THE MEYERSDALE COMMERCIAL
* CAMPAIGN COMMENTS
“Many hearts rejoiced when after a great struggle Con-
gress finally passed a Child Labor Law in 1916, which was
signed promptly by the President, and which, though far from
perfect, bid far to relieve many untoward conditions in our in-
dustrial life and to release from slavery many boys and girls
whose childhood has been murdered through human cupidity
: It is, we believe, another five to four
Like good Americans, we must yield to the will of
the majority and be amenable to the ‘“‘court of last resort.”
However, it is justifiable to remember that it is really by the
decision of one man that this legislation, which promised so
many blessings, has been ruled out.”—Reformed Church Mes-
and ignorance. . .
decision.
senger.
What has become. of the government of the people, when
it is in the power of one man to annul the will of the people,
enacted into law by their representatives?
Is it not time for the people to awaken to the idea tha
they collectively should be “the court of last resort” rather than
that one man should have that power, and by the improper ex-
ercise thereof use it to keep in slavery our children and impose
his will upon the rest of the people?
Are we not, in our sleepy condition, in danger of losing al
the liberties for which our forefathers contended in 1776 and
Let us again turn to that im-!
mortal document, the Declaration of Independence, as our one) T OF pLAl PEOP
brated and again declare that “We hold these truths to be self THE Vi EwpOIN
laid down their lives to gain?
hundred and forty fourth anniversary of Independence is cele
evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed
by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among
these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to
secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, de
riving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
Let all men and women who have the right to vote recog
nize their great responsibility in the coming election and so| form and find out for yourself just what it contains that gives
use their ballot that men who will serve them will be placed in|the old party politician the cold shivers, that causes the cold
office, men who will enact the will of the people into laws and sweat to come out all over his body for fear the common people
not the will of special interests whose main purpose it is to| might make use of the dynamite contained in it and blow up
exploit the people and make game out of them.
Let us make our will so profoundly felt at the next election al
that no judge of the supreme court will have the audacity to| nant note of the Socialist program.
annu | a law that has for its object the protection of our chil
dren. To protect their bodies from being fed into the indus
trial machines of millionaire owners to have their lives ground | animal named “Dry” which they may choose as an unsuspect-
into profits for the owner of those machines. Are you not guil
ty of a great neglect of duty if you maintain in office those who | litical tricksters will likely succeed in riding him into office.
are feeding on your own lives and the lives of your little ones by| They will then proceed to get rid of the intoxicating liquors that
maintaining a system of industry which has that result?
You would resent with all the manhood that is within you Deeaing ihe people do not have sense enough to do the job
th ri 1 b ruel beast the child for|*® .
he tearing away from you by ne Da al in Sour be able to think clearly and act for themselves. The political
power to prevent it from being devoured by that beast. Cap-|Posses have controlled the affairs of this country for many years
italism as it exists is such a beast and is devouring you and your|iD a way to deprive the people from voting on an issue like the
whose life you are responsible.
child in order to maintain itself.
You farmers, you laboring men, you small merchants and
business men, you are not the beneficiaries of such a system
you are its victims—your trials, your worries, your anxieties
mm the effort to maintain yourselves and make the future secure
for yourselves and children amounts in many instances to the
same thing as a man fighting the air. The individual is help-
Jess. He represents the unit of power that in combination with
other units of power will become all-powerful in overcoming
the beast of Capitalism and freeing himself from its cruel sway.
The cruel beast of capitalism has many heads and as many to annul a law passed by a majority vote ei
mouths. It also has piercing eyes, and great brain capacity. | their representatives.
Dut of its mouths go the sayings which have deceived the com-|
mon people of the world and made many of them willing even
There have
been times when this beast has suffered with indigestion, but its
to be devoured by the great mouths of this beast.
intelligence overcame the disease for the time being.
Its eyes have been used and are being used to spy out every
source of knowledge which might awaken the common people 3 Saw
It A chaffin’ you, mebby, for romancin round
and arouse them to see their plight and have it removed.
tries to have them believe all the time that its interest is their
interest.
Just now there is danger that the beast may die from over
exertion in its effort to maintain itself and the common people
of the world will then everywhere be free to use their own
brains to maintain themselves, rather than that they should be
allowed to come to certain stages of life only to be food to nour-
ish a great beast.
