Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1913-01-23

workers. The government, under
Grover Cleveland, then, for the first
time, / believe, took a hand in the
game. It called out the military to
protect the mail trains, and then made
every train Z mail train. One of the
jokes of the strike was that an ordi-
nary train was converted into a gov
eminent mail train by sticking a l.
cent stamp on each of the carriages.
An Injunction was secured against
Debs, which he at once proceeded to
violate and was thereupon. locked up
in prison for SIX months. ] spent
day with him in Woodstock jail try
ing to convert him to Socialism and
the need for, Independent political &C
ton by the organized working class,
the need for which had not then
after '95, despite de Leon, the party
kept growing, and then the inevitable
happened. The young Americans who
were coming in, together with the
bulk of the, Germans, saw that so long
as de Leon feigned supreme the party
was doomed to sterility, and so they
got together, ousted him from his posi-
ton and formed the now flourishing
Socialist party. Since then the move
ment has never looked back, and,
though the Socialist Labor party still
exists in name, it is barely able TO
nominate candidates for the Presi-
Dental campaign. Let me remark, ia
passing, that one of the tragedies of
every great movement is the presence
of men who. in its earlier stages, prov
ed themselves to be of brilliant at
tainments, and of noble self-sacrifice,
but who, for lack of that human touch
which links them up with their fell
lows, have made wreck of their own
lives. and have become drag upon
the movement which they did so much
to found De Leon has made many
shifts in his time to recover his po-
sition, but, as. might be expected, each
one has led him further and deeper
| into the mire, until now he is but
name of unsavory omen. The man
WAS worthy of better fate.
had intended going over the same
ground on this occasion, but found
that the time at my disposal was too
| limited, and so decided not to go fur
Their West than Denver, Colo. What
a change. the intervening seventeen
years have witnessed. Socialism is
noW-I say this quite adVisedly-the
dominant factor in the American po-
litical situation. The Socialist party
vote has kept mounting up, beginning
with 96,931 in 1900, rising to 408, 230
in 1904, to A24,488 in 1908, and leap
ing up (assa at present estimated( to
i. between 100000 and 100000 in 1912.
These figures only family reveal the
strength Of the movement. On this
Occasion the intervention of Theodore
| Roosevelt, as Presidential candidate,
with lbs progressive program, which
Iby the way, included some eighteen
Items taken from the Socialist pro-
gram. kept the Socialist vote down by
certainly not less than one million.
1.-THE experience of our own country,
! and every other, shows that there is
j always -az~xery large element in the
population who are Socialists in every
i thing but name, and who, II they do
not vote the Socialist or Labor ticket
only do not do so because they believe
that their objects will be better Sc
cured by voting the orthodox party
Ticket. The increase in the Socialist
vote on this occasion represents more
THAN the actual numbers appear to
show, Four years ago a very large
number. of people worked and voted
for the Socialist candidates mainly as
a protest against the react1onary cor
ruption of the orthodox parties. On
Il this occasion these went over in a
body to Roosevelt, and so the Social
4 ist vote. which has doubled itself, IS
also a more genuinely Socialist vote
than it was in 1903. The newspapers
now treat, the movement with great
respect. and although, of course, they
bitterly oppose Socialist candidates,
they vet recognize the gravity OF the
situation which the spread of Social
ism has created, and instead of dis
missing Socialism flippantly, as l re-
member one editor doing on a former
visit. when he described 1t as "a
"One-eyed monster,
Grim and stout,
With but one eye,
And that one out,
thew give not merely columns, but
pages to Socialist articles and inter
views with Socialist visitors, while the
monthly magazines are also giving In
creasing prominence to the subject.
Almost every university now has a
branch of the, intercollegiate Socialist
Society. and these carry on a very
active propaganda work amongst the
students.
But, as might be expected, the great
est change of all is that which is com
ing over the trades union movement
Everywhere the young men who are
now coming to- the front in the labor
unions rae, for the most part, active
Socialists. The terrible experiences
through which the trade union move
ment has been passing, the barbarous
manner in which the state intervenes
through the law courts and by the use
of troops to. crush every strike, +the
persecution of leaders, who, while a
strike is on and for months after il
is over, go about literally in danger
of their lives, the tremendous increase
in house rent and the cost of living
the way in which the capitalist class
is able to import workers from many
lands, all having different religions
speaking different languages, and witt