Fight For Your Lire ! 
 
 BY 
 
 BEN HANFORD 
 
 Recording Some Activities or 
 Labor Agitator 
 
 NEW YORK 
 WlLSHIRE BOOK CO. 
 
 200 WILLIAM ST. 
 1909
 
 
 To the Jimmie Higginses, 
 and Those Choice Spirits 
 of This Earth Who Did 
 or Do 
 or Shall 
 Call One Another "Comrade" 
 
 Copyright, 1909, by 
 
 WILSHIRE BOOK COMPANY 
 New York
 
 Biographical Sketch of Ben Hanford 
 By JOSHUA WANHOPE. 
 
 MOST people are familiar with the story of 
 the little boy who, asked if his father was 
 a Christian, replied that he was, but that 
 'Tie wasn't working at it." Some professing So- 
 cialists might be similarly described, but fortu- 
 nately for the cause there are thousands of notable 
 exceptions. And perhaps among them all, for in- 
 domitable, tireless energy and record of service, 
 no name stands higher than that of Ben Hanford, 
 the virile author of this volume. A sketch of his 
 activities, therefore, well may form the contents 
 of this introduction. 
 
 Hanford was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1861. 
 His mother died in his infancy, and some years 
 later his father married Frances Jane Thompson, 
 of Bangor, Maine. She is a woman of rich and 
 cultivated mind and rare and beautiful character, 
 and Hanford declares his debt to her is incalcu- 
 lable. Under her instruction he acquired a taste 
 for reading and study, and to her influence he 
 attributes most of whatever may be good in his 
 character. 
 
 Having learned the printer's trade in the office 
 
 1.626839 3
 
 4 FIGHT FOB YOUR LIFE ! 
 
 of the Marshalltown (Iowa) "Republican," Han- 
 ford went in 1879 to Chicago, and on February 
 26 of that year became a member of Chicago Typo- 
 graphical Union No. 16. Since then he has never 
 been a day without his card of membership in the 
 International Typographical Union. For many 
 years he has been a member of New York Typo- 
 graphical Union No. 6 "Big Six" and for thirty 
 years he has been a militant and active worker in 
 the trade-union movement. 
 
 Sixteen years ago he became a student of Social- 
 ist economics and philosophy under that gifted and 
 wonderful teacher, Fred Long, of Philadelphia, 
 also a printer. Since then the Socialist movement 
 has had no more indefatigable and persistent 
 champion than Ben Hanford. 
 
 He has been three times nominated as Socialist 
 candidate for Governor of the State of New York 
 in 1898 being the nominee of the Socialist Labor 
 Party, and in 1900 and 1902 he headed the New 
 York State ticket for the Socialist Party. In 
 1901 he was chosen as Socialist Party candidate 
 for Mayor of New York City. In 1904 and again 
 in 1908 he was nominated by the Socialist Party 
 for Vice-President of the United States, in both 
 campaigns the national ticket of the Party having 
 been Debs and Hanford. 
 
 His activity in both the Socialist and trade-union
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 5 
 
 movements has never ceased. He generally put in 
 three months of each year on the lecture platform 
 and in making political addresses before the an- 
 nual election, but the day after the polls closed 
 saw Hanf ord back in the printing office working 
 at his trade. In addition to his activity as a 
 speaker, Hanford has been a constant contributor 
 to the labor press, and leaflets and pamphlets from 
 his pen have been circulated by millions. When 
 the New York "Sun" locked out its Union printers 
 in 1899, Hanford wrote much of the literature of 
 "Big Six," boycotting that paper, and openly 
 defied Judge Bookstaver's injunction against him- 
 self and other members of the Printers' Union. 
 
 As a public speaker Hanford has always heen 
 recognized as one of the most powerful and effect- 
 ive on the Socialist platform. He possesses elo- 
 quence, fluency, a power of piquant and effective 
 illustration and a wide range of economic knowl- 
 edge, with the ability to explain seemingly intricate 
 problems in clear and simple terms. The reader 
 of this volume will find many striking examples 
 of this faculty in its pages. In addition to these 
 qualifications, Hanford is an exceedingly formid- 
 able champion in debate, and has on many occa- 
 sions completely outclassed the ahlest apologists of 
 capitalism that could be found to meet him. 
 
 Though never a strong man physically, Hanford
 
 6 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE ! 
 
 possesses a nervous power and endurance which 
 enabled him for many years to undertake and suc- 
 cessfully carry out speaking campaigns which were 
 beyond the strength of men his physical superiors. 
 But for several years past his health has been so 
 broken that he has been forced for a long time (and 
 it is feared permanently) to abandon all public 
 speaking. While his physical sufferings have been 
 and still are most painful, he still employs his pen 
 in the Great Cause. It has always been his pro- 
 found belief that his work for Socialism has given 
 him a stronger hold on life, and that had it not 
 been for the inspiration and strength derived from 
 working for the Cause, he would have long since 
 been dead or a hopeless invalid. "Socialism is 
 Life" has been Hanford's motto, and this point of 
 vie*/ has undoubtedly influenced him in selecting 
 the title under which the present work appears. 
 
 Though these collected writings of this Socialist 
 veteran have a high economic value as Socialist 
 propaganda, a value which has indeed been prompt- 
 ly recognized in the Socialist movement, as testified 
 by the wide circulation many of them have enjoyed, 
 they are perhaps as valuable in another respect, as 
 displaying in the most marked degree the indom- 
 itable spirit, the unbounded courage, faith and 
 hope that makes the Socialist movement of the 
 world invincible and irresistible.
 
 Preface 
 
 IN 1904, when I was for the first time made 
 the Socialist Party candidate for Vice-Pres- 
 ident of the United States, Hermon F. Titus, 
 in presenting my name to the Convention, spoke 
 of my "sacrifices" for the Socialist movement. In 
 accepting the nomination, I stated that it was lit- 
 tle that I had been able to do for Socialism, but 
 that it had done wonderful (almost miraculous) 
 things for me. I even declared (and correctly) 
 that work in the Socialist Movement had then 
 prolonged my life some years, and that to that 
 Movement I owed everything. 
 
 In the five years since that time my obligation 
 to the Labor Movement has been multiplied mani- 
 fold. Most of the United States Comrades know 
 of my broken health and acute physical suffering. 
 A few Comrades know how heavy was the hand 
 of personal and spiritual affliction that was laid 
 upon me. Nothing is clearer to my mental vision 
 than that I could not have lived those years ex- 
 cept for the beautiful love and stalwart support 
 of my Comrades the world over, and the strength 
 which I derived from the hope of the return of 
 such a. measure of health as would once more en-
 
 8 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE! 
 
 able me to actively work in the Great Cause. Not 
 only do I owe my life to the Socialist Movement. 
 
 Until I joined that Movement I had never lived. 
 
 In this work I have made no effort to make 
 an exposition of Socialism. I have simply tried 
 to show certain phases of Capitalism in such a 
 way that all might understand. At the same time 
 I believe that I have had a measure of success in 
 voicing the Spirit of the Socialist Movement as 
 understood and felt by one who all his life has 
 lived in and been a part of the Class Struggle. 
 
 If this publication shall cause any one to join 
 the Socialist Movement, the author will be amply 
 repaid. Next to Socialism, the grandest and best 
 thing in this world is Working for Socialism. 
 
 B. H. 
 
 Brooklyn, N. Y., January, 1909.
 
 Contents 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF BEN HANFORD. 
 
 By Joshua Wanhope 3 
 
 PREFACE 7 
 
 THE JIMMIE HIGGINSES 11 
 
 THE GOSPEL OF THRIFT; or, How MUCH 
 MONEY DID JOHNNY SAVE? 14 
 
 THE WILD IRISHMAN .'.... 19 
 
 LABOR PRODUCES ALL WEALTH 23 
 
 CHICAGO. Address in Garrick Theatre, Chi- 
 cago, May 3, 1908 27 
 
 THERE AIN'T GOIN' TO BE No SERVANT GIRLS 33 
 
 I. MOTHER JONES DEPORTED 37 
 
 II. CAPITALISM'S CONFESSION 43 
 
 "SEE THE BEAUTIFUL HOUSES AT PRIMERO !" 
 A True Story of the Trinidad Coal Strike 
 (1904) 47 
 
 DON'T BE A TOMATO 51 
 
 THE JAMES BOYS; or, MODERN LAW AND 
 ORDER 60 
 
 "WE PROPOSE TO RUN OUR OWN BUSINESS 
 IN OUR OWN WAY !" . . 66
 
 10 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE! 
 
 THE FREE AMERICAN WORKINGMAN AND His 
 
 SACRED RIGHT TO WORK 71 
 
 $1,318 $6,194 $120,000,000,000 76 
 
 SOCIALIST CONVENTION SPEECH. Address 
 Before the New York City Convention, 
 
 May 30, 1905 81 
 
 DEBS 86 
 
 OUR "IMPARTIAL" JUDICIARY. 88 
 
 His DIGNIFIED NOBS 94 
 
 YOUR UNCLE Is DEAD 98 
 
 I. WHERE ARE WE? 103 
 
 II. How TO ROB A MAN WHO Is BROKE . . 108 
 
 THE GRAND ARMY 115 
 
 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE !.. , 121
 
 The Jimmie Higginses 
 
 A COMRADE who shall be called Jimmie 
 Higgins because that is not his name, and 
 who shall be styled a painter for the very 
 good reason that he is not a painter, has perhaps 
 had a greater influence in keeping me keyed up to 
 my work in the labor movement than any other 
 person. 
 
 Jimmie Higgins is neither broad-shouldered 
 nor thick-chested. He is neither pretty nor strong. 
 A little, thin, weak, pale-faced chap. A poor dys- 
 peptic, asthmatic epileptic. But he is strong 
 enough to support a mother with equal physical 
 disabilities. Strong enough to put in ten years 
 of unrecognized and unexcelled service to the cause 
 of Socialism. 
 
 What did he do ? Everything. 
 
 He has made more Socialist speeches than any 
 man in America. Not that he did the talking; 
 but he carried the platform on his bent shoulders 
 when the platform committee failed to be on hand. 
 
 Then he hustled around to another branch and 
 got their platform out. Then he got a glass of 
 water for "the speaker." That same evening or 
 the day before he had distributed handbills adver- 
 tising the meeting.
 
 12 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE ! 
 
 Previously he had informed his branch as to 
 "the best corner" in the district for drawing a 
 crowd. Then he distributed leaflets at the meet- 
 ing, and helped to take the platform down and 
 carry it back to headquarters, and got subscribers 
 for Socialist papers. 
 
 The next day the same, and so on all through 
 the campaign, and one campaign after another. 
 When he had a job, which was none too often, for 
 Jimmie was not an extra good workman and was 
 always one of the first to be laid off, he would dis- 
 tribute Socialist papers among his fellows during 
 the noon hour or take a run down to the gate of 
 some factory and give out Socialist leaflets to the 
 employees who came out to lunch. 
 
 What did he do? Jimmie Higgins did every- 
 thing, anything. Whatever was to be done, 
 THAT was Jimmie's job. 
 
 First to do his own work; then the work of 
 those who had become wearied or negligent. 
 Jimmie Higgins couldn't sing, nor dance, nor tell 
 a story but he could DO the thing to be done. 
 
 Be you, reader, ever so great, you nor any other 
 shall ever do more than that. Jimmie Higgins 
 had no riches, but out of his poverty he always 
 gave something, his all; be you, reader, ever so 
 wealthy and likewise generous, you shall never 
 give more than that.
 
 THE JIMMIE HIGGINSES 13 
 
 Jimmie Higgins never had a front seat on the 
 platform; he never knew the tonic of applause 
 nor the inspiration of opposition; he never was 
 seen in the foreground of the picture. 
 
 But he had erected the platform and painted 
 the picture; through his hard, disagreeable and 
 thankless toil it had come to pass that liberty was 
 brewing and things were doing. 
 
 Jimmie Higgins. How shall we pay, how re- 
 ward this man? What gold, what laurels shall 
 be his? 
 
 There's just one way, reader, that you and I 
 can "make good" with Jimmie Higgins and the 
 likes of him. That way is to be like him. 
 
 Take a fresh start and never let go. 
 
 Think how great his work, and he has so little 
 to do with. How little ours in proportion to our 
 strength. 
 
 I know some grand men and women in the 
 Socialist movement. But in high self-sacrifice, in 
 matchless fidelity to truth, I shall never meet a 
 greater man than Jimmie Higgins. 
 
 And many a branch has one of him. 
 
 And may they have more of him. 
 
 To that man, and to all who would be worthy 
 to call him "Comrade" this book is humbly and 
 affectionately dedicated.
 
 The Gospel of Thrift ; or, How 
 Much Money Did Johnny Save? 
 
 NOW, I am going to tell a story and ask a 
 question. 
 
 Once upon a time there lived a Con- 
 necticut Yankee who was a very smart man. Any of 
 you who have known any Connecticut Yankees will 
 not doubt their smartness. This particular Yank 
 had a son, and like a dutiful parent he did his best 
 to bring up his son in the way he should go. It 
 was his desire that his boy should grow into an- 
 other very smart man like himself, so that as he 
 went along life's journey he might be able to get a 
 shade the best of every other man's son of course, 
 none of the other Connecticut Yankees were teach- 
 ing their sons to get the best of his son. 
 
 Among other virtues the Yank sought to de- 
 velop in his son was that of thrift he desired that 
 the boy should be frugal and saving. One evening 
 just before supper the old Yank said to his boy, 
 said he : 
 
 "Johnny, Johnny, why don't you save your 
 money ?" 
 
 "Save my money?" replied Johnny. "How can 
 I save my money when I hain't got no money ?"
 
 THE GOSPEL OF THRIFT 15 
 
 "Well, Johnny, I'll give you some money, and 
 then you can save it," said the old man. 
 
 "All right, pop, you give me the dough, and I'll 
 save it all right." 
 
 "Well, I'll give it to you, Johnny. But you'll 
 first have to do something for it; that is, you'll 
 have to earn it." 
 
 "All right, pop. What'll I have to do ?" 
 
 "Well, now, Johnny, I'll tell you. You go with- 
 out your supper to-night, and I'll give you a nickel, 
 and you can save the nickel." 
 
 Johnny was mighty hungry, hut he wanted the 
 nickel badly, thinking of the fun he would have 
 spending it, and so he spoke up bravely : "All right, 
 pop. . Gimme the nick, and I'll save it." 
 
 So Johnny went without his supper, went to bed 
 hungry, but he had the nickel safely put away, and 
 the unpleasant dreams caused by the painful knots 
 in his empty little insides were from time to time 
 relieved by visions of himself spending his hard- 
 earned money. 
 
 At last morning came, and Johnny, with his 
 nickel in his pocket, and with an awful gnawing in 
 his middle, came downstairs to breakfast. 
 
 "Good morning, Johnny," said his father. 
 
 "Morning, dad," said Johnny. 
 
 "Hungry, Johnny ?" 
 
 "You bet."
 
 16 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE ! 
 
 "Want breakfast?" 
 
 "Yep." 
 
 "Did you save your nickel, Johnny ?" 
 
 "Yep." 
 
 "Well, I'll tell ye, Johnny, you can eat breakfast 
 if you like, but there's something you'll have to do 
 first." 
 
 "What's that, pop?" 
 
 "Well, you see, Johnny, times have changed since 
 last night. You see, you've got money now, and 
 you'll have to pay board" 
 
 "What'll I have to pay, pop?" said Johnny, 
 weakly, feeling very faint in the stomach. 
 
 "Well, son, you give me your nickel that you 
 saved, and you can sit down and eat all the break- 
 fast that you want to." 
 
 And with sorrow, but without hesitation, Johnny 
 paid over his nickel for breakfast. 
 
 That's my story. 
 
 Now for my question. 
 
 If Johnny got a nickel for going without his sup- 
 er, and had to pay a nickel for his breakfast, How 
 Much Money Did Johnny Save? 
 
 No. Don't you dare to laugh. Not if you are a 
 workingman. 
 
 If you will think for a moment you will see that
 
 THE GOSPEL OF THEIFT 17 
 
 Johnny saved just exactly the same amount that 
 you workingmen can save out of your wages. How 
 much is that? How much wages do you get? I 
 can tell you to the cent. Not perhaps just what 
 some particular workingman gets, but just exactly 
 what we all of us get for our life's work. 
 
 Yesterday we got just enough in wages to sup- 
 port us in such a way that we could work to-day. 
 
 Last week we received just enough in wages so 
 that we could work this week. 
 
 This month we will receive just enough so that 
 we can work next month. 
 
 This year we will receive just enough in wages 
 so that we can keep ourselves in condition to work 
 next year. 
 
 In our lifetime we shall get just enough wages so 
 that we can do the master's work and bring suffi- 
 cient children into the world to take up our task 
 and do our master's work after we are gone. 
 
 As a class, we workers get what economists call 
 the "living wage" neither more nor less. 
 
 Ah ! say you, you know some workingmen who 
 get $5 a day ! Surely that is more than the living 
 wage. 
 
 Yes, my friends, there are a few workingmen 
 who get five dollars a day. But it is sometimes the 
 case that a man with a high money wage does not 
 receive more than enough to enable him to do his
 
 18 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE ! 
 
 work. And remember, that for every man who re- 
 ceives above the living wage there are whole groups 
 who receive below it who get a subsistence or a 
 starvation wage. 
 