You can overcome this beast in this country by your votes.
While fighting for political democracy to obtain the world over,
use your political democracy here to secure industrial democ.
racy. As long as you allow the industries in which the people
Iabor to be owned and controlled by a few industrial lords you
are feeding the beast and being starved yourself. When once
as a united people you determine to own and control the indus-
tries to feed yourselves—and use them to supply your needs
rather than pile up profits for others—you can do so, and starve
the beast in this country.
There is only one political party entirely devoted to the
task of getting the earth and its resources back from the profit-
eers and restoring it to the whole people who live on it saying
to them, “Here is the earth and its resources; it is as free to
you as the air you breathe. Take it; till its soil, dig its miner-
als, fell its trees, manufacture its raw materials into anything
you please. You will have any privilege any one else has.
You will not be allowed to appropriate the work of others to
your own use without rendering an equivalent. You shall have
the fruits of your own labor, and equal rights and opportunities
with all others. Your rights stop where another man’s begin.
Your government will rest on the consent of all the people—
men and women of mature age. This party’s purpose is to
make it possible for you to own every thing you need, and se-
euring you in such ownershipas long as you live. It proposes
that the people shall own collectively or in common everything
that they need collectively or in common, such as roads, rivers,
schools, factories, ships, railroads, in fact all the tools of pro-
duction and distribution that are collectively used, and exercise
democratic control over them.”
No laboring man, no farmer, no small business man, no
small manufacturer, in fact no man who desires to live by his
own honest efforts has anything to lose by this program except
his worries, his anxieties, in other words, “nothing to lose but
his chains.” He has a world to gain.
Think over this program, examine it in all its details, think
for yourself—talk it over with your neighbor. Then ask your-
self whether you like the way things are just now, and whether
you think you, would like to have every thing continue as it is
now. Then ask yourself whether the Republican party politi-
cians told you the truth as to what the Republican party would
do if they were in power.
Then ask yourself whether the high
E For REPRESENTATIVES IN
TRE GENERAL ASSEMBLY
t
| Eber K Cockley and Herman G. Lepleyo
REPRESENTING
a
EVERYWAERE"$
5
- [Socialist party program. You should be ready to read its plat-
the old party machines.
Equal rights for all, special privileges to nome, is the domi-
The old parties have been
-| nearly beside themselves to find some popular sentiment on
-| which to ride into office, and it seems they have discovered an
-1ing brute, willing to bear their burdens. Some odoriferous po-
befuddle men’s minds. They will make all the people sober—
After they have this accomplished the people will
liquor problem direct. You know they desire to have the hon-
or of solving it for the people. It would be an awful thing for
the people to find out how to do things for themselves. It
:| will indeed be a very excellent thing for this problem to be
solved. It will enable many to reason and think who would
otherwise be deprived of this privilege by the demon strong
drink, and it may be that they will rise to the occasion and do
away with all the primary evils which tend to enslave them by
voting the Socialist principles into power, taking control of the
government politically and industrially, and forever doing
away with minority rule, making it impossible for any one man
ther of the people or
NN me A,
Ae mo,
mr
EUGENE V. DEBS--THE MAN
Continued from first page.
You’ve seed him, ’fore now, when his liver was sound,
And his appetite notched like a saw.
With a big posey bunch in yer paw
But you ketch him, say, when his health is away,
And he’s flat on his back in distress,
And then you can tro: out your little bokay
And not be insulted, I guess!
You see, it’s like this, what his weaknesses is,
Them flowers makes him think of the days
Of his innocent youth, and that mother o’ his,
And the roses she used to raise;
So here all alone with the roses you send,
Bein’ sick and all trimbly and faint;
My eyes is—my eyes is—my eyes is—old friend,
Is a—leakin’—I’'m blamed ef they ain’t!
PRESS COMMENT
University Daily, Ann Arbor, Mich.—Newberry Hall was
packed to the doors last night to hear Eugene V. Debs. His
brilliant sallies of wit, and his glowing descriptions kept inter-
est at a high pitch throughout the entire lecture.
Boston Advertiser—Some of Debs’ utterances were of such
lofty and ennobling nature that they would not have disgraced
a Phillips Brooks. At the end of his lecture many hundred
people stopped to shake hands with him.
