The Jungle

After debating this issue, the men in the room agree on two propositions which define socialism. State these two propositions.

Issue - Most critics believe that this chapter is a vehicle for Sinclair to continue his socialist propaganda. Jurgis' life struggle, which readers follow for three hundred pages, is put aside to discuss the philosophy of socialism.

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The first debate of the evening begins between two of the Socialist Party members, a former professor named Nicholas Schliemann and a former itinerant preacher named Lucas. Schliemann comments that the final great battle of the socialist movement will be between the Socialist Party and the Catholic Church. Religion, he says, is an opiate of the masses and has no place in the future socialist world. He tells the group that religion is a fraud that perpetrates the imbalance of power. Lucas, a former evangelical preacher, attempts to defend the word of God, “which is one long cry of the human spirit for deliverance from the sway of oppression.” Lucas goes down a list of passages from the Bible and stories of Biblical figures that represent the tenets of socialism. His most ardent argument is for Jesus Christ whom he says “denounced in unmeasured terms the exploiters of his own time” and was crucified for upsetting the social order. He gives a long speech on the merits of Christianity as being harmonious with Socialism, and in the end, Schliemann accepts his proposal.

Source(s)

http://www.gradesaver.com/the-jungle/study-guide/section10/

Okay, I finally found the exact quote for you regarding the two propositions:

"This resulted, after much debating, in the formulating of two carefully worded propositions: First, that a Socialist believes in the common ownership and democratic management of the means of producing the necessities of life; and, second, that a Socialist believes that the means by which this is to be brought about is the class conscious political organization of the wage-earners."

Source(s)

The Jungle/ Chapter 31