New Ulm review., 1912-10-30
Socialist Lecture

The socialist lecture at Schell's hall
last Wednesday evening was very
we'll attended, every available space
being occupied by an audience com
posed of persons who appeared sin
cerely desirous Of getting a better
understanding of the principles of the
party whose influence is being felt
more and more as the unrest of the
masses grows. Among those present
were not only advocates of the So
cialist ideas, but members of the old
line republican and democratic par
ties, progressives and those not az
fliated with any party.
The speaker scheduled, Janet Fen
nimore KorngOld, was not able to be
present on account of a serious ILL.,
ness and her place was filled by Miss
Florence Wattles of Indiana. Miss
Wattles Is a slight, girlish-lookinR|
young woman; she hasn't in anYedH|
gree the appearance of q political
agitator but when she speaks her
voice shows that it has been deveE
oped in the school of socialist ora
tory. 1t was too large voice for the
size of the hall, better fitted for out.
door speaking, altho at times, in her
most intense moments she dropped to
a conversational tone that was pecul,
iarly effective and brought out her
telling points much more nOticeably
than high pitched tone would have
done.
Miss Wattles spoke humorously Of
the fact that in politics as in many
other lines, all that woman can do
is to talk, but that they do it to good
effect. Her entire subject dealt with
the discomfort of the, present day
which shows there is something radi-
cally wrong with the country. She
showed how each of the political par
ties has it's own idea as to the cause
of the evils existing, and each like
wise has it's own remedy She pic
tured the misery of the poor, the
wretchedness of the man whose fam
lily is only few days from actual
want and the degradation of the work
ing class in it's struggle for bread. She
showed the part women have had to
play in economic conditions. Monopo-
lies have forced the price of life's
necessities so high that women are
driven out of their homes to make
their living They work cheap-and
in the great cities employers delib-
erately pay starvation wages and ex-
pect their female employees to add to
their scanty pay by traffic in sex.
The low wages of women keep mems
wages down and boost the profits of
monopolies until eventually if there
is no change they will come to own
the entire means of production. The
speaker showed that in every city
and village in the country are the es-
factories and drug companies that are
links in the chain of monopoly that
stretches out from the Offices of Nor
gan and Rockefeller. She also named
the various stores in our city which.
are part of these great systems, and
asserted that unless people are awak-
ened soon these two combinations
will control all the necessities of life.
Her next step was to analyze the at.
tempts that have been made to con-
troll these monopOlies through regula-
tion and restraint and showed how
failure to do this has resulted in great
er good for the monopolies. The so
cialist remedy of buying out the
monopoiies and turning them over to
! the people to control was next ex-
planned and the lecture closed with a
humorous analysis of the platforms of
the republican, the democratic and
the progressive parties which made
them look like three twins and an in
vitation was extended to join the So
cialists because their platform is the
only one that promises any relief from
existing evils.
Just Received a carload of fancy