Give a colored man the same chance, the same opportunity that you give a white man, and he will register as high upon the mental and moral thermometer of civilization. (Great applause.) Give him a chance! and that is what the Socialist Party is going to do. (Applause.) We admit colored members to our Party upon equal terms with the rest. We sit side by side with them in our Party councils. They are welcomed gladly to all our conferences and conventions. We treat them in no patronizing sense. We are not doing them any favor. They are our comrades and our equals, and we want them to have every right and privilege we enjoy.
I wish to speak a final word for the policemen and firemen. When they came to see me to-day and stated their mission, I declared myself in favor of their referendum. It is with this referendum they propose to establish a wage minimum of $2,500. The policemen and firemen are in the working class—all of them; and we are with them in their efforts to secure a living wage. (Applause.) You sometimes think these policemen, when they seek to “protect society against the Socialists,” are hostile to us. When we were at Brooklyn, as I passed through their serried ranks they whispered to me: “We are with you.” (Applause.) One of them said: “It will not do for the Ku Klux to try to do anything to you here to-night.” (Laughter.) They are trying to get $2,500 a year and they are entitled to it; considering the cost of living $2,500 with a family to support is a small enough income. We are with them and we hope you will all join in their effort to secure a living wage for themselves and their families. (Applause.)
I want to say a word for the “Messenger” and to commend the high ability of its editorial management. I read it with especial pride and satisfaction. It is a high grade publication. It is a true champion of the colored workers and every one of you ought to give it your encouragement and support.
I appeal directly to you colored workers. You have got to build up your own press; you have got to develop your own power; you will never count until you do. Unite with all other workers in the unions; unite with them in the Socialist Party; develop your industrial power and your political power. Most of you are inclined to buy the capitalist newspapers and support the capitalist press and every time there is a strike you know what side they are on. You will never hear the truth until you hear it through your own press.
Then there is the daily “Leader,” a Labor paper published in New York. The “Leader” ought to have the support of the workers. We have got to build up a press of our own. It is vitally important because everything depends upon education.
It is a tremendous struggle. It is going to take time and what most people call sacrifice. There is no sacrifice, however, so far as I am concerned, because what I can give the cause I give with joy and it comes back to me in riches untold. I have made no sacrifice for Socialism. I would sacrifice only if I refused the privilege of serving it. I would sacrifice only if I violated my conscience and failed to give myself to this struggle with every atom of my energy and every drop of my blood. And with what joy! It keeps me young and vigorous and alive in action. It is a privilege and not a sacrifice to go to jail for the cause. (Applause.) How gladly I would spend the rest of my days there if need be, or go to the gallows, or anywhere in the service of Socialism! (Great applause.)
You and I and all of us are alike interested in the present campaign. You hear the same “argument” on the part of the old politicians you have heard here in New York for over forty years. I am not personally interested in their vilification of each other—their mutual charges and accusations. Take their word for it and they are all grafters and thieves. They say so and they certainly know each other for they have been in close affiliation for a long time. If you are going to cast your vote for either of these corrupt capitalist parties and if you are going to give your support to those candidates who are committed to keep you in servitude how can you look yourselves in the face on the day following election without a blush of shame?
Sever your relations with these capitalist parties that are of the past. They disgrace the memory of Jefferson and Lincoln. Sever your relations with them and join this new party, this party of the future, especially you young people. It is vain to appeal to some of the older ones; they are petrified; they have long since ceased to think; they are led; they belong to the Republican party because their father did, or to the Democratic party because their grandfather did. Everything since their grandfather lived has changed except their grandsons. (Laughter.) If you have the spirit of the future; if you have the aspirations to be men and women; if you are capable of thinking for yourselves, stand up for just once and see how long a shadow you can cast in the sunlight; take an inventory of your mental and moral resources and ask yourselves in sober earnest: “What can we do for ourselves, and for our class, and for humanity”? Think!! You have never done that in the past. You have the capacity to see, to think, to understand, and to take your place in this great modern crusade, the greatest in all history.
Everywhere the awakening workers are lifting their bowed bodies from the earth—these toiling and producing masses who have been the mudsills of society through all the ages past. They are learning at last how to stand erect and hold up their heads and press forward toward the dawn, keeping step to the inspiring heart throbs of the impending Social revolution. They are of all races; they are of all colors, all creeds, all nationalities. They have made a great beginning in Russia. (Applause.) The Soviet Republic has stood for five years against the combined capitalisms of the world; vilified and misrepresented shamefully, but they still hold the fort. The reason we do not recognize their Republic is because for the first time in history they have set up a Government of the working class; and if that experiment succeeds, good-bye to capitalism throughout the world! (Applause.) That is why our capitalist Government does not recognize Soviet Russia. We were not too proud to recognize the Czar nor to have intercourse with Russia whilst Siberia was in existence and human beings were treated like wild beasts; when women were put under the lash and sent to Siberia and brutalized and dehumanized. We could calmly contemplate all this and our President could send congratulations on his birthday to the imperial Czar of Russia. We could then have perfect intercourse with that Government, but we are now so sensitive under our present high standard of moral ethics that we cannot recognize Soviet Russia. But the time will come when the United States will recognize the Soviet Republic of the Russian people.
Meanwhile we will wait, watch and work. We will improve our minds and develop our capacity to think and act together. We shall get closer and closer in touch day by day, increasing the store of our knowledge, dispelling the darkness of ignorance, and moving steadily toward the light.