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The 
 
 Coming 
 Social 
 
 Struggle 
 
 Capitalist Contradictions Exposed; 
 Socihlism Defined. 
 
 itbhsity] ^ 
 
 '^ *'« U7LLMyW BDLIN. 
 
 " The t^oletariat, the lowest stratum of our present society, cannot stir, cannot raise itself 
 up, without the whole super-incumbent strata of official society being sprung in the air." 
 
 — Karl Marx. 
 
 " The ladder up which mankind has been climbing toward civilization, the ever more 
 powerful tool of production, is the storm center around which the modern social storm rages. 
 " The capitalist class seeks to keep it for its own exclusive use. 
 " The middle class seeks to break it down, thereby throwing civilization back. 
 " The proleteriat seeks to preserve it and improve it, and open it to a.\V— Daniel DeLeon. 
 
 PRICE, S Cents. 
 
 
Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1897, 
 BY William Edlin, 
 
 IN T^B office of THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS, AT WASHINGTON. 
 
 JyyW 
 
 UPTON BROS.. PH'M 
 

 " Well! food, clothes, and housing— those are the three important 
 items in the material condition of men; and I say flatly that the contrast 
 between those of the non-producers and those of the producers is hor- 
 rible, and that the word is no exaggeration."— PF///?am Morris. 
 
 " And I too, love Peace, but not the peace of Slavery."— Z?a«/<>«. 
 
 Society, to-day, is confronted with a great problem — it is the 
 problem of life. It is more deeply human, more socially vital than 
 any other universal question recorded in the history of thought. 
 The problem of to-day, succintly stated, is: How to secure the 
 happiness of the many^ 
 
 The great Russian scholar, Lfto Tolstoi, says: " Men cannot 
 imagine life without the desire for happiness. To live is for every 
 mai the same thing as to desire and to attain bliss; to desire and 
 to attain bliss is synonymous with living." 
 
 But the average life of every man, woman and child is at present 
 far from being happy; it is just in a miserable condition diametrically 
 opposed to happiness. Instead of being an enjoyment it is a burden! 
 And why ? Because the path that leads to the attainment of happi- 
 ness, is obstructed by monstrous economic evils, by a dragon called 
 Competition, and by a demon known as Wage-Slavery. 
 
 We have at present reached a high stage in the development of 
 the human race, a stage in civilization which we may be proud of. 
 ■With our present inventions and discoveries, which enable us to 
 control nature; with our continual progress in science and moral 
 philosophy, the life and happiness of every human being ought to 
 have been assured. But, alas! Instead of utilizing thcs^ unlimited 
 opportunities and uniting in brotherly co-operation reaching every 
 member of society, every individual is ready at any moment to cut 
 his fellow -sufferer's throat in order to assure his meanest possibility 
 of living; thus converting civilization into a state of anarchy and 
 confusion. 
 
 It is a notable fact that society to-day produces more commod- 
 ities than it can consume ; the genius of man having brought 
 industry and agriculture to such a high state of development, that 
 it takes a single man only a few hours to produce necessaries of life 
 for one day. But the reason why the workingmen have to toil from 
 early morning till late in the evening in order to earn a living is, 
 that only a part of the population work, while another part rob them 
 of their produce and live on it in idleness. 
 
Very often, when we reach one of the critical periods in present 
 society when everything comes to a stand-still, we hear men attribute 
 the hard times to "Overproduction." Does not such an assertion 
 seem very curious to the enlightened mind ? How explain the fact 
 in spite of there being a superJfluous abundance'of corn at all times, 
 there are people who have nothing to eat ? How attribute the star- 
 vation, the nakedness, the utmost wretchedness of the Great Many 
 to the fact of there being an overproduction of the good things of 
 this earth ? Such a solution of the problem might be called the 
 most ludicrous if it were not the most pathetic contradiction of the 
 present epoch. And the miserable, destitute Great Many, the suf- 
 fering deluded bulk of humanity is the producer of all wealth — the 
 workingman. 
 
 Not a Hugo, who with such masterly skill has drawn a Jean 
 Valjean, neither Dickens nor Zola, is able to draw an adequate 
 picture of the sufferings of that class. They who do all the working, 
 are starving for the very things they have produced; they are starv- 
 ing because they are legally robbed of the fruits of their labor by a 
 gang of drones. 
 
 " There is room for us all on the broad bosom of the earth; it is 
 rich enough to enable us all to live in comfort. It can yield sufficient 
 harvests to provide all with food; it produces enough fibrous plants 
 to supply all with clothing; it contains enough stone and clay for all 
 to have houses. There is a place for each of the brethren at the 
 banquet of life. Such is the simple economic fact. " * 
 
 But the workingmen of to-day are hungry; they die from want of 
 proper food, clothing and shelter, which are essential to the existence 
 of every human being. They are surrounded by plenty of every- 
 thing, but as all opportunities to get those things are withheld from 
 them, their only alternative is to lay down and die in the midst of a 
 Christian (?!) city, the center of a civilized nation. 
 
 " Civilization promised the toiling masses of the world the lift- 
 ing of its weary burdens. It has not kept its promise. American 
 civilization promised most of all. Its lips were roses. It promised 
 to all men. There is disappointment. A country, whose products 
 will nourish a billion of men, whose machinery will supply the planet, 
 — scarce sixty million on its soil, a million (five million at present ) 
 of men begging for the privilege to earn their bread. That is 
 civilization with a vengeance! " f 
 
 Indeed, this is civilization with a vengeance ! 
 
 But must such an order of things exist always ? Must the 
 Workers sink from day to day, from year to year, till they become a 
 prey to themselves, till they are degraded to a state of beasts ? Is 
 there no hope for a better society ? 
 
 * " Evolution and Revolution " by IJlisee Reclus. 
 
 t " The Masses and the Millionaires." A lecture delivered by William J. Armstrong, 
 before the Oakland Nationalist Club, May 26, 18y0. 
 
Our journalists, lawyers, politicians and all those who occupy 
 the pulpit — the mental prostitutes of present society — tell us that the 
 poor we must always have with us» But the rational thinker, the 
 calm philosopher, the modern proletariat thinks otherwise. The 
 boundless resources of nature, increased by science and developed 
 by modern machinery, would have provided every human being 
 with the necessaries and pleasures of life, were it not for the dis- 
 organized state of society. 
 
 Thanks, to the genius of man, the nineteenth century is an ag:e 
 of material progress. More machinery was invented during the 
 latter half of the present century than during the eighteen hundred 
 years that preceded it. The discovery and practical application of 
 electricity stimulated the civihzed world to such a degree, that it 
 must result in the downfall of the existing tottering institutions, and 
 the establishment of a new social order. 
 
