The Alaska citizen., 1912-05-20

These children of the poor find their way in increasing numbers to the haunts of vice and shame. The darkness of the hovel and the sweat shop is relieved by the red light of the slums, The children Cf the poor are food for misery and crime. The vile groggery for the boys and house of horror for the girls. So do millions of childen of the po-r pass through this Vale of Tears"
 And so it will ever be while cap italism is suffered to rob the chil- dren of the poor of their inheritance. Deplore it as you may, these are the conditions as they are, and only a new social system can change them Child labor laws, factory inspection laws and other remedial legislation may ameliorate in some degree the wrongs suffered by the children of the poor, but all such palliatives are powerlesS to end them. As long as labor is merchandise and production is carried on for profit, child labor will have preference and the children of the poor will be ground into lux uries for the children of the rich
 Socialism offers absolutely the only means of rescuing the children of he poor, slowly but surely society is being pushed, by the underlying forces that move it, into the accept ance of the philosophy. The abio- lition of poverty is Sccialisms in sistent demand and this demand pro claims the end of private proyerty in the means of life.
 The earth spreads out before us. rich in it's resources beyond the DOW CT of imagination. The inventive genius of man has captured the light ming, snatched the thunderbolts from the hand of love, and grasped all the forces of nature and converted them into titanic toilers for the chil- N' NtA VI '4iSiA' it tai LII dlllI It's riotous abundance, and man with his miraculous productive power scout he idea that poverty is to forever scourge the human race The past. in the density of it's ignorance and the night of It's superstition. may be excused. But the living present with all It's myriad available agen- cies for producing food, clothing, shel- ter, and fer the education of the chil- dren and the diffusion of light and intelligence among the masses, can make no such plea,
 There Is absolutely no excuse for the widespread poverty that now scourges mankind. It is an affront to human intelligence and an i'm peachment of civilization. Child labor is not only unnecessary in this age but a crime against both the children and society. Every child ought to have, and In the triumph of Socialism will have. time enough for physical
 
 growth, for the joy of healthy child hood, for education, and for every thing else required In a truly en- frightened age for the scientific rear ing of the children, the progenitors of succeeding generations
 It is for this very reasCn that the ,bi are turning toward Socialism in in creasing numbers all over the world. It is their movement. born of their travail and consecrated tG their eman- cipation. Millions of them are al ready marching beneath it's interna- tional banner and swelling with joy ous strains the anthem of their com ing deliverance. To them Socialism is a bacon lighting the shipwrecked mariner to his destined port. It is their sunshine and shower. their meat and drink, their life and hope. It sheds it's radiance in their dingy novels and eases the ache in their numb and weary flesh.
 The disnherited of every race and cline are here at home. They are in truth the people and to them of right belongs the earth
 Socialism is their gospel of eco homie freedom and social salvation. In the name of its commanding genius they unite in greater and greater numbers, thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands. millions of them. keeping step to the same proletarian heartbeat, the heart beat of the international revolution, animated by the same social spirit, held steadfast by the name of social conscience, their radiant faces turn ed forever toward the sunrise.
 These are the children of the poor who have made the earth rich and are now moving toward their eternal inheritance.
 The love of comrades is in their hearts, the passion for freedom in their souls, and the light of victory in their eyes. The trials that be- set their struggle but fit them for their coming freedom and for the in finitely higher life that lies beyond and holds out to them its eager, out stretched hands They move stead