Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1912-10-31
SOCIALIST RALLY
ATTRACTSLARGE CROWD
Representative Gathering at Open
Air Mass Meeting.
TWO BALTIMOREANS SPEAK.
Declare There Are Only Two Political
Parties-The Socialist and the
CapitsIistic. a

Last night a representative gather,
| ing of citizens assembled at the cor.
ner Of Main and Conduit streets anC
listened attentively for over an hour
to the earnest discourses of two So.
cialists from Baltimore. The night
was an ideal one for an open-air
meeting, and the quiet environment
of the neighborhood gave the audi.
ence an excellent opportunity to hear
the ringing appeals and forceful ar
guments OF the speakers.
Mr.. Charles Saunders, the first to
speak, put the practical question
"Why do we need new party?" and
proceeded substantially as follows:
The old parties stand for capital
ism, which is enslaving the working
man, and is directly responsible for
the ever. increasing high cost Of liv-
ing. A new party has just sprung
up called Progressive. 1t owes its
birth to the Socialist movement, for
the educational work of Socialism has
created demand for radical reforms.
MIR. Roosevelt has deliberately ap-
propriated some planks of the Social
ist party's platform, to keep pace
with the growing enlightenment of
the people. But the only genuine
Socialist party is that which ante
dates Mr.. Roosevelt's party by
twenty years.
For what do we stand? For
the public ownership of mines,
mills, factories, railroads and all
other public utilities. We would
operate them in the interest Of the
public, without financial profit. AL
ready we have Socialism in the man.
agement of postofFice, public roads
and streets, and public schools.
Why not adopt the same system in re-
spect to the production and distribu-
tion of the necessaries of life? (Then
the cost of living would be cut in
two.")
The second speaker declared that
there are really only two political
parties in the field, namely the Social
ist on the one side and all the rest on
the other. for they are all nothing
more than subdivisions of capitalism.
The old parties can offer no tangible
solutions for the high cost of living.
Socialism, on the contrary, is the
economic expression of evolution
which is leading men on to industrisl
| freedom.
To-day the capitalists own the
tools and can dictate the terms upon
which the laborer may work. He that
owns the means of livelihood owns
the worker himself, as Benjamin
Franklin has said, and, therefore,
holds him in wage slavery. Did any
Romad emperor ever possess a power
similar to our moley magnates? They
virtually have the power of life and
death over the men, women and little
children who toll. While the million
aires are growing constantly richer,
| the laborers are getting barely
enough wages, on an average, to keep
the body and soul together. And
many, thrown out of work, are re-
duced to the tramp life.
'tThink what Mr.. Rockefeller &
fortune of a billion dollars really
means. You can't conceive it. Why,
a million dollars lies almost beyond
our conception. If a man started to
save dollar a day, at the birth OF
Christ (when the angels sang that
oft-forgotten message of peace on
earth, good will to men') and con.
tinued saving at the same rate up to
this year of 1912, he would have about
| $500, 600. So we see how big a mil.
lion dollars fortune is. And Mr..
Rockefeller has one thousand times
| that sum.
The speaker then described how
the capitalists are scheming to find
foreign markets for their over
supply of goods. The working class,
who made those goods, haven
enough wages to buy back all they
need, and so the surplus must q
abroad. This often invites war
like the Boxer uprising. Speaking
on the claim that the working clas.
are the real producers OF the nations
| wealth, he admitted that the capital
lists do work, but only after the man
ner of Jesse James. Like that noteG
| highwayman, they cleverly plan Il
thold up honest people and al
cleverly plan a way to escape.
This is the situation which is ours
ing America and England European
countries, but the Chinese are wisel,
endeavoring to escape such a curse
| Their provisional resident, DIR. SUI
Vat Sen, warned them of capitalism
in his resignation speech, and urges
them to adopt at once the Industria
Commonwealth, in which the peopl
of the nation would own their owl
country. The speaker then urged hi
bearers t. join the Socialist move
ment and thus help to keep back tn
destructive tide of capitalism, as tn
Polish people heroically kept back tn
destructive tide of MosIemism fror
Eastern Europe.
| After the speaking lot of litera
ture was distributed and scme Of tn
audience subscribed to "Publi
| Ownership" the weekly official orga
of the Socialist party of Baltimore.