 There are certain wants to which every human being is sub- 
 ject ; wants that everyone must satisfy in order to be happy. 
 Therefore, as these wants act and re-act upon each member of socizty, 
 it is the duty of society as a whole to regulate the production and 
 distribution of the necessaries of life in such systematic order, that 
 fewer hours be spent in producing and more time in enjoying them. 
 We must devote a great part of our time to the development of our 
 intelect, which alone can bring happiness to man. It is after the 
 development of our intellect, that we are able to understand the 
 sublime beauty and grandeur of life; it is then only that we begin 
 to rise above the animal and become moral beings. 
 
 The proper application of the mechanical powers, at the dispo- 
 sal of present society, could supply all mankind with the necessaries 
 of life at a very small cost of labor. Instead of continually being 
 surrounded by starving and desperate faces, we might only see 
 happy and smiling ones. Instead of a great number of people living 
 in hovels that are neither good for the health nor pleasing to the eye, 
 we might have large marble palaces with all the necessary accommo- 
 dations which should reflect the intelligence and the genius of the 
 human race. Instead of having a great body of discontented 
 workers, threatening violence at any moment, we might have a 
 peaceful and orderly body of citizens. Instead of having a society 
 divided into rich and poor, privileged and oppressed, we might have 
 a society of free and equal men. 
 
 There is no reason why society could not organize itself in such 
 a way as to best attain this purpose. The rich, the well-to-do, do 
 not trouble themselves with such questions. They are happy at 
 present, and self interest prevents them from taking part in such a 
 re-organization of society. 
 
 But the poor, the suffering, the miserable, the propertyless, the 
 homeless — where are they? Where are those, whom the present 
 
system has stripped of all their possessions and deprived of the means 
 of a livelihood ? Where are the degraded ones, that undesirable ele- 
 ment of present society ? Where are the wronged ones, those forlorn 
 wretches who wander from place to place and can find no rest, no 
 shelter ? Where are those women whom this system has driven to 
 a life of shame and degredation, who were lured by the gold of 
 those who robbed their fathers, brothers, and husbands ? Where 
 are they all, these unfortunates ? Why do they not come together 
 and organize? For when " they have but the will to do it, that 
 very. moment will justice be done; that very instant the tyrants of 
 the earth shall bite the dust." 
 
 During the last century, many plans and schemes were brought 
 forward, with the intention of curing the evils of society. The men 
 who advanced those schemes were honest in their intentions, in- 
 telligent and philanthropic. But, though honest, they were neverthe- 
 less ignorant of the real cause of the general misery that surround us. 
 
 Moved by the poverty and degredation of the poor, they under- 
 took the task of curing certain evils by legislating, by charity and 
 by preaching morals; but to their bitter disappointment, they fa'led 
 to accomplish anything. 
 
 Certain causes produce certain effects, and this simple fact was 
 ignored by all reformers, hence their failure. One cannot do away 
 with certain effects without removing the causes that produce them. 
 
 Society, as it is to-day, cannot be reformed; it must be trans- 
 formed. To remove the causes of all the evils that surround us, 
 means to remove the root, the foundation upon which present society 
 is organized and upon which the present institutions rest. To ac- 
 complish this great task, is not within the scope of philanthropic 
 reformers. 
 
 These reformers are, as a rule, sentimentalists, and history proves 
 that no great change was ever accomplished by sentimentalists. We 
 must have men, resolute men, broad-minded men, far-sighted thinkers, 
 who understand the inside and outside of the present system and can 
 discover the fundamental causes that produce the terrible effects. 
 The only way to eradicate the evils of the present social system is 
 to strike deep into the root of its foundation. 
 
 At all times, in the written history of mankind, society was 
 divided into a number of antagonistic classes. But, at no other 
 time were the class antagonisms so simplified as to-day. The present 
 system splits society into two hostile camps, into two great amies 
 arrayed against each other, — Capitalists and Workingmen. 
 
 One class ov/ns all the land and tools of production, the other 
 class possesses nothing except its labor power. These are the two 
 principal classes of modern society.* 
 
 * We must|here make mention of another class, the Middle Class, or Petty Burgeois But 
 it is a class that is slo.vly dying out, as it does not possess sufficient capital to compete with 
 the large capitalists. This class is on the point of bankruptcy, and a great part of it/ will nat- 
 urally join the ranks of the workingmen, while the rest will remain on the side of the 
 capitalists. 
 
These two classes of modern society are products of only the 
 modern system of production ; for, we find that under that form of 
 society which w^as based upon a military tenure of land and is known 
 as " Feudalism, " the social classes were different from what they 
 are at present. In Ancient History, we find a still greater distinc- 
 tion between the social classes of those days and the social classes of 
 to-day. 
 
 Therefore, the question arises here : Whence come the capital- 
 ists and workingmen with their class antagonisms ? 
 
 To answer this question thoroughly, we must trace up from 
 the beginning the present system of production, where we will dis- 
 cover the birth and development of the social classes of the capitalist 
 regime. 
 
 The time of the discovery of America dates the beginning of the 
 capitalist regime. The discovery of new lands and markets stimu- 
 lated Europe to such an activity which resulted in the downfall of 
 the Feudal institutions and the organization of modern society. 
 New forces and new influences began to work, and the growth of 
 the cities together with the revival or rather beginning of commercial 
 activity, were signs of a new era, which meant death to the Feudal 
 aristocracy and the emancipation of the Serfs. 
 
 The Feudal lord, whose function was the protection of his vas- 
 sals, was now no longer useful. The days of barbarian invasions 
 were over; the days of Feudal anarchy were gone, and a new age had 
 already begun — the birth of the capitalistic mode of production and 
 distribution. 
 
 With the beginning of the capitalistic mode of production there 
 also began to develop a new division of the social classes in society- 
 Capitalists and Workingmen. The capitalist was the enterprising 
 man who furnished the tools with which to produce, while the work- 
 ing man furnished the labor power, without which nothing can be 
 produced. This "unity of action " between the capitalist and 
 workingman was based on freedom (?) of contract. The working- 
 man agreed to work for wages, while the rest of the produce — the 
 excess of production above wages — was usually appropriated by the 
 capitalist. It must be stated here that at the beginning of the present 
 system, the contrast between employers and employees was not very 
 great. 
 
 Little by little, the bulk of the employer's capital increased 
 steadily ; the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were ages of inven- 
 tions and discoveries, and this gave an opportunity to the richer 
 employers to invest their capital. The process of production on a 
 small scale was continued for a long time; but the time came when 
 the spinning wheel was replaced by the spinning machine, the hand 
 loom by the mechanical loom, the small workshop by the large 
 factory, and at last appeared steam, the greatest revolutionizer of 
 the system of production on a small scale. 
 
