
thus at the same time a struggle for
the abolition OF all classes and class
privileges.
The private ownership of the land
and mears of production used for TX
ploitation In the rock upon which
class rule is built; political govern
ment Is its Indispensable instrument.
The wage workers cannot be freed
from exploitation without conquering
the political power and substituting
collective for private ownership OF
the land and means OF production
used for exploitation.
The basis for such transformation
is rapidly developing within present
capitalist society. The factory sys-
tenn, with It's complex machinery and
/ minute division OF labor. is rapidly
destroying all vestiges OF individual
production In manufacture. Modern
| production 10 already very largely a
collective and social process. The
great trusts and monopolies which
have sprung up In recent years have
organized the work and management
of the principal industries on a ma
tional scale. and have fitted them
for collective use and operation.
The Socialist Party Is primary an
economic and political movement. 1t
is not concerned with matters OF re-
ligious belief.
In the struggle for freedom the
interests of all modern workers are
Identical. The struggle Is not only
national, but international. IL em-
braces the world and will be carried
to ultimate victory by the united
workers of the world.
To unite the workers OF the nation
and their allies and sympathizers of
all other classes to this end Is the
mission of the Socialist Party. In
this battle for freedom the Socialist
Party does not strive TO substitute
working class rule for capitalist rule.
but by working class victory, to free
all humanity from class rule and to
realize the International brotherhood
of man.