The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1912-03-12

clared that the harmony which is at
tained by suppression is worse than
no harmony at all. He quoted many
Socialist authorities in support of the
position taken by him in the Lyric
theatre address.
Quoting Engels, who with Marx was
one of the first great philosophers of
the Socialist movement, he said, 1.-The
State is the result of the desire to
keep down class conflict. But, haV-
ing arisen amid these conflicts, it is
as a rule the State of the most pow
erful economic class that by force
of it's. economic supremacy becomes
also the ruling political class, and
thus acquires new means of Subdu-
ing and exploiting the oppressed mass
es. The antique State was. therefore.
the State of the slave-owners for the
purpose of holding the slaves in
check The feudal State was the or
gan Of the nobility for the oppression
of the serfs and dependent farmers.
The modern representative State is
the tool of the capitalist exploiters OF
wage labor"
From this LaMonte went on to
show how the laws of the present
State were made by the capitalist
class for the purpose of holding in
submission the working class. He
claimed that the capitalists have lit
tie or no respect for law when law
runs counter to their interests.
Respect for law" he said, sis a
distinctly proletarian virtue or vice"
Pointing out that since the laws are
made in the interest of the capital
list class to chain the working class
in slavery he declared that no So
cialist could consistently respect the
law 1t was at this point that he
called for a vote of all those present
upon The question, asking those who
respected the law to hold up their
after repeating his question he went
on with his speech.
He emphasized the difference be-
tween respecting the law and Obeying
the law He explained that Socialists
obey capitalist law under protest and
by agitation, education and organi-
zation intend to substitute working
law, thus bringing about what he
termed ''the suicide Of the present
State.''
: After his lecture which lasted for
nearly two hours a spirited discus
sion took place. Jasper McLevy. re-
cent Socialist candidate for Mayor
made a lengthy speech in which he
bitterly assailed that faction of the
local Socialists which arranged the
Lawrence Strike benefit meeting de-
claring them to be nothing but dis
rupters and that one of them was in
the pay of the capitalists. He said
they should be permanently kept out
of the Socialist Party. At one time
he was sharply interrupted by La
Monte who severely reprimanded him
for his intolerance. He claimed tn {
Local Bridgeport had the strongest
Socialist organizati ton in New Eng
land and that the tactics he advo-
Gated were endorsed by four thousand
Socialist voters in this city. He was
followed by Alderman Frederick Ced
erholm who made a fiery speech talk
ing along the same lines as McLevy.
Others who expressed similar sem
timents regarding the tactics of the
local Socialist Party and attitude that
should be assumed toward those who
constitute the rival faction in this
city were Karl Lange, Arthur Uhlig,
and Attorney Ernest Berger Chas
Courtney was chairman of the meet
ing and Robert Marshall examined the
membership cards of the members at
the door of the hall.
LaMonte was invited to lecture here
again next Sunday but declined.