If I were keenly ambitious for the future acclaim of my countrymen I
would rather lead the Socialist party to defeat in the campaign of 1908
than to win as the candidate either of the Republican or Democratic
parties. Taft and Bryan look forward only to the power and the doubtful
honor of dispensing patronage. Both stand on platforms which are barren
of promise or hope. With all the world pressing on to the solution of
great social and economic questions we are confronted with the
lamentable spectacle of the dominant political parties of the United
States beating a cowardly retreat, and we see their candidates rival one
another in the timidity of their assaults on obvious and admitted
wrongs.
There is no higher honor than that bequeathed with the leadership of a
great moral principle. Socialism is the greatest moral principle yet
discovered by humanity. It can be put into effect only by education and
political action, and the Socialists of the United States have in three
campaigns entrusted the leadership to Eugene V. Debs. In coming years,
when some future leader will sweep the field, and when no voice will be
raised against the fundamental equity and practicability of Socialism,
the historian will dwell on the pioneer work of the men and women who
placed Eugene V. Debs at their head, and the verdict of the historian
will be far different from that of the thoughtless critics of today.
A righteous cause always wins in the end, and there is imperishable
glory for those who stand at the front in the years when men’s eyes are
blinded to the truth. No man is great enough as a Socialist to make
himself greater than his party. Bryan looms great because the Democratic
party is a dull level of ignorant mediocrity; Taft is looked up to
because of the belief that the great monied interests have accepted his
leadership and will bring about his election; Eugene V. Debs is simply
the unselfish representative of an idea which will prevail despite all
which can be arrayed against it.