The Plan of Rational Mutualism:
(1) The SOCIAL ownership of the means of production.
(2) The SOCIAL control of the means of production.
(3) Equality of OPPORTUNITY TO USE the means of production, under regulations made by the workers themselves.
(4) The production of goods primarily for SOCIAL SERVICE OF ALL,—instead of primarily for PROFITS FOR A PART OF SOCIETY.
(5) The SELF-EMPLOYMENT of all who are willing to do useful work,—by virtue of the fact of their joint ownership and joint control of the things the workers must collectively use in production, the reward of each to be undiminished by rent, interest or profits.
(6) The possession and control of the powers of government by and in behalf of those who seek the freedom of the working class, by those who seek to destroy the tyrannical capitalist wage-system and thus secure industrial liberty.
This plan connects every life with the source of life.
This plan plants firmly the feet of all members of society upon the industrial foundations of society.
Safe.
Unafraid.
Free.
This mutualism in industry will not interfere with such private affairs as religious life, family life and social life,—any more than the mutual ownership of the public library now interferes with such private affairs.
Thus we must, in short, SOCIALIZE SOCIETY,—by socializing the ownership, socializing the control, socializing the management, and socializing the purpose of the industrial foundations of society.
This would be the destruction of that class-labor system called capitalism which now rests on the institution of private property in the means of production; and this would, at the same time, also constitute a rational substitute—social in its nature.
Mutualism would thus be in the STRUCTURE of society.
The purpose of this form of society would be a fundamentally social purpose, namely, the welfare of all the willing-to-be-industrious members of society.
The capitalist class, as such, would cease to exist.
The working class, as such, would cease to exist.
All—all the people would be in full, vital, unhindered, unrobbed connection with the industrial foundations of society, the chief material means of production. All people of proper age and condition of health would become workers. Industrial class lines would disappear. Industrial mastery would disappear. Industrial dependence would disappear.
This would be the foundation of industrial democracy.
This would be reorganization.
This would be revolution.
A revolution is a rapid, fundamental change in a fundamental institution.
The rapid reorganization of industry into the form called the trust is a revolution—now in process.
The trust magnates are revolutionists—so far as it suits their economic interests.
Revolutions are neither noisy nor bloody, unless there is violent effort to prevent the growth of society.
As to the matter of being afraid of revolutions: Why should we clap our hands in praise of the American Revolutionists (who employed sword, rifle, bayonet and cannon in their revolution) and then harshly condemn the peaceful Socialists who stand for peace in all parts of the world and always urge the orderly methods of procedure in accomplishing the revolution (the fundamental change) they seek to effect.
Don’t be afraid.
Fortunately millions of American school boys and girls are required to commit to memory the following words of splendid defiance and self-respect:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident: ... That governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends (the inalienable rights ... life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness) it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a NEW government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem MOST LIKELY to effect their safety and happiness.... When a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under an absolute despotism, it is their RIGHT, it is their DUTY, to THROW OFF SUCH GOVERNMENT and to provide NEW guards for their future security.”—American Declaration of Independence.
Don’t be afraid.
“The State must from time to time readjust the relation of government to liberty.... As the people of the State advance in civilization, the domain of liberty must be widened.”—Professor John W. Burgess, Head of Department of Political Science, Columbia University.[[323]]
Don’t be afraid.
The time has come for the workers to use their political liberty to secure industrial liberty—to “widen the domain of liberty,” to secure a fair race, to secure equality of opportunity.
Equality? Yes,—equality of opportunity. Certainly. Why not?
“A race that is fair requires an equal start.... The state must aim at perpetual renewal of the opportunities of life in every man and class of men.”—Dr. John Bascom, Ex-President of the University of Wisconsin.[[324]]
Don’t be afraid.
There will be no noise, no bloodshed; all will be orderly, legal and sociable—unless the capitalists anarchistically refuse to obey the law. In that case, of course, the roused, proud and powerful working class will do whatever is made necessary by the anarchistic capitalists.
Be it remembered—distinctly:
The roused working class, roused to self-respect, roused to clearness of vision by the study of the facts, roused to realize the wrongs thrust into the lives of the workers past and present, roused to see their rights and realize their power as a class,—such a working class will be a wholly different class from the present meek, weak, cheated grateful slaves.
