When things are rearranged so that
I can help my fellow man best by helping myself,
…then, I shall love him more than ever.
-Eugene Victor Debs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal – Monday October 5, 1908
Milwaukee, July: Eugene Debs Interviewed by Lincoln Steffens
From Everybody’s Magazine of October 1908:
Part II:
—–
[Debs on the Evils of Capitalism]
[Said Debs, without waiting for questions:]
To begin with, we Socialists know what the matter is: it’s Capitalism; and we know what the cure is: it’s Socialism.
“Words,” I muttered.
[Said he, drawing near and reaching out his hands:]
No. Capitalism is a thing, a system; it’s the organization of society under which we all live. And it’s wrong, fundamentally wrong. It is a system of competition for wealth, for the necessities of human life, and, a survival of the old struggle of the jungle, it forces the individual to be selfish, and rewards him for beating and abusing his fellow man. Profit is made the aim of all human effort, not use, not service. The competitive system sets man against man, class against class; it puts a premium upon hate; and love—the love of a man for his neighbor—is abnormal and all but impossible. The system crucifies the prophets and servants of mankind. It pays greed the most, honors highest the ruthless, and advances swiftest the unscrupulous. These are the fit to survive.
Debs seized my arm.
It’s wrong, isn’t it? It’s inherently unjust, inhuman, unintelligent, and—it cannot last. The particular evils you write about, graft and corruption, and the others about which I speak, the poverty, crime, and cruelty, they are evidences of its weakness and failure; the signs that it is breaking down.
