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Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday August 28, 1912
“The Supreme Campaign Issue” by Eugene Debs, S. P. A. Presidential Candidate
From The Pittsburg Press of August 27, 1912:
WHAT EUGENE V. DEBS STANDS FOR
A concise statement by the Presidential candidate of the
Socialist party on “The Supreme Campaign Issue.”Written especially for THE PITTSBURG PRESS.
BY EUGENE V. DEBS
The supreme issue in this campaign is Capitalism versus Socialism. The Republican hosts under Taft, the Democratic cohorts under Wilson and the Progressive minions under Roosevelt are but battalions of the army of capitalism.
Opposed to them are the ever augmenting phalanxes of the world’s workers, organizing in the ranks of the Socialist party, to do battle for the cause of Socialism and industrial emancipation.
Nothing in the political history of the world has presented so inspiring vision as the formation of the battle lines for the campaign in America.
For the first time since the civil war is a political cleavage upon a great moral question. It is the question of the right of one class of human beings exploiting another class of human beings to the very point of physical existence.
It is a question of human freedom versus human slavery.
This question is as old as the race, but for the first time in human history the issue is stripped of all subterfuge and the exploited class have the political power in their own hands to accomplish by peaceful means their own emancipation.
No longer can the political harlots of capitalism betray the workers with issues manufactured for that purpose. The beating of tariff tom-toms, the cry for control of corporations, the punishment of “malefactors of great wealth,” the wolf cry of civic righteousness under capitalism, will not avail the politicians in this campaign.
Neither will the purely political issues of direct legislation, the recall, direct election of senators, or the economic reforms promised, of old-age pensions, minimum wage, industrial insurance and welfare of labor, about which the politicians of capitalism are now so much concerned, bring aid or comfort to them, for the people know that all of these are a part of the program of Socialism and that they are only seized upon by designing men who are not Socialists in an effort to deceive the people and prolong the reign of capitalism.
Taft may have stolen delegates enough to secure his renomination, but it remained for Roosevelt to burglarize the Socialist platform in order to secure his election under false pretenses.
The millions of American tillers of the soil and toilers of factory, mine and railroad, have abandoned once and forever all political parties of whatever name which do not challenge the very existence as an institution, and they are in open, organized and intelligent revolt against the system.
They have bunched all the so-called issues of all the capitalist parties, along with wage-slavery, poverty, ignorance, prostitution, child slavery, industrial murder, political rottenness and judicial tyranny, and they have labeled it “Capitalism.” They are bent upon the overthrow of this monstrous system and upon establishing in its place an industrial and social democracy in which the workers shall be in control of industry and the people shall rule.
The Socialist party offers the only remedy, which is Socialism.
It does not promise Socialism in a day, a month, or a year, but it has a definite program with Socialism as its ultimate end. Its advocates are men and women who think for themselves and have convictions of their own and they are in deadly earnest.
The hour has struck! The die is cast and Socialism challenges the institution of Capitalism.
[Emphasis added.]
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote EVD Socialism Portends to Capitalist, ISR p131, Sept 1900
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/isr/v01n03-sep-1900-ISR-gog-Wisc.pdf
The Pittsburg Press
(Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
-August 27, 1912
https://www.newspapers.com/image/144005423
See also:
Aug 26, 1912, Terre Haute Star p8
-on Leaving Terre Haute for Campaign Trail
https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1912/120825-debs-fewwordsforlocalpress.pdf
Aug 26, 1912, Chicago Evening World p1+3
-Chicago Campaign Speech
https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1912/120826-debs-realpartyofprogress.pdf
Aug 27, 1912, Fergus Falls MN
-Campaign Speech, Lyceum Theater
https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1912/1912-capsoc.htm
Aug 31, 1912, Butte Miner
-Debs, Socialist Candidate for President, Speaks at Broadway Theater
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/108546426/aug-31-1912-butte-miner-debs/
Aug 31, 1912-Appeal to Reason p1
“Why You Should Vote for Socialism” by EVD
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/appeal-to-reason/120831-appealtoreason-w874.pdf
Tag: Debs Campaign 1912
https://weneverforget.org/tag/debs-campaign-1912/
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Be Moderate – James Connolly Songs Of Freedom Band
“We Only Want the Earth” by James Connolly