Don’t be afraid.
We are weary of Antagonism.
We seek Mutualism.
The American Revolutionists said plainly in their Declaration that it is a DUTY to reorganize society, under certain circumstances.
We recognize our duty.
We make no cheap and noisy boast of insulting defiance.
We see our goal—Peace and Freedom.
We shall build Peace and Freedom into the Structure of Society.
We scorn any wheedler who would betray us from the correct, direct path to our goal.
We accept any challenge from those who would by force defeat us.
Social reconstruction—that is our plain duty.
Thus we of the working class must, to this extent, unify,—that is, mutualize, socialize,—society.
The class aggression of the capitalist class would cease with the disappearance of the capitalist class in the reconstructed society. And the class resistance by the working class would cease with the disappearance of the robbing of the workers in the reconstructed society.
Thus would disappear the unsocial clashing of class interests—the class struggle. And thus also would disappear the dominant motives for “foreign” wars and “civil” wars.
Thus the working class could remove war—both from the shop and from the battlefield.
Thus we would inaugurate peace simply by removing the cause of war.
Is a political party of the working class necessary for this political work of the working class?
To accomplish the work of industrial reconstruction we must first secure the political powers of government and thus secure the right, the legal right, and legal power to do this work.
A political party is simply a legitimated organization with which to seize and use sovereign power—to become authority. (See page [280].)
The political power and privilege necessary to accomplish this industrial reconstruction of society—this political power and privilege—can be secured only by means of a political party; and that party must, of course, be a party wholly committed to this industrial reconstruction of society.[[325]]
Only a political party of the working class can be SINCERELY committed to this work of industrial reconstruction for the working class. Indeed, no political party standing for any form of capitalism will permit itself to be sincerely committed to this prompt, thorough industrial reconstruction.
Therefore, banded together in a political party of the working class the workers
must seize the political powers to make laws,
must seize the political powers to interpret laws,
must seize the political powers to enforce laws.
Then and then only shall we be in position by legally possessing the power to defend ourselves, our class.
Then and then only shall we be in position to destroy the parasitic class aggression, the class robbery, out of which grows the class struggle—the civil war in the shop, and the war, the civil war, of the toil-stained brothers of the working class on the battlefield.
Then, and then only, shall we be in best position to declare war against war.
Then we shall cease forever to foolishly wet the earth with our blood and tears and cease to be robbed in the shop and factory; and then we shall claim our own, a greater life.
The only safety therefore for the working people in all lands is to organize themselves into a political party, an international political party, of the working class, and patiently build their party big enough for each national group of workers to seize the political powers of government in their own country—always, everywhere, loudly declaring war against war.
There is but one working class political party on all the earth. That party sincerely proclaims: “Freedom for the working class! No more war!” And loudly and patiently that party sounds an immortal call of brotherhood to all the workers on all the blood-stained earth:—“Workingmen of all countries, unite. You have nothing to lose but your chains; you have a world to gain.”
That working-class party is the Socialist Party.
Already this working class party, loudly calling, “Freedom in the shop and freedom from the battlefield”—already this party is beginning to save the blood and tears and homes and joys of the working class.
Every working man and woman should learn—and teach the children to recite at school—the following page of history, four historic events:
First Event: In 1847 two men, geniuses, wrote a very small, but powerful book.[[326]] The book was published in 1848. Kings, emperors, tsars and presidents have turned pale when their common people began to understand that small book. The first proposition in that astonishing book is: “The [recorded] history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” That is a great fact. Pack it into your mind. That sentence has opened wide the mental windows of millions of working men—and women. The last sentence of that book of social lightning is this:—“Workingmen of all countries, unite. You have nothing to lose but your chains, you have a world to gain!” That is a sublime call. That call has thrilled millions of weary working-class people. Every year it thrills millions more. Some day that call will enter your soul. Then you will know the meaning of this next event.