 And think of those who have no work and get 
 NO wage. 
 
 Now, why is it that at this time, when those who 
 do the world's work can produce more wealth with 
 less labor than ever before in the world's history, 
 why is it that a man who by his labor in a day can 
 produce an amount of wealth equal in value to 
 from two to twenty times the living wage, why is 
 it that under these conditions a man, a woman, or a 
 child works for the "living wage?" There is just 
 one reason, my friends. It is because the workers 
 do not own the means to employ themselves. In 
 order to live they must work. In order to work 
 they must sell themselves to those who own the 
 things with which work is done. 
 
 We Socialists want those who do the world's 
 work to own the things with which their work is 
 done. When those who work own the things with 
 which they work they will own the wealth produced 
 by their work. Then those who work will be rich 
 and have all the wealth they are willing to work 
 for and produce which will be just enough for 
 them. And then those who do no work will have 
 no wealth and that will be just enough for them.
 
 The Wild Irishman 
 
 IT was 1902, the seventeenth week of the great 
 anthracite coal strike. Several miners had 
 told me about "The Wild Irishman." The 
 wonderful things he had done. His boldness and 
 bravery. Equally ready to go down the shaft in 
 time of danger to rescue a comrade, or to demand 
 of the boss a raise in wages for himself and fellow 
 miners, or to assist in organizing his brethren into 
 a union. 
 
 "I'll lose me job if I talk unionism, will I? 
 Well, then, I'll get another. If I can't get an- 
 other, I'll go without." 
 
 That was the way the Wild Irishman talked 
 when he was told that he would be fired for his 
 activity in union matters. He kept right on or- 
 ganizing unions. Strange to say, his bosses did 
 not fire him. As the Wild Irishman told me when 
 I saw him: 
 
 "If I lost me job, I'd have had all the more time 
 to organize the men." 
 
 I looked forward with interest to meeting the 
 Wild Irishman. At last I went to his cabin, a 
 company "house" in a mining camp near Wilkes- 
 barre, Pa. I introduced myself, and he invited
 
 20 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE ! 
 
 me into the back yard, the afternoon being warm. 
 His wife joined us. Notwithstanding all I had 
 heard about him, the Wild Irishman took me by 
 surprise. He was a man well along into the 
 sixties, what with the diseases and accidents inci- 
 dent to his trade, a rare old age for a miner. He 
 had begun anthracite mining in the old days when 
 something like decent wages were paid. I never 
 saw such a remarkable looking man in my life. 
 His scalp was scarred, and his face bore the blue 
 and blue-black marks of powder explosions. For 
 the rest, it seemed as though every bone in his 
 body was either fractured or dislocated. During 
 his many years in and about the mines he had met 
 with every sort of accident. Premature and de- 
 layed explosions. Fire damp. Pillars giving way. 
 Roof falling. Pumping machinery out of order 
 and flooding of the mine. Cables breaking. 
 Every sort of mining accident had happened to 
 him one or more times. Besides, he had gone 
 looking for accidents, had both legs broken while 
 digging to rescue some comrades when the "hill fell 
 on them." Such a twisted, battered-up man I never 
 saw. But somehow nothing had ever been able to 
 "get him" in a vital spot. And regardless of the 
 fractures, dislocations and scar-tissue scattered 
 through and over his face and body, he was still a 
 handsome man and a strong man, notwithstand-
 
 THE WILD IRISHMAN 21 
 
 ing his years. Heart and lungs as sound as ever. 
 And an eye like an eagle. Crippled and disfigured 
 in half a hundred places, grizzled, and gray, and 
 weather heaten, but strong. He sat there on a 
 bench in the little back yard, telling the story of 
 the great strike and the causes of it. 
 
 And his good wife sat by, the most beautiful old 
 woman I have ever seen. Hair whiter than snow. 
 A fine oval face. Wrinkled. Deep lines written 
 there when her son was killed in the tipple. Other 
 lines that told of want, then and in days gone by. 
 And other lines that told of worry, and of the long 
 sleepless nights and days while she was watching 
 and nursing the Wild Irishman. And yet that 
 seamed old face was cheerful. She was one of 
 those women that made you feel better if she 
 merely nodded to you. Her "good morning" 
 would cheer you up for the day. 
 
 The Wild Irishman told me the tale of the strike, 
 what caused it and what it was for. He told me 
 the low wages the men made when they had work. 
 He told of the short time, the lay-offs, and the 
 shut-downs. He told how the company stores 
 robbed the men, charging them two and three 
 prices for the staple necessaries of life; how the 
 men were in debt, and were compelled to trade at 
 the company stores; those who were not in debt 
 being laid off. He told how the company charged
 
 22 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE! 
 
 the miner two and three times the market price 
 for powder. He told how the company sold coal 
 on a basis of 2,240 pounds to the ton, and how they 
 compelled the miner to give them a ton of 3,000 
 pounds or more. He told how the men were 
 docked for trifling things, and how the companies 
 fought against a check weighman a measure with 
 no purpose except to insure the honest weighing of 
 the coal. He told of the company doctor, the com- 
 pany houses, and countless other grand and petty 
 forms of robbery and extortion practised by the 
 coal barons. 
 
 As he concluded his story of the conditions under 
 which he had labored for so many years, the Wild 
 Irishman stood up. He raised one hand as if 
 taking an oath and said : 
 
 "And I and the boys will never go back under 
 the old conditions never I'll ate the dirt in the 
 street first!" 
 
 Then the white-haired old wife spoke up. Said 
 she: 
 
 "Yes, and I'll cook it for him!" 
 
 That's what I call Solidarity. 
 
 I am one of those who throughout my life have 
 been very fortunate in my friendships. But I 
 never have and never shall meet a nobler man than 
 the Wild Irishman, nor a grander, braver man. 
 
 Why wouldn't he be with a wife like that ?
 
 Labor Produces All Wealth* 
 
 OTHER than the resources of nature, Social- 
 ists maintain that Labor of brain and 
 brawn, Labor of mind and limb, produces 
 all wealth. 
 
 Because Labor produces all wealth, we maintain 
 that those who do the Labor should have all the 
 wealth produced. 
 
 There are those who will tell you that capital 
 produces wealth and that Money Makes Money. 
 Let us consider it a moment. 
 
 Good old pious Deacon Rockefeller no doubt has 
 capital to the equivalent of a billion dollars. Now, 
 suppose that Mr. Rockefeller could get a billion 
 dollars in gold eagles coined at the United States 
 mints. And suppose that he placed that billion 
 dollars in gold down in New York's City Hall 
 Park. 
 
 How long would the pious old deacon's billion 
 dollars in gold have to remain there before they 
 added unto themselves another gold eagle? They 
 never would do it, and you all know it. 
 
 Nor would it change matters in the slightest if 
 the money were silver instead of gold. 
 
 * From lecture, "Socialism the Hope of the World," 
 1903.
 
 24 FIGHT FOB YOUR LIFE ! 
 
 Let Deacon Rockefeller get a billion silver dol- 
 lars, every one of them coined at Mr. Bryan's sacred 
 ratio of sixteen to one he is such a pious man, let 
 him have "In God We Trust" stamped on both 
 sides instead of one side of every last one of them 
 how long would they have to remain buried in City 
 Hall Park before they became two billion dollars? 
 They'd never do it, and you all know it. 
 
 Though that billion of silver dollars lay in the 
 richest soil on earth for a billion years, they would 
 not in all that time add to themselves a single 
 dollar, or even a lead dime with a hole in it. 
 
 Ah, you say, money is only potential capital. 
 When Mr. Rockefeller puts his money into real cap- 
 ital, then it creates wealth. 
 
 Well, let us see. Suppose that the blessed old 
 deacon put his billion dollars into the shoe indus- 
 try. 
 
 Let us imagine, if we can, that over in City Hall 
 Park there is an immense shoe factory; that it is 
 fully equipped with the latest and very best tools 
 and machinery for the making of shoes; that his 
 storerooms are filled nigh on to bursting with the 
 raw materials of which shoes are made leather 
 and findings, and eyelets and laces, and pegs and 
 blacking the factory, tools, machines and raw ma- 
 terials all together having a value of a billion dol- 
 lars, and all Rockefeller's.
 
 LABOR PRODUCES ALL WEALTH 25 
 
 Now, then, how long will that shoe factory have 
 to stand there before it makes a pair of shoes? 
 How long before the leather and findings make 
 themselves into shoes? They'll never do it, and 
 you all know it. 
 
 Another factor must be added to the raw mate- 
 rial and the machines before we have shoes even 
 from a billion-dollar shoe factory. We must have 
 Labor in this case the Labor of the shoemaker. 
 Only when the Laborer comes along and plies the 
 tools, and operates the machines, and manipulates 
 the leather then, and not before, we shall have 
 
 Now, if the Labor of the men in the building 
 trades erected the factory, if the Labor of the ma- 
 chinists built the machines, if the Labor of the tan- 
 ners made the leather, and if the Labor of the 
 shoemakers made the shoes if Labor did it ALL, 
 where is the reason in justice that those who did 
 ALL the Labor are not entitled to ALL of its 
 fruits ? 
 
 The shoes in which we walk up Broadway in no 
 way differ from the bull's hide tortured by flies on 
 the plains of Argentina except in so far as the 
 bull's hide has been the receptacle of Human 
 Labor. 
 
 Ah, but once again say you, when you put your 
 money in the bank, then money makes money.
 
 26 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE ! 
 
 Some people seem to think that the first dollar 
 placed in the bank is a male dollar, and the second 
 dollar is a female dollar, and these male and female 
 dollars get married, and then every year after the 
 wedding ceremony these dollars have children in 
 the form of nickels and dimes, or annual interest 
 at five and ten per cent. 
 
 But it isn't so. The dollar you put in the bank 
 is simply the representative of wealth that was pro- 
 duced by Labor; and when it is taken out of the 
 bank it is exchanged for means of production (cap- 
 ital, if you please), and that capital was itself pro- 
 duced by Labor, and then a workingman comes 
 along and uses that capital, and his Labor produces 
 more wealth, and then that wealth produced by 
 Labor is exchanged for other dollars, and those 
 dollars that replace the principal and pay the in- 
 terest are placed back in the bank. And Labor 
 built the bank, and Labor made the safe in the 
 bank, and Labor made the paper and printed, or 
 Labor dug the gold and minted the dollars, all of 
 them, male, female and neuter. 
 
 And the only place where the wedding comes in 
 is where the Very Eminent Gentleman who is 
 president of the bank marries the money and takes 
 it to Canada with him and that's a decree of di- 
 vorce from yours.
 
 Chicago 
 
 Address at the Garrick Theatre, Chicago, 
 May 3, 1908 
 
 A MAN who had long resided in Chicago (he 
 had never lived) died, and, as a matter of 
 course, went to hell. But when he got there 
 he did not know the place. He thought it was 
 Heaven he found it so much pleasanter than 
 Chicago. 
 
 Chicago the place where all of Capital's dreams 
 come true. Straight down from the first to the 
 seventh hell. Then down, down to the bottom of 
 the bottomless pit there is Chicago. Chicago 
 an industrial penitentiary, the buildings and 
 grounds covering hundreds of square miles. In- 
 mates and keepers numbering more than two thou- 
 sand thousand souls many of them dead, all 
 others in fever and travail. Chicago the penal 
 city. Rolling mill prisons. Factory prisons. De- 
 partment store prisons. Reaper works prisons. 
 Stock yards prisons. Factory prisons full of chil- 
 dren. Factory prisons full of women. Factory 
 prisons full of men. Some of them trusties 
 but they can't escape. Prisons for all who 
 work. All must work in prisons. None can
 
 28 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE ! 
 
 ever work out of prison in Chicago. All and 
 each serving a life sentence. Inmates and 
 keepers, all must work work, and hurry, in 
 Chicago. Hurry or die hurry and die 
 hurry to death the capitalist devils can't wait 
 in Chicago. Primitive men utilized cliffs and 
 caves for dwellings. Chicago people dwell in cliffs 
 and caves. Not those made by nature. Nature's 
 cliffs and caves are not high enough, not low 
 enough, not dark enough. So the Chicago prison- 
 ers made their own caves and cliffs and made 
 them foul, and dark, and poisonous. Chicago 
 peopled by souls that are dead, with hearts of lead, 
 in their rotting flesh, hung on brittle bones. Chi- 
 cago where the buildings shake and the streets 
 rock and the whole place quakes always where 
 they know no silence and hear no song where 
 there are noises ever, and never music sounds. 
 Chicago where most that is not crime or vice is 
 humbug statues of plaster, pretense of marble; 
 buildings of staff and sand, pretense of stone ; putty 
 and paint, pretense of iron and steel ; men who are 
 devils, smug-faced, clerical-clothed, pretense of 
 virtue; pallid women, rouged, pretense of health; 
 bejeweled women, hearts of flint ; perfumed women, 
 fine ladies, disguising the stench of them. The 
 hands on the clock say the hour is morning but 
 they work all night in the night time, and there is
 
 CHICAGO <59 
 
 no day in Chicago. Hurry, hurry to work, pris- 
 oners and keepers hurry all. Go faster, ever 
 faster. Don't lose the step. If you lose the step, 
 you fall. And if you fall you die in Chicago. 
 Work, little child, work, and hurry. Work, little 
 girl, work faster. Wear crash and rags ; mind not 
 your withering, bending frame; work, little girl, 
 and hurry. Your employer's little daughter as 
 your cheeks pale, so hers shall bloom. She 
 shall be swathed in silk and fine linen, and clothed 
 in lace ; she shall be light and airy as a fairy and 
 as she older grows she will thank the only God she 
 knows she is not like you. Work, child, work, and 
 hurry. Work, woman, work, and hurry; faster, 
 faster, or you will lose your place in the prison; 
 work, work, work. Mind not your bruised and 
 faded flesh, your aching, all but breaking bones; 
 work, woman, work ; faster, ever faster. Wear bur- 
 lap and tatters over your shrivelling form. Your 
 employer's wife she shall be a Juno, and arrayed 
 in raiment that would shame a queen ; every thread 
 shall be washed and dyed in your heart's blood. 
 Your employees many mistresses not Venus, 
 with full round breast and rosy lip, shall compare 
 with them. They shall have the beauty that was 
 yours, and your sister's, and your daughter's. In a 
 year and a day you shall die, but they shall live 
 the sum of life that belonged to you, and when they
 
 30 FIGHT FOE YOUR LIFE ! 
 
 are gorged with their cannibal feast they will pray 
 their God of hosts for more, and thank their Holy 
 Ghost they are not like you. So work, woman, 
 work ; but hurry ; faster, faster, ever faster. Work, 
 man, work. Hurry. Your keepers watch. The 
 foreman's eyes are never closed. So bend your 
 back, and hurry. The load is heavy never mind. 
 'Tis a load of gold, and gold is God God of your 
 masters, God of your keepers, God of your City of 
 Death. Chicago the sun may shine over, it never 
 shines upon Chicago. Always covered with a gray- 
 black pall of poison. Chicago where only the 
 robbers and skinners live; where the workers and 
 doers die. Chicago where profit blights like a 
 pestilence. Chicago where inmates and keepers 
 live on the hell-broth brew from the witches' cal- 
 dron ; toads, and Crotalus, lizards, ordure, children, 
 women, men heart of a girl, love of a boy, a fa- 
 ther's spirit, a mother's joy all steeped together 
 in the blackened pit, cursed by the forked tongue 
 of the fanged and venomed and taloned hag. 
 Chicago where railways steal their "right" of way, 
 steal the lake front, steal part of the lake and are 
 going to steal the rest. Chicago where the rulers 
 sold the people's birthright for a mess of pottage 
 and then they stole the pottage. Chicago city of 
 saloons, dives, brothels, dens and joints. Chicago 
 where Satan is blessed and the Saint is damned.
 
 CHICAGO 31 
 
 Chicago city of Godless churches, dedicated to the 
 worship of devils and dollars. Chicago where 
 Justice, with bandaged eyes, was slain in her own 
 temple with her own sword. Chicago place of the 
 levee where the soiled woman dies to live. Be- 
 fore she reached there she worked long hours for a 
 pittance bare to keep her body alive. But the Lord 
 of the Factory made her sell her soul for the chance 
 to work. And now on the levee, weak unto death, 
 she still must tribute pay to the Lord of the Land. 
 Worse still. The strongest men in this prison 
 town, its finest, bravest, best guardians of its 
 peace its Magnificent Police this poor woman, 
 before feeding her child from her trade of death, 
 must pay tribute blackmail to the noble execu- 
 tors of the law. Oh, that monsters in the form of 
 man could steal the babe's milk from the famishing 
 mother's withered breast! But this in Chicago, 
 where they pillage the poor, and rob the dead and 
 club the unemployed. Into the cells of the bottom- 
 less pit, into this prison with its two millions of 
 souls, there penetrates one ray of light from a 
 single Star of Hope. Here in this hell a Working 
 Class Awakes. Maimed and mauled, battered and 
 scarred, broken and twisted, almost deafened, they 
 listen ; almost blinded, they see and their look is 
 upward. They listen to the gospel of Brotherhood 
 and they look for the Star of Socialism, and even
 
 32 FIGHT FOE YOUR LIFE ! 
 
 the prisoners of this penal colony love, and grasp 
 each other's hands and they are going to make 
 this Bedlam blossom as the rose. Long since the 
 seed of truth was sown in this soil of sin. Wher- 
 ever that seed falls there that seed shall grow 
 even in the noisome gardens of Cannibal 
 Capitalism. But, oh, how long the time! Yet 
 shall there be rest for the weary even in Chicago. 
 Chicago where men live like paupers, work like 
 horses, and die like dogs. Even in Chicago, the 
 heavy laden shall find relief; the naked shall be 
 clothed; the famished prisoners fed; they that 
 mourn shall be comforted ; and the souls that thirst 
 shall drink of the waters of life, and love and 
 Love is Life. In the Chicago that is to be. When 
 Capitalism dies, then shall the Free Man rise, in 
 the world that is to be peopled with brothers and 
 sisters, and comrades and lovers a world that is 
 Paradise.
 
