Name:
Robber Barons in the Gilded Age
Purpose
Origin/Author
Date:
Historical Context
Period:
Nature
Document A
Your material interest and mine in the society of the future will be the same. Instead of having to fight each other like
animals, as we do today... we are going to jointly own these mammoth machines, and we are going to operate them as joint
partners and we are going to divide all the products among ourselves. We are not going to send our surplus to the Goulds and
Vanderbilts... We are not going to pile up a billion of dollars in John D Rockefeller's hands-a vast pyramid from the height
of which he can look down with scorn... upon the "common herd." John D Rockefeller's great fortune is built upon your
ignorance. When you know enough to know what your interest is you will support the great party that is organized upon t
principle of collective ownership of the means of life... Now, we Socialists propose that society in its collective capacity
shall produce, not for profit, but in abundance to satisfy human wants; that every man shall have the inalienable right to work,
and receive the full equivalent of all he produces...
the
Socialist Party Leader Eugene V Debs. 1908
Credibility
Doc A
Outcome