That truth and justice shall prevail,
And every scheme of bondage fail."

CHAPTER XVII

SOCIALISM A PERIL TO WORKINGMEN

In glowing colors the imaginations of Socialists have beautifully
pictured their utopian state for the benefit of the credulous and
oppressed. Unfortunately, however, for the followers of Karl Marx, a
little reasoning and common sense show that their visionary state,
instead of being a heavenly paradise, would in reality be a descent into
chaos and anarchy. Domestic peace would be a blessing of the past.
Discontent, wrangles, fights, riots, civil discord and sabotage would be
the order of the day till irrepressible rebellion had sounded the
death-knell of Socialism.

There is every indication that the Revolutionists would not destroy our
present system of government without having recourse to arms. Besides
the many convincing proofs given in the preceding chapter, we learn from
"The Call," New York, January 28, 1912, that the celebrated Socialist
novelist, Jack London, scouted the idea that the social revolution would
be realized without force. Then, again, Victor Berger--who was Socialist
Congressman from Wisconsin, and who, like Debs, was one of the
"innocents" whom the "poor," "persecuted" Reds have been trying to save
from a long imprisonment by a nationwide agitation for amnesty--writing
in the "Social Democratic Herald" of Milwaukee, on August 14, 1909,
said: "We should be grateful if the social revolution, if the freeing of
75,000,000 whites would not cost more blood than the freeing of
4,000,000 negroes in 1861."

Roland Sawyer, the Socialist candidate for governor of Massachusetts in
1912, writing in "The Call," New York, October 1, 1911, dares to confess
that "the conceptions of modern Socialism are all found in a cruder form
on the streets of Paris during the Revolution." Finally, as we have
seen, Eugene V. Debs, who on four different occasions was the Socialist
candidate for the presidency of the United States, in the "Appeal to
Reason," Girard, Kansas, September 2, 1911, said: "Let us marshal our
forces and develop our power for the revolt.... A few men may be needed
who are not afraid to die. Be ye also ready.... Let us swear that we
will fight to the last ditch, that we will strike blow for blow, that we
will use every weapon at our command, that we will never surrender."

It is evident that if, after a bloody rebellion, the Socialists should
overthrow the United