 There Ain't Coin' to be No 
 Servant Girls 
 
 FEW and far between are the crumbs of com- 
 fort seen as one looks over the world of 
 capitalism. But there are two recurrent 
 news items that cause me to chortle with glee and 
 warm the cockles of my heart. 
 
 One is the wail raised by the gentlemen of com- 
 merce because it is so difficult to get American- 
 born boys to be sailors. The other is the whining 
 belch of our fine ladies because of the scarcity of 
 servant girls. 
 
 Generally speaking, a common sailor is treated 
 a little better than a dog. Most servant girls are 
 treated worse than dogs. 
 
 "Domestics," they are called by their "mis- 
 tresses," but few of them meet the kindness and 
 consideration accorded domestic animals. 
 
 They cook the best food, and eat the leavings. 
 They set the table in the dining room, and eat in 
 the kitchen. They sweep and dust the parlor, but 
 they must not sit there. They empty the slops and 
 make the beds in fine chambers, but they sleep in 
 attic or cellar, or in a cubby-hole under the stairs. 
 
 Every male member of the household has a right
 
 to insult her. No matter who or what he is 
 raw and driveling youth, burly master, or drooling 
 and senile grandpa. Driven to bay by these fine 
 gentlemen, she may call for help. But there is no 
 help. Only mistress can hear her cry. She knows 
 "her boy" wouldn't do such a thing. "You are the 
 brazen baggage." "Leave my house hussy !" No 
 reference. No "character." When attacked by 
 foreman or employer, the factory girl may save 
 her soul at the price of her place and bread, but 
 many times the "domestic" must give up all on 
 the altar of slavery. 
 
 One afternoon and one evening out every week. 
 Last one to bed, first to get up. Fires, dishes, 
 meals, slops, beds, sweeping, dusting, children, 
 washing, mending, windows, scouring, scrubbing 
 all to be done for others, all to be done in the 
 way that others say. 
 
 No, dear madam, my fine, fat old female with 
 the double chin, there ain't goin' to be no servant 
 girls in the world that is to be. It's a terrible 
 thought. But take heart of hope. It may not be 
 as bad as you fear. True, there shall be no serv- 
 ants, but it does not follow that there shall be no 
 service. First of all, tools and machines, organi- 
 zation of labor, division and subdivision of labor, 
 shall do many things now done by the domestic 
 slave. And about machines and their labor there
 
 NO SERVANT GIRLS 35 
 
 shall be no smell of servitude or slavery, no taint 
 of the "menial." 
 
 True, brass and iron, cogs and levers and springs 
 and steel can not do everything. There are left 
 tasks that must be done, tasks that only human 
 hands can do. That service shall be performed, 
 dear lady. 
 
 But not by servants, not by slaves. 
 
 It will be the service one equal performs for an- 
 other. The obligation will be on the side of the 
 one who receives the service. 
 
 Dear, dainty madam, in the day that is to be, 
 if you want someone to take care of your dirty 
 linen, you're going to be awful good to them. Yes, 
 you really are ; indeed, you are. You can't believe 
 it, but it's true. And you're not going to pay for 
 their service with $3 a week, and meanness, and 
 asperity, and airs of superiority. In the day that 
 is to be not far off, dear, gentle lady you will 
 find that if you want service you will have to 
 render service. You will find there are things that 
 may not be bought with a bank check, however 
 large. 
 
 Dear, pretty lady, do you know what you owe 
 your servant girl? Do you know that your fine 
 raiment is woven out of her rags? That your 
 riches are coined out of her poverty? That your 
 freshness and bloom are the health that was hers ?
 
 36 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE ! 
 
 That every minute of your leisure has been coined 
 out of her life? 
 
 Beautiful mistress, in the world that is to be 
 things will be very different. There ain't goin' to 
 be no servant girls. In that world you, pretty 
 creature, will have to be useful as well as orna- 
 mental. But, cheer up. It may not be as bad as 
 you fear. You are going to lose your servant 
 that is sure. 
 
 Maybe you'll find a sister where once you had a 
 slave. THAT would make it worth while, 
 wouldn't it? 
 
 No servant to obey you, no slave to fear you, 
 but a sister who shall love you even you.
 
 I. Mother Jones Deported 
 
 IN May, 1904, I was in Trinidad, Colo., center 
 of the lignite coal region. For a long time 
 the miners had been on strike. Their de- 
 mands were for the enforcement of the eight-hour 
 clause of the Colorado State Constitution, more 
 air and better ventilation of the mines, abolition 
 of the pluck-me company stores, payment of wages 
 in money instead of checks, and the amelioration 
 of other wrongs which have followed the miners in 
 all the coal camps of the United States. 
 
 Inasmuch as the miners demanded that the 
 eight-hour mandates of the constitution be enforced 
 for their benefit, they were at once declared to be 
 in rebellion, the militia were ordered out, and Trin- 
 idad was placed under martial law. Of the strik- 
 ers, some were beaten, killed, jailed, bull-penned 
 or deported. There was no outrage known to sav- 
 age or civilized man that was not visited on the 
 defenseless miners of Trinidad by the mine own- 
 ers' detectives, deputy sheriffs or militia. In 
 these outrages the mine owners were at all times 
 aided, abetted and protected by Governor Peabody 
 good friend of Theodore Eoosevelt and William 
 H. Taft. Do not forget the latter, Mr. Work-
 
 38 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE! 
 
 ingman. You have a right and a duty to hold 
 him responsible for his friends. 
 
 It was not a sufficient vindication of the "maj- 
 esty of the law" and the power of the "good peo- 
 ple" of Trinidad to deport men strikers and sym- 
 pathizers. 
 
 One day late one night, rather old, white- 
 haired Mother Jones was taken from her bed- 
 room in the hotel, placed in front of fixed bay- 
 onets, marched to a train, and taken to the Terri- 
 tory of Arizona. 
 
 During my stay in Trinidad I met one of its 
 leading citizens, a lawyer. Discussing the strike, 
 I asked him if he did not think the mine owners 
 might have limited their war to a fight on the 
 men, and inquired if he did not regard it as pretty 
 low down to use the militia to attack and deport 
 a white-haired old woman like Mother Jones. At 
 mention of the name of Mother Jones the fel- 
 low's face turned fire red with excitement, and he 
 swelled up like a poisoned pup. 
 
 "Mother Jones !" said he. "Mother Jones ! We 
 ought to have deported her long before we did." 
 
 "Well, what did Mother Jones do?" I inquired 
 as gently as I could. 
 
 "What did she do?" howled the lawyer. "What 
 didn't she do?" 
 
 "Well, just mention what she did," said I.
 
 MOTHER JONES DEPORTED 39 
 
 "What did she do? She she talked!" he 
 answered, and he was livid with anger. 
 
 "Do you mean to say that you would take an 
 old woman in the 60's and run her out of the 
 state because she talked?" 
 
 "By G d, you ought to have heard what she 
 said!" he replied. "And -those d d miners be- 
 lieved her, every word." 
 
 "What did she say?" I questioned. 
 
 "She said everything. She deserved to be de- 
 ported." 
 
 "Well, now, what was the very worst thing she 
 said? What did she say that was not true?" 
 
 "She she said that 'Labor produces all wealth.' 
 I heard her myself right out in the street there, 
 in front of this very hotel and a whole army of 
 these d d strikers heard her, and believed her." 
 
 "Is that the worst she said? Did you deport 
 Mother Jones because she said that 'Labor pro- 
 duces all wealth'?" 
 
 "'No not entirely," said Mr. Lawyer. "She 
 said other things and worse. She said 'Labor 
 should have all it produces.'" 
 
 "Do you deny that 'Labor produces all wealth' ? 
 and that 'Labor should have all it produces'?" 
 
 "Deny it? Certainly I deny it. Everybody 
 knows it isn't so."
 
 40 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE ! 
 
 "And so you deported Mother Jones for saying 
 what everybody knows isn't so?" 
 
 "Well, d n her, it isn't so, but she made them 
 think it was so !" 
 
 "It seems to me," said I, "that you might have 
 found a way to lessen Mother Jones' influence 
 over the miners much more effectual than that of 
 running her out of the state." 
 
 "How?" he asked, anxiously. "How? What 
 else could we do? We had to get rid of her 
 somehow." 
 
 "You are a lawyer?" I questioned. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "A college graduate?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Accustomed to addressing judges, juries able 
 to make a public speech before your fellow citi- 
 zens in a creditable way, doubtless?" 
 
 "Well, my friends say so," he admitted, most 
 genially. 
 
 "Then," said I, "let us look at it this way: 
 We'll just suppose that old Mother Jones is out 
 on that street corner now, and that she is telling 
 a lot of miners that 'Labor produces all wealth.' 
 Now, you know that is not true. You know that 
 labor does not produce all wealth. You are a man 
 of learning. More you are a man of trained 
 mind. Better still you are familiar with the
 
 MOTHER JONES DEPORTED 41 
 
 forum; it is a habit with you to reach the rea- 
 son of a judge, to rouse the emotions of a jury. 
 Now, then, if Mother Jones was out in the street 
 tonight, telling people that 'Labor produces all 
 wealth,' it would be absolutely foolish for you to 
 deport her. There is a much better way than 
 that a way in which you can destroy her influ- 
 ence absolutely. Besides, it's legal and as a leader 
 of the bar, of course you know that deporting 
 women for talking out loud isn't legal that is, 
 not strictly." 
 
 "Well? Well? What is that way?" 
 
 "Simplest thing in the world. Can't see how 
 you overlooked it. Here you are : Mother Jones 
 out there on an old soap box tonight. She's a 
 stranger in Trinidad you are well known. She 
 has no education while you, you belong to a 
 learned profession. She has no standing here 
 you are a leading, a distinguished citizen. Mother 
 Jones goes on with her speech. She says 'Labor 
 produces all wealth.' With your own ears you 
 hear her say so. You know it's false. But you 
 don't need to deport her for that. I can tell you 
 a way by which you can beat her game to a 
 frazzle. Just you" 
 
 "What? What is that way?" said Mr. Lawyer 
 in breathless interest. 
 
 "Easiest thing ever was. Tonight Mother
 
 42 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE! 
 
 Jones says 'Labor produces all wealth.' You know 
 better. So tomorrow night, on that same corner, 
 YOU speak to the people. YOU tell them that 
 the statement by Mother Jones that 'Labor pro- 
 duces all wealth' is not so. It is a lie. YOU not 
 only tell the people it is not so. YOU prove it. 
 YOU explain to them just how wealth is produced. 
 YOU show them just what it is that does produce 
 wealth, and how it is NOT labor. See? There 
 you are. No soldiers, no deputy sheriffs. No need 
 to deport Mother Jones. She'd just have to leave 
 town her own self." 
 
 "Oh, what's the use ? If I was to make a speech 
 out on that street corner no one would come to 
 hear me. Besides, it wouldn't make any differ- 
 ence if they did. Everybody knows me around 
 here. Nobody'd believe anything I said." 
 
 Why should he not appeal to the police, the 
 bad men, the thieves, thugs and militia? How 
 else can his side win ? Can they win that way ? 
 
 That is another story.
 
 II. Capitalism's Confession 
 
 THE strong man fights fair. He relies on 
 his strength to win. 
 
 The man with a righteous cause fights 
 fair. He relies on his cause to win. 
 
 The brave man fights fair. He would rather 
 lose with honor than win with honor lost. 
 
 Cowards, weaklings, men with a cause unjust 
 such men are ever ready to foul if hard pressed 
 in a fight. The blow below the belt, the dagger in 
 the back, the venomed arrow, the poisoned well, 
 slander, lies foul fighting. These are the weap- 
 ons of the man with a craven heart, the man who 
 fears. 
 
 FEAE the most terrible thing in the world. 
 All this world's realities of wrong for all time do 
 not total such an awful sum as FEAR. Truly, 
 the man who fears is possessed of the devil. His 
 life is a burning, living death beside which death 
 itself is an angel of grace on a cloud of peace. 
 
 Fear is a most prolific mother. Fear breeds 
 greater Fear. Fear marches like the black plague, 
 only faster. In all the world there are no walls 
 so high or thick that Fear cannot mount them or 
 raze them. Earth has no rock-bound citadel that 
 Fear cannot enter. Man can make no door that
 
 44 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE^. 
 
 Fear cannot open. In a city of a million souls, 
 if there be but one man who Fears, all are in dan- 
 ger. One may calculate, measure, limit, the power 
 and action of enemies, fools, scoundrels. None 
 can forecast the actions of the man who Fears. 
 Fire, fever, clubs, swords, wars there is no limit 
 to the evil power of those who Fear. Their 
 enemies, their friends, themselves all are endan- 
 gered by those who Fear. 
 
 Wherever there is a capitalist who grasps a part 
 of the meaning of Socialism, there is a capitalist 
 who Fears. He thinks that shrewdness is wisdom 
 and that force is power, and, moved by the lever 
 of Fear, he first tries to fight philosophy with 
 sophistry, and to oppose science with cunning. 
 Worsted in the test by argument, his Fear grows 
 greater. Then his craven heart comes to the re- 
 lief of his crafty mind they are always together. 
 Craft tells him he cannot win by reason. Cow- 
 ardice t-ells him he MAY win by force. Fear eats 
 him like an acid. 
 
 He cannot meet the arguments of Mother 
 Jones. Bring on the militia. Deport the old 
 woman. He confesses his weakness. 
 
 He cannot answer the Socialist speaker on the 
 street corner. "Police!" "Arrest him. Stop 
 these agitators." He confesses his cause is un- 
 just.
 
 CAPITALISM'S CONFESSION 45 
 
 The unemployed parade. "Police!" cries the 
 Capitalist in a paroxysm of FEAR. "Club them !" 
 "Arrest them. Disperse them !" Confession of 
 cowardice. He dare not even look at the main 
 prop of his prosperity the unemployed. 
 
 Confession. Confession. Confession. 
 
 Confession of Wrong. 
 
 Confession of Weakness. 
 
 Confession of Cowardice. 
 
 Every anti-labor injunction, every suppression 
 of the rights of free speech and a free press, every 
 foul and unjust decision against labor by cap- 
 italist courts, every deportation of union men, 
 every call for militia all are Confession. The 
 Capitalist's Confession that in opposing Social- 
 ism he cannot win by argument, but may by force. 
 Confession that he cannot win by fair means, but 
 may by foul. Confession that Fear peace-de- 
 stroying, death-dealing Fear is gnawing his heart 
 like cancer. In madness, the man who Fears de- 
 stroys himself. 
 
 Socialists, as the Capitalist Fears, so shall we 
 Hope. He will deal us some terrible blows foul 
 blows, blows in the dark, blows in the back. We 
 shall have to stand punishment. More than once 
 we shall leave our dead and wounded on the field. 
 We shall lose some battles, but we shall not lose 
 the war. As the Revolutionary patriots lost their
 
 46 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE! 
 
 Lexington and their Bunker Hill, so may we. 
 But, like them, we shall win our Saratoga and our 
 Yorktown and we shall dictate the terms of peace. 
 The Man Who Fears has been a power for evil, 
 but his sun shall set on the day when he meets the 
 man who Hopes.
 
 " See the Beautiful Houses at 
 Primero ! "* 
 
 A True Story of the Trinidad Goal Strike 
 (1904) 
 
 IN the Trinidad coal field the employers would 
 at no time confer with the officers of the 
 union. As usual, they said they were at all 
 times ready to listen to anything their employees 
 had to say to them as INDIVIDUALS. But 
 they absolutely refused to recognize the union. 
 Individual employees repeatedly went to them and 
 asked that ills be remedied. 
 With what result ? 
 
 With the result that so far from any of their 
 grievances being remedied, the individuals who 
 had the temerity to mention them were either dis- 
 
 *This is a chapter from "The Labor War in Col- 
 orado," by Ben Hanford, 1904, now out of print. It 
 recorded many of the events of the strikes of the coal 
 and metalliferous miners in Colorado, including the 
 suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, the confine- 
 ment of strikers and their friends in bullpens by 
 Governor Peabody's militia, the deportation of the 
 miners, and other outrages of the ruling class which 
 culminated in the kidnapping of Moyer, Haywood and 
 Pettibone two years later.
 
 48 FIGHT FOB YOUR LIFE ! 
 
 charged from their employment or placed in such 
 unfavorable parts of the mines that they were 
 worse off than before. 
 
 The coal companies redressed the grievances of 
 the men by the instant discharge of any man who 
 had a grievance. 
 
 Their method of securing contented employees 
 was to "fire" every employee who was discontented. 
 