San Francisco Examiner—Eugene V. Debs had tremen-
dous audience at Metropolitan Hall last night. He is a terse
and nervous speaker, lean in person, with the quick, eager
movements of a panther; eager, insistent, earnest, full of mat-
ter, gifted with a neat turn of phrase, but never wasting time
on ornament. He held his audience for two hours and over.
He could have held them for two hours more.
An Arbor Evening Times—Through the efforts of the en-
terprising students of the University of Michigan Ann A:bor-
ites are being afforded the opportunity of hearing three of the
five great orators of the world—Bryan, Cochran and Debs—and
the greatest of these is Debs. Bryan is battling for the suc-
cess of a political party, Cochran is the tool of the money pow-
er, while Debs is championing the cause of humanity.
Washington Gazette—Honesty and force of character are
the chief qualities of Mr. Debs. In him one sees not only the
true and consistent friend of the laboring element, but man in
his noblest form. Intelligence and sincerity are stamped on
his every feature and the traits of a born leader of men are
dominant within him.
Columbus Evening Press—The greatest audience ever as-
sembled in Columbus to listen to an address of a private citizen
cost of living came down when the Democrats took control of | met in the new Auditorium to hear from Eugene V. Debs the
the government as they said it would.
Then ask yourself the
question why the Democratic party and Republican party poli- greeted the orator.
greatest speech ever delivered in this city. Fully 4,500 persons
He announced no topic for the most re-
ticians are so much opposed to the Socialist program, and by|markable discourse upon the rights and dignity of labor, and
the time you come to think this over your eyes may open so
that you can see. ;
By this time you should be ready to examine carefully the
for equality and justice among men, that has ever been made
in this country. His entire speech of two hours was a fervent
i appeal for justice and a higher humanity. It combined all the
* = WW a TT SW WW rm, cM, WW, Wy, WW,
-_ rr oom: 22> 22
FOR GOVERNOR
Charles Sehl, of Philadelphia.
LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR, 5
Dalton T. Clarke, of Washington. 2
SECRETARY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS,
William Adams, of Pittsburgh.
REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS AT
LARGE,
Cora M. Bixler, of Lancaster.
John C. Euler, of Erie.
Henry W. Schlegel, of Allentown.
Harry T. Vaughn, of Wheatland.
REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS, 23RD
DISTRICT,
Louis S. Mellinger, of Dawson.
SENATOR IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY,
Andrew Lindstrom, of Holsopple.
REPRESENTATIVE IN THE GENERAL AS-
" SEMBLY,
Eber K. Cockley, of Garrett,
Herman G. Lepley, of Meyersdale, R. D.
“REPRESENTING THE VIEWPOINT OF ,
PLAIN PEOPLE EVERYWHERE.” \
ET A ST Ts on: s £5 ES . 2. 2. 7M
~~.
Tn -—— nn a a a a a Ss a ae
THE SOCIALIST MOVEMENT
ARE YOU A MEMBER?
President Woodrow Wilson has written in one of his schol-
arly works, Division and Reunion, page 13:
“There can be a moneyed aristocracy, but there can not
be a moneyed democracy.”
In the evolution of the American Republic we have reached
the stage of “moneyed aristocracy.” The revolution from this
moneyed aristocracy, from this industrial despotism, to an in-
dustrial democracy MUST COME. And the Socialist Move-
ment is the organized effort peacefully and legally to overthrow
mocracy. : ¥
If the Socialst Movement does not move forward fast
enough to suit you, then get in and help make it move faster in
your community.
The Monster Capitalism.
Rememper that Capitalism grows more and more mon-
strous every day. To illustrate, Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Sr.,
owns more wealth than he could have earned if he had gone to
work the morning Jesus Christ was born and had worked every
year since, three hundred days in the year, and had received
over $1,700.00 PER DAY. His two children will receive, by
inheritance, the equivalent of more than 550 TONS OF GOLD
—a heavy load for 300 horses.
Remember that one-half of one per cent of the total popu-
lation of the United States own 65 per cent of all the wealth
of the entire nation.
At present we of the Socialist Party are doing the very
best we can without your encouragement, without your small
monthly dues, without your constant co-operation. We need
the stimulus, the power and the courage of a large membership,
the inspiring, conquering membership of which we should like
to have you become a part.