8 
 
 These inventions meant one thing, — the prosperity of the civi- 
 lized countries and the increase of material wealth. But, by saying 
 the prosperity of the civilized countries, it must not be supposed 
 that it resulted in the prosperity of those who lived in those coun- 
 tries. On the contrary, the great bulk of the people became poorer 
 every time a new invention was introduced, in spite of the fact that 
 every new machine multiplied tenfold the productivity of labor. The 
 ones who derived the whole benefit from the introduction of labor-sav- 
 ing machinery were those who owned the countries and all the tools of 
 production — the capitalists. For those who did not own any capi- 
 tal, the introduction of machinery meant the displacement of more 
 and more of their number by a few machine laborers. And as more 
 and more men began to be displaced by the increase of machinery, 
 sharper became the competition between the workers for employ- 
 ment, which in turn meant lower wages for those who were employed. 
 
 Competition between the capitalists themselves in the market 
 resulted in the bankurptcy of many smaller capitalists, who in turn 
 became members of those who were toolless, the working class; thus 
 increasing further the number of those who had to depend for a liv- 
 ing on some individual capitalist. 
 
 The increase of wealth for the few, therefore, meant the increase 
 of poverty, ignorance, degredation and slavery for the many. 
 Prosperity for one class of people, misery for another; and so it went 
 on until the present moment, when all the wealth of the civilized 
 world is concentrated in a few hands, while the great mass of the 
 people are suffering for want of the necessaries of life. 
 
 We speak here of the civilized world, because commercial 
 activity broke down all boundaries between the civilized nations. 
 The same causes in various countries produced the same effects. 
 One and the same cause made of the French ouvrier, German 
 Arbeiter, Russian rabSnik, English workingman, and American 
 " soverign " slaves, and as a body possessing this single character- 
 istic, they now stand solidly united and threaten to overthrow this 
 system, which is the direct cause of their miser3^ 
 
 Under all systems, whether it be one of slavery, serfdom or 
 wage-slavery, society reaches a point of development when it be- 
 comes impossible for the old social order to exist any longer. When 
 that stage of development is reached, there is always a tendency 
 toward a new social arrangement of society. 
 
 We should show great ignorance of historic evolution, if we 
 were only to condemn the capitalist mode of production, for every 
 system has its merits. At first, the capitalist had a great function 
 in production, for which he received everything above the wages 
 that he paid out to the workingman. Then the capitalist was an in- 
 dispensable factor in production. Private enterprise and competition 
 were necessary to develop modern society with its classes and their 
 
9 
 
 antagonisms; it was necessary, in order to make great strides in 
 material progress. 
 
 All this was well and good so long as the capitalist had a certain 
 function in production; but the present mode of production reached 
 a point of development depriving the capitalist of all function. This 
 is at the period when machinery is so developed, as to make it im- 
 possible for individual capitalists to engage in any private enterprise ; 
 the period when those elements as trusts and corporations are called 
 into existence. The birth of trusts and corporations are signs that 
 the present system of production has reached its highest point of 
 development, and that the capitalist has no longer any function in 
 social production, except that of pocketing his profits and spending 
 it on luxuries. ' 'The capitalist class shows itself to be superfluous; all 
 its social functions are filled by hired employees. " 
 
 The formation of trusts being a necessary consequence of capi- 
 talist production, is also a sign of material progress. But it is the 
 highest development of capitalist production and we cannot make 
 any further progress until the foundation upon which rests capitalist 
 production is changed. 
 
 We will now quote a great authority on this subject, that 
 brilliant '!k)cialist of the United States, Daniel DeLeon, who says : 
 
 *' So long as the tool is slight and simple, he who wants it can 
 readily bring it forth by the direct application of his labor to 
 nature, and thereby place himself on a par with whomsoever 
 already is in possession of its equal. But the tool develops. Its de- 
 velopment is not from within, like organic matter. The feature of 
 its development is the need and increasing need of other tools, be- 
 sides increased powers of steam and electricity, to carve it out of 
 nature with, and thus render it more potent by rendering it more 
 fruitful. The tool used in production presently needs two, three, 
 four other tools to bring it forth. Even then its acquisition by in- 
 dividual man, to the end of enabling him to compete with those 
 already in possession of its like, may not be impossible, though the 
 process becomes harder by degrees. When, however, the tool has 
 finally reached that individual perfection of a Northrop loom, a 
 Mergenthaler typesetter, a hydraulic press, a steam plow, reaper 
 and binder, a Westinghouse electric engine, a cotton harvester, etc., 
 and even long before that, none can any longer conjure forth its 
 equal out of nature. When to this individual growth is coupled the 
 collective development or concentration implied in the trust, free 
 competition ceases de facto, whatever it may remain in theory. 
 
 ' * The trust is the highest form of collective development the 
 tool can reach under the system of private ownership in the machin- 
 ery of production. But the gigantic powers it wields over nature 
 accrue to those only who hold it; to all others it becomes a scourge. 
 As such, the trust blocks the nation's path on its march to civili- 
 zation. " ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 
 
lO 
 
 One of the chief foundations upon which the capitalistic insti- 
 tutions rest is the wage-system. To the ignorant workers there 
 seems to be nothing wrong in it, inasmuch as they have been assured 
 many a time by the mental prostitutes of present society — econo- 
 mists, journalists, preachers, politicians, etc. — that the wage-system 
 rests on the moral principle of "freedom of contract." But this 
 principle of "freedom of contract" is but another way of robbing 
 the workers of their produce. It is a snare and a delusion. 
 
 When speaking of freedom of contract we understand by it to 
 mean that' both parties are free, in the full sense of the w^ord, to 
 either sign the contract or refuse. But in its practical application 
 to the present system, we see that only one party — the capitalists who 
 own all the tools necessary for production — is free to sign the contract 
 or refuse, while the other party — the workingmen who are home- 
 less — MUST sign it. They dare not refuse, lest they should suffer 
 starvation and see their little ones die for want of a piece of bread. 
 The workingmen are compelled to work for the wages that their 
 masters choose to give, as it is upon the caprice of the employer 
 that their existence depends. 
 
 Besides the absurdity of the assertion that wages is based on 
 freedom of contract, a little further investigation will deinonstrate 
 the indisputable fact that the modern wage-system is the chief source 
 -of all the anarchy that reigns supreme in the present system of pro- 
 duction and distribution. 
 