 The managers of the coal companies could not 
 recognize the union. They could recognize the 
 militia, they could recognize the deputy sheriffs, 
 they could recognize thugs and bad men, all in 
 their employ and all obedient to their orders 
 but they could not recognize the union. 
 
 The men who owned the coal mines could recog- 
 nize anything and anybody on earth except the 
 coal miner. 
 
 Some of the houses furnished the men by the 
 companies were the worst of shacks. In some 
 camps the companies did not have sufficient houses, 
 and leased the men ground on which they built 
 dwellings of their own the lease, however, re- 
 quiring that they be vacated on five days' notice. 
 But in one or two camps, notably that of Primero, 
 the company had erected a group of houses that 
 were nearly fit dwelling places for human beings. 
 
 The demands of the men, as I have said, were 
 for increased wages, the eight-hour day, honest
 
 "SEE THE BEAUTIFUL HOUSES !" 49 
 
 weight, wages to be paid in lawful money, and 
 ventilation of the mines. 
 
 So far as the employers through their flunkies 
 and factotums made any answer to the demands of 
 the men, it was one continued anthem in praise of 
 the "houses at Primero." 
 
 "Increase our wages," said the men. "Look at 
 those houses at Primero!" replied the bourgeoise 
 editor of the organ of the coal companies. 
 
 "Give us the eight-hour day," said the miners. 
 "What nonsense," said the agents of the compa- 
 nies. "You men don't want the eight-hour day. 
 Look at those beautiful houses at Primero !" 
 
 "Give us a check weighman," said the men, "so 
 that we shall not be required to mine 3,500 pounds 
 of coal in order to get credit for 2,000 pounds." 
 
 "Hogs !" responded the members of the Citizens' 
 Alliance, every last man of them on the side of 
 the coal barons. "You poor miserable children of 
 darkness! It is not a check weighman that you 
 want. A ton is a ton, isn't it, whether it weighs 
 3,500 or 2,000 pounds ? What can common people 
 like you know about honest weight, anyhow? See 
 the beautiful brick houses at Primero!" 
 
 "Pay us our wages in money, instead of scrip 
 on the company store," said the men. 
 
 "Money! Money?" yelled the chorus of little 
 business men in the Citizens' Alliance, who felt
 
 50 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE! 
 
 themselves honored and flattered when a mine 
 manager spoke to them. ''Money? For coal 
 miners ? You're a lot of miserable foreigners ! 
 It's not money you want. Look at the houses of 
 those miners at Primero! Some of them are 
 painted! Besides, we want all the money our- 
 selves !" 
 
 "Ventilate the mines as the law requires/' said 
 the men. "We must have air or we can't work." 
 
 "Anarchists!" yelled the bourgeoise chorus. 
 "You are a lot of Dagoes and Mexicans. You 
 want air? Look at those houses at Primero. 
 Some of them have windows !" 
 
 No matter what these thirteen thousand men 
 asked for, sufficient answer unto all to point to 
 the little group of cottages, and say, "Look at those 
 houses at Primero !"
 
 Don't be a Tomato 
 
 MR. MAN OUT OF A JOB, I want you to 
 ask yourself one question. 
 
 When your wife or you go to market 
 to buy things, you are glad to find a large variety 
 and plentiful supply of those things for sale, are 
 you not? If there is a large variety, you can find 
 things of just the grade and quality that you want, 
 can't you ? And if there is a plentiful supply, and 
 a number of dealers, you can get the things you 
 want cheap, can't you ? The world over, you will 
 find that when people huy things they want them 
 to be cheap in price. 
 
 For instance, suppose you go to market to buy 
 tomatoes. If you find several marketmen with 
 big supplies of all kinds of tomatoes, you know 
 that you can get a bargain. If some of the toma- 
 toes are so ripe that they will not keep for more 
 than a day or so, you know that you can buy toma- 
 toes cheap. 
 
 Now, Mr. Man Out of a Job, just remember 
 this one thing when you huy tomatoes you want 
 tomatoes to be cheap. Remember that men the 
 world over, when they buy things, want the price 
 to be low. Remember, further, that so long as
 
 52 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE! 
 
 you are going to buy tomatoes you would never 
 do anything to raise their price, would you ? 
 
 Mr. Man Out of a Job, this is to you. 
 
 At times you have no doubt wondered why you 
 are out of work. It has seemed to you cruel and 
 unjust that a man able and willing to work at 
 useful and productive labor should not be allowed 
 to do so. 
 
 You have wondered why the "rich" men of the 
 country did not employ you and the millions of 
 your unemployed fellows. 
 
 You have wondered why Republican city officials 
 did nothing for the unemployed except to have 
 the Republican police club them, as in Chicago. 
 Then you have wondered why Democratic city 
 officials did nothing for the unemployed except 
 to have the Democratic police club them, as in 
 New York. These two parties are always (appar- 
 ently) at war with each other. Why does not one 
 of them help the unemployed, and so gain a great 
 political advantage and victory over the other? 
 But don't forget the tomatoes. 
 
 If city officials will do nothing for the unem- 
 ployed, why is it that state officials will not assist 
 them? Don't forget the tomatoes. 
 
 If neither city nor state officials will help the
 
 DON'T BE A TOMATO 53 
 
 hungry man out of work, why not the national 
 government? Don't forget the tomatoes. 
 
 The last session of Congress appropriated over 
 a billion dollars for a single year's government 
 expenses. But not a penny was appropriated for 
 the relief of the unemployed. Don't forget the 
 tomatoes. 
 
 The national convention of the Eepublican 
 Party met, adopted a platform, nominated can- 
 didates for President and Vice-President but did 
 nothing for the jobless man. 
 
 The national convention of the Democratic 
 Party met, adopted a platform, nominated candi- 
 dates for President and Vice-President but did 
 nothing for the jobless man. 
 
 Mr. Man Out of Work, have you asked why 
 city officials, state officials and national officials 
 have done nothing to supply you with work? 
 
 Have you asked why the national conventions of 
 the Republican and Democratic Parties gave no 
 consideration to you and six millions of others 
 Avho are looking for work in this United States of 
 Rockefeller prosperity? Don't forget the toma- 
 toes.
 
 54 FIGHT FOE YOUE LIFE! 
 
 There is plenty of work that should be done in 
 the United States public buildings, libraries, 
 books, school books, roads, bridges, irrigation, 
 docks, river and harbor improvements, canals 
 things innumerable that need to be done all over 
 this great land. 
 
 And there is plenty of money to do it with. 
 The Eepublican Convention solemnly declared that 
 this country was worth $110,000,000,000 and 
 nearly every dollar of it subject to taxation. 
 Plenty of money to be had to employ every idle 
 man in the whole nation. 
 
 Mr. Man Out of a Job, why did not these offi- 
 cials and parties do something to give you em- 
 ployment? Do you remember the tomatoes? So 
 long as you buy tomatoes, you would not do any- 
 thing to raise their price, would you? 
 
 Now, Mr. Man Out of a Job, just take a look 
 at the men who control the Eepublican and Demo- 
 cratic Parties. The influential men of both par- 
 ties are employers of labor, are they not ? An em- 
 ployer of labor buys labor, doesn't he ? Now, just 
 remember the tomatoes, Mr. Man Out of a Job. 
 So long as you could not get tomatoes unless you 
 bought them, you would not help to raise the price, 
 would you?
 
 DON'T BE A TOMATO 55 
 
 So with the capitalist. Some capitalists sell 
 one thing, some sell another thing, and some sell 
 many things. But there is one thing that all 
 capitalists must buy. That is labor. 
 
 One capitalist owns a coal mine and sells coal 
 he wants the price of coal to be high. 
 
 Another capitalist owns a railroad he wants 
 the price of transportation to be high. 
 
 Another capitalist owns a department store 
 he wants the price of merchandise to be high. 
 These capitalists sell coal, they sell transportation, 
 they sell merchandise. 
 
 But there is one thing the capitalist never sells 
 there is one thing the capitalist always buys. 
 
 The capitalist who owns the coal mine must buy 
 the labor of the miners. 
 
 The capitalist who owns the railway must buy 
 the labor of the railway workers. 
 
 The capitalist who owns the department store 
 must buy the labor of the clerks and errand boys 
 and girls and floor walkers. 
 _ Always and everywhere the capitalist must buy 
 labor. 
 
 Now, Mr. Man Out of a Job, don't forget the 
 tomatoes. When you buy tomatoes the price can- 
 not be too low to suit you, can it?
 
 56 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE ! 
 
 So with the capitalist. He buys labor. The 
 price cannot be too low to suit him. 
 
 Mr. Man Out of a Job, you would think your- 
 self a fool to raise the price of tomatoes when you 
 buy tomatoes. 
 
 So would the capitalist be a fool to raise the 
 price of labor when he buys labor. Yet that is 
 what you expect him to do. 
 
 That is what you ask him to do. You are sur- 
 prised when he doesn't do it. 
 
 Mr. Man Out of a Job, if there are few toma- 
 toes in the market, the price is high; if there are 
 many tomatoes in the market, the price is low. If 
 some of the tomatoes are so ripe they will not 
 keep another day, the price is very low. When 
 you go to market as a buyer of tomatoes you want 
 to find lots of tomatoes there, some of them dead 
 ripe, and the price very low. 
 
 So with the capitalist. When he comes to mar- 
 ket to buy labor, he wants to find many unem- 
 ployed laborers (skilled and unskilled) ready to 
 sell their labor, so that he can buy all the labor 
 he wants. When the capitalist comes to market to 
 buy labor, he wants to find some unemployed 
 laborers dead ripe (hungry), so that he can buy 
 all the labor he wants cheap. The man who can't 
 eat until he gets work will take a job of work 
 cheap.
 
 DON'T BE A TOMATO 57 
 
 Now, Mr. Man Out of a Job, do you understand 
 why it is that the Kepublican and Democratic 
 Parties will do nothing for the unemployed? I 
 do not say that all the men in those parties are 
 capitalists. But I do say that capitalists control 
 both of those parties. And you know it. You 
 need not take my word for it. There are working- 
 men in both parties. The workingmen are al- 
 lowed to furnish the votes. But employers of 
 labor, big and little, absolutely control both old 
 parties. And employers of labor are buyers of 
 labor. And buyers of labor want labor to be 
 cheap. And in the long run labor will be cheap 
 in just the proportion that laborers are out of work. 
 
 So, Mr. Man Out of a Job, why should you ex- 
 pect political officials and parties who buy labor 
 to help the unemployed ? Suppose the federal 
 government gave work to all the unemployed. 
 Where would the capitalist find labor when he 
 wanted it? He would have to outbid the govern- 
 ment to get men. He would have to pay a high 
 price when he bought labor. He no more desires 
 to pay a high price for labor than you desire to 
 pay a high price for tomatoes. If the unem- 
 ployed were supplied with work, not only would 
 the capitalist have to pay a high price for any 
 additional labor he might employ, but if there 
 were no unemployed the men now at work would
 
 58 FIGHT FOB YOUR LIFE ! 
 
 immediately demand a raise in wages. And if 
 there were no unemployed the capitalist would 
 have to give the raise demanded or cease business. 
 
 Now, Mr. Man Out of a Job, you really don't 
 think the capitalist wants to raise wages, do you ? 
 You know if he does want to raise wages, there is 
 nothing to stop him now, is there ? Also, you 
 know what it takes to make a capitalist raise wages, 
 don't you? It takes power: the power of labor 
 organized, and strong enough to beat him with 
 strike and boycott. 
 
 Mr. Man Out of a Job, there is a political party 
 that, so far as it has and gains power, will at all 
 times look out for the unemployed. But the polit- 
 ical party which has at heart the interest of the 
 unemployed is not controlled by capitalists. It is 
 not controlled by men who buy labor. The only 
 political party which will provide work for the 
 jobless man is the political party which is con- 
 trolled by workingmen men who sell labor. 
 
 That party is the Socialist Party. Eead its 
 platform and demands, Mr. Man Out of a Job, 
 and you will find that you and your six million 
 fellows were not forgotten by the men and women 
 who composed the national convention of the So- 
 cialist Party.
 
 DON'T BE A TOMATO 59 
 
 Don't forget the tomatoes, Mr. Man Out of a 
 Job. 
 
 A green tomato will keep good for two or three 
 weeks in a cool, dark place, and it requires neither 
 food nor drink. But a green (or ripe) working- 
 man out of a job won't keep two or three weeks 
 without food or drink. Next election you can 
 vote for the party controlled by the men who sell 
 their labor and want high wages, or you can vote 
 for the parties controlled by the men who buy 
 labor and want to buy it cheap. 
 
 Don't be a tomato and vote the Eepublican or 
 Democratic ticket for the benefit of the capitalists 
 who buy labor. 
 
 Be a man and vote for the ticket of the Socialist 
 Party and work to bring about a day in which 
 men and women will not be sold in the market like 
 green, and ripe, and over-ripe tomatoes. 
 
 Don't be a tomato, Mr. Man Out of a Job.
 
 The James Boys; or, Modern 
 Law and Order* 
 
 ONCE Upon a Time, said the Young Ob- 
 server, there lived two men who were de- 
 servedly notorious, if not famous. They 
 were known as the James Boys, Frank and Jesse 
 James, brothers, and both were strong-limbed, 
 keen of eye, and had what is sometimes called 
 Nerve. 
 
 Each was a crack shot with rifle or revolver, 
 and Jesse could with the latter weapon hit a nail 
 on the head or a man in the heart at a distance of 
 fifty paces easily, with certainty, and, if called 
 upon, with most rapid succession. But he never 
 practised much on nail-heads, preferring, like 
 a True and Strenuous Sportsman, Live Game. 
 
 In addition to their splendid physical qualities, 
 the James Boys were great on morality, the Rights 
 of Property, and such things, and took especial 
 pride in themselves as Exponents of Law and 
 Order. But, alas! Like many other great men, 
 they lived behind their time, and their theories 
 
 A chapter from "Railroading in the United 
 States," by Ben Hanford, 1901, out of print.
 
 THE JAMES BOYS 61 
 
 were little understood and sadly unappreciated. 
 Some of the Most Respectable People denounced 
 their notion of Property Eights, and to practically 
 carry out their Philosophy of Law and Order they 
 were often compelled to resort to the most Strenu- 
 ous measures. 
 
 You see it was this way, continued the Young 
 Observer. Frank and Jesse James were often in 
 need of funds, and to supply themselves they 
 sometimes resorted to what is called (most vul- 
 garly, to be sure) Robbing banks, stages, railroad 
 trains, and so on, by the most Crude and Plebeian 
 methods. I do not mean that there is anything 
 wrong in robbing a bank; everybody that is to 
 say, all really Respectable people (and I flatter 
 myself that I am so classified, said the Young 
 Observer) recognizes the natural and inalienable 
 right of a man and a gentleman to rob a bank or 
 a railroad train. But he must always act in 
 accord with the rules of the game. And the two 
 primary rules are, first, before robbing a bank, a 
 man must have properly qualified himself, either 
 by having been born Respectable, by having Re- 
 spectability thrust upon him, or by having achieved 
 Respectability; no man has any right to rob a 
 bank, or even a stage coach, unless he has received 
 his degree from a high-class institution of learn- 
 ing and taken a conspicuous part in at least one
 
 62 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE ! 
 
 campaign as an advocate of sound money. (It is 
 easily to be seen by even the dullest mind that if 
 a man is to be robbed of his money, it is of the 
 highest importance that the money should be 
 Sound money.) These institutions and opportu- 
 nities, throughout the United States at least, are 
 open to all alike on the same and equal terms, so 
 that no citizen is prevented from acquiring these 
 essential qualifications, and none of his Inalien- 
 able rights are alienated. The second rule of the 
 bank-robbing game requires that, in addition to 
 his indubitable Respectability, the robber must do 
 his Work from the Inside. Any other procedure 
 is not only bad form, but can only be properly de- 
 scribed as Vulgarity, and utterly unworthy of a 
 true Gentleman. 
 
 The education of the James Boys had been 
 sadly neglected, went on the Young Observer, and, 
 reasoning from their inner consciousness, and al- 
 ways remembering that this was a Free Country, 
 they proceeded to enforce their ideas of the Sacred 
 Rights of Property and Law and Order by the 
 methods most convenient to their hands generally 
 six-shooters. 
 
 This was the way of it : Frank and Jesse Jamts 
 would board a passenger train at some convenient 
 city, first taking care to purchase tickets. Both 
 were scrupulously honest, and made it a point of
 
 THE JAMES BOYS 63 
 
 honor to pay their car fare. When the train was 
 well under way, Jesse would go forward to the 
 engine and request the engineer to stop the train, 
 in order that he and his brother Frank might 
 have an opportunity to give the passengers a little 
 lecture, with practical illustrations, on Law and 
 Order. The engineers always complied with any 
 request made by Jesse, knowing that Law and 
 Order was his strong point, and that he was not 
 to be trifled with on the subject. Then Jesse 
 would march the engineer back to a passenger 
 coach, always giving him a front seat, that he 
 might not miss any of the lecture. Having seated 
 these gentlemen (I forgot to mention, said the 
 Young Observer, that Jesse always invited the 
 fireman and conductor of the train to join the 
 engineer, and they never refused), as I said, hav- 
 ing seated these gentlemen, Jesse would stand in 
 the front door of the car, with a cocked six- 
 shooter in each hand (Jesse never was able to 
 make his lecture effective without his six-shooters 
 for pointers and to give the proper punctuation), 
 and deliver his justly celebrated lecture, as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 "Hands up! ladies and gentlemen. I am Jesse 
 James. This is my brother Frank. We are here 
 as Exponents of Law and Order. You all believe 
 in Law and Order. I am the Law, and it is my
 
 64 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE ! 
 