It would make us glad indeed TO SEE YOU HELPING in
the great struggle for the freedom of yourself, and your chil-
dren, and your class.
learning of economists, all the sentiments of the poets, all the
wisdom of philosophers and all the ethics of moralists and di-
vines. The vast audience was enchancted with the magical
grace of his speech and the dignity and elevation of his senti-
ments. Astonishment and admiration were equally blended in
the minds of all. They had listened to one of the greatest dis-
courses ever inspired by courage, conviction and humanity in
any age of the world. When the history of this generation is
written, the palm of praise for his unselfish courage and devo-
tion in the cause of a better humanity will be accorded to Eu-
gene V. Debs, the inspired evangel of fraternity in religion and
economic life.
The following telegram, reprinted this week in the Republican, was
not considered sufficient reason to deny that paper use of the mails.
Mr. Livengood says, “Postmaster Shipley considered this contu-
macious message as sufficient ground to deny the B. S. circulation
through the U. 8. mails.”
Meyersdale, Pa., July 2nd, 1918.
W oodrow Wilson, The White House, Washington, D. C.
As long as Eugene Debs remains in chains you cannot consistent-
ly address your scholarly orations on freedom, liberty and a common
brotherhood to labor in Europe or in America. Two thousand readers
of the Meyersdale Commercial who believe in justice and fair play
will expect as much for Debs. If charity is to begin at home then
Debs must be given his freedom and the infamous espionage act drop-
ped from the statute books of our country. With Gene Debs under
lock and key no comrade can himself feel free.
Eber K. Cockley, Business Manager,
Commercial Co-operative Council.
this industrial-moneyed despotism and secure industrial ‘de- ~
]
Volume XL
After a Lapse o
Again Takes I
papers—Does §
Friends — Will
of, News and
tioh, Poetry an
Measure — In]
‘Commercial W
After suspending pul
«dale Commercial again
resuming publication, w
dale.. We are simply t:
The Commercial was ac
property all these year
We are encouraged in i:
step by reason of the solic
many friends of the Comme
for years have read its col
«cherished it as their favo
paper. In resuming publi
are assured of the support
leading citizens of this sect
county, and we shall en
make the Commercial suck
paper as shall measure up tc
pectations. ?
It shall be the purpose of
to make th Commercial a 1
in the truest:sense of term.
employ every means to give
ers all the news that is fit t
and to bring to them all the
‘tion that it is possible for u
shally We shall furnish th
with a continued story in
weekly installments. We
forget the newspaper featu
as a cartoon, woman’s colw
column, agricultural colu
| stories dealing with history
graphy. And as time go
shall add such features as 1
‘with the approval of its rea
In’ politi
mot share. Far be it from
‘mercial to stoop to polit
slinging or party or faction
ganda. If a principle or me
is involved, this paper sha
commending the good and co
the evil. i 1
Upon this basis, we enter
new career and invite the suj
¥ patronage of the public. W
vite you to use these column
‘Any news that is fit for publ
‘welcome. People come and
‘there are visitors at your kh
you visit at another’s; a birt
‘been celebrated; perhaps yo
hale and hearty at 80; y«
some interesting circumstanc
‘past; a thousand and one thi
come into your life that are
est to your friends—if you v
in such news, we shall be gla
‘it publicity through these ec
Weekly Health |
“It is generally conceded
/ -this time of the year ithe ph;
sistance of the average p
likely to be lower than du
‘Open-air’ months. This re
cause the usual winter habit
individual do not include
out-door life,” said Dr. The
Appel, Secretary of Health,
“The natural tendency on
of the average individual is
the heater, indulge almost ex
in in-door recreation and rec
side exercise to a minimum
habits invite germs to do the
“Phere iis .much more to
. during the rigorous weath
just keeping warm. | Many
low (that unnatural practice
jeopardize their health and
tims to disease. In additic
more deprive themselves
sense - of ‘splendid wellbein;
winter so excellently affords.
‘and yearning for spri
should daily make a real f
he cold northern blasts and
crisp atmosphere are literal
with pep but they will not ¢
one’s house and extend their
tages at the fireside. One
to meet them.
“Jf everyone enjoying re
; the keen zest of high
th would be realized b
ands who now are satis
hearted existence and
aplaint against freezing
'h refore, make real frie
_ for your safety and