 According to the latest report (1890) of Carrol D. Wright, Na- 
 tional lyabor Statistician of the United States, the value of the gross 
 product per capita for the number of employees engaged in manu- 
 facturing and mechanical industries was $2,204, and the average 
 annual wages per employee was $445. In plain language, this 
 means that out of the total produce the laborers receive only 20.18 
 per cent, while the other 79.82 per cent is given away to those who 
 furnish the tools of production. 
 
 " From the amount produced there is only so much taken and 
 divided among the producers as will tolerably support life (wages) ; 
 all over and above goes to the employer (capital)."* 
 
 It is self-evident, then, that when labor receives only $445 worth 
 of products out of a total of $2,204, which it has produced, a sur- 
 plus value of $1,759 must remain unsold, as labor cannot buy with 
 its one-fifth of the produce (wagesj the other four-fifths (surplus 
 value). 
 
 The capitalists must sell the surplus value which they appro- 
 priate, as they are not doing business for the love of the laborers 
 but for what is in it — profit. But, although anxious to dispose of 
 it, the workingmen, who are the majority of the people, cannot buy 
 it from them, for lack of an equivalent in value which must always 
 
 * "Socialism!" by A. J. Starkweather and S. Robert Wilson. 
 
II 
 
 be paid for that surplus. What must the capitalists do ? They look 
 around for a foreign market, and find it somewhere in Asia or Africa 
 where the inhabitants are still in the stage of Savagery, Barbarism 
 or semi-Civilization. They begin to send out their tools — the mis- 
 sionaries of the cross— who try to Christianize, civilize, and also 
 stimulate the wants of the heathen people to such an extent that 
 they create in time a new market for the capitalists of the country 
 from which they w^ere sent. * 
 
 If that particular place happens by chance to be a good market 
 for the capitalists to dispose of all their surplus value, then every civil- 
 ized country will make an effort to secure that market for the wel- 
 fare of its own capitalists. If they cannot secure it peacefully, they 
 can always afford to sacrifice several thousands of their unemployed 
 who by constant starvation have been trained by their masters to 
 be able to digest — lead, or serve as a good diet for the modern 
 cannon. 
 
 Very few workingmen are perhaps aware of the fact that all the 
 wars of the nineteenth century were the result of the capitalistic 
 mode of production and distribution. Prince Pierre Kropotkin, in 
 his able essay on "War," says : 
 
 " In Russia as in England, in Germany as in France, men fight 
 no longer for the good pleasure of kings : they fight to guarantee 
 the incomes and augment the possessions of Their Financial High- 
 nesses, Messrs. Rothschild, Schneider & Co., and to fatten the lords 
 of the money market and the factory. The rivalries of kings has 
 been supplanted by the rivalries of burgeois cliques." 
 
 In another part of the same essay he says : 
 
 "The opening of new markets, the forcing of products, good 
 and bad, upon the stranger, is the principle underlying all the poli- 
 tics of the present day throughout our continent, is the real cause of 
 the wars of the nineteenth century." 
 
 As we see, all the wars of the present time are undertaken for 
 the reason that the capitalists of every modern developed country 
 have a surplus value for which they seek a market to dispose of. The 
 nations at the present time, no longer fight for more territory, but 
 for more new markets. 
 
 But these markets are limited in number, while the number of 
 competing capitalists is quite unlimited. Therefore, the result fol- 
 lows, that only a small number of the capitalists can sell their sur- 
 
 ♦ The following is a good example of the doings of our brave missionaries of the cross in 
 the undeveloped countries. Anagarika H. Dharmapala, representative of the Buddhists at 
 the Parliament of Religions, in speaking recently before a San Francisco audience about the 
 Christians in India, said : "They teach the ignorant people that their sins will be washed 
 away, and, gladly accepting this teaching, these ignorant ones become drunken and given 
 to other evils. 
 
 " Hearing of the glories of the Western* civilization, the Indian people assume Christian- 
 ity, the garments of the European and the whisky of the European, and believe themselves 
 civilized. The young women impoverish their parents by buying bonnets and gowns such as 
 English women wear. The British merchants import liquor into Burmah and other places 
 where liquor has been unknown, and the missionaries make no protest." 
 
12 
 
 plus value, while the same prospect for the rest of them grows 
 smaller every time. Meanwhile millions of laborers are continually 
 producing more and more goods for starving wages, the bulk of the 
 unsold surplus value of the majority of capitalists grows bigger and 
 bigger, until the capitalists begin to doubt their possibility of ever 
 selling their surplus. They determine not to invest any more cap- 
 ital until they will dispose of all their surplus value, and a crisis be- 
 comes inevitable. 
 
 ''Commerce is blocked ; the markets are overstocked ; the pro- 
 ducts lie there as plentiful as undisposable ; cash becomes invisible ; 
 credit disappears ; the factories stand still ; the working masses are 
 in want of food, because they have produced too much of it ; failure 
 follows upon failure, and sheriff's sale upon sheriff's sale." "^^ 
 
 This paralyzing of the industries lasts for a long time, and not 
 until the accummulated surplus value runs out at more or less depre- 
 ciated values are the factories, shops, mills, etc., again set in mo- 
 tion. For awhile, it goes on undisturbed till it reaches the next 
 panic, caused by the very same conditions. 
 
 Ivaurence Grounland, speaking on this subject in his "Co-oper- 
 ative Commonwealth," says : 
 
 " In former periods, Society was tormented with plagues, caused, 
 as we now know, by ignorance and consequent violation of the laws 
 of health. Our era is cursed with Crises, occurring far more fre- 
 quently than plagues and causing with each 6ccurrence as much 
 misery." 
 
 Not only are these crises a nuisance and danger to the welfare 
 of any society — it also serves as a protest against the present plan- 
 less system of production and distribution. It exposes the greatest 
 contradiction in our system of production and distribution. 
 
 What we mean by it, is this : At present the individual capital- 
 ist appropriates surplus value produced — by whom ? Surely, not by 
 the capitalists. Surplus value is produced by laborers— not by any 
 particular individual laborer, but by laborers working together. 
 The development of machinery destroyed the greatest number of 
 small shops and with it the small proprietors, and concentrated them 
 under one roof, as the modern factory, etc. Therefore, everything 
 that is at present produced is a social (collective) production, the 
 result of the exertion of many laborers. But in spite of the fact that 
 we produce everything at present socially (collectively), it is, never- 
 theless, appropriated by the individual capitalist. The individual 
 capitalist appropriates everything that the workers produce collec- 
 tively. 
 
