definite object not only the
betterment of the condition of workingmen in the wage system, but the
absolute overthrow of wage slavery that the workingman may be
emancipated and stand forth clothed with the dignity and all other
attributes of true manhood.

Now let me briefly discuss the existing condition. We have been
organizing all these years, and there are now approximately three
millions of American workingmen who wear union badges, who keep step to
union progress. At this very time, and in spite of all that organized
labor can do to the contrary, there is a condition that prevails all
over this country that is well calculated to challenge the serious
consideration of every workingman. To begin with, according to the
reports furnished us, twenty per cent of the workingmen of this country
are now out of employment. I have here a copy of the New York World
containing a report of the labor commissioner of the State of New York
who shows that during the quarter ending June 30 there were in that
state an army of union men out of employment approximating thirty-five
per cent of the entire number; that is to say, in the State of New York
today, out of every one hundred union men (these reports are received
from the unions themselves, verified by their own officers, so there can
be no question in regard to them), out of every 100 union men in New
York, 35 are out of employment. The percentage may not be so large in
these western states where the industrial development has not reached
the same point, but go where you may, east or west, north or south, you
will find men, union men, who are begging for the opportunity to work
for just enough to keep their suffering souls within their famished
bodies. A system in which such a condition as this is possible has
fulfilled its mission, stands condemned, and ought to be abolished.

According to the Declaration of Independence, man has the inalienable
right to life. If that be true it follows that he has also the
inalienable right to work.

If you have no right to work you have no right to life because you can
only live by work. And if you live in a system that deprives you of the
right to work, that system denies you the right to live. Now man has a
right to life because he is here. That is sufficient proof, and if he
has the right to life, it follows that he has the right to all the means
that sustain life. But how is it in this outgrown capitalist system? A
workingman can onl