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Victor L. Berger Quotes
1860–1929 Austria
Victor L. Berger (February 28, 1860 – August 7, 1929) was an Austrian-American socialist politician and journalist who was a founding member of the Social Democratic Party of America and its successor, the Socialist Party of America.
Austria Journalists Socialists Also known as: Victor Berger, Victor L Berger
Random Victor L. Berger quote
13 quotes
Socialism is the next phase of civilization, if civilization is to survive.
It will depend on our rulers whether we shall have an orderly evolution, which I have always preached and propagated, or a violent revolution, which we Socialists have always tried to avoid.
Political parties are simply the expression of economic interests.
This is the first instance in the history of the world that the oppressed class has virtually the same political basis as the ruling class.
It is foolish to expect results from riots and dynamite, from murderous attacks and conspiracies, in a country where we have the ballot, as long as the ballot has not been given a full and fair trial.
After we have taken over the United States Steel Corporation, Mr. Gary, if he wants to keep his job, might possibly do so, but we would not pay him $800,000 a year.
It is true that interesting historical document, the Declaration of Independence, says that "all men are born free and equal." But that was not so, even at the time when the sentence was written. It is less so now.
I would rather use a hundred years to bring about a new world, a better world, by evolution, with all the blessings of civilization, than bring it about by a bloody revolution, as they have in Russia, by shooting down about 30,000 men and women.
This country is divided into classes as much as any monarchial country. Therefore, the working class—the men and women who work either with their brains or their hands—must have a party of their own to take care of their interests of their own class.
The Socialists expect to keep all that is good or useful in the capitalist system and leave it as a heritage to the next generation. And the Socialists will destroy nothing that they can not replace by something better or more beneficial.
Unless plutocracy can persuade the majority of the people to close up the public schools and make illiterates of the next generation, and unless it can also persuade them to give up the electoral franchise, plutocracy is doomed. So much is clear. And that is the reason why we Socialists can look with such equanimity and complacence into the future. The future belongs to some form of Socialism.
According to my idea, we shall never reach the millenium. We shall never have any heaven on earth. We shall always have great problems to solve. But we shall have an infinitely higher civilization than we have now.
The working class has nothing to hope from either the Republican party or the Democratic party. It is true that the representatives of these parties may be, and very often are, very cultured and accomplished gentlemen. Most of them are honest. However, they represent the capitalistic system, and the more honest and consistent they are—the more loyal they are to their class.
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