 Order that you hold up your hands. If any gen- 
 tleman (or lady) allows his (or her) hands to 
 drop, I will blow the Top of his (or her) Head 
 Off. You will understand that I am opposed to 
 all violence, and if you keep order there will be 
 no bloodshed. My brother Frank will pass 
 through the car with a Bag, and any jewelry or 
 money you have about you he will put in the Bag. 
 It will be entirely Safe. I have no references 
 with me, but I assure you that I am Jesse James, 
 and I feel confident that you can trust me im- 
 plicitly. No back talk. If you talk back, I will 
 treat you just as I would if you took your hands 
 down that is, I will blow the Top of your 
 Head . Yes, this is a Free Country. I be- 
 lieve in Free Speech. You can talk all you Wish 
 when I am gone. No doubt, you would, one and 
 all, like to make a few remarks. No; this is not 
 a lecture on the Tariff ; though the Tariff is a Tax. 
 Yes; the Money Question is an important One. 
 But, friends, and I trust I may call you so, there 
 is no good reason for antagonism between us; our 
 interests are Mutual; you have my solemn assur- 
 ance that there will be no trouble so long as You 
 Obey the Law and Keep Order or Off goes the 
 Top of Your Head. All right, Frank? So soon? 
 This is such a splendid audience so Orderly, and 
 inspired with such a Respect for the Law that I
 
 THE JAMES BOYS 65 
 
 hate to leave them. Ah, well every happy mo- 
 ment has an end. Come on, Frank. Good-night, 
 dear friends, good-night." 
 
 Frank and Jesse gave this entertainment many 
 times, and to audiences of the most varied char- 
 acteristics. Jesse became very proficient in his 
 Delivery, and wherever his lecture was delivered 
 it made a Deep and Lasting Impression upon all 
 who heard it. 
 
 But, alas for the man who lives behind his time ! 
 Some Eminent Gentlemen competitors of the 
 James Boys who were in the Law and Order 
 business on Their Own Private Account, offered a 
 reward for Jesse, Dead or Alive, and one day he 
 who had always striven to carry out his Crude 
 theories of Law and Order, face to face, and Man 
 to Men, was shot in the Back and instantly Killed. 
 
 Think what Jesse James might have done had 
 he adopted Modern Methods. But at least he died 
 in the vigor of his manhood. He did not live to 
 work the James in literature, nor was he ever 
 elected to the United States Senate "as an inci- 
 dent in his career as a railroad man." 
 
 This, said the Young Observer, brings me to 
 Law and Order and Modern Methods. 
 
 The most important point about Modern Meth- 
 ods is, before stealing from railway passengers, 
 first Steal the Kailway.
 
 "We Propose to Run Our Own 
 Business in Our Own Way!" 
 
 ( ( "VII 7" E propose to run our own business in 
 \\ our own way." So says the presi- 
 dent of the big corporation when his 
 thousands of employees ask an increase in wages. 
 
 "We propose to run our own business in our 
 own way." So says the senior partner in the firm 
 when their hundreds of employees ask shorter 
 hours. 
 
 "I propose to run my own business in my own 
 way." So says the little cockroach capitalist when 
 his half-dozen employees ask half-way decent con- 
 ditions. 
 
 Then all together: 
 
 "We propose to run our own business in our 
 own way." 
 
 St. George F. Baer, J. Pierpont Morgan, the 
 president of the Typotheta?, the president of the 
 Mine Owners' Association, the editor of every scab 
 newspaper, the owner of a scab subway, the owner 
 of every trolley line, railway, rolling mill, shoe 
 factory, hat factory, bake shop every last one of 
 them sits up on his hind legs and howls like a wolf
 
 "OUIl OWN BUSINESS!" 67 
 
 or whines like a coyote, "We are going to run our 
 own business in our own way." 
 
 Well, why don't you run it in your own way ? 
 
 When could a boss have a better chance to run 
 his business in his own way than while his em- 
 ployees are on strike? 
 
 If Mr. Baer wanted to run his business in his 
 own way, why didn't he go right down under 
 ground and dig his own coal out of his own mine 
 when his miners were on strike in 1902? He 
 would have been entirely safe. The eleven thou- 
 sand militiamen of Pennsylvania could have "pro- 
 tected" him and all the coal he might have dug. 
 
 Why, when his men went on strike, didn't 
 August Belmont go down to the subway and go 
 to work, instead of going down to Florida to go 
 fishing ? 
 
 If all you union-hating gentry want to run your 
 business in your own way, why don't you run it ? 
 
 If you want to run your business in your own 
 way, what do you hire scabs for ? 
 
 If you want to run your own business in your 
 own way, what do you hire any one for? 
 
 If a member of the Typothetse wants to run his 
 own business in his own way, why does he hire 
 printers, pressmen, lithographers? 
 
 If the owner of a newspaper wants to run his 
 own business in his own way, why doesn't he sit
 
 68 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE ! 
 
 right down and write his newspaper, and edit his 
 newspaper, and then make the paper his newspaper 
 is printed on all in his very own way ? Then let 
 him set the type in his own way, and read the 
 proof in his own way, and make up the forms in 
 his own way. Then let him put the forms on the 
 press and wash and ink the rollers in his own way. 
 Then he can fire the boiler, get up steam, run the 
 press and print his precious paper all in his own 
 way. And let him read it himself in his own 
 way. 
 
 Who or what would stop him? He would not 
 need even a Gatling-gun injunction. 
 
 "We propose to run our own business in our 
 own way." So you say all you union-haters. 
 And you lie you every one of you lie, and know 
 you lie, when you say it. 
 
 YOU do not propose to run your own business 
 in your own way. 
 
 You propose your business shall be run in 
 YOUR way, all right. But you propose some one 
 else shall run it, while YOU get the profit. 
 
 That some one else that you propose to have 
 run your business is a WORKINGMAN, and if 
 HE does not willingly run YOUR business for 
 you in your own way, and so far forgets himself 
 as to ask for something it is not to your interest 
 to give, and strikes in an effort to get what he
 
 "OUR OWN BUSINESS!" 69 
 
 asks for, you do not even try to run your own 
 business. 
 
 Quite the contrary. Instead of going to work 
 and running your own business, you do your best 
 to starve, club or shoot that workingman back 
 into your shop to run it for you. 
 
 So far, Mr. Union-Hater, you have had pretty 
 fair success in making workingmen run your busi- 
 ness for you in your own way. But there will 
 come a day. You don't believe it? Ask the 
 ghosts of ten thousand tyrants of ten thousand 
 years that are past. 
 
 If a man wants to run his business in his own 
 way, the first necessary thing for him to do is to 
 go to some place where there are no other men 
 that means the desert. Then he can indeed run 
 his business in his own way. He can do every- 
 thing just as he likes. No one will interfere with 
 him. No troublesome union workingmen will ask 
 higher wages or shorter hours. Nor will they 
 boycott his product for lack of the label. 
 
 Only the isolated man can or should have a 
 business of his own. Only the solitary man can 
 or should run his business in his own way. 
 
 Mr. Union-Hater, one of these days the work- 
 ingmen who run your business will cease to ask 
 you for better wages or shorter hours, or any of 
 these things that trouble you so.
 
 70 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE ! 
 
 One of these days men who run your business 
 FOR YOU will discover that if they can run it 
 FOR YOU they can ran it FOR THEMSELVES. 
 Then, instead of asking you for more wages, they 
 will ask you for the business. 
 
 Better still, they may TAKE IT WITHOUT 
 THE ASKING. 
 
 "I propose to run my own business in my own 
 way." 
 
 Such a man should go to the desert and run it.
 
 The Free American Working- 
 man and His Sacred Right 
 to Work* 
 
 ME. FREE AMERICAN WORKINGMAN, 
 you hear a great deal from time to time 
 about your "sacred right to work." The 
 talk generally comes from the learned editors of 
 our great papers and from eminent judges of our 
 Supreme Courts. You hear most of this talk about 
 your precious "right to work" when you are on 
 strike and refuse to work. 
 
 Mr. Free American Workingman, did you ever 
 stop to think for half a minute even about your 
 "right to work." 
 
 Let us be personal and speak plainly. 
 
 The writer of this is a printer, a typesetter. 
 He is one of those fellows who is supposed to be a 
 "free American workingman," and like you to be 
 in possession of that precious treasure, the "right 
 to work." 
 
 But though a printer, he does not own a print- 
 ing office, or a typesetting machine, or a printing 
 
 * From a leaflet written for Local New York sev- 
 eral years ago.
 
 72 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE ! 
 
 press, or any of the machinery or tools essential 
 in the printing industry. 
 
 Now, if this man is to work at the printing 
 trade, he must have the tools of the trade to work 
 with. You can say that he has the "right to 
 work" as a printer, and you can call him a "free 
 American workingman," hut how can he exercise 
 his "right to work" when he has nothing with 
 which to work? Where does his "freedom" come in? 
 
 His "freedom" consists in this if he does not 
 work, he will starve, unless he can break into jail. 
 And his "right to work" consists in this he has 
 a "right to work" IF some one will hire him to 
 work. 
 
 This printer, being a free man in a free coun- 
 try, is free to work or not, just as he pleases. But 
 if he pleases not to work, he must live without 
 eating, or go to jail to get fed. 
 
 So you see, Mr. Free American Workingman, 
 you have no freedom NOT to work. Work you 
 must have in order to live. 
 
 But you are not the owner of the things neces- 
 sary to work with. You do not own mines, mills, 
 factories, foundries, railways, land, machinery or 
 tools you own none of the things which a man 
 must have in order to work. 
 
 Where, then, is YOUR "right to work"? 
 
 Why, bless you, you have a sacred "right to
 
 FKEE AMERICAN WORKINGMAN 73 
 
 work" for anybody who will hire you. And the 
 only people who can and will hire you to work for 
 them are the people who do own mines, mills, fac- 
 tories, foundries, railroads, workshops, land, ma- 
 chinery and tools the people who own the things 
 which a man must have to work with. 
 
 So, you see, YOU are neither a "free American 
 workingman/' nor have you the "right to work." 
 
 First you have got to work or starve, and sec- 
 ond you have got to work for another man on his 
 terms a negro chattel slave had the same freedom 
 to work or starve, and the same sacred "right to 
 work" for another man on the other man's terms, 
 that you free, sovereign American workingmen are 
 possessed of. 
 
 When you hear learned editors and eminent ju- 
 rists talking ahout the "free American working- 
 man" and his sacred "right to work," what do you 
 suppose they mean? 
 
 Do you think they mean that you are free to 
 work or not? or that you really have a "right to 
 work" as you will? 
 
 Certainly not. By a "free" American working- 
 man" they mean a man who is free to starve if he 
 cannot get employment, and by the sacred "right 
 to work" they mean a man's sacred right to be a 
 scab and take your job when you go out on strike 
 for better pay.
 
 74 FIGHT FOE YOUR LIFE! 
 
 The only people in "free" America who have a 
 "right to work" are the fellows who own the mines, 
 mills, factories, foundries, railroads, workshops, 
 land, tools and machinery of production they 
 have the "right to work," but they don't have to 
 work because you have to work for them, and do 
 your own work and theirs also and for payment 
 you get enough to enable you to live (or exist) 
 and bring enough children into the world to take 
 up your task and do your work for them when you 
 are dead and gone. 
 
 Now, Mr. Free American Workingman, you 
 have one advantage that the chattel slave never 
 .had though he was always sure of a job, which 
 is something you are never sure of. But you 
 have in 'your hands a weapon with which you can 
 free yourself from your slavery. You white and 
 black wage slaves of the present day have the bal- 
 lot in your hand, and each one of you can cast a 
 vote as large and which will count as much as 
 your master's and there are many of you and 
 your masters are -few.* We Socialists want all of 
 you workingmen to get into a workingman's polit- 
 ical party, capture the political power, enact such 
 
 * Since the leaflet was written many changes in 
 the laws have deprived both white and black working- 
 men of the franchise. If the great questions of to-day 
 are to be settled by the ballot workingmen should 
 hasten to make use of it.
 
 FREE AMERICAN WORKINGMAN 75 
 
 laws as will make the mines, mills, factories, foun- 
 dries, workshops, land, railways, tools and machin- 
 ery for the production of wealth your collective 
 property and then, when you workingmen are the 
 owners of the things with which you work, then 
 you will be "free American workingmen," then 
 you will indeed have a "right to work," and 
 NEVER BEFORE.
 
 $1,318-$6,194-$120,000,000,000 
 
 LEGRAND POWERS, for years chief statis- 
 tician of the United States Census Bureau, 
 is the author of an article on the wealth 
 of the United States in the "American Journal 
 of Sociology" (September, 1908), published by 
 Chicago (Rockefeller) University. 
 
 Mr. Powers considers official statements of the 
 property value of the country, and declares they 
 are too small, giving facts and figures in detail for 
 his opinion. The official Federal statement of the 
 property values of the United States for 1890 was 
 $65,000,000,000; for 1900 it was $88,000,000,000, 
 and for 1904 it was $107,104,211,917. It will be 
 recalled that Senator Burrows in his address as 
 temporary chairman of the National Republican 
 Convention at Chicago, in 1908, declared the value 
 of our national wealth to be $108,000,000,000. 
 
 Mr. Powers proves these figures too low, and 
 states that the national wealth at the present time 
 (1908) is certainly not less than $117,000,000,000, 
 and is probably as much as $120,000,000,000. 
 
 Taking $120,000,000,000 as the correct figure, 
 and dividing that sum by the population of the 
 United States at the present time (according to
 
 $1,318 $6,194 $120,000,000,000 77 
 
 the most reliable estimates) and we have $1,318 
 as the wealth of the country per capita. That is 
 to say, if it could all be divided evenly and an 
 equal share given to every inhabitant, there would 
 be $1,318 for every man, woman and child. There 
 would be $1,318 for the baby born last night. 
 
 According to the census of 1900, the average 
 size of families in the United States was 4.7 per- 
 sons in each family. On that basis, if our nation- 
 al wealth was distributed equally among all the 
 different families, there would be $6,194 for each 
 household. 
 
 The wealth is here, Mr. Free American Work- 
 ingman to the extent of $120,000,000,000. Your 
 labor produced it. But it isn't yours. The wealth 
 that your labor produced belongs to your landlord, 
 it belongs to your employer, it belongs to the bond- 
 holders and stockholders of the United States in 
 short, to the capitalist class. 
 
 Your labor, Mr. Free American Workingman, 
 has given the country in which you work a value 
 of $120,000,000,000 which belongs not to you 
 who labor, but to those who do not labor. How 
 does it come to be theirs? You must find the 
 answer to that question, Mr. Free American 
 Workingman. Your liberty and your life depend
 
 78 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE ! 
 
 on your being able to answer that question correctly. 
 
 Mr. Free American Workingman, the wealth of 
 this country belongs to the capitalist class through 
 the power of the government the political power. 
 The capitalists maintain their economic power 
 through their political power. The capitalists get 
 their political power through your vote, Mr. Free 
 American Workingman. Take a look about you. 
 Can't you see that the capitalists will vote for 
 Republicans and Democrats? Doesn't Edward 
 Henry Harriman say that he does not care which 
 is elected? Whether the Republicans or Demo- 
 crats win, Harriman, the Railroad King, is sat- 
 isfied. Can't you see, Mr. Free American Work- 
 ingman, that Standard Oil has subsidized both 
 parties? Whether the Republicans win or the 
 Democrats win, John Davidson Rockefeller, the 
 Oil King, is satisfied. He owns wealth to a value 
 of more than a billion dollars, and he owns the 
 Republican and Democratic parties. 
 
 When United States Senator Julius Casar Bur- 
 rows (and other great men in the Republican 
 party) talks about our national wealth of more 
 than $108,000,000,000 he does not mean your 
 wealth, Mr. Free American Workingman, nor 
 mine. Senator Burrows says our wealth, but he 
 means his wealth and Rockefeller's wealth and 
 the wealth of the capitalist class.
 
 $1,318 $6,194 $120,000,000,000 79 
 
 Just as it was your labor that produced all that 
 $120,000,000,000 of wealth, Mr. Free American 
 Workingman, so it was your vote that gave it to 
 Kockefeller, Burrows and the capitalist class. 
 Just as your vote has given it to them in the past, 
 so your vote can give it to yourself in the future. 
 The capitalists get the country's wealth through 
 their economic power, they keep it through their 
 political power. You, Mr. Free American Work- 
 ingman, hy an intelligent use of your vote, can take 
 the capitalist's political power away from him and 
 get it for yourself. Then you can use your polit- 
 ical power to take the capitalist's economic power 
 from him, and get that power yourself. Then you 
 will be a free man. Never before. But, Mr. 
 Free American Workingman, you will never take 
 the political power from the capitalist by voting 
 his ticket. If you want the political power for 
 yourself you must vote your own ticket. 
 
 Every vote for a Eepublican and every vote for 
 a Democrat, Mr. Free American Workingman, is 
 a vote that your family shall have less than $6,194, 
 it is a vote that you, and your wife, and your child 
 shall have less than $1,318 of the $120,000,000,000 
 produced by your labor. 
 