 Some capitalists cannot see how they can be accused of appro- 
 priating everything, when a portion of the produce is paid out to 
 the laborers in the form of wages. But the wages paid out to the 
 
 * "The Deirelopment of Socialism from Utopia to Science," by Frederick Engels. 
 
^3 
 
 worlcers is an amount barely sufficient to keep their bodies alive, and 
 that much is needed by the laborers in order to be able to work 
 again on the next day. The rest — the joint produce of many labor- 
 ers—is appropriated by the individual capitalist. Hence, the con- 
 tradiction is : Social (collective) production, individual appropria- 
 tion, with crises as a result. The crises deniojistrate the fact that the 
 rapid expansion df prodnctioyi can no longer be well controlled by 
 present society ^ which rests on the foundatioyi of private ozvnership in 
 the means of prodiiction and distribution. 
 
 The present system has already reached the highest point of 
 development. The ruling class — the capitalists — are making a strong 
 effort to preserve it as a permanent institution, which is contrary to 
 the laws of evolution. It is they who were most instrumental in 
 developing the present system, and it is the present fully developed 
 system that informs us of the uselessness of the capitalist class. The 
 capitalist class has outlived its usefulness, and the crises and all the 
 other contradictions that exist at the present moment are the precur- 
 sory symptoms of decaying institutions. 
 
 We are witnessing the last days of a dying system ; the present 
 moment is an age of transition, hence the anarchy and confusion 
 that prevail. The narrow-mindedness of a great many people pre- 
 vent them from seeing this, but as the dark clouds gather on the 
 extreme verge of the horizon announcing the storm, they roll them- 
 selves into a mass, and burst with terrific force, sweeping awa^^ with 
 it all those who dare to hinder its natural course. 
 
 The institutions of the present time must fall to pieces, dragging 
 society with it down into the terrible abyss, unless stronger forces 
 and agencies will timely prevent its destruction and build up a 
 healthy and san- society, by putting it on a stronger foundation 
 than it exists to-day. Undoubtedly this seems to be the inevitable 
 fate of present society. 
 
 What must we do ? Must we resign ourselves to that appar- 
 ently inevitable fate which means our destruction and the destruc- 
 tion of everything that has taken us ages to build, or must we con- 
 tinue the attempt to cure society of its evils by various reforms ? 
 • Emphatically, we must answer, no ! A thousand times, no ! 
 
 To allow ourselves to be pulled down into the abyss of destruc- 
 tion would be base cowardice ; to attempt to cure social evils through 
 moral sentiments would show gross ignorance of the laws that gov- 
 ern human progress. 
 
 How, then, shall we extricate ourselves from the present confu- 
 sion which tends to involve us all in one common ruin ? 
 
 The only way to iremedy the evils of society and thus save it 
 from destruction, is by tracing out the road by which the two antag- 
 onistic classes of present society — capitalists and workingmen— -came 
 into= existence, and discover in the situation itself, brought on by 
 
14 
 
 these two classes, the means whereby to put an end to the conflict 
 ^his course will directly lead us to the solution of the life problem 
 of to-day. / 
 
 We have already seen how the capitalist class has developed, 
 and how it has outlived its usefulness. The proletarian class* grew 
 side by side with the growth of the present mode of production, and 
 by the time when capitalist piroduction — the present mode of pro- 
 duction — 1 cached its highest point, already the majority of the pop- 
 ulation became members of that hopeless class. 
 
 The crises and the formation of trusts and corporations are the 
 result of the mature development of these two classes, Capitalists 
 and Workingmen ; and so long as the proletariat continues to re- 
 ceive a starving wage and the rest is appropriated by the capitalist, 
 crises must be of periodical occurrence, followed by more and more 
 anarchy and confusion every time. 
 
 In order to do away with these crises, we must see that the 
 laborers should receive the full value of their labor. If the laborers 
 were to receive all they produce, then no surplus value would remain 
 to be appropriated by the capitalists. If no surplus value were to 
 be appropriated by the capitalists, then this would prevent an idle 
 class from living on the labor of others, and it would compel them 
 to go to work if they wanted to live. If all men were to work, and 
 those who do work receive the full fruits of their labor, then all the 
 poverty and social anarchy that surround us to-day would vanish 
 from earth. Misery, starvation, and degradation would be things of 
 the past. 
 
 But it is imp)ossible for the workers to receive the full fruits of 
 their labor, so long as the land and the tools — the essential things 
 for the production of necessaries — are owned by a few private indi- 
 viduals, who are thus enabled to live on the labor of others. If the 
 men who own the implements of production were to give to the 
 workers all they produce, then nothing will be left for themselves. 
 They must live in luxury rnf" idleness out of the surplus value, 
 therefore they would not consent to give the implements of produc- 
 tion if they w2re not to receive the major part of the produce. 
 
 How shall we solve this problem ? 
 
 There is a way by which this can be solved, and it is this : 
 That the land and all the implements of production which are owned 
 to-day by private individuals, who run it for their own and selfish 
 benefit (regardless of the injury that accrues to society from it), 
 should be turned over into the hands of the workers, who should 
 own it in their collective capacity and run it for the benefit of all, 
 instead of it being: run for the benefit of a. few. 
 
 * By proletariat we mean the class of modern wage-workers who, havitig-cro means of 
 productaonjof theinown, are reduccsitOj9elling.thein laboivpctmer infc.<?tder'to,li»iei ,9'4ilrK> in- 
 cludes professional men. 
 
We have seen how the crises which are the resuU of our mod- 
 ern wage-system represented one of the greatest contradictions in 
 present society, namely, the social character of our system of pro- 
 duction and the individual character of our system of appropriation. 
 The only way to put an end to the anarchy which is the result of 
 this contradiction between our system of production and distribu- 
 tion, is by harmonizing the two principal branches of Political Econ- 
 omy — Production and Distribution. But these two branches of Po- 
 litical Economy cannot be harmonized, until the land and all the 
 tools of production will be the joint property of all. To do away 
 with our panics, and misery, degradation and starvation which result 
 therefrom, we must see that the laborers receive the full value of 
 their labor. But the laborers cannot receive the full value of their 
 labor, so long as all the tools of production are not the property of 
 the whole of society. 
 
