Jack London
Oakland Times/July 29, 1896
Jack London Takes Issue With the Populists
Where He Thinks Them Weak
The Small Capitalists Trying to Ride The Back of Laborers
Editor Times: As an assiduous reader of the many communications published in your columns I have failed to see the Socialist represented. The Non-Partisan management of your paper would warrant the same, so I take advantage of it.
The Socialist labor party has been subjected to much contumely by the Populists for its “”keep in the middle of the road” policy. The Populists have told us “We know that your doctrines are good; we know that they strike at the very root of the industrial and social evils; but we also know that it is too stupendous a step and that you cannot get it all at once, so come over to us. We have in our platform many steps toward the goal you wish to attain. We have direct legislation, government ownership, and many planks which harmonize with your teachings. Come with us—half a loaf is better than none—and get what you can get now!”
The Socialist labor party refused this offer and brought upon itself a flood of Populistic denunciation. But we have bided our time, and behold the result. The Democrats have said to the Populists, “You cannot get all your reforms at once—half a loaf is better than none—come with us get what you can get now and be it free silver!”
The Populists have fallen—in as much that their fundamental reform principles have been forgotten and silver, a minor consideration, a side issue, has been made the main issue of their campaign As they would have swallowed the Socialists, so have they have been swallowed by the Democrats, who have stolen their thunder.
The Socialist labor party, not of the United States but of the world, is cognizant of one important truth. This truth is that for a “third party,” fusion is synonymous with destruction. In the United States we have had many third parties. Where are they now? In every instance fusion with one or the other of the old parties has heralded their absorption and loss of individuality.
The Socialists of Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Belgium and other European countries will not fuse—will not set aside their doctrines for mere palliatives. The main issue is public ownership of all the facilities of production and distribution, and they never drift away from it to measures which are mere temporary alleviations and not permanent cures. As the years roll by their numbers increase faster and faster, while their steadfast policy disallows any possibility of absorption or corruption by mingling with other parties.
The adoption of the California State platforms of the Socialist labor party was the source of further antagonism with the Populists. The financial plank declared openly against the free coinage and remonetization of silver.
And this is why they declare against it. Under the competitive system and the world’s recognition of intrinsic value in money, it is impossible for one nation by mere fiat to raise the intrinsic value of silver 100 per cent—to say that 50 cents of silver is worth a dollar. The absurdity of the silver doctrine is apparent. If they are fiat money men, let them declare for fiat money; if they are intrinsic value money men, let them declare for a bimetallic standard, in which silver is coined at the present market ratio existing between it and gold; as it is, they mingle the two theories and from the chaos conceive a third which partakes of both and which as a sailor would describe it is an “hermaphrodite” policy.
The silver men say that the “crime of ’73,” by contracting the circulating medium, decreased the value of commodities, increased the purchasing power of money and doubled the burden of the debtor class. The debtor class now proposes to turn the tables by expanding the currency and thus increase the value of commodities, decrease the purchasing power of money and lighten their burden by half. Let us interrogate this proposition. The labor of the United States is not the debtor class. They owe nothing for the simple reason that no one will trust them. Who composes the debtor class? The men of small capital—the men who, when a debtless laborer produces ten dollars’ worth of wealth, pockets eight of it and gives him two as a wage. What in reality does this debtor class propose to the labor class? It is this: “We, the small fry capitalists, have been riding on the back of labor, but the large capitalist has shoved us off. We are liable to become laborers ourselves—save us from this dreadful doom! Vote for free silver and decrease our indebtedness so that we may again be boosted on the back of labor and ride a little farther.” JACK LONDON.
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