 Every vote for a Eepublican and every vote for 
 a Democrat, Mr. Free American Workingman, is a 
 vote that Kockefeller, Eogers, Morgan, Baer, Van
 
 80 
 
 Cleave, Comer, Peabody, Gooding, the slave- 
 drivers, the dividend-lovers, the union-haters, the 
 rent-lord, the money-lord, and the factory lord, the 
 capitalists who do no work, shall have more of the 
 $120,000,000,000 that was produced by your labor. 
 A vote for the Socialist Party, Mr. Free Amer- 
 ican Workingman, is a vote for yourself. It is a 
 vote for better days for your wife and your child. 
 A vote for the Socialist ticket, Mr. Free American 
 Workingman, is a vote that you shall have more 
 of the $120,000,000,000 produced by your labor.
 
 Socialist Convention Speech* 
 
 IOMRADES: It is well that Socialists 
 should hold their convention on Memorial 
 Day. 
 
 Not only every battlefield,, but shops and mills 
 and mines the world over, have been sanctified 
 with the blood of the working class. From the 
 bondage of the Jews in Egypt, kneading their 
 blood into the clay and making bricks without 
 straw, and for centuries before that time; from 
 the days of the 300,000 workingmen slaughtered 
 with Spartacus; from the 6,000 rebellious work- 
 ingmen crucified on the Appian Way in Borne; 
 from the 33,000 workingmen and women and chik 
 dren shot down like mad dogs in Paris within the 
 lifetime of many of us here; and recalling in 
 America our Pullman, our Homestead, our Coeur 
 d'Alenes, our Brooklyn and our Colorado, it is 
 indeed fitting that a party of the working class 
 should observe Memorial Day. 
 
 Every year in the railroad industry in the United 
 States a larger number of men are killed and 
 wounded than the entire list of killed and wounded 
 
 * Address before the New York City Convention, 
 May 30, 1905.
 
 82 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE! 
 
 on both sides at the battle of Gettysburg, the 
 most bloody conflict of the Civil War. Every 
 year in this glorious United States, and in these 
 piping times of peace, we kill a larger number of 
 men in our mining and iron and building indus- 
 tries than went to their death in yesterday's battle 
 of the sea.* And nearly all of those sunk or 
 slaughtered thousands were men of the working 
 class, leaving workingmen's wives to be widows 
 and workingmen's children orphans. 
 
 But our Christian civilization is not content to 
 make war on men. It drives the women to the 
 factory and the children to the mill, robbing them 
 of health and life. 
 
 This is Memorial Day, comrades. There is not 
 a hill on earth that has not beetf some working- 
 man's Calvary. There is not a clod on this old 
 ball that has not been wet with a workingman's 
 blood. 
 
 Nor do our masters propose to stop in their 
 slaughter of our class. They propose to make of 
 this world an industrial penitentiary, wherein you 
 and I must work while they hold the keys and keep 
 the product of our industry. Workingmen, look 
 at these crimson banners, and remember that "the 
 bluest blood is putrid, but the people's blood is 
 
 * Battle of the Sea of Japan, Russian-Japanese War, 
 in which the Russian fleet was destroyed or captured.
 
 SOCIALIST CONVENTION SPEECH 83 
 
 red." Consecrate yourselves anew to the task of 
 liberating mankind from this last and worst form 
 of slavery the slavery of the working class to the 
 capitalist class. 
 
 You are here to-day to nominate a city ticket, 
 adopt a city platform, and make plans for the 
 prosecution of our city campaign. Capitalism is 
 hell, and New York is its capital city. Nearly 
 four million people live within its municipal 
 boundaries a larger number than the entire thir- 
 teen colonies which rebelled against Great Britain 
 and won the War of the Revolution. 
 
 Last year our party polled 24,536 votes in this 
 city. Not a large army, you may say. But large 
 enough, fighting for the right, fighting in harmony 
 with economic progress, to fight our Bunker Hill, 
 which we may lose as the Colonists did, and later 
 to fight our Saratoga and our Yorktown, which 
 we shall win as the Colonists did. 
 
 From time to time we meet those who declare 
 they are "going our way," and in proof of their 
 sincerity they ask us to drop our work for the 
 Co-operative Commonwealth and join our forces 
 to theirs that we may get something "right now/' 
 Most of the people who think this way are entirely 
 honest, but most of their spokesmen are entirely 
 dishonest. They are not "going our way" or they 
 would join our movement. And they profess
 
 84 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE! 
 
 friendship for us only that they may bestow upon 
 us the kiss of Judas and betray us. 
 
 We Social Democrats* desire the working class 
 to get something "right now" as earnestly as any- 
 body. We desire the immediate municipalization 
 of our street railways, gas and electric lights and 
 many other things, and we know that the quickest 
 way to get these things is to strike with our bal- 
 lots at the very heart of the capitalist system to 
 strike at the right of private property in the means 
 of production. 
 
 Many of those who declare that they are "going 
 our way" not only are not going our way, but say 
 they are for the sole purpose of thwarting the labor 
 movement in its incidental and ultimate purposes. 
 They are for reform solely because Socialism 
 threatens revolution, and if they could sidetrack 
 the Socialist movement they then would not grant 
 even a measure of reform. 
 
 So-called reformers promise remedial measures 
 in order to MAINTAIN CAPITALISM. We 
 Socialists desire such measures that the working 
 class may gain strength to OVERTHROW CAP- 
 ITALISM. 
 
 In your deliberations here to-day do your best 
 not to make mistakes, but if errors there must be, 
 
 * In 1905 the present Socialist Party in New York 
 was officially known as the Social Democratic Party.
 
 SOCIALIST CONVENTION SPEECH 85 
 
 then make sure that they are on the side of making 
 our movement more rigidly a working-class move- 
 ment then in the long run they will not prove 
 to be errors. 
 
 Our party welcomes honest men from all walks 
 of life, intellectuals, professionals, men of the 
 middle class, even capitalists, if they are willing 
 to cast their lot with us and work for an emanci- 
 pated humanity. But the first duty, the last duty, 
 and the only duty of the Social Democratic Party 
 is to safeguard and to promote the interests of the 
 working class. No matter who joins our move- 
 ment from other classes, they are of NO AVAIL, 
 except as they can enlighten and inspire the work- 
 ing-class itself. And in so far as we can arouse 
 the working class to a knowledge of and action in 
 their own interest ALL THE EEST OF THE 
 WORLD SHALL NOT PREVAIL AGAINST 
 THEM. 
 
 It is true that the Social Democratic Party 
 wants votes but not votes for the votes' sake. 
 Back of every vote we want a man, with a stal- 
 wart arm to do, a heart that dares to do, and a 
 mind that knows what to do. 
 
 The Working Class! To awake, instruct and 
 inspire and organize that class is your whole duty.
 
 Debs 
 
 DEBS. Big. Big body. Big brain. Great 
 heart. Lion heart. Indomitable courage. 
 Unconquerable love of his fellowman. 
 Spirit and Voice and Heart of the Working Class. 
 Spirit of Freedom. Voice of Progress and Revolu- 
 tion. Heart of Love. An eye that sees. A brain 
 that comprehends. Intelligent. Educated. Grad- 
 uated from the common school of the Class Strug- 
 gle. Given his Bachelor's Degree by President 
 George M. Pullman and the Federal Army. Given 
 his Doctor's Degree by Judges Wood and Gross- 
 cup after post-graduate work in the University of 
 Woodstock Jail. Ever since enshrined in the 
 hearts of the Working Class. Debs. Always in 
 the front rank of the battle. A sword arm that 
 has never been lowered. Debs and the Working 
 Class. Bearing their cross and wearing their 
 crown of thorns. Debs. Face to the light. Often 
 mistaken for a day. Losing the path in the dark- 
 ness. Back in the highroad with the first ray of 
 dawn. Always face to the light. Often licked. 
 Never defeated. Often knocked down. Never 
 knocked out. Debs. For the Working Class of 
 the World. In season and out of season. In jail
 
 DEBS 87 
 
 and out of jail. Debs. Heart that beats for the 
 Working Class. Eyes that see for the Working 
 Class. Head that plans for the Working Class. 
 Hands that build for the Working Class. Arms 
 that fight for the Working Class. That is Debs. 
 Heart of the Lion Debs.
 
 Our "Impartial" Judiciary* 
 
 THERE are beautiful and lovable but child- 
 like spirits in the labor movement who, 
 with admirable courage, but almost incon- 
 ceivable folly, suffer under the belief that William 
 D. Haywood and George A. Pettibone had fair 
 trials before a stern but impartial and disin- 
 terested judge. Such persons should read the re- 
 marks made by the Hon. Judge Fremont Wood in 
 passing sentence of death upon Mr. Harry Or- 
 chard after reading the words of Judge Wood, 
 one is tempted to say the Hon. Mr. Harry Or- 
 chard. 
 
 Orchard, having been convicted of murder in 
 the first degree on his plea of guilty thereto, 
 Idaho's statutes require that he be sentenced to 
 death, which Judge Wood did. At the same time 
 the Court recommended in the strongest terms 
 that the Idaho State Board of Pardons remit the 
 death penalty. For its recommendation that 
 mercy be extended to Orchard the Court gave two 
 reasons (not to call them excuses). 
 
 One was that Orchard should not be executed 
 by the State of Idaho because his testimony might 
 be wanted in the courts of Colorado, should that 
 
 Milwaukee Social Democratic Herald, April, 1908.
 
 OUR "IMPARTIAL" JUDICIARY 89 
 
 State make further efforts to convict members or 
 officials of the Western Federation of Miners of 
 the crimes charged against them by the powers 
 that be in Colorado and in the Mine Owners' 
 Association. 
 
 A further reason given by the Hon. Judge Wood 
 why the Hon. Harry Orchard should not pay the 
 statute penalty for the honorable murders to which 
 the right honorable gentleman, the prisoner at the 
 bar, had made most honorable confession, was that 
 his testimony before the juries which tried Hay- 
 wood and Pettibone was TRUE. In other words, 
 Judge Wood declares that Moyer, Haywood and 
 Pettibone are guilty of a series of murders most 
 foul. 
 
 In a State whose every judicial and executive 
 official was an economic and political enemy, the 
 prosecution (read persecution, with murderous 
 purpose), having indicted and charged him with 
 the most infamous crimes, was unable to find 
 enough evidence on which to call Charles H. 
 Moyer to trial. 
 
 But Hon. Judge Wood, who would gladly have 
 presided at such trial (0 impartial Judge!), says 
 Charles H. Moyer is guilty. 
 
 In a State whose every judicial and executive 
 official was an economic and political enemy, with 
 thousands upon thousands of dirty dollars at their
 
 90 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE ! 
 
 disposal, with scores of dirty detectives proud of 
 the dirty work they had already done, and anxious 
 to do more (for more dollars), the prosecution 
 brought Haywood and Pettibone to trial before 
 two different juries. 
 
 Neither jury was fair. 
 
 Neither jury was disinterested. 
 
 On each jury were men who declared they were 
 prejudiced against the defendant. 
 
 Yet an unfair and prejudiced jury did not find 
 Haywood guilty. 
 
 An unfair and prejudiced jury did not find Pet- 
 tibone guilty. 
 
 Neither did either of those juries fail to agree 
 upon a verdict. 
 
 Out of twenty-four men on those juries, not one 
 was willing to hold out and insist on his belief in 
 the guilt of the defendant, even to the extent of 
 causing a disagreement of the jury. 
 
 Twelve men on Haywood's jury declared him 
 "Not Guilty." 
 
 Twelve men on Pettibone's jury declared him 
 "Not Guilty." 
 
 Now comes Hon. Judge Wood, who presided at 
 the trial of each of these men ; Hon. Judge Wood, 
 who heard the jury in each of these cases declare 
 the defendant "Not Guilty" ; that same Mr. Fre- 
 mont Wood who as Judge is supposed to be and is
 
 OUR "IMPARTIAL" JUDICIARY 91 
 
 under oath to be impartial and disinterested that 
 Hon. Judge Wood, asking mercy for the self-con- 
 fessed murderer of nearly a score of men, declares 
 to the world that Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone 
 are guilty of all the crimes Orchard charged 
 against them. 
 
 The juries that tried Haywood and Pettibone 
 did not require the prosecution to prove their 
 guilt. They were tried by prejudiced juries 
 juries that required them to prove their innocence. 
 They did prove their innocence. Those juries de- 
 clared they were "Not Guilty." 
 
 Mindless of the evidence, regardless of the ver- 
 dicts of acquittal, reckless of his judicial position, 
 Hon. Judge Wood, pleading in behalf of Hon. 
 Harry Orchard, declares that Moyer, Haywood 
 and Pettibone, who have been acquitted, are guilty 
 of a long procession of foul and deadly crimes. 
 
 Learned Judge. 
 
 Impartial Judge. 
 
 Upright Judge. 
 
 Roosevelt, chief executive of the nation, practi- 
 cally pronounced these men guilty before trial! 
 
 Hon. Wood, presiding magistrate at their trial, 
 declares them guilty AFTER ACQUITTAL! 
 
 Governor McDonald of Colorado and Governor 
 Gooding of Idaho, the chief magistrates of two 
 States, and eight out of nine Justices of the Su-
 
 92 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE ! 
 
 preme Court of the United States, declared that 
 stealing men and taking them from the State of 
 their residence without an opportunity to appeal 
 to the courts was legal and due process of law. 
 
 Workingmen of America, what think you of the 
 courts of your masters ? What of your chances of 
 justice when you find yourselves involved in them ? 
 
 How would you like to be tried before a judge 
 who, on the word of a murderer and a monster, 
 declared men guilty after a jury had declared they 
 were not guilty? 
 
 When an owner and master charged a slave with 
 an offense, the slave had already been found guilty, 
 because his master was his judge. 
 
 So, American workingmen, when capitalists 
 charge you with crime, you have already been 
 judged and found guilty without trial because 
 you workingmen are compelled to plead in the 
 capitalists' court your employer's court, your 
 master's court. 
 
 In those rare cases where, notwithstanding a 
 class-prejudiced judge, the workingman can wrest 
 a verdict of acquittal from a jury of his enemies, 
 thereby saving his neck from the hangman's noose, 
 the capitalists' judge on the bench will proceed to 
 gibbet his character and declare him "Guilty," de- 
 spite a verdict of "Not Guilty." 
 
 As to Hon. Judge Wood's desire to save Hon.
 
 OUR "IMPARTIAL" JUDICIARY 93 
 
 Harry Orchard from the gallows, no Socialist will 
 complain. We do not believe in capital punish- 
 ment, and the life even of an Orchard is sacred. 
 But because we would not execute a murderer it 
 does not follow that we would not restrain him 
 from the commission of further murders. In this 
 case, however, there is good reason to believe that 
 one of the strongest motives for saving Orchard 
 from paying the death penalty for his murderous 
 crimes is that he may commit still further mur- 
 ders using the courts of so-called justice for his 
 purpose, bearing false witness therein against in- 
 nocent men, to the end that those innocent men 
 may swing from a scaffold for crimes which they 
 did not commit, but which were planned and exe- 
 cuted by Orchard and his defenders. 
 
 Workingmen of America, you have to destroy 
 capitalism or capitalism will destroy .you. 
 
 Since the above was published, Steve Adams, an- 
 other member of the Western Federation of Miners, 
 was again tried and acquitted. Also, there have Deen 
 numerous court decisions handed down against organ- 
 ized labor. It is pitiful to see workingmen looking 
 for justice in the courts of their employers, it is true 
 that sometimes (at long intervals) a court renders a 
 decision seemingly in the interest of the workingman. 
 But careful study will generally show either that the 
 decision is on a law that is unimportant or that it 
 will not be enforced.
 
 His Dignified Nobs* 
 
 FEEE workman, tread softly. Look solemn. 
 Wear a reverent aspect. Think inwardly, 
 and outwardly appear subservient, abject. 
 We approach the holy of holies. We are at the 
 threshold of a court of justice! 
 
 Great men, who get paid for it, will tell you 
 that this is the bulwark and the citadel of Your 
 liberties. Whatever else is wrong in this land of 
 the free, the courts are pure, unimpeachable so 
 They say, the great ones of the earth. Some 
 things in this country may not be exactly right 
 (it is too hard and harsh to say that they are 
 wrong); but there is one thing in which All can 
 have, must have, and do have, confidence Our 
 judiciary. Let no sacrilegious hand touch the 
 bench. 
 
 There is the Suprtme Court. That is the Su- 
 preme Justice not the Supreme Being but the 
 Supreme Justice of this Supreme Court. 
 
 Look well at him. Note his dignity. Also his 
 
 * First Printed in New York Worker, Sept, 8, 1901.
 
 HIS DIGNIFIED NOBS 95 
 
 dyspepsia. See how great he is; how wonderful 
 it is that such a man is not a thousand feet high. 
 How can so much greatness be contained in so 
 sm*,ll a compass? Again, note his dignity, and 
 hii gown. Let a feeling of awe come over you. 
 Compared with him, think what a mere nothing 
 you are in this world. Again and again, note his 
 dignity, and never forget that his dignified nobs 
 has a nose a little purple, mayhap, but a real 
 hose, nevertheless. Wonderful being. 
 
 What a great man is he. 
 