 That we are nearing the point where society will take hold of 
 the tools of production and make it the common property of all its 
 members, there is not the least doubt. As the proletariat increases 
 in number, as competition between their own class becomes sharper 
 for an opportunity to earn a livelihood, as wages fall below the 
 natural limit, and as the suifering of this class increases more and 
 more, then class distinction between them and the capitalists 1 ecomes 
 more marked. They then begin to understand that their interest 
 lies in the united action of their own class, and become class-con- 
 scious. They discover that private ownership in the means of pro- 
 duction is the cause of all their miseries ; and at last, their class- 
 consciousness, their class interest, together with their wretched con- 
 dition, compel them to rise and overthrow the existing social and 
 political institutions, and establish a system which should be in 
 liarmony with the industrial development of modern times ; a sys- 
 tem of collective ownership in the means of production and distribu- 
 tion, which is 
 
 SOCIALISM. 
 "To-day," says Karl Kautzky, "there is no longer any ques- 
 tion as to whether or not the system of private ownership in the 
 means of production shall be maintained. Its downfall is certain. 
 The only question to be answered is this : Shall the system of pri- 
 vate ownership in the means of production be allowed to pull sbeiety 
 down into the abyss ; or shall society shake off that baneful burden, 
 ■ place the land and the implements of production in the hands of the 
 people, to be operated collectively, for use and not for profit, and 
 then, free and refreshed, resume the path of progress, which the evo- 
 lutionary law prescribes to it ? 
 
 "Such is th^e question and' such the alternative. Our genera- 
 tion stands where the roads fork. One path leads, through ruin, 
 back to barbarism ; the other leads onward to the Co-opferative'Gom- 
 ^MjBweakh-'^-Sociaiism. - 
 
 v^ 
 
1 6 
 
 ■ rojr -■ ■ 
 
 -■-^ ■^.'^?^t> 
 
 tiiic 
 
 ) 
 
 "Ah I this society is false. One day and soon, the true society will 
 come. Then there will be no more lords ; there will be free living men. 
 There will be no more wealth, there will be aboundance for the poor 
 There will be no more maisters, bat there will be brothers. They that 
 toil shall have. This is the future. No more prostration, no more 
 abasement, no more ignorance, no more wealth, no more beasts of 
 burden, no more coustiers, no more kings, but light."— ^ic/or Hui^o. 
 
 " The great appear great to us, only because we are on our knees — 
 let us rise! "—T/iotoiifne d' Eericou%t. 
 
 What is Socialism ? A theory of social organization in which 
 the industries will be organized on a national or international basis 
 of collective ov/nership, operated and controlled by all the members 
 of society. ^ 
 
 The principal aim of Socialism is to replace the present com- 
 i/^ petitive system of production and distribution, by a system of col- 
 lective ownership in the means of production and distribution of the 
 products. 
 
 As there are so many people who are confused on some of the 
 principles of Socialism, it would be proper to state here that only 
 that part of wealth which is necessary in the production of more 
 wealth and is called " capital," will be made the collective property of 
 societ3\ under socialism ; all things which are for personal use will 
 still remain private propertj^ — the propert}^ of the individual. 
 
 In order to prove the correctness of our argument on this point, 
 
 we can do no better than by quoting Karl Marx and Frederick 
 
 Engels, the two greatest authorities on modern socialism. In the 
 
 * Manifesto," which was written by these two intellectual giants of 
 
 the Nineteenth century, in 1848, it says : 
 
 " We by no means intend to abolish this personal appropriation 
 of labor, an appropriation that is made for the maintenance and re* 
 production of human life, and that leaves no surplus wherewith to 
 command the labor of others. All that we want to do away with, is 
 the miserable character of this appropriation, under which the 
 laborer lives merely to increase capital, and is allowed to live only 
 in so far as the interest of the ruling class requires it." 
 
 In another part of this historical document, it says : 
 
 ** Modern Socialism deprives no man of the power to appropriate 
 the products of society ; all that it does is to deprive him of the- 
 power to subjugate the labor of others by means of . such appropri- 
 ation." 
 
17 
 
 . The reorganization of the industries on a co-operative basis will 
 dissolve all distinctions between the different classes that constituted 
 society until the present day. For the first time, since written his- 
 tory, society will be composed of free and equal men. 
 
 The establishment of socialism will inaugurate a system of ma- 
 terial equality, and each man who contributes his share of work will 
 receive afad enjoy the full fruits of his labor in a way to suit him- 
 self. Then, there will be an equal opportunity for all to work and 
 enjoy life as it becomes civilized human beings. 
 
 As under socialism, all the things with which we produce will 
 be the property of society, therefore, he who will work will employ 
 himself, and all benefits that, to-day, are reaped from civilization by 
 a few idle capitalists, will be then enjoyed by all the members of 
 society. 
 
 For instance, to-day, when a machine is invented and adopted 
 in a certain branch of manufacturing, then it means that a certain 
 number of the former workers will be replaced by a few machine- 
 laborers, whose wages will also be reduced on account of the sharp 
 competition between the workers the introduction of the machine 
 gave rise to. Under socialism, the invention or the improvement of 
 a certain labor-saving machine will mean the shortening of the hours 
 of labor and the increase of the portion of the produce that each man 
 is to receive. , 
 
 As under socialism all who want to live will have to work, and 
 as the hours of labor will be reduced in proportion to the progress 
 of machinery, therefore it follows that the average working hour 
 will be then about two hours per day, the rest of the time being spent 
 in the enjoyment of life. *^ 
 
 Speaking on this subject, Professor Th. Hertzka, of Vienna, 
 Austria, says : *' I have calculated how much labor and time is nec- 
 essary with the aid of the present mechanical appliances to produce 
 what is required to support in ease and comfort the twenty-two mil- 
 lion inhabitants of Austria, viz : food, clothes and shelter, consisting 
 of a five-room house to the family, and including fuel, medicine, fur- 
 niture and utensils. I find that it would require twenty-six million 
 acres of arable land and eight million acres in pasture, or about i ^ 
 acres per capita, and 615,000 workmen, working 11 hours per day, 
 300 days in the year. 
 
 "These 615,000 are but 12.3 per cent of the population able to 
 wqrk, excluding the women, children below 16 years of age and 
 men above 50 j^ears. 
 
 '* If instead of these 615,000 men, the whole five million men able 
 to work were engaged, they would need to work but 37 days in the 
 year, or if they were to work 300 days of the year,.^tliey would need 
 to work only i Hour and 22^ minutes per day. ;v ,v . ; 
 
xS 
 
 "Again, if all the luxuries of life were included, it would re- 
 quire one million workmen, or 20 per cent of the population able to 
 work, 2 hours and 12 minutes per day, 300 days in the year. With 
 this working power the twenty-six million Austrians would be sup- 
 plied with all their heart could possibly desire. 
 
 " But if, again, the whole five million men were employed 2 
 hours and 12 minutes per day, they would need to work two months 
 of the year only. Behold what time could be spared for study and 
 pleasures, while the cares of life, in so far as wealth is concerned, 
 would be obliterated altogether." 
 y^^ In this sense the aim of Socialism may be summed up in the 
 xsi»gle sentence : To promote the happiness of the human race. 
 
