People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 November 1895 — DEBS ON POLITICS. [ARTICLE]

DEBS ON POLITICS.

HE ADVOCATES THE NEW PEOPLE'S PARTY. B»y* Men Have Lon j Been Deeetred — With Lincoln, He Bellerei All the People Cnn Not Be Decelred All the Time. Eugene V. Debs in Chicago Evening Press: In a free country where the people are the sovereigns, as is supposed to be the case in the United States, and all the people have the ballot, all are, or ought to be, as the phrase goes, “in politics.” Indeed, if they exercise the “divine right to rule,” which is done by the flat of the ballot, they are “in politics.” If they do not vote and thereby abdicate their sovereignty, they may be said to be “out of politics” and aliens in their native land. Now then, let us inquire, What Is politics? Webster defines the term, and he will be accepted as standard authority. I quote the “unabridged” definitions in full: “1. Politics is the science of government; part of ethics which has to do with the regulation and government of a nation or state, the preservation of its safety, peace and prosperity, the defense of its existence and rights against foreign control or conquest, the augmentation of its strength and resources and the protection of its citizens in their rights with the preservation and improvement of their morals. “2. The management of a political party, the conduct and contests of parties with reference to political measures in the administration of public affairs, the advancement of candidates to office. “3. in a bad sense artful or dishonest managtement to secure the success of political candidates or parties. “4. Political trickery.” In the foregoing we have Webster’s definition of “politics” as practiced in the United States. lam particular in giving these definitions because I have reasons for believing that the masses of the people were never before so profoundly interested in politics as at present

Hitherto men have voted with the parties with which they were affiliated, right or wrong. They were democrats or they were republicans, without a reason why. They marched, they shouted and voted for the supremacy of their party, accepted professions as honest which proved to be false, and platforms which were made to be disregarded, to find out at last that they had been the victims of the vilest duplicities that were ever concocted, of politics “in a bad sense,” of “political trickery.” They were not to be blamed specially for their allegiance to the two old parties, for, in sooth, they must vote for one or the other because there was no other party with which they could affiliate. It was the sage remark of Abraham Lincoln that “You can deceive all of the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot deceive all of the people all of the time.” No one doubts that Abraham Lincoln had the ability to write political maxims, and, subjected to analysis, his proverbs are found to be absolutely true. For instance: “1. You can deceive all of the people some of the time.” Inevitably. If there are but two parties and both of them are political “in a bad sense,” “artful and dishonest,” what matters it for which party a man casts his vote? He is the victim of deception in either case, and that is just what has been the matter during the past quarter of a century. The people have been deceived all the time. They have been jumping from the frying pan into the fire and then jumping from the fire into the frying pan—deceived every time and all the time. “2. You may deceive some of the people all the time.” In politics the statement is absolutely incontrovertible. We see it illustrated on every hand and at every election. We see men wedded to their party idols and worshiping them with pagan idolatry. They will not be undeceived. They have eyes, but, like the potato, they cannot see; they have ears, but, like the cornstalk, they cannot hear; or, if they do see and hear they are so debauched by the influence of “politics in a bad sense,” by “political trickery,” that no facts, no arguments, no logic, and no calamities can influence them, and they have to be let alone. “3. You cannot deceive all the people all the time.” In saying that Mr. Lincoln rose to the sublime heights of a mental philosopher. He stated a truth of universal acceptance, a truth that is the last hope of humanity. But to undeceive the people, to get their consent to renounce error and embrace the truth, requires time, labor, sacrifice, indefatigable effort.

In politics, if men see clearly that the parties with which they have been affiliated are forever wrong, and that by deserting one and joining the other affords no relief, that the principles and policies of both are alike vicious, the first sign that you cannot “deceive all the people all the time” will be a demand for a new party, a party pledged to the reform of abuses and the emancipation of the people from “politics in a bad sense,” from “political trickery,” a party pledged to the enactment of wise and just laws and an honest, clean administration of such laws.

The two old parties, the democratic and republican parties, have been repeatedly condemned by the American people, but, as has been remarked, no relief to the people came from such condemnation because in abandoning one and flying to the other the victories thus achieved, instead of affording relief, only perpetuated the evils complained of, and hence the demand for another narty to which men. determined to be

deceived no longer, men of courage and conviction and possessing the power of self-emancipation, could go and work rat the political redemption of the country. The new party that has come and has come to stay is the people’s party. It has come because you “cannot deceive all the people all the time.” It has come in obedience to the honest, patriotic thought of the nation. If there were those who believed that the people’s party would vault into power like a fabled Minerva, full-grown and ready armed to beat back the enemies of honest government, they should remember that the present is not an age of miracles nor of mythology. Political parties are of slow growth, but if they only “the eternal years,” but men who will not be deceived, are pledged to their final triumph. The patriots in the people’s party have a right to feel encouraged, because from 1892 to 1894 the gains in the party exceeded a million votes, establishing the fact beyond controversy that “you cannot deceive all the people all the time.”