 Some farmer had to plow the land, sow the 
 teed, harvest the wheat; some miller grind the 
 wheat into flour; some baker make the flour into 
 bread; some boy deliver the bread at the house; 
 some maid servant put the bread on the table 
 and then the judge will eat; with dignity. Some 
 miner will dig the coal; engineers, brakemen, con- 
 ductors will transport the coal, a man servant will 
 put the coal in the stove and make a fire and 
 the judge will be warmed, with dignity. The 
 rag-picker will send his rags to the paper mill, 
 where they will be made into paper; the printer 
 will set the type; the pressman will take the type 
 from the printer, the paper from the papermaker, 
 the press from the machinist and print words on 
 the blank paper, which binders will make into a 
 book and the judge will sit by His fire in His
 
 96 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE! 
 
 upholstered chair, reading His book, taking His 
 toast and tea and drinking His wine, all with due 
 dignity. 
 
 And you people who made the puppet bow 
 down. 
 
 Shall creators worship their creation ? 
 
 Note the wisdom of his nibs. You people who 
 made him have taken pains enough with him; 
 you have not spared expense. On inspection of 
 the job, or rather the job-lot, what do you think 
 of it? 
 
 Don't you see that in this day of shams the 
 judge is the worst sham of the lot? Do you 
 imagine he is there to do justice? Not so. He 
 is there, now as aforetime, to Pretend to do jus- 
 tice, but in reality to give you workingmen all the 
 worst of it. All his learning is used, not to en- 
 lighten the cause or parties to a controversy, but 
 to make you workingmen think you are getting a 
 "fair show." You get nothing of the kind. You 
 get learned phrases from his nibs, and the capi- 
 talist gets the decision. 
 
 Do you imagine you workingmen are not com- 
 petent to sit on the bench? When you go into 
 court what do you most desire a throw-down 
 ornamented with the choicest literary finish, or a 
 decision that you win? You want a decision, of 
 course, and when you elect men whose interests
 
 HIS DIGNIFIED NOBS 97 
 
 are your interests, you will get a decision in your 
 favor not before. Obey the laws and the de- 
 cisions of the judges, of course ; but as to respect- 
 ing them phew, they stink!
 
 Your Uncle is Dead* 
 
 AFTER an existence (it could not be called 
 a "life") of ninety years, after having 
 "made" ninety million dollars, Russell 
 Sage is dead. Dead and buried in a steel coffin 
 and in a steel vault, equipped with electric burglar 
 alarms and other devices to safeguard his withered 
 body from the attempts of those who might have 
 designs upon it. Of course, no one wants his 
 body for its own sake. But there are those who 
 would like to steal it and use it as a means to 
 extort from his widow a ransom for its return. 
 
 Sage on his own account has passed the point 
 of arousing acute human interest. Not so the 
 ninety million dollars he has left behind. They 
 are very interesting to the widow and to all those 
 who for any reason "have hopes." 
 
 The old man left to charity nothing. It is 
 said that the widow will give to charity. Twenty- 
 six nieces and nephews are to get $25,000 each. 
 This is to be denied them if they make any effort 
 to "break the will." 
 
 There are those who harshly criticize the old 
 
 *Rrst published in New York Worker, August 
 4, 1906.
 
 YOUE UNCLE IS DEAD 99 
 
 man because he made no bequests to schools, col- 
 leges, hospitals, or other regular objects of ortho- 
 dox charity. The criticism is undeserved. Pro- 
 vided he work no injury to another, the question 
 is not what a man DOES with, his money. 
 
 The real question is, HOW DID HE GET IT ? 
 
 How did Kussell Sage get his ninety millions? 
 That is the question to be asked after his death, 
 and it is the question that should have been 
 asked, and answered, while he was alive. 
 
 When a boy, Sage worked in a grocery store for 
 his board and $12 a month. It is clearly to be 
 seen that he never got ninety millions in that 
 way. Later he had his wages raised, and received 
 the sum of $4 a week and board. But even his 
 long "life" of ninety years was not long enough 
 to get ninety millions in that way, even for a man 
 as "industrious" and "thrifty" as Eussell Sage. 
 
 Where and how did he get it? He became a 
 horse trader, but sharp as he was, Sage never got 
 ninety millions trading horses. He went to Con- 
 gress, but that was many years ago, before the 
 days of the immense corporations of the present, 
 and while he had a wonderful eye for the main 
 chance, Sage never could have got ninety millions 
 in Congress though in our present day there be 
 those (Senator Bailey, for instance) who may 
 crowd the ninety-million-dollar mark if they can
 
 100 FIGHT FOE YOUR LIFE ! 
 
 remain in Congress till they are as old as Sage at 
 his death. 
 
 Where and how did he get it? 
 
 Mr. Workingman, Mr. Sage "got" his ninety 
 millions hy robbing you. A man may become 
 the possessor of wealth in one of three ways it 
 may be given him, he may steal it, or he may 
 labor and produce it. Away back in those days of 
 $12 a month Sage labored and produced wealth. 
 That was these many years agone. He only began 
 to get wealth of consequence when he left the 
 grocery store and took to the robbers' highway 
 of high finance. 
 
 He "invested" his means. He shaved notes. 
 He sold money. He became the owner of rail- 
 ways and robbed the men whose labor produced 
 and operated them. When he shaved notes and 
 sold money "on the Street" he robbed a robber 
 who had already robbed a wealth producer a 
 worker. 
 
 When he became the OWNER of street cars 
 and railways he became the MASTER of the men 
 who were FORCED to work on those roads. We 
 say FORCED to work on those roads. 
 
 FORCED to work for Russell Sage as long as 
 he lived and he lived a long time. And now 
 that he is dead there is to be no change. They 
 will still be FORCED to work on the same old
 
 YOUE UNCLE IS DEAD 101 
 
 roads. It is of no consequence whether the widow 
 becomes the owner, or the twenty-six nephews and 
 nieces become the owners. No difference will it 
 make if his railways are given to charity and the 
 best possible of benevolent societies becomes the 
 owner. Still those men whose labor constructed 
 and operates them will be FOKCED to work there, 
 and while they work there they will be robbed. 
 
 Why don't those workers quit ? 
 
 If they quit they'll starve that's why. 
 
 Why do they submit to work under conditions 
 where they are robbed? 
 
 Because there are thousands of other men who 
 are starving because they have no chance to work 
 and be robbed that's why. 
 
 When an old chattel slave owner died his will 
 sometimes freed his slaves. No will of the owner 
 of wage slaves can do that. When he dies his 
 property goes to another and that other by 
 owning that property becomes the master of its 
 slaves. The serf sticks to the soil, the wage-slave 
 sticks to the job. Who owns the means of pro- 
 duction owns the workers who use them. 
 
 What can be done? One thing, and only one 
 thing. Take the railways and all other means for 
 the production of wealth and make them the col- 
 lective property of all the people. That would be 
 bad for the Kussell Sages. To be sure. But it
 
 102 FIGHT FOB YOUR LIFE! 
 
 would be good for the thousands of wage slaves 
 whose robbery enriched him, and out of whose 
 poverty was coined his ninety million dollars.
 
 I. Where Are We?* 
 
 SEE where we are to-day. 
 When darkness comes to-night, you strike 
 a match ; and in striking that match you pay 
 tribute in the form of profit to Morgan and Uould 
 and Rockefeller and the Match Trust. 
 
 The next thing you do is to wind up your little 
 alarm clock, so that you will be sure to get up 
 bright and early to-morrow morning and not be 
 late to work and get docked; and when you wind 
 up that alarm clock you pay tribute in the form 
 of profit to Morgan and the Ansonia or Ingersoll 
 Clock Trust. 
 
 Well, morning comes. Your wife, if you have 
 the luxury of such companionship, gets up a half 
 hour earlier than you to prepare breakfast. 
 
 If she lights a coal fire, every moment that it 
 burns you pay tribute in the form of profit to 
 Morgan and Baer and the Coal Trust. Should 
 she light an oil or gas fire, every moment that it 
 burns you pay tribute in the form of profit to 
 Morgan and Rockefeller and the Oil or Gas 
 Trust. 
 
 * From lecture, "Socialism the Hope of the World," 
 1903.
 
 104 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE! 
 
 Next the wife will place a little tin pot on the 
 stove, and you will pay tribute to Morgan and 
 the Tin Plate Trust. 
 
 She places a little coffee in the little pot, and 
 you pay tribute in the form of profit to Morgan 
 and Arbuckle and the Coffee Trust ; or, if she puts 
 tea in the pot, you pay tribute in the form of 
 profit to Sir Tommy Lipton and the Tea Trust. 
 
 And before drinking that trust tea or trust 
 coffee made in the little trust pot, you put a lit- 
 tle sugar in, and for that sweetening you pay 
 tribute in the form of profit to Morgan and Have- 
 meyer and the Sugar Trust. 
 
 Well, likely as not, that drink of trust tea or 
 coffee will make you sick. If so, you send for a 
 trust physician. He comes, gives you a prescrip- 
 tion (for a consideration), you send it to the 
 drug store to be filled, and when you pay for that 
 prescription yoi 1 pay tribute in the form of profit 
 to Morgan and Park, Davis & Co., or to Morgan 
 and the Potter Drug & Chemical Trust. 
 
 Then it is easily possible that that dose of 
 Trust medicine may kill you. If it does, your 
 body will probably be placed in a coffin made by 
 some casket company which Mr. Morgan owns. 
 But it does not stop there. When your relatives, 
 if they have money enough, go to buy you a grave 
 they will no doubt discover that Mr. Morgan is
 
 WHEEE AEE WE? 105 
 
 interested in more than one cemetery, and you 
 who have lived all your life working for Morgan 
 will be placed in Morgan's coffin and buried in 
 Morgan's cemetery. 
 
 Nor does it stop even there. After you are 
 dead and buried, let us hope that your enfran- 
 chised spirit will go up and look for admission 
 through the pearly gates; but if so, I very much 
 fear that old St. Peter will meet you there, reach 
 forth his hand, and ask you for a letter of recom- 
 mendation from J. Pierpont Morgan before you 
 can enter Heaven. 
 
 And even this may not be the worst. Possibly 
 you may have been a very wicked man, and failed 
 to do penance for your sins, and instead of going 
 up above you may go down below, in which case 
 I feel confident you will find that Hell is all Mor- 
 gan's and I'm not sorry for it. 
 
 I can, however, with safety venture the predic- 
 tion that before Morgan is in Hell for ninety 
 days he will organize a Trust down there, and 
 freeze the Devil off his own fire. 
 
 See where we are to-day. 
 
 This illustration is not extreme. 
 
 Mr. Morgan is a director or trustee in scores 
 of different corporations and he holds stocks in 
 hundreds of others, while as a bondholder and 
 banker he has an interest (often a controlling one)
 
 106 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE! 
 
 in yet other scores and hundreds. I want you to 
 see by this illustration that neither you nor your 
 wife can spend a nickel, a dime, or a dollar with- 
 out paying tribute in the form of profit to this 
 trust, that trust and the other trust, and while 
 these corporations may be separate legal entities, 
 they are all owned or controlled by practically the 
 same little group of men, with a master captain of 
 industry and finance working his will with each. 
 
 This, however, is but one side, and the bright- 
 est side, of the picture. 
 
 Not only must you spend your wages with Mor- 
 gan, but if you work on a railway you must work 
 for Morgan and Vanderbilt and Gould; if you 
 work at coal mining, you must work for Morgan 
 and Baer; if you work in the oil or gas industry, 
 you must work for Morgan and Rockefeller; if 
 you work in the iron or steel industry, you work 
 for Morgan and Carnegie; if you work in cop- 
 per or the precious metals, you work for Morgan 
 and Rockefeller and Clark and Heinze. 
 
 In my illustration to-day I have pointed out 
 how you are exploited by monopoly in spending 
 your money. 
 
 You have only been robbed of what you had. 
 
 You can scarcely believe me when I tell you 
 that this robbery that you see so plainly is of lit- 
 tle real importance.
 
 WHERE ARE WE? 107 
 
 The GREAT robbing of the working class is 
 accomplished by taking from them what they 
 haven't got. 
 
 It, no doubt, seems strange to you, Mr. Work- 
 ingman, to be told that c, penniless, propertyless, 
 naked man can be robbed, and that the robbers can 
 get rich off the spoils of him. But it is true. It 
 can be done. It is done. 
 
 What's more, it's the payingest kind of robbery 
 that ever was. 
 
 And the safest so far. 
 
 How's the game worked? 
 
 To know that you must read the next story, 
 "How to Rob a Man Who Is Broke."
 
 II. How to Rob a Man Who 
 Is Broke 
 
 HOW to rob a man who is broke. 
 How to coin wealth out of penury. 
 How to get riches out of paupers. 
 
 These things are not impossible, nor even diffi- 
 cult. They are not even rare. They are every- 
 day occurrences. They are habit, custom. They 
 are almost the universal rule. So common they 
 do not excite comment in themselves. It is the 
 correct statement of them that is unusual. 
 
 Ordinarily they appear in the form of "busi- 
 ness," "finance," "industry/' "commerce," and the 
 like, and are regarded as quite the thing, and 
 quite the right thing as a matter of course. 
 
 How to rob a man who is broke. 
 
 Captain Kidd, Jack Sheppard, Dick Turpin and 
 Jesse James were able men and truly great rob- 
 bers. But that trick was beyond their powers. 
 Their notion of robbery was, first of all, to find 
 a man who had the coin. With all their craft and 
 courage, they never were equal to the task of get- 
 ting wealth from a man who had no wealth. 
 
 That is the "business" of the modern Captains 
 of Industry. And so rich are their rewards that
 
 HOW TO EOB A MAN 109 
 
 the old knights of the road, chevaliers de 1'in- 
 dustrie, safe-crackers., counterfeiters and pirates of 
 the past would ache in their graves could they but 
 dream of the capitalist's swag. 
 
 How to rob a man who is broke. 
 
 A man who is broke in time becomes hungry, 
 and must eat or perish. He possibly has five 
 courses open to him he can beg, borrow, steal, 
 work or starve. 
 
 If he is caught begging, he is thrown into jail ; 
 besides, he won't get much, anyway; regardless of 
 Supreme Courts, and the Mendicants' Merger, 
 there are beggars in plenty, and plenty of compe- 
 tition between them. 
 
 If the man who is broke and hungry is caught 
 stealing, he is thrown into jail; besides, stealing 
 isn't what it used to be; Eockefeller will soon 
 have most everything worth stealing. Over in a 
 New Jersey town three men worked hard all night 
 cracking a safe and got twelve cents. Needless 
 to remark that Mr. Eockefeller was not one of the 
 three men. Mr. Eockefeller does not work nights. 
 Besides, he knows that sooner or later he'll get 
 the twelve cents, anyway. 
 
 A man who is broke and hungry can borrow all 
 he wants on good security. 
 
 A man who is broke and hungry can starve 
 but he must not be caught at it in New York
 
 110 FIGHT FOE YOUR LIFE ! 
 
 State. Suicide may or may not be a sin, but the 
 statutes of the Empire State make it a crime pun- 
 ishable by imprisonment. 
 
 How to rob a man who is broke. 
 
 There is just one door of hope that may or 
 may not be open to the man who is broke 
 work. 
 
 There is nothing bad about work. It's the very 
 thing, not only for the man who is broke, but for 
 every man who would eat. "In the sweat of thy 
 face shalt thou eat bread/' And if you eat bread 
 and do not work, then you eat it in the sweat of 
 some other man's face. Work, by all means, for 
 the penniless man. 
 
 But to work, a man must have land to stand on. 
 He must have unfinished or raw material to work 
 upon. He must have tools, means of production, 
 to work with. Our man who is broke has none 
 of these things if he had he would not be broke. 
 Without these things he cannot live except in the 
 asylum or the jail. 
 
 How to rob a man who is broke. 
 
 To save himself from death, asylum or jail, the 
 man who is broke must have work. To work he 
 must have means of production. 
 
 Who OWNS the means of production? 
 
 The capitalist. The captain of industry. 
 
 Who USES the means of production ?
 
 HOW TO ROB A MAN 111 
 
 Workingmen. 
 
 So at last our man who is broke stands, hat in 
 hand, face to face with the man who owns the 
 means of production. The fear of the prison, the 
 asylum and starvation have driven that penniless 
 man along the path which led to the employment 
 office of that owner of the means of production 
 with a force as irresistible as that which drives the 
 earth onward in its orbit. To be at all, he must 
 be there. To continue to be, he must gain access 
 to the means of production. 
 
 How to rob a man who is broke. 
 
 There stand face to face what legal fiction calls 
 two free men. One free man the OWNER of the 
 means of production, with money in his purse and 
 money in the bank, with a comfortable and luxuri- 
 ous home, and in no hurry. The other free man 
 homeless, penniless, hungry, his only chance of 
 life dependent on his USE of the other's means of 
 production. These two men do not dicker, and 
 argue and haggle. The man who is broke does not 
 propose to buy or rent means of production. The 
 FREE contract between these FREE men takes 
 the form of one man hiring the other to work for 
 him by the day, week or month. 
 
 Suppose that our man who is broke if allowed 
 to use the means of production can create new 
 value equal to $10 in a day's work, how much will
 
 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE ! 
 
 his wages be if the OWNER of the means of pro- 
 duction employs him ? 
 
 Suppose that our man who is broke can create 
 $20 of new value by a day's work, how much will 
 his wages be ? 
 