Second Event: In 1870 two distinguished crowned assassins sent hundreds of thousands of working men to the boundary between France and Germany to butcher and be butchered.[[327]] Even then—forty years ago—the shrewdest workers in Germany, France and other European countries realized what war meant for the working class. These men were banded together in the International Working-Men’s Association. These keen, studious toilers warned the working class against the war. In 1870 they sent out this general announcement: “They (the members of the International Working-Men’s Association) feel deeply convinced that whatever turn the impending horrid war may take, the alliance of the working classes of all countries will ultimately kill war.” The Paris branch of the International issued an address saying: “French, German, Spanish working men! Let our voices unite in a cry of reprobation against war.... Working men of all countries! Whatever may be the result of our common efforts, we members of the International Association of Working-Men, who know no frontiers, we send you, as a pledge of indissoluble solidarity, the good wishes and the salutation of the workingmen of France.” The Berlin section of the International finely responded: “We join with you heart and hand in protestation.... Solemnly we promise you that neither the noise of drums nor the thunder of cannon, neither victory nor defeat, shall turn us aside from our work for the union of the workingmen of all countries.” German delegates at Chemnitz, Saxony, representing fifty thousand workingmen also made noble reply: “We are happy to grasp the fraternal hand stretched out to us by the workingmen of France.... We shall never forget that the workingmen of all countries are our friends, and the despots of all countries our enemies.”
The grand old International has become the Socialist Party of our day. The Socialist Party is indeed the political party of the working class.
In recent years election returns show in one country, the best educated country in Europe, this political party of the working class, the Socialist Party, with over three million four hundred thousand serious, loyal workingmen banded together voting solidly together. Every year a larger and larger number of them take their seats in the world’s leading legislatures. In ten countries in Europe this party has from one to eighty members of the working class in the national legislatures in legal position to defend the working class. And right vigorously these brave working-class comrades have defended the working class in every possible way they could. With the increasing election victories of this working-class party, the working class have increasing power to defend themselves. And everywhere this party is down on war. The influence of this party has already been effectively exerted against war. The vast influence of this party against war is admitted by the most bitter and powerful enemies of the working class.
Third Event: In 1905–6 the Norwegian and the Swedish armies (working men, of course) were ordered to the front to butcher one another. They were assembled at the national boundary. Tens of thousands of homes were desolate. Fear was an agony in the hearts of a multitude of women and children. Reporters were present from all parts of the world to flash the news of the butchery around the earth. The capitalist coffin trust was exceedingly glad, business was about to pick up. Gilt-braided buccaneer commanders were about to shout: “Form! Fire! Charge! Slaughter!”
“Everything was ready”—it seemed.
Then something happened—something sublime and new in the sad and “somber march of mankind.”
No sword was drawn.
No cannon roared.
No Gatling gun mowed down thousands.
No wild cavalry charged.
No hospital became a hell of cursing, groaning, screaming, mangled men.
Yet “everything was ready”—ready to defend the sacred honor of “royal” and “noble” coward parasites.
Everything was ready except one thing—the consent of the working class.
The conscripted Socialist soldiers in both armies and the Socialists everywhere throughout both countries had passed the sign of working-class brotherhood all through both armies and through both countries: “We working class men are brothers. Let us not slit the veins of our own class simply to satisfy the vicious pride of snobbish masters. Let us save our own blood and tears.”
This international brothers’ cry was like a splendid flash of lightning at midnight. Brothers saw brothers, working-class brothers, in the night, the midnight of capitalism. The soul of the working class in both these countries flashed response: “Brothers! Brothers! We understand!” The human race seemed to smile. The Swedish and the Norwegian soldiers mingled. These armed workers fraternized. Armed men embraced armed men. They shouted and wept—for joy.
They sneered at the frowns of their commanders. Proudly and promptly they refused to butcher and be butchered.[[328]]
That settled it. There was no war.
There can not be war unless the working class agree to it.
No working men were butchered, and the international misunderstanding had to be settled without opening the blood vessels of the toilers. For of course you know, reader, that the broadclothed capitalist snobs of these countries were too cowardly to fight the war themselves.
And now there are many more happy homes, happy wives, happy mothers and happy children in Norway and Sweden than there would have been if the humble working people of these two countries had permitted a precious lot of gilt-edged cowards to excite them and confuse them and then “sic” them at one another’s throats.
Fourth Event: Very recently, in 1906–7, the Socialist Party in Germany and France prevented war between Germany and France over the “Morocco affair.” This is admitted even by distinguished European enemies of the Socialist Party. This threatened war might easily have cost five hundred thousand lives—working-class lives—and five billions of treasure and desolated hundreds of thousands of homes and darkened both countries with an international hatred lasting half a century.
