The Commonwealth. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1911-1914, 1912-09-06


stiles of life; your wife and children
cvictcd perhaps, rs is often the case in
the great cities, turned out into the
streets where they are drifting into vice
and crime.
The Modern Tramp.
We see the effects of this system upon
every hand. We know that within the
last forty years there has been created
IN this country an army of tramps that
stretches from sea to sea, That every
tramp on the highway is a living orgu-
ment, a pulsing protest against the CAPT
talist system, every one of them, \ half
century ago the word tramp had not
bccn coined. Within that time this army
Of human beings has been created and
whatsoever may be your opinion of them
| understand clearly the processes of the
system that made them so, and | want
20 say to You now that they are the
victims of conditions that they did not
create and were helpless to modify or
control and if they had lived in the So
cialist republic in which every human
being has the inalienable right to work
and to produce and to enjoy the fruit of
his labor, they would be respected use
full men and women. My heart goes out
to this army of tramps and have said
and say again that when | see a tramp,
through his wretchedness, through his
rags, | can still see the outline of a
human being who is my brother and
take my place side by side with him, no
matter how disreputable he may be and
put my arms about him and I say;
Brother, I am with you and against the
system that made you what you are"
The Modern Criminal.
Then we have the hundreds of thou
sands of thieves and burglars and con-
vits and pickpockets that infest all OF
the cities of the nations. We have hun
61eds of thousands of girls and women
who have been driven into lives of shame
in this awful struggle for existence. We
have two millions and more of little
children in their tender years who should
be enjoying the fresh air and the sun
light and have abundant nutritious food
that they might have their rightful her.
itage in strong, healthy bodies. We see
them under the scourge of the capitalist
hunger lash, driven to the mills and fac
tories and become the living cogs in the
rushing wheels of industry, feeding the
machines. I have seen them again and
again standing by these machines in the
textile mills of New England where il
requires the combined wage of the hus
band, the wife and the children to sup
port the family. I have seen them il
the violated atmosphere of these slave
pens and have seen them in their young
childhood inhaling the lint and I have
said to myself: ''If these little girls
who are ground into profit by the mas
ter class, if they should live long enough
to approach the marriage state and as
sumo the functions of motherhood, they
are unfit for it, every tissue has been
consumed, their vitality exhausted and
their offspring are born tired and weak
and have not fair chance in life" And
then we name them failures and then
usher them into the jail or in the peni-
Tertiary and they never have a chance
until at last they have credited to their
account all the way from petty larceny
to murder.
And this is why there are over a thou
sand murders committed in this country
every month and last year there were
thirteen thousand suicides in this land
A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good
fruit, neither can a good tree bring forth
corrupt fruit Therefore, by their fruit
shall We know them. BY the same token
the social system can be judged. We
have the fruit of this system before our
eyes. We can contemplate it at our leis
ure.
IAS W oIhCI huSl rice himself.
1t is this that constitutes the issue in
this campaign Are you satisfied with
conditions as they are? Can you have
them changed? Are you willing to do
your share to bring about that change e?
First Of all it is necessary that you shall
realize that that change never will come
There is a great obligation that rests
upon you working men and working
women. Your duty is to prepare your
selves through education, organization,
economic and political, in order to take
control of the industries. to operate the
industries i'm the interest of the whole
people This requires tremendous
work that can't be accomplished by any
g..