East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1912-08-26
SOCIALISTS TELL
EUGENE v. DEBS
HE IS CHOSEN
In Speech of Acceptance Candidate
Says His Party Only One for
Working Men.

Terre Haute Ind, Aug. 26.-Eu-
gene V. Debs, socialist nominee for
president, today was officially noti-
fed here of his nomination by the In
dianapolis convention. His speech of
acceptance was brief and devoted to
an eulogy of the socialistic party.
Debs will leave today for a coast to
coast campaign tour. He speaks at
Portland, Or. September 9.
In his speech of acceptance, Debs
said in part as follows:
1t is with a full sense of the re-
spOnsbility it imposes and the service
ii exacts that accept the nomination
for president rendered me by the so
cialist party of the United States. Per-
sOnally / did not wish the nomination.
II came to me unsought. 1t came as
summons of service and not as a per-
sonal honor.
Every true member of the socialist
party is at the party's sevice. The con-
fdence of his comrades is to him a
sacred trust and their collective will
the party's law.
The socialist party is fundamentally
VII ltItIl from all tNNntT ldIlltS. IL
came i'm the process of evolution and
grows with the growth of the forces
which created it. Its spirit is militant
and its aim revolutionary. 1t express
es in political terms the aspiration of
the working class to freedom and to
larger and fuller life than they have
yet known.
Workers Are slaves.
The worlds workers have always
been and still are the worlds slaves.
They have borne all the burdens of
the race and built all the monuments
along the track of civilization: they
have produced all the worlds wealth
and supported all the worlds govern
ments. They have conquered all
things but their own freedom. They
are still the subject class in every
nation on earth and the chief function
of every government is to keep them
at the mercy of their masters.
The workers in the mills and fac
tories. in the mines and on the farms
and railways never had a party of
their own until the socialist party was
organized They divided their votes
between the parties of ther masters.
They did not realize that they were
using their ballots to forge their own
letters.
The appeal of the socialist party
is to all the useful people of the ma
tion, all who work with brain and
muscle To produce the nations wealth
and who promote its progress and
conserve its civilization
only they who bear its burdens may
rghtfully enjoy the blessings of civ
ilized society.
There are no boundary lines to sep
arate race. sex from sex, creed from
creed in the socialist party. The COM
mon rights of all are equally recog-
nized
The new progressive party is a par
ty of progressive capitalism. 1t is
lavshly financed and shrewdly adver-
tsed But it stands for the rule of
capitalism all the same.
When the owners of the trusts fl
nance party to put themselves out
of business; when they turn over their
wealth to the people from whom they
stole it and go to work and make an
honest living. it will be time enough
to consider the merits of the Roose-
welt progressive party.
One question is sufficient to deter
mine the true status of all these par
ties Do they want the workers to
own the tools they work with, con-
troll their own jobs and secure to
themselves the wealth they produce?
o. t,iA
lous and impossible from their point
OF view.
Old Parties for Capitalists.
The republican, democratic and
progressive parties all stand for the
private ownership by the capitalists OF
the productive machinery used by the
workers, so that the capitalists can
continue to fitch the wealth produced
by the workers.
{. pi:aism is rushing blindly to its
impending doom. All the signs por-
| tend the inevitable breakdown of the
| existing order. Deep-seated discon-
| tent has seized the masses. They
! must indeed be deaf who do not hear
the mutterings of the approaching
storm.
Poverty. high prices, unemploy-
ment child slavery, widespread misery
and haggard want in a land bursting
with abundance: prostitution and in
sanity. suicide ad crime. these in SOL
emn numbers tell the tragic story OF
Capitalism's saturnalia of blood and
tears and shame as its end draws
near.
II ic to "a abolish this mOnStrOuS SNS-