But the Socialists blocked the game.
Again and again in their International Congresses the Socialists have protested against war and militarism as being, for the working class, nothing but a burden and a curse.[[329]]
Political masters and industrial masters on all the earth—these recognize the Socialist Party as the Working-Class Political Party.[[330]]
You, my brother, should also recognize the Socialist Party as your own Working-Class Political Party.
Reread propositions numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, p. [300].
The outline of industrial reconstruction there given in the six propositions is the outline of the constructive platform and program of the working-class political party, the Socialist Party, everywhere.[[331]]
Because the Socialist Party recognizes and points out the clash of class interests in the present class-labor system;
Because the Socialist Party proposes industrial freedom for the working class;
Because the Socialist Party proposes the destruction of the class-labor system called capitalism;
Because the Socialist Party proposes that every person who renders useful social service shall have the value of his service—undiminished by the modern legalized forms of filching, namely, rent, interest and profits;
Because the Socialist Party proposes that the working class band together and save themselves;
For such reasons the Socialist Party is the Political Party of the Working Class.
The Socialists urge:
That no longer shall the workers whimper for the protecting wings of that strange political bird, that large male angel, called a “good man”;
That no longer shall the workers childishly accept the treacherous advice from political stalking horses, called “political reformers,” and “political saviors”;
That no longer shall the workers rest in dull dependence upon the advice of eager-to-be-elevated capitalist “leaders of the people”;
That no longer shall the workers go gullibly chasing after still-fed “statesmen” on election day;
That no longer shall the workers in stupid expectation meekly linger at the back door of legislative halls, teasing smooth, stall-fed capitalist “statesmen” for labor legislation;
That the workers band together and emancipate themselves from war, from the wholesale robbery, tyranny and blood-letting of Capitalism.
With heads and hearts and hopes together the working class should read together, study together, reason together, band together, struggle together, and altogether in a political party of the working class stand together and vote together and capture the power of government for the freedom and protection of the working class.
Let us respect our own working class.
Let us have faith in our own working class.
Let us protect ourselves.
“Let us get up off our knees—and our masters won’t seem so tall.”
Down with industrial despotism and its wars!
Up with industrial democracy and its peace!
(Before reading the following paragraphs examine last four Pages of Chapter Six, paragraph headed: “A Special Warning to the Working Class of the United States.”)
One more word here:
Brothers, beware!
With pride and defiance hold up your heads—and think.
Prepare to say: “WE REFUSE.”
Beware. Another war is brewing.
“Another war is necessary!”—your betrayers will presently tell you.
True! From the capitalist’s point of view another war will, indeed, presently be necessary; another war becomes more and more imperatively necessary—and for a new and increasing reason.
The much plundered working people are beginning to think. Thought is revolutionary. A thought is a file, a keen saw, with which a soul may escape from the gloomy dungeon of prejudice. Thought is intellectual nitroglycerine for blasting the flinty mountains of prejudice. Thought utterly destroys mental rubbish. Thought kills what ought to die. Thinking slaves promptly become defiant and dare to do for freedom. Thought kills—kills slavery.
Thought, however, can still be prevented. Even the splendid thought of peace and freedom can still be strangled in a wild delirium called “patriotic” war. Hence every purchasable educated human thing with influence must play its prostitute part in resurrecting and perpetuating the ferocious thirst for war.
For capitalist purposes another war is necessary.
Therefore strangle brotherliness.
Therefore stifle man’s grand sweet dream of peace.
A fat living of domineering idleness for industrial pirates and their pampered pets and shameless hangers-on is not much longer possible, unless the masters as usual can set the working people clutching at one another’s throats, draining one another’s sweat and blood in a hateful spasm of international epilepsy called “patriotic” war.
Therefore drug the working people.
Therefore read again to the weary multitude the goriest pages of history, and declare to them that an act must be soaked in a brother’s blood before it is magnificent. The people must lust again for another savage storm of stupid wrath called war.
