The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1923-09-14
DEBS OUTLINES PRINCIPLES OF So
CIALISTS IN TALK AT GREAT FALLS
Frendne OF Mankind Keynote Of Speech By h Grand Old
Man OF Labor Movement" Over 1000 People Attend

only the exploiters and the parasites !
that we want to get rid of, they who /
produce nothing and have ali while
the workers produce all ana have
nothing. | call upon you to realize
as you will if you give it just one in
stants intelligent thought-that you
are the majority. You are the people.
And yet you count for so little in the
capitalist system. They can send you
abroad to be slaughtered az if you
were animals, without even consulting
you We are ruled very largely, in
this country by federal judges. They
hold a life tenure. They are not cleo
ted by the people; they are not ac-
countable to the people; they do not
associate with the people; they have
nothing In common with the people.
In the last analysis they decide what
is law and what is not law. And by
whom are they chosen? By the great
interests that are corrupting the body
polite and looting this nation-every
one Of them, without exception. Their
voice is law. The supreme court has
arrOgated to itself the despotic power
Of annulling a law enacted by the rep
resentatives of the people. We have
the only supreme court in the world
that exercises such autocratic power
over the people. And at the head of
that court there is a gentleman who is
on the payroll Of the steel trust at the
rate Of $4,000 a year. / sent him a
telegram the other day asking if the
charge was true. | received no answer
| expected none. When / was down at
Atlanta he said that / was where |
properly belonged. | cannot return
the compliment. ! do not think he is
where he properly belongs.
You are the people; and you can be
the people if you will be, not submit
ting supinely as you now do, in your
Indifference to what is going on in the
world, in your stupidity in voting to
perpetuate the system in which you
are in servitude and looked upon with
contempt because you are in the lower
class. There are still many among
you who believe that we have no class
es in this country; that we are abso-
lutely equal before the law. | think
my personal experience proves some
what to the contrary; and upon that
subject | am perfectly safe in saying.
that. | have inside information. But
/ can't feel i'm the least resentful about
it. | felt sorry for the man who had
to put me in Jail. He would have
exchanged places with me.
To awaken the unthinking, to have
them begin to realize what may be
done by the power Of organized effort
1t is a perfectly simple propositios.
, A child can. understand it. We suffer
! less than two per cent of our people
! to own and control this nations in
dustiies the means Of our common
life; and these are our economic mast
ers and our political rulers. They are
not in the least serviceable to society.
The owners Of our railroads have no
more to do with their making, their
operation, their management than il
they lived in the moon. If every own
err Of every American railroad were to
leave this planet tonight on some air
ship, and never retum,you would not
know it unless you read it in the pa
pers. The same is true Of every other
|, great industry. In the evolution OF
capitalism the capitalist, fully devel
oped, becomes a parasite, a profit TAX
, er exclusively.
You understand, of course, that W;
have passed from the individual to thu
firm, the company, the corporation
the trust, the trust Of trusts, the grea
combination, in which the capitals