Debs says our work only is constant ’til the Socialist Republic.

‘It is an Endless Campaign’ by Eugene V. Debs from Social Democratic Herald. Vol. 6 No. 27. October 31, 1903.

The old parties open and close their office-seeking campaigns with spectacular demonstrations, inspired chiefly by vapid oratory and cheap whiskey. There is no principle involved. It is simply a question of capturing the offices, of getting the spoils.

The plans are laid long in advance and in due time the campaign is “opened” in the same old way. The spread-eagle orator rides in advance of the procession in a decorated carriage, while the dupes bring up the rear afoot and should themselves hoarse in seeming exultation over their degeneracy. The same old speech is made and cheered again and again as the orator points to the “old flag” and warns his listeners that it must be saved from the desecration of the enemy.

The “issues” of the campaign, having been brushed up and polished, are thoroughly ventilated, and the crowd, having been duly inspired by the parade and harangue, are now launched upon “the most important campaign” in all history.

The “keynote” speech has been delivered and the “vital issues” are before the people.

Whether the party is Republican or Democratic, it is all the same. The platforms are all bombastic and meaningless. Between lines they all read precisely alike: loves and fishes. They will declare in favor of anything, or launch their patriotic wrath upon anything, if it promises to give them an extra vote.

That any workingman should be stupid enough to serve as cat’s-paw for such a performance would be strange enough, but when we see large numbers of them doing service in that degenerate role we get some idea of the extent to which they have been debased in the capitalist system.

Contrast with the capitalist campaign and the essentially corrupt chase for spoils the educational campaign of the Socialists.

It is neither “opened” nor does it close. It is continuous. It does not cease when polls close, but goes right along as if on the eve of another election. The Socialist Party is in the field to stay until the enemy is driven from it and the field is won.

This can not be accomplished in a day. Socialists understand this.

Their patience is equal to their persistence. They comprehend the nature of the struggle and they know beyond peradventure that the final triumph is but a question of time.

The old labor-fooling misnamed Democratic Party is playing on its last string. With its capitalist instincts and middle-class interests it is doomed to bankruptcy. As the auctioneer would say: “Going, going, and—gone!”

With the Democratic Party the only thing that is left is its appetite.

With this party out of the way the field will be clear and the class struggle will blazon forth in bolder relief. The working class are bound to see it and bound to join the Socialist Party, the only party pledged to their emancipation from wage-slavery.

Our continuous campaign will end only in the Socialist Republic.

The Social Democratic Herald began as the Social Democrat. The Social Democrat was the paper of Eugene Debs’ pioneering industrial union, the American Railway Union. Begun in 1894 as the Railway Times, in July of 1897 it was renamed The Social Democrat and served as the paper of the Chicago based Social Democratic Party. First published in Terre Haute and then Chicago, the paper was produced weekly. After a split with Utopians who retained the paper, Debs’ published The Social Democratic Herald. When they joined with the Springfield, Massachusetts based Social Democratic Party in 1901, the Socialist Party was born. Victor Berger took over the paper in 1901 and moved it Milwaukee where it ran until 1913.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/social-democratic-herald-us/031031-socdemherald-v06n27w274.pdf