 There are many who consider socialism synonymous with an- 
 / archy ; nihilism and civil war. They do not know that socialism 
 y means Order, Law, Peace and Happiness for all. 
 / Under socialism elementary education will be compulsory, while 
 
 *" the high schools, colleges, universities and other higher branches of 
 - study will be free to all. The state would then feel itself duty bound 
 to support all those who are physically disabled, and they will be 
 as well fed, clothed, sheltered and taken care of as if the^^ were the 
 best citizens of the community, — that will be Justice ! When the 
 poor or the physically disabled are partly taken care of by the state 
 under the present system, it is Charity ! — Stealing wholesale and giv- 
 ing retail. 
 
 The government under socialism will be a fully democratic one. 
 It will consist of various industrial managing departments, and will 
 be known as the Social Democratic State.* 
 
 Under socialism, the people will have the right to propose laws 
 and to vote upon all measures of importance, according to the refer- 
 endum principle. By the people we mean males and females, with- 
 out regard to color, creed or sex. 
 
 Socialism, then, is not Anarchism ; neither is it Communism ; 
 nor is it Municipal Ownership on the Glasgow plan, which is State 
 Capitalism. 
 
 Socialism is not Populism, which is a reactionary Middle- class 
 movement ; neither is it Single Taxism ; nor does it propose such 
 quack remedies as Prohibitionism. 
 
 Socialism means the collective ownership in the means of pro- 
 duction and distribution on a national or international basis ; that 
 only, and nothing else ! 
 
 Economic evolution — the tendency of the present industrial devel- 
 opmejit — points to the establishment of socialism as the next stage oj 
 evolution through which society will have to travel. 
 
 ♦"Social Democratic State— the concrete realization of Socialism. Its main features are produc- 
 tion for use, community ownership of means of production, distribution and exchange, administered 
 by a democratic state composed of all adult citizens."— Austin Lewis. 
 
19 
 
 But we must not imagine that because certain economic forces 
 are at work tending toward the establishment of socialism, it will 
 come of itself. By no means. It is true that economic forces are 
 tending in the direction of socialism, but if we do not organize our- 
 selves in time to become a powerful agency in opposing the suicidal 
 tendencies of the capitalist class, ruin will follow. The ruling class 
 of to-day is trying to withstand and ignore these new economic in- 
 fluences, therefore, destruction to the whole of society must follow, 
 if another class, stronger than the capitalists, does not try to oppose 
 them and organize society in such a way as to fit itself to the progress 
 of industrial development. 
 
 . Which shall that class be — Capitalists ? It is against their in- 
 terest to establish socialism. 
 
 Shall it be the Middle-Class ? They have always been a re- 
 actionary class, and are not capable of undertaking such a progres- 
 sive movement. 
 
 That class which is most fitted for this purpose must be REVO- 
 LUTIONARY, RECRUITED OUT OF THE RANKS OF THE 
 MODERN PROLETARIAT. The proletariat is the only one 
 whose historic mission is to undertake this task. These men were 
 called into existence by the capitalistic mode of production, and they 
 are going to put an end to it. Their class-interest, being in direct 
 opposition to that of the capitalist class, demands the abolishment of 
 the system of private ownership in the means of production and dis- 
 tribution and the establishment of the Co-operative Common- 
 wealth. 
 
 Although, under socialism, class-distinction will receive its 
 death-blow, nevertheless, the establishment of socialism must come 
 through, the class-struggle — the struggle and final victory of the op- 
 pressed wage-workingmen over the privileged capitalists. The 
 emancipation of the proletariat and that of all mankind MUST and 
 WILL be accomplished by the proletarians themselves ! 
 
 This, then, is a class-struggle. * " BUT EVERY CLASS- 
 STRUGGLE IS A POLITICAL STRUGGLE." Consequently, 
 the proletarians must fight their enemies with the same weapon that 
 enabled the capitalists to hold their supreme power until no>v ; it 
 must organize itself into a political party, based on the class-con- 
 sciousness of the proletariat. 
 
 Such a political partv, based on these lines, is in existence to- 
 day ; it is the SOCIALIST LABOR PARTY. 
 
 * "Therefore, we say once more this is a class war ; we know it ; we are preparing for 
 it; we rejoice at its near approach. We mean to breakdown competition, and to substitute 
 universal organization and co-operation. There lies around us the necessary methods: 
 they need but to be applied."— The Development of Socialism, by H. M. Hyndman and 
 Willianl Morris. 
 
20 
 
 The great social revolution — the day when the proletarians will 
 cross swords with their enemies on the political battlefield — will be 
 the pivot, upon which present society will move into the new system, 
 and that day is not far off. 
 
 . On the European Continent, socialism has progressed with great 
 rapidity. In Germany, France, Belgium, and Italy, the socialists play 
 a prominent part in present politics, and nearly in every country, 
 where capitalism is greatly developed, the oppressed proletarian 
 class already stands, solidly united, in a class-conscious body under 
 the universal banner of the Socialist Labor Party. 
 
 The number of votes polled by the S. L. P. in the various 
 countries at the last election, will illustrate its strength and influence 
 on the working-classes in general. 
 
 - ■ In Germany, the socialists polled at the election of 1893, 1,800,- 
 000, only males above the age of 25 having the right to vote. This 
 number represents 25 per cent of the entire vote in Germany, but 
 as they have not the system of proportional representation there, 
 only about 10 per cent, 48 delegates, were elected to the Reichstag, 
 the German Parliament. 
 
 The socialists are the best disciplined political party in that 
 country. They continually carry on a systematic propaganda among 
 the working-classes. There are thirty -nine Socialist daily newspa- 
 pers and a great number of weekly papers, monthly magazines, etc. 
 It is estimated by some of the greatest German authorities that by 
 the next general election the Socialist Labor Party will receive about 
 three million votes. 
 
 The French socialists come next in numbers to the Germans, 
 having polled about 1,400,000 votes, electing 55 representatives to 
 the Chamber of Deputies, the French Parliament. Over 3,000 mu- 
 nicipal bodies are controlled by the socialists. About forty Social- 
 ist newspapers are credited to the party there, nearly all of them 
 being edited by the mos:t distinguished men of Europe. 
 
 In Belgium, the voting strength of the Socialist Labor Party is 
 470,000, out of a total of 1,100,000 votes cast. There are 33 social- 
 ists in the Belgian Parliament, and the press of that country con- 
 templates a majority of all votes cast for the socialists at the next 
 election. 
 
