The mendicancy within the group of candidates is somewhat disturbing. Why do I use this word and what does it mean? Go look it up. I find the necessity of the mendicancy something that needs to change in running for office and in the common situation of the working class.
"We make no apology for asserting that the welfare of the country centers in the one fact of doing absolute justice in all matters relating to fair wages for work, by which we mean such wages as shall make the home of the American workingman exempt from the ceaseless peril of mendicancy. 1"
Who said this and when was it said? This was a person that seen the same strugle we have today but long ago. A person who gave answers to the many questions that are relevant to the problems we face today.
Questions of justice in wage inequality, health care and war. What other things did this person say? Join me below the fold for some quotes and links to one of our greatest American heroes of the working class.
"The American workingman is an American citizen.
He has the same sovereign rights and prerogatives
as any other citizen. If he can secure sufficient wages,
he will be in a position to appreciate his privileges and
dignity, his sovereignty. If circumstances are created
which deny him such wages, which compel him to
live like a pagan, like a degraded Hungarian, Italian,
or Pole, who have no more conception of American
citizenship than savages, those who create them and
pro.t by them are not only enemies of workingmen,
but are enemies of their government, and if their purposes
cannot be thwarted, they will ultimately inaugurate
revolution.
We have said the hopes of the country center in
the emancipation of the workingmen from conditions
which compel them to accept such wages as keep them
forever on the ragged edge of mendicancy, bring them
in close contact with famine, make life a ceaseless burden
and horror." 2
Theses days we can add degraded Mexican, Iraqi or African to the list of people that are forced to live on the "ragged edge of mendicancy" in 21st century America. Why is it that this is still true over 100 years after it had been said?
"The question, "What can we do for working people?" as a
general proposition, finds its resemblance in a question
that might be asked by the owner of a sheep ranch,
"What can I do for the sheep?" The reply would be,
doubtless, "shear them." The ranch man takes care of
the sheep that he may shear them, and it will be found
that the men who ask with so much pharisaical solicitude,
"What can we do for working men?" are the very
ones who shear them the closest when the opportunity
offers — strip them of everything of value that
they may the more easily subjugate them by necessities
of cold and hunger and nakedness, degrade and
brutalize them to a degree that they become as fixed
in their servitude as the wheels, cogs, cranks, and pins
in the machinery they purchase and operate.
The real question to be propounded is, "What
can workingmen do for themselves?" The answer is
ready. They can do all things required, if they are independent,
self-respecting, self-reliant men." 3
How for ahead of his time was this man? He surly scared the pants of the powers that be at the time. Even now he isn't even mentioned in text books for fear of some truth getting thru the truthiness.
"All explorers, pathfinders, in religion, morals, science,
government, geography, in any and every department
of human affairs, are agitators. They are seldom
or never popular in the beginning of their labors.
Their fate, as a rule, is to suffer derision, contumely,
neglect, and poverty, often penalties still more severe;
the exception only vindicates the rule.
Those who are inclined to investigate facts will
be satisfied that our conclusions are warranted. We
could easily exhaust the space at our command by giving
illustrations of the rugged road agitators have traveled,
and in pointing to the ultimate triumphs they
have achieved for the good of mankind." 4
Do we have these people today, the agitators? Where are they? Are we here at DailyKos the agitators?
"It is told of Parrhasius, an Athenian painter, that
his ambition was to "paint a groan," and for the purpose
subjected a slave to torture. If groans extorted by
torture in the United States could be painted and hung
in the corridors of Inferno, Satan could appoint a jubilee
day for the delection of his hosts, and if Heaven
could but catch a glimpse of them the saints would
rend their white robes and tear off their crowns and all
the harps in the Celestial City would be tuneless and
silent." 5
The United States has been groaning so long and so loud I think those in Washington are deaf to the sound!
"Beware of capitalism’s politicians and preachers!
They are the lineal descendants of the hypocrites of
old who all down the ages have guarded the flock in
the name of patriotism and religion and secured the
choicest provender and the snuggest booths for themselves
by turning the sheep over to the ravages of the
wolves." 6
And these people are still alive and well today, Cheney, Dobson and all.
"Every solitary one of these aristocratic conspirators
and would-be murderers claims to be an arch-patriot;
every one of them insists that the war is being waged
to make the world safe for democracy. What humbug!
What rot! What false pretense! These autocrats, these
tyrants, these red-handed robbers and murderers, the
"patriots," while the men who have the courage to stand
face to face with them, speak the truth, and fight for
their exploited victims—they are the disloyalists and
traitors. If this be true, I want to take my place side
by side with the traitors in this fight." 7
And is this not true also today? Where do we find ourselves with the traitors I'd presume? That is where I take my place.
Now this next quote is by far my favorite because it states what I believe we here in the political left blogosphere are attempting to do with out a defined individual as a leader.
"I am not a Labor Leader; I do not want you to follow me or anyone else; if you are looking for a Moses to lead you out of this capitalist wilderness, you will stay right where you are. I would not lead you into the promised land if I could, because if I led you in, some one else would lead you out. You must use your heads as well as your hands, and get yourself out of your present condition."
I could go on finding relevant quotes from this one man that lived his life a century ago but in a time not that different from our own, history repeats. And now the money quote that all will recognize.
"While there is a lower class, I am in it. While there is a criminal element, I am of it. While there is a soul in prison, I am not free."
All these quotes or from the same man, a personal hero, Eugene V. Debs!
- Debs: The Common Laborer [April 1890]
- Debs: The Common Laborer [April 1890]
- Debs: What Can We Do for Working People? [April 1890]
- Debs: Agitation and Agitators [August 1890]
- Debs: To the Hosts of the Social Democracy of America [Aug. 30, 1897]
- Debs: Politicians and Preachers [June 24, 1916]
- Debs: The Canton, Ohio Speech, Anti-War Speech [June 16, 1918]
Eugene V. Debs Biography
Archive of speeches and writings