You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Sunday August 7, 1904
From the Appeal to Reason: Socialists To Make Most Vigorous Campaign This Year
In this week's Appeal, Ryan Walker depicts the contempt with which the two parities of the Capitalist Class treat the Working Class:
As if to demonstrate Walker's point, the
Appeal describes the Democrat's choice for the office of Vice-President of the United States:
DAVIS AS A FRIEND OF LABOR.
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Davis, the democratic vice-presidential candidate, is a great friend of labor in the United States. During the recent coal strike in West Virginia, he made a personal investigation of his coal mines at Elkins, and discharged every union miner he could find. He evicted them and their families from the company houses, and then notified the retail store keepers that if they extended credit to any of the men so discharged he would cut off their credit at the local bank of which he was president. He also went to the independent coal operators and informed them that if they employed any members of the unions that his railroad would not furnish cars in which to load their coal. At his command, Judge Jackson issued his now infamous injunction which resulted in the imprisonment of Mother Jones and the miners in their fight for better conditions. This is the kind of cattle the democrats put up and expect the workers of the United States to put in office.
The Socialist Party of America, Party of the Working Class
This week's
Appeal to Reason announces the beginning of the Socialist Campaign and presents an interview with Comrade Mailly from the
Gazette-Tribune of Terre Haute, Indiana:
SOCIALIST CAMPAIGN OPENS SEPTEMBER 1st.
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Preparations Being Made for the Greatest Campaign Ever Inaugurated by a Third Party-Comrade Mailly's Views.
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From the Terre Haute, Ind., Gazette-Tribune.
William Mailly of Chicago, National Secretary of the Socialist party, was in Terre Haute yesterday arranging with Eugene V. Debs, the presidential nominee of that party, for the Socialist campaign this year. According to Mr. Mailly, who returned to Chicago late last night, the Socialists are to make the most vigorous campaign this year they have ever attempted. It has been arranged that Mr. Debs shall open at Indianapolis, on Thursday, September 1st, and keep on the stump from that time until election day, closing with a speech in Terre Haute on the night preceding the election.
To a Tribune and Gazette reporter Mr. Mailly told what his party expects to do.
[Said he:]
We believe...that when the campaign is over the American people will learn that the Socialist party is a very decided factor.
Since the democratic convention it has been demonstrated more than ever that there is no actual difference between the democratic and republican parties and the candidates of one mean as much to the working classes as the candidates of the other. We have already arranged Mr. Debs' tour and it will embrace the entire United States. He will go as far east as Portland, Me., and as far west as Seattle and San Francisco. He will touch every important industrial center and from the time he opens his campaign he will keep continuously on the stump until election day.
Ever since the St. Louis convention of the democrats there is a perfect revolution taking place in the politics of the country, of which even the politicians are not aware. Our national headquarters at Chicago is not able to handle the increased correspondence and the work incident to the campaign. From all over the country reports are pouring into my office that the working classes are going to support the Socialist party this year. We have been preparing ourselves for just such a thing as this. We have an organization now. Every state in the union has its Socialist organization and we have developed plans by which our party will have an electoral ticket in every state of the union. I believe that is the first time a third party has succeeded in accomplishing that in a national election. For the last two years we have placed organizers in a every state and the entire country has been covered. The result is we are organized in a way to handle the campaign to its utmost possibilities. We are already assured of 2,000 speakers on the stump during September and October and what is more significant is that these speakers will receive no reward for their services. The Socialist party is able to carry on a great campaign with comparatively limited resources because our members work for the cause rather than for personal gain.
Liberal Campaign Funds.
More than that, the returns now coming in for our campaign fund far exceed our expectations and the money is coming right from the working classes. During June the party called upon its members to contribute the result of one-half day's wages to the national campaign fund and the proceeds have exceeded our first calculations. During the six months preceeding the democratic convention our dues-paying members increased 50 percent and since that convention they have increased so fast that we are unable to keep track of them. This is only an indication of what is to come. By the time September comes the politicians of both capitalistic parties will be compelled to take notice of the campaign of the Socialists and the American people will learn that the socialist party is here to stay. We do not have to depend upon corporations for our campaign funds and it is this fact that gives us strength with the working classes.
Demand for Debs.
A remarkable fact is the great demand for Mr. Debs' services. During the past two months a perfect Niagara of demands have poured in upon us, especially from labor organizations, for speeches from him. We have been preparing since our national convention in May, literature in all languages and this will be a feature that will be more extensively used than ever before. We have writers constantly translating articles for circulation.
The Tribune and Gazette reporter asked Mr. Mailly how many votes his party expected to poll. He said:
Considering the general situation, the widespread dissatisfaction of both the candidates and platforms of both the republican and the democratic parties, the many reductions in wages and in the working forces of the great corporations, the indignation aroused among the working classes by the infamous Colorado outrages, and in view of the fact that Weaver, the populist nominees in 1892, polled 1,200,000, our votes at a time when candidates did not warrant the dissatisfaction that exists now, we are justified in being assured that our vote will at least reach seven figures.
An Economic Dissolution.
The political situation as it has developed is the only logical one that could result from the economic revolution that has taken place in the country during the past fifty years. Following upon the division of society into a working class and a capitalist class a political realignment in keeping with that was bound to take place. The Socialist party is the party of progress and when November comes our vote will not only astonish this country but will shake the earth.
Mr. Mailly said that Mr. Debs would speak in New York City on Sept. 6 and will pay especial attention to Grover Cleveland's magazine article on the Chicago strike. Ben Hanford, the vice-presidential nominee of the Socialist, will also remain continuously on the stump.
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SOURCE
Appeal to Reason
(Girard, Kansas)
-of Aug 6, 1904
http://www.newspapers.com/...
http://www.newspapers.com/...
See also:
"Anti-Capitalist Meetup: Feb 23, 1903 Mother Jones
and the Massacre of the Raleigh County Miners"
-byJayRaye
http://www.dailykos.com/...
McClure's Magazine, Volume 23
S.S. McClure, Limited, 1904
-of July 1904
(search with "Grover Cleveland," choose p. 229)
http://books.google.com/...
Debs' Reply to Cleveland
pdf!http://www.marxists.org/...
IMAGES
1). Capitalist Leads Worker to the Polls
-by Ryan Walker
http://www.newspapers.com/...
2). Debs for President 1904
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
3 & 4). Clips X2 from Appeal of Aug 6, 1904
http://www.newspapers.com/...
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I Hate the Capitalist System-esp family
I hate the company bosses,
I'll tell you the reason why:
They cause me so much suffering
And my dearest friends to die.
-Sarah Ogan Gunning
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