 Cut of a little over a total vote of 2,000,000, the socialists of 
 Italy polled 96,000 votes, electing 18 representatives to the Italian 
 Parliament. The reports from that country are very encouraging 
 for the future. 
 
 In Switzerland, the Socialists cast 100,000 votes, while in the 
 small country of Denmark the Socialist vote is 26,000, with 8 rep- 
 resentatives in the Danish Parliament. 
 
 It is expected that at the next general election in England the 
 Socialists will receive 500,000 votes, while in the smaller countries 
 
21 
 
 of Europe, as Holland, Spain, Greece, the Socialists are beginning 
 to organize themselves in political parties, as the franchise has been 
 withheld until now from the workingmen. 
 
 Not until recently were the workingmen enfranchised in Aus- 
 tria. At the elections which were held in that country several weeks 
 ago (March, 1897,) the Socialists polled over 800,000 votes, the city 
 of Vienna alone giving 88,000 votes to the Socialists. Twenty rep- 
 resentatives were elected to the Austrian Parliament, and the social- 
 ists rejoice at this unexpected victory. 
 
 Not only are the socialists active on the European Continent, 
 but also on the African and American Continents. In the French 
 colony of Algiers there is an active propaganda carried on by social- 
 ists, as well as in the English colonies in Africa. 
 
 At the last general election in the United States (1896), the 
 Socialist Presidential Ticket polled 36,563 votes, while the number 
 of votes cast for municipal officers was about four times as great. 
 Taking into, consideration the great reactionary free- silver move- 
 ment, which mislead the great mass of the people, the socialist 
 vote in this country represents a solid front of class-conscious work- 
 ingmen. 
 
 In Canada, a strong Socialist Labor Party is now being formed, 
 and it is hoped that they will not be behind in standing shoulder 
 to shoulder with their fellow-workingmen in this country. 
 
 The only country in South America which has a Socialist Labor 
 Party organized is Argentine. The city of Buenos Ay res has a 
 membership of about 15,000 socialists. 
 
 In the United States (thanks to capitalist misrepresentation), 
 the term socialism is yet unpopular with the great mass of the peo- 
 ple. Here, socialism is considered synonymous with anarchy, and 
 this misconception of the true principles of socialism accounts for 
 the prejudiced stand the people often take against the socialists. 
 
 Nevertheless, the socialists in the United States are gaining 
 ground steadily, and it is a question of a very short time when 
 Socialism in the United States will be in the same position as it is 
 on the European Continent. The day is near, when the American 
 workingmen will rise as a class-conscious body, and vote out of ex- 
 istence a system which makes economic slaves of them. They will 
 do it, because it is their historic mission. 
 
 In the "Manifesto," issued by the San Francisco section of the 
 S. L. P. (1896), a writer, commenting on the above results of the 
 Socialists' activity in the political field, says : 
 
 ' * These figures and facts are evidences of that universality and 
 solidarity of which mention has been made. They show that so tar 
 from being a temporary fad. Socialism is a great and growing force 
 welding together great masses of voters, with a distinct policy, and 
 the liability to forward and advance that policy. They show that 
 
22 
 
 so far from being composed of a body of irresponsible dreamers and 
 cranks, the representatives of Socialism are proved statesmen and 
 debaters, overthrowing governments, keeping their party organiza- 
 tion intact, and always gaining point after point, impressing their 
 ideas upon the legislation of the country in which they are at work. 
 They show, too, that Socialists are constructive as well as revolu- 
 tionary ; that they understand the art of administering municipali- 
 ties with whose government they are charged ; that they can, 
 without violent disturbances, or the upsetting of the peace of the 
 community, infinitely better the condition of the proletarians and 
 establish a well governed community where formerly was a police- 
 ridden and capitalist-devoured mob." ' 
 
 The Socialists have chosen the political field as their battle 
 ground, the only place where the workingmen can obtain justice 
 for themselves, their wives, their children, "and their fellow-men. 
 
 That the Socialists are going to be victorious in the near future, 
 there can not be the least doubt. AH economic forces are tending 
 towards that direction, and all facts are pointing that way. We, who 
 are living to-day, are unconscious of what is going on around us ; 
 we cannot imagine how rapidly we are traveling forwards, continu- 
 ally forwards. But the day will come, and very soon, too, when we 
 will all be made to feel the effects of the causes which are silently 
 working now ; the causes which certain men, in spite of their suffer- 
 ings, are absolutely refusing to investigate. 
 
 The Socialist Labor Party is a revolutionary party. The mem- 
 bers of this party, being conscious of the real conditions that sur- 
 round them, and thoroughly understanding the aim and object of 
 their party, are, therefore, uncompromising. It is, to-day, the only 
 party in the civilized world that aims at the solidarity of the toilers, 
 therefore, every move of this party is closely watched by the corrupt 
 politicians — the hirelings of capital. 
 
 The sound principles of the Socialist Labor Party defy its im- 
 potent- enemies, w^ith their whole band of hribed economists and 
 learned men, who, by teaching sophistries, are undermining their 
 own foundation. 
 
 "Our. war is a war of principle against principle. Our princi- 
 ple is a moral and iriefutable one, while the capitalistic principle is 
 utterly wrong, immoral and ruinous. We are, therefore, fully con- 
 vinced that our principle must be, and must soon be, completely 
 victorious." 
 
 Workingmen ! what the Socialists demand of you, is simply 
 this : When you go to the polls on election day, you shall cast your 
 votes for the Socialist Labor Party, the only party that with every 
 victory on the political battle-field, strikes terror into the hearts of 
 those who feast on the sweat of labor. 
 
23 
 
 It is for your own sake, for the sake of youf wives and children 
 that we ask you to do this. 
 
 Workingmen ! We are nearing the day of the next great and 
 final social revolution. LET THE CAPITALISTS TREMBLE 
 AT ITS APPROACH. ''The proletarians have nothing to lose 
 but their chains. They have a world to win." 
 
 Workingmen, unite! Organize! Rally around the universal 
 banner of the Socialist Labor Party, the only party that will emanci- 
 pate the wage-workers from all forms of slavery throughout the civ- 
 ilized world. 
 
 Happiness is impossible without freedom. Freedom is impossi- 
 ble without industrial independence. Would you rather be slaves, 
 subject to the caprice of a master, or freemen — which ? If you choose 
 the former, then keep on voting for the old political parties ; if you 
 choose the latter, then strike for Socialism. 
 
 Wage-slaves of America ! Socialism is your religion ; THE 
 BALLOT IS YOUR WEAPON ! 
 
 ORGANIZE ! ! ! 
 
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