You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Saturday October 8, 1904
From the Appeal to Reason: Socialism, Capitalism, and Homes for the Working Class
Today's Appeal to Reason took on the issue of homes and housing under the economic systems of Socialism and Capitalism. First we offer the latest drawing and comment on the subject from Ryan Walker:
From the Appeal to Reason of October 8, 1904:
AGED COUPLE EVICTED IN CHICAGO
ROOSEVELT-PARKER PROSPERITY.
----------
A vote for Debs is a vote to have
the most delightful homes for all the aged
``````````
All of us will admit that the country is prosperous. For instance, J. J. Ryan and wife, feeble and penniless, both over seventy years old, were evicted from their hole in the cellar at 58 St. John street, Chicago, the other day. Speaking of this incident in the glorious onward march of prosperity, the Chicago American says:
As the men were throwing the furniture into the street the aged woman sat on the curbstone and cried. Her husband stood beside her with bowed head, unable to offer any consolation.
The aged couple remained on the sidewalk for more than an hour. Without money or friends, the prospect of spending the night on the street faced them, and they wept most pitifully.
"I have neither friends nor shelter nor a dollar in this world," said Ryan. "I could stand a lot of suffering myself, but I can't bear to see Mary without a home."
As darkness was approaching and the clouds threatened rain, a neighbor offered a barn to store the well-worn furniture a until the old couple could find another home.
The property is owned by William Sturgis, who is said to be traveling abroad.
Mrs. Ryan is an invalid. Several months ago she was struck by a street car of the Union Traction Company. Being unable to fight the case, she was compelled to accept their offer of $100 in settlement. Of this amount the lawyer is said by Ryan to have taken $62, leaving him but $38, which was not enough even to pay the doctor bills.
Yes, the country is prosperous for the thieves, the gamblers, the speculators, the officials, the landlords, the rent lords, the bondholders, the monopolists and their lackeys in pulpit and editorial chairs. No one denies it. But for the working class-the kind of prosperity for them is contained in this item. I'll wager my hat that Ryan has voted for the competitive system all his life, and is now reaping the fruit of his action. The rich have voted it also, and get their fruits in the shape of great wealth that they never earned. Why will the working class be so dumb as to vote the old tickets when they get nothing but punishment for their franchise?
A vote for Debs is a vote to have the most delightful homes for all the aged, and with an income that the declining years of life can be spent in every luxury that the nation can provide. We Socialists want these good things for ourselves when we get old, and are willing to prepare them for the old now. Laboring people, please wake up and see how you are being bled by your masters and then deceived.
----------
[photograph and paragraph break added]
MASS EVICTIONS IN NEW YORK CITY
Eviction by Everett Shinn
New York, Sept. 15-The landlords' trust is the latest dollar combination the poor of the great city have to battle with
Today, upon the sidewalks of New York, 2,000 families, toilers of the tenements, are homeless-evicted because they cannot meet the exorbitant demand for the ramshackled buildings in which they eke out a miserable existence.
The above, with a column of details of the evictions, is pictured by an eastern paper under the head of "The Horrors of Eviction in New York's Tenements." Horrors, nothing! This is only one of the many similar beauties of capitalism-of the Morganization of the nation-of the effect of republican and democratic rule which the people vote for.Nice isn't it? If a man is so lost to patriotism and love of country that he will not vote for this this fall, he deserves to be exported to some heathen country where such things are not enjoyed.
I, years ago, shed tears when I read of the evictions in Ireland, but I was young and foolish then, and did not understand the blessings of the private ownership of the homes and lands of the nation. Ireland can't boast of as many evictions in a whole year as New York on this one day. Ireland is a back number. She is obsolete. She isn't in it. We have taken the palm for the beloved system of evicting the poor.
Down with the poor, anyway! Up with the rich! This country has no use for the poor-only the rich have the right to live in houses. Stables, barns, shanties, shacks-yes, the street is good enough for the poor and their little ones!
Ye gods! Americans. Have you lost every humane feeling? Have you sunk to not only barbarism, but absolute savagery in your mad chase after the dollar and the making of millionaires" God's poor! and as you do it to these, so shall it be done unto you.
Now make up your grim determination to vote the old party tickets his fall and have this beautiful system continued. A vote for a democrat or a republican is a vote to have these evictions continue. Don't vote for Socialism. That would provide homes for all the people and would protect them in the sacred walls of home. Socialism would see that every child was as well clothed as any other, was as well fed, with the most wholesome food, was as well housed, was as well instructed and entertained. That would be awful!
Vote for evictions and be happy!
----------
----------
SOURCE
Appeal to Reason
(Girard, Kansas)
of Oct 8, 1904
http://www.newspapers.com/...
IMAGES
Houses Look Alike & Text by Ryan Walker
http://www.newspapers.com/...
Eugene Debs
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Eviction by Everett Shinn, 1904
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
''I Ain't Got No Home'' - Bruce Springsteen
Now as I look around, it's mighty plain to see
This world is such a great and a funny place to be;
Oh, the gamblin' man is rich an' the workin' man is poor,
And I ain't got no home in this world anymore.
-Woody Guthrie
Photos of The Great Depression are by Dorothea Lange.
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````