The Washington socialist. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1914-1915, 1915-01-28
VAST AUDIENCE FILLS EVERETT
.% THEATRE TO HEAR DEBS
LARGE AUDIENCE Is
ADDRESSED BY DEBS;
SPEAKS OF WAR
(Fromn the Everett Daily Herald)

(From the Everett Daily Herald)
Eugene V, Debs, thrice candidate
for president OF the United States on
the socialist ticket, addressed an audi
ence Mat filled the Everett theatre
yesterday afternoon, to hear him.
Prefacing his address was a brief
statement by Maynard Shipley that
the socialist movement was educa-
tional, and Debs offered nothing new,
Shipley declared the class struggle in
the United States has at this time
created a more terrible warfare than
the conflict in Europe, having as a
difference only the FORM. Socialism,
he said, would set free not only the
bodies but the souls OF men,
Human brotherhood, said Debs, has
ever been the dream of the philoso-
pher. the hope of the prophet, never,
realized, but about to be through the
development of the socialist party.
Never, he said, had a people been
self governed and that government
is denial of freedom. The .realiza-
ton of the lofty ideals of the social
lists, whereby would come a division
of dollars according to socialist
ideals, would solve every human
problem.
Between dividends and wages. he
said, is an irreconcilable conflict;
that men grow rich because they pro-
duce nothing and others remain poor
because they produce everything He
stated that 100000 workers are
idle in the united states now, and that
with record cotton crop in the south
and idle textile mills in New England,
and starving workers wanting oppor-
tunity to join the cotton and the mills
In wealth production these constitut.
ed all the elements necessary to pros
perity.
q These facts, said the speaker. mere
ly prove that the owners of the ma.
chinery & of productions, constituting
the government and debating the in
dustrial and financial system, VcouldJ
no longer control their own system
and were unable to force it to operate
to produce profits and thereby keep
workers busy. The system, he added,
had fulfilled ifs purpose and that the
time is at hand to supplant it with
one founded on sanity, not only in the
interest of the workers but for the
Welfare Of all humanity. That the de-
terioration Of the q iYYage -sysste efof
wealth distribution was so apparent,
and the necessity of reorganizing 90
ciety on socialistic basis also so evil
dent, that the proposal needed no
argument
The Militia "a como
z Whether in an autocracy, limited
monarchy, or a republic, continuation
of the capitalistic system, said the
speaker, depends for its preservation
upon some form of nilitarisrn. In the
United States this was found in the
state militia organizations, he stated,
adding that the only times it was nee
essary to preserve order was when
the workers wanted something.
Referring to the, war in Europe,
Debs declared it to be the outgrowth
of capitalism. Nations unable to con-
sumo their wealth products, he de-
clared, depend upon foreign markets
for disposition Of the surplus. Ultim-
ately and inevitably, he said, the
struggle to control the foreign market
led to war between the competing ma
tions.
'Debs said a1aw of the United States
makes every man between the ages
Of IS and as years a soldier adding
that this law had been surreptitiously
passed, without publicity at the time,
and that few residents of the country
knew of it's existence. .,.,.....t1 ~ .
War and Peace
Stating that on the day when the
people OF the United States Joined in
prayer for the restoration of peace in
Europe 18,0OO,o0O rifle cartridges left
New York on ship for Europe Debs
said: prayers are cheap, but there
is profit in powder and munitions. of
war" The statement was greeted
with cheers and jeers by the big audi
ence.
The only bona fide peace movement
said Debs, is the socialist movement
the church, The Hague tribunal. etc.
being failures, governmental protesta-
tions of neutrality being pure hypo-
crisy. Only in the qbange that, would
result in an exchange, without profit