 Suppose he creates $40 by his day's work, how 
 much will his wages be? 
 
 You might not think it, but his wages will be 
 about the same whether his labor produces wealth 
 to the value of $10 a day, $20 a day, or $40 a day. 
 
 What will his wages be? 
 
 Given a man who is broke, given a FREE 
 laborer, who must have work or perish, what will 
 he work for? What must he work for? 
 
 He will work for a wage sufficient to sustain life. 
 
 That is all the FREE Captain of Industry will 
 offer, and that the FREE laborer must take or 
 perish. 
 
 Every day that he storks for wages he must pro- 
 duce wealth of a value GREATER than his wages 
 otherwise he is discharged. 
 
 The only purpose of the OWNER of the means 
 of production is to have workmen USE his means 
 of production, have their labor create a value 
 GREATER than their wages, and himself pocket 
 the DIFFERENCE between the value of the 
 wealth their labor creates and the portion of that 
 value returned to them in the form of wages.
 
 HOW TO EOB A MAN 113 
 
 That DIFFEKENCE the Captain of Industry 
 calls PEOFIT. 
 
 To the man who knows that Labor of brain 
 and brawn produces all wealth, it is easily to be 
 seen that what a politician or a confidence man 
 calls "graft," what a gambler calls "velvet," what 
 a thief calls "swag," that is what a capitalist calls 
 "PROFIT." It is simply something for nothing. 
 Wealth without equivalent. That is all Jesse 
 James got, that is all Cassie Chadwick wanted, 
 that is all the Captain of Industry is after. 
 
 That PROFIT for the capitalists of the United 
 States amounts to fully 100 per cent, on the 
 amount they pay in wages, probably much more. 
 In other words, for every dollar in value that the 
 workman creates for the Captain of Industry, Mr. 
 Captain gets 50 cents in profit and Mr. FREE 
 Workman gets 50 cents. 
 
 How to rob a man who is broke. 
 
 Simply OWN" as your private property the 
 means of production he must USE or perish. 
 
 Not only can you rob him, but you can do BO 
 with SAFETY. 
 
 You need not even go out and look for him. 
 
 Sit in your office and he will come to you as 
 cattle to the salt lick, and beg you to rob him. 
 
 And you shall wax mighty, and great, and be 
 honored among men, and be very stiff-necked and
 
 114 FIGHT FOE YOUR LIFE ! 
 
 hold your head very high, for a time just about 
 the time you are able to do that gracefully, per- 
 haps some kind friends will come your way and 
 stretch your neck a little, and raise your head just 
 one little notch higher, just a little notch, but just 
 enough. 
 
 But no. All that is of the past. Nothing like 
 that ever to be again. 
 
 Nothing ever to be again except this continued 
 story of robbing the man who is broke just that 
 to-day, and to-morrow, and forever and ever. 
 Nothing ever to be in all time except robbing him 
 and his wife and children, and his children's chil- 
 dren and their children unless 
 
 Unless that man and his brothers learn that Labor 
 of brain and brawn produces ALL wealth, and also 
 learn that when those who USE the means of pro- 
 duction OWN the means of production the product 
 of Labor will be theirs. 
 
 How shall the WORKERS become OWNERS 
 of the means of production ?
 
 The Grand Army 
 
 IN 1892 for the first time the Socialists of the 
 United States entered national politics. 
 They nominated Simon Wing for President 
 and Charles H. Matchett for Vice-President, and 
 their ticket received 21,512 votes. Sixteen years 
 later, in 1908, Eugene V. Debs and Ben Han- 
 ford, Socialist candidates for President and Vice- 
 President, received 420,464 votes. IN" -SIXTEEN 
 YEARS THE SOCIALIST VOTE IN THE 
 UNITED STATES HAS BEEN INCREASED 
 NINETEENFOLD. 
 
 More than four hundred and twenty thousand 
 men voted the Socialist ticket in 1908. We all 
 expected there would he more. In the heat of 
 the battle we forgot how great was the cause for 
 which the battle was fought. In looking for a 
 million votes we forgot how much it takes to 
 make a Socialist voter. We thought a million 
 Socialists meant a million Socialist voters. 
 
 But there is a Grand Army of 420,464 Socialist 
 voters in the United States. 
 
 Four hundred and twenty thousand voters who 
 are unafraid of Big Stick Roosevelt. Who are 
 unawed by Big Injunction Bill Taft. Who are
 
 116 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE ! 
 
 unswayed by Big Wind Billy Bryan. Who are 
 undeceived by Big Bunco Billy Hearst. Who 
 are unmoved by Big Bluffs or Big Humbugs. 
 Truly, a Grand Army, if this world ever saw one. 
 
 More than four hundred and twenty thousand 
 voters in the United States who cannot be fooled 
 by Big Booze, Big Booze Fighters, or Big Water 
 Wagons. More than four hundred and twenty 
 thousand voters who cannot be enslaved by the 
 Big Superstitions of the Big Stiffs under the 
 graveyard's sod, or the more dead Big Stuffs who 
 officer our great universities. Four hundred and 
 twenty thousand voters who cannot be humbugged 
 by the Big Lies of the Big Dailies. Who can- 
 not be bribed by Big Boodle, nor be bought by 
 Big Business. Who cannot be cowed by the Big 
 Bullies of the army, nor the Big Bludgeons of 
 the police. 
 
 Four hundred and twenty thousand men who 
 stand erect and beard the Big Beast Capitalism 
 in his own domain. Truly, a Grand Army, if 
 this world has ever seen one. 
 
 FOUR HUNDRED AND TWENTY THOU- 
 SAND SOCIALIST VOTERS. And that is less 
 than half the story of the Grand Army. For more 
 than six hundred thousand others would have 
 voted the Socialist ticket had not capitalist laws 
 deprived them of the ballot. Few of the two
 
 THE GRAND AEMY 117 
 
 million men employed in the building trades and 
 by the railroads are allowed to vote. The rail- 
 way men cannot leave their work to go to the 
 polls on election day. The men of the building 
 and several other trades are always on the move 
 "following the job." They are unable to ac- 
 quire a "voting residence." Then, millions of 
 black workingmen are disfranchised and millions 
 of their white brothers along with them through- 
 out the South. Still other millions of the work- 
 ers are shut off from the exercise of all electoral 
 rights by poll tax and other property qualifica- 
 tions. When I say the number of men in the 
 United States who desired to vote the Socialist 
 ticket, but were prevented by unfair election laws, 
 is two hundred thousand greater than the number 
 who did vote the Socialist ticket, I am well with- 
 in the mark. That means that the Grand Army 
 of Socialist men in this country numbers 420,464 
 voters, to which must be added more than 600,000 
 others who were legally robbed of the ballot. So 
 the real Grand Army numbers a million men at 
 this moment not a man less than ONE MIL- 
 LION. Truly, a Grand Army, if this world is 
 ever to see one. 
 
 To this Grand Army of a million Socialists, half 
 of whom voted the Socialist ticket and half of 
 whom would have voted the Socialist ticket had
 
 118 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE ! 
 
 they been allowed to vote at all, must be added 
 not less than one million men who to-day are 
 Socialists in every way but one. They have a 
 fair understanding of Socialism, they believe in 
 it and they agree with it. But they have not yet 
 learned Socialist party tactics they expect to "get 
 something now/' or live in the hope of getting 
 "half a loaf." This million of men who to-day are 
 Socialists, but do not vote the Socialist ticket, con- 
 stitute the first reserve of the Grand Army. Every 
 day sees more and more of them enlightened, and 
 as their hopes of better things from the old parties 
 are doomed to disappointment, they will of neces- 
 sity see the correctness of the Socialist party 
 tactics and vote the Socialist ticket. 
 
 Some of these Socialists who are not Socialist 
 voters can get their education only in the painful 
 school of experience. Their lessons may come in 
 the form of a strike or lock-out, or injunction. 
 Some will learn in the school of hard times. The 
 red flag of the sheriff's auctioneer will teach some 
 sad to say. Or it may be that the Big Stick, 
 the militia or the police are to be their teachers. 
 Others will learn from hearing a Socialist speech 
 or reading a Socialist leaflet or book. But in any 
 event their ultimate destination is the Socialist 
 party. 
 
 To sum up, the present apparent strength of
 
 THE GRAND ARMY 119 
 
 the Socialist movement in the United States may 
 be stated as follows: 
 
 Socialist voters 420,464 
 
 Socialists, but disfranchised 600,000 
 
 Socialists, but do not vote the Social- 
 ist ticket 1,000,000 
 
 Socialist women. . ? 
 
 Total 2,020,464 
 
 This is a very conservative statement of the 
 Socialist strength. Unquestionably it is greater, 
 rather than less. It is difficult to make an esti- 
 mate of the strength of Socialism among women. 
 But it is considerable, and it is growing rapidly. 
 
 Notwithstanding this army of Socialists and 
 Socialist voters, we did not elect a single Con- 
 gressman. But we will and that soon. Nor 
 have we elected Socialists to the Legislature in 
 any State except Wisconsin, nor to the Alder- 
 manic chambers of any city of size except Mil- 
 waukee. But we will and that soon. The 
 growth of the Socialist Party is certain, and 
 small gains will see Socialists in Congress, So- 
 cialists in the Legislatures of many States, and 
 in the city halls of many municipalities. Not only 
 will the near future see Socialists in our legisla- 
 tive bodies, but they will shortly be found in
 
 120 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE ! 
 
 executive and judicial positions as well judges, 
 mayors of cities and governors of states. 
 
 To-day two million men in the United States 
 are Socialists. They constitute the Grand Army. 
 It is not an army of murder, rapine and destruc- 
 tion. It is a Grand Army of peace and progress, 
 of enlightenment and brotherhood. It is an army 
 that grows with every hour of the day. It is an 
 army that has never known defeat and never will. 
 It is an army that with the certainty of the rising 
 and setting of the sun shall march with resistless 
 force from one victory to another till every man, 
 woman and child on earth shall be free. 
 
 Truly, a Grand Army, if this world ever is to 
 see one. 
 
 Do you belong to that Grand Army, reader? 
 
 If not, why not? 
 
 No man has ever been drafted into this army. 
 
 But volunteers are always wanted. 
 
 Better enlist, reader.
 
 Fight for Your Life ! 
 
 YOU Wage-Workers. 
 You who must be Wage-Workers. 
 You who cannot live except as Wage- 
 Workers. 
 
 Have you gotten anything from reading the fore- 
 going pages? Have you learned Why you are 
 Wage-Workers ? And Why you must continue to 
 be Wage- Workers ? 
 
 To live you must have Food, Clothing, Shelter. 
 You Wage- Workers differ from the Wage- Payers 
 chiefly in this you have no property. You Wage- 
 Workers have just enough of the necessaries of life 
 to last from hour to hour, from day to day from 
 pay day to pay day. 
 
 You Wage- Workers can only get Food, Clothing 
 and Shelter by paying money for them. And you 
 can only get money by getting Wages. In order 
 to get Wages you must get a job. 
 
 So, you see, it stands this way with you : 
 Job means Wages; 
 Wages means Money; 
 Money means Food, Clothing, and Shelter;
 
 122 FIGHT FOR YOUK LIFE ! 
 
 Food, Clothing., and Shelter mean Life. 
 
 So, you see, your 
 
 JOB IS YOUR LIFE. 
 
 Not always do you have a job. Then you have 
 unfit food, unsanitary shelter, insufficient clothing 
 or none. Sometimes when you have a job it is 
 at such low wages that you are unable to supply 
 yourself and family with proper Food, Clothing 
 and Shelter. Of course, you know some Wage- 
 Workers who get good wages sufficient to supply 
 themselves with everything needful. But, if you 
 will look around carefully, you will find that for 
 every Wage- Worker who gets what you call good 
 wages there are many who get poor wages, and 
 some who are getting no wages the pitiful starv- 
 ing army of the Unemployed. 
 
 Pe it good or bad, a job of some kind you must 
 have, for Your Job Is Your Life. 
 
 How do you get that job, my fellow Wage- 
 Worker? 
 
 YoU get it from the Capitalists. 
 
 You get it from the men who own the means of 
 production. 
 
 You get it from the men who own the mines, 
 mills, railways, stores, factories, lands, buildings, 
 tools, machinery and workshops. 
 
 Your Job Is Your Life, my fellow Wage- 
 Worker, and Your Job Is Owned by the Capitalist.
 
 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE! 123 
 
 That means that Your Life Is Owned by the 
 Capitalist. 
 
 The man who owns your means of life owns you. 
 
 You Wage- Workers cannot live without a job. 
 The Capitalist owns your job. Your Job Is Your 
 Life, and in owning your job the Capitalist Owns 
 You, fellow Wage- Workers. 
 
 Wage- Workers ! 
 
 Would you Fight for Your Life? 
 
 Would you ? 
 
 Fight the Capitalists to make Yourselves Owners 
 of Your Jobs. 
 
 Fight the Capitalists to make Yourselves Owners 
 of the Means of Life. 
 
 Fight the Capitalists to make Yourselves Own- 
 ers of the Means Necessary to Supply Yourselves 
 and Families with Food, Clothing and Shelter. 
 
 Wage- Workers ! 
 
 You must fight the Capitalist Class and lick 
 them. 
 
 Your life depends on the outcome of the battle. 
 
 Fight for Your Life! 
 
 When I say you Wage-Workers must fight the 
 Capitalist I do not mean that you are to gouge 
 his eye out. Or that you are to knock his block 
 off. Nor do I mean that you are to organize a 
 dynamite club. Nor shoulder a musket. Nor join 
 the militia.
 
 124 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE ! 
 
 No. 
 
 All those are Capitalist methods of battle. 
 
 I want you Wage- Workers to fight the Capitalist 
 by more intelligent and more powerful methods. 
 
 The Capitalist has his power over you, the Capi- 
 talist owns you, the Capitalist owns your life be- 
 cause he owns the tilings necessary to your life. 
 
 The Capitalist owns the things necessary to your 
 life, Wage-Workers, because the laws of property 
 allow him to do so. 
 
 In the United States, you Wage- Workers with 
 the ballot can change the laws. 
 
 You Wage- Workers can so change the laws of 
 the United States that a Capitalist can no more 
 have private property in a street railway than he 
 can in a street. 
 
 You Wage- Workers can so change the laws of 
 the United States that a Capitalist can no more 
 have private property in land than he can have 
 private property in air. 
 
 You Wage- Workers can so change the laws of 
 the United States that a Capitalist can no more 
 have private property in a mill, mine, store or fac- 
 tory than he can have private property in a public 
 school or the post office or the fire department.- 
 
 Fight for Your Life! 
 
 Wage- Workers ! 
 
 You are not to take mine, mill, railway and fao-
 
 FIGHT FOE YOUE LIFE ! 125 
 
 tory from the Capitalist as his private property 
 and make them your private property. You are 
 to take them from the Capitalist and make them 
 the common property of all the people that in- 
 cludes you, and that includes the Capitalist. But 
 neither you nor the Capitalist will be private own- 
 ers of those things. 
 
 Fight for Your Life ! 
 
 Wage- Workers ! You must make this fight, and 
 you must win this fight, or you will live and die a 
 slave. Not only your freedom, but your very life, 
 depend on the outcome of this battle. 
 
 Fight for Your Life! 
 
 How? 
 
 What is the most effective method by which you 
 can make this Fight for Your Life ? 
 
 Wage- Workers ! Join the Socialist Party. Eead 
 Socialist books and papers to inform yourself. 
 Then instruct your fellow Wage- Workers, and get 
 them to read Socialist books and papers and to 
 join the Socialist Party. It is the only way. 
 
 Fight for Your Life! 
 
 Not only join the Socialist Party. Join the 
 trade or labor union of your craft. If you already 
 belong to a union get all your fellow workers to 
 join your union; help in the fight for better pay 
 and shorter hours. The Socialist Party carries on 
 the fight to abolish the wage system, to overthrow
 
 126 FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE ! 
 
 the slave system, and make the workers the owners 
 of the things with which they work. 
 
 Join the Socialist Party, and work for a world 
 of free men and free women among free men and 
 free women. 
 
 Fight for Your Life! 
 
 Slow work, think you ? 
 
 In 1892 the Socialists of the United States nom- 
 inated a Presidential ticket and entered the field 
 of national politics for the first time. Their can- 
 didate received 20,512 votes. Sixteen years later, 
 in 1908, the Socialist Party candidate for Presi- 
 dent received 420,464 voes. 
 
 Slow work? What would you call fast work? 
 
 Fight for Your Life! 
 
 Wage- Workers, join this great movement for the 
 emancipation of you and I and every human being 
 on the face of this earth. 
 
 Join now. Share the burdens of the battle and 
 share the glory of the victory. 
 
 Fight for Your Life!
 
 FIGHT FOR YOUE LIFE ! 
 
 ' , Header, if this little book has helped you 
 to see the light, and if you think it might 
 lie of service in helping your fellows to help them- 
 selves, see that they have a copy. There are 
 others, and will be more. Do something in this 
 world besides getting something to eat and drink. 
 An animal gets that. Have a Cause. Make sac- 
 rifices for the Cause you think greatest and best. 
 And be your Sacrifices never so great, the Cause 
 will do more for you than all that you can ever 
 do for it.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 Due Two Weeks fTom Date of 
 
 JAN 5 
 
 eceipt
 
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