mails. And after the war was in fact long over, the administration has not scrupled to continue a policy of repression and terrorism under the shadow and hypocritical guise of war-time measures.

"It has practically imposed involuntary servitude and peonage on a large class of American workers by denying them the right to quit work and coercing them into acceptance of inadequate wages and onerous conditions of labor. It has dealt a foul blow to the traditional American right of asylum by deporting hundreds of foreign-born workers by administrative order, on the mere suspicion of harboring radical views and often for the sinister purpose of breaking labor strikes. In the short span of three years our self-styled liberal administration has succeeded in undermining the very foundation of political liberty and economic rights which this republic has built up in more than a century of struggle and progress. Under the cloak of a false and hypocritical patriotism and under the protection of governmental terror the Democratic administration has given the ruling classes unrestrained license to plunder the people by intensive exploitation of labor, by the extortion of enormous profits, and by increasing the cost of all necessities of life. Profiteering has become reckless and rampant, billions have been coined by the capitalists out of the suffering and misery of their fellow-men. The American financial oligarchy has become a dominant factor in the world, while the condition of the American workers has grown more precarious.

"The responsibility does not rest upon the Democratic party alone. The Republican party, through its representatives in Congress and otherwise, has not only openly condoned the political misdeeds of the last three years but has sought to outdo its Democratic rival in the orgy of political reaction and repression. Its criticism of the Democratic administrative policy is that it is not reactionary and drastic enough.

"America is now at the parting of the roads. If the outraging of political liberty and concentration of economic power into the hands of the few is permitted to go on, it can have only one consequence, the reduction of the country to a state of absolute capitalist despotism. We particularly denounce the militaristic policy of both old parties, of investing countless hundreds of millions of dollars in armaments

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after the victorious completion of what was to have been the 'last war.' We call attention to the fatal results of such a program in Europe, carried on prior to 1914 and culminating in the Great War; we declare that such a policy, adding unbearable burdens to the working class and to all the people, can lead only to the complete Prussianization of the nation, and ultimately to war; and we demand immediate and complete abandonment of this fatal program. The Socialist party sounds the warning. It calls upon the people to defeat both parties at the polls, and to elect the candidates of the Socialist party to the end of restoring political democracy and bringing about a complete industrial freedom.

"The Socialist party of the United States therefore summons all who believe in this fundamental doctrine to prepare for a complete reorganization of our social system, based upon public ownership of public necessities; upon government by representatives chosen from occupational as well as from geographical groups, in harmony with our industrial development and with citizenship based on service, that we may end forever the exploitation of class by class. To achieve this end the Socialist party pledges itself to the following program:

"I. Social.-1. All business vitally essential for the existence and welfare of the people, such as railroads, express service, steamship lines, telegraphs, mines, oil wells, power plants, elevators, packing houses, cold storage plants, and all industries operating on a national scale, should be taken over by the nation.

"2. All publicly-owned industries should be administered jointly by the government and representatives of the workers, not for revenue or profit, but with the sole object of securing just compensation and humane conditions of employment to the workers and efficient and reasonable service to the public.

"3. All banks should be acquired by the government and incorporated in a unified public banking system.

"4. The business of insurance should be taken over by the government and should be extended to include insurance against accident, sickness, invalidity, old age, and unemployment, without contribution on the part of the worker.

"5. Congress should enforce the provisions of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments with reference to the negroes, and effective Federal legislation should be enacted to secure to the negroes full civil, political, industrial, and educational rights.

"II. Industrial.-1. Congress should enact effective laws to abolish child labor, to fix minimum wages based on an ascertained cost of a decent standard of life, to protect migratory and unemployed workers from oppression, to abolish detective and strike-breaking agencies, and to establish a shorter work-day in keeping with increased industrial productivity.

"III. Political.-1. The constitutional freedom of speech, press, and assembly should be restored by repealing the Espionage law and all other repressive legislation, and by prohibiting the executive usurpation of authority.

