You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Tuesday November 1, 1904
From the Appeal to Reason: Voters Hear Final Word from Socialists Before Election
The Appeal begins this special edition with a quote from Lincoln:
THE VOICE OF LINCOLN:---"Young man, when you cast your first vote, cast it honestly, cast it conscientiously; it makes no difference whether you elect your people or not---AN HONEST VOTE IS NEVER LOST."
And then offers a word from Eugene Debs, Socialist candidate
for President of the United States:
From the Appeal to Reason of October 29, 1904:
On the back page we find a long article by Benjamin Hanford:
WHAT WORKINGMEN'S VOTES CAN DO
by Benjamin Hanford, Socialist Candidate for Vice-President.
[Hanford first discusses at length the benefits and limitations of trades-unionism. He next calls on the working man to vote for the party of his own class. That Party is the Socialist Party of America. Hanford concludes:]
WHAT THE SOCIALIST PARTY WOULD DO.
This question of wages and unemployed will never be solved until the working class are in possession of the powers of government. Once they have those powers, all will be well with them. Granted the government is in the hands of the working class, the unemployed will be given work by the city , a state or nation. Granted the government is in the hands of the working class, the man who locks out his employes will find that a Socialist legislature will pass a law confiscating his factory and making it public property; a Socialist judge will declare the law constitutional; and a Socialist governor and Socialist sheriffs will carry the law into effect. That employer would never go into that factory again except to do productive work on the same basis as the other workers. Socialist officials would simply say that if the capitalist could not run industry without lockouts, society could.
If there was a strike, the Socialist government would pursue the said course-confiscate the employer's means of production. Socialist officials would simply say that if the capitalist could not carry on industry without strikes society could. In the case of a shut-down-the employer ceases to be employer. He no longer employs men in production. And when he stops production society should step in and carry it on, and to do this it would abolish the capitalist's private property in the means of production, and make it social property. There is no half-way measures which can deal with this matter. The only cure for the ills which afflict the working class is to change the private ownership of the means of production to social ownership.
That can only be done through the capture by the working class of the powers of government. To you workingmen, that is the supreme issue in this country today. It will require great effort on your part, heroic sacrifice on the part of many. But you have the strength to make the effort and the courage and virtue to make the sacrifices. You will do both. How soon? The time also rests with you. Your path to triumph leads to the ballot box. Now is the time to start. In this campaign, if a man tells you that the republican party is your friend, tell him the facts prove his words to be a false. If a man tells you the democratic party is your friend, tell him history proves the contrary. If either a democrat or a republican tells you he is your friend, tell him you are glad to hear it, and if he is indeed your friend he must VOTE YOUR TICKET-while God lives or time lasts you will never again vote his.
Union men, work for Socialism NOW. Do not wait till you get in the bull pen. Join the Socialist party today. Do not wait till you go on strike. Do not wait till you have been deported. Vote the Socialist ticket THIS year, so that you shall not go to the bull pen, so that you shall not be deported, so that you shall do your part to make this world a paradise for the working class-all others keep off the grass.
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The working class, may it ever be right; right or wrong, the working class.
The
Appeal advises working men to vote the Socialist ticket, and publishes Socialist Tickets from across the nation. We counted forty-one such state tickets and also one for the Arizona Territory. We offer the State party tickets of Minnesota and Texas as examples. Please note that the Socialist Party is known as the Social Democracy in New York and Wisconsin, and as the Public Ownership Party in Minnesota.
Socialist Party of America
Examples of Two State Tickets
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SOURCE
Appeal to Reason
(Girard, Kansas)
Oct 29, 1904
http://www.newspapers.com/...
IMAGES
All images are from above source.
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The Workers' Song-Dropkick Murphys
We're the first ones to starve the first ones to die
The first ones in line for that pie-in-the-sky
And always the last when the cream is shared out
For the worker is working when the fat cat's about
-Ed Pickford
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