"2. All prosecutions under the Espionage law should be discontinued, and all persons serving prison sentences for alleged offenses growing out of religious beliefs, political views, or industrial activities should be fully pardoned and immediately released.

"3. No alien should be deported from the United States on account of his political views or participation in labor struggles, nor in any event without proper trial on specific charges. The arbitrary power to deport aliens by administrative order should be repealed.

"4. The power of the courts to restrain workers in their struggles against employers by the writ of injunction or otherwise, and their power to nullify Congressional legislation, should be abrogated. "5. Federal Judges should be elected by the people and be subject to recall.

“6. The President and the Vice-President of the United States should be elected by direct popular election, and be subject to recall. All members of the cabinet should be elected by Congress and be responsible at all times to the vote thereof.

"7. Suffrage should be equal and unrestricted, in fact as well as in law, for all men and women throughout the nation.

"8. Because of the strict residential qualification of suffrage in this country, millions of citizens are disfranchised in every election;

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adequate provision should be made for the registration and voting of migratory voters.

"9. The Constitution of the United States should be amended to strengthen the safeguards of civil and political liberty, and to remove all obstacles to industrial and social reform and reconstruction, including the changes enumerated in this program, in keeping with the will and interest of the people. It should be made amendable by a majority of the voters of the nation upon their own initiative, or upon the initiative of Congress.

"IV. Foreign Relations.-1. All claims of the United States against Allied countries for loans made during the war should be cancelled upon the understanding that all war debts among such countries shall likewise be cancelled. The largest possible credit in food, raw materials, and machinery should be extended to the stricken nations of Europe in order to help them rebuild the ruined world.

"2. The government of the United States should initiate a movement to dissolve the mischievous organization called the 'League of Nations' and to create an international parliament, composed of democratically elected representatives of all nations of the world, based upon the recognition of their equal rights, the principles of self-determination, the right to national existence of colonies and other dependencies, freedom of international trade and trade routes by land and sea, and universal disarmament, and be charged with revising the treaty of peace on the principles of justice and conciliation.

"3. The United States should immediately make peace with the Central powers and open commercial and diplomatic relations with Russia under the Soviet government. It should promptly recognize the independence of the Irish republic.

"4. The United States should make and proclaim it a fixed principle in its foreign policy that American capitalists who acquire concessions or make investments in foreign countries do so at their own risk, and under no circumstances should our government enter into diplomatic negotiations or controversies or resort to armed conflicts on account of foreign property claims of American capitalists.

"V. Fiscal.-1. All war debts and other debts of the Federal

government should immediately be paid in full, the funds of such payment to be raised by means of a progressive property tax whose burden should fall upon the rich and particularly upon great fortunes made during the war.

"2. A standing progressive income tax and a graduated inheritance tax should be levied to provide for all needs of the government, including the cost of its increasing social and industrial functions.

"3.

The unearned increment of land should be taxed; all land held out of use should be taxed at full rental value."

The following "Declaration of Socialist Principles" was adopted by the convention:

"The Socialist party of the United States demands that the country and its wealth be redeemed from the control of private interests and turned over to the people to be administered for the equal benefit of all.

"America is not owned by the American people. Our so-called national wealth is not the wealth of the nation, but of the privileged few.

"These are the ruling classes of America. They are small in numbers but they dominate the lives and shape the destinies of their fellow-men.

"They own the people's jobs and determine their wages; they control the markets of the world and fix the prices of farm products; they own their own homes and fix their rents; they own their food and set its cost; they own their press and formulate their convictions; they own the government and make their laws; they own their schools and mould their minds.

"Around and about the capitalist class cluster the numerous and varied groups of the population generally designated as the 'middle class.' They consist of farm-owners, small merchants and manufacturers, professional and better paid employes. Their economic status is often precarious. They live in hopes of being lifted into the charmed spheres of the ruling classes. Their social psychology is that of retainers of the wealthy. As a rule they sell their gifts.