Therefore we see the war-flag of capitalism shrewdly waved before the bulging, easily inflamed eyes of the multitude: “Good fighters—war”; “young men not only willing, but anxious to fight—war”; “heroes, heroes—war”; “glory, military glory—war”; “noble, noble soldiers—war”; “ours the most improved arms in the world—war”; “greatest navy on earth—war”; “splendid victories—war”; “better militia—larger army—war”; “our national honor—war”; “we never surrender—war”; “America in the Orient—war”; “we must defend our foreign markets—war”; “see the brave boys behind the guns—war”; “send the fleets around the earth and dare the world to war”; “we are all ready for war, war, war”;—over and over this oratorical flag, this Christless vocabulary of blood-spilling cruelty, on and on, year after year—till these disgusting phrases steam in memory with the spurting blood of the long-mourned slain.
Another war is necessary.
Therefore fill the trenches with the carcasses of citizens and with fixed bayonets march on—on—on to noisy glory, on to the red madness of the brutal battlefield. This is the pagan text of literary and oratorical hirelings before a nation of Christians and peaceful Jews; this is the loveless refrain bellowed before blushing school girls; this is the Alexandrian slogan before excitable, impressible boys; this is the gore-stained banner to be gallantly flaunted on holidays before the tear-wet eyes of the sad old widows and the hobbling cripples of the Civil War; this is the race-cursing call to ninety millions of people sick of stupidly disputing with sword and cannon, longing to embrace one another in caressing fraternalism. Hideous echoes of the cruel voice of Caesar, savage whoop from the tomb of Napoleon, the assassin of France, barbarous yell from the war-cursed plains of the long, long ago—this—yes, this is the sublime height reached by the average orthodox teacher and preacher of patriotism.
And from all parts of this thinly veiled despotism of foxy, industrial tsars, comes enthusiastic approval of all such teaching;—approval from the profit-stuffed leeches whose pouting lips suck and tug at the veins of the toiling multitude; approval from the supercilious snobs at Palm Beach, Newport and Monte Carlo; approval from the editorial intellectual prostitutes of a subsidized press; approval from the “leading citizens” that roll contemptuously along carefully smoothed streets in rubber-tired carriages and from those who sneer through the palace car windows at the common “hired hands” who man the trains and keep the track in repair; approval from the masters who own the mills and mines and stick out their tongues in scorn at the hundreds of thousands out of work or on strike for a few cents more a day; approval from the “great business men” who search the earth for markets for goods produced by the sweating wage-slaves shrewdly kept too poor to buy what their own weary minds and their puffed and blistered hands create; and, saddest of all, approval from the millions of shame-faced wage-earners viciously seduced with ironically empty “prosperity” phrases, chloroformed with pompous military rhetoric, stupefied with the proud strut and cheap swagger of “prominent” and “cultivated” vulgarians—yes, approval also from these modest modern slaves through whose veins seems to slip the inherited taint of long, low-bowing servitude.
Another war is “necessary.”
Therefore from Mississippi to Minnesota and from Florida to Oregon there is a wide-grinning chuckle of lip-smacking satisfaction in the palaces and club-houses of America’s industrial masters when the easily deceived multitude clap their calloused palms in thoughtless approval as the bribed orator makes fierce visaged War stalk with hypnotic fascination across the stage before the plain deludable people. The people’s delight in arms is thus artfully deepened;—and thus and therefore both the walls of prejudice and the defiant fortresses of glittering steel—behind which the gorged masters of the multitude have for ages fattened and threatened in security—these fortresses of prejudice and force are with increasing diligence made stronger with every possible opportunity, made stronger by every possible means.
Another war?
Expect it and prepare for it by resolving not to go to the next war till the bankers and statesmen have been bleeding on the firing line for at least six weeks.
Yes—yes, it is true that the employers’ fortress of riot-guns is still strong, defiantly strong. No doubt the rent-interest-and-profit game, the game of gouge and grab and keep, will be played securely yet a while by the plunder-bloated masters of our great and glorious country. Undoubtedly millions of our thoughtless young working class men are still ready for plutocratic Senators and Congressmen and uncrowned cruelty in the White House to craftily yell: “Sic ’em, boys, sic ’em.”
But light breaks.
Everywhere, every day the toilers of the world listen—listen more respectfully, listen more intelligently, listen more gratefully to the glad new gospel of justice and peace.
The change comes and come it must. That cruel spell wrought over the mind of the multitude by the bribed orator, by the purchased writer, by the blood-lusting “man on horseback,” and by the far-looking masters of industry—that spell will be, must be, broken. The iron shackles on the wrists and ankles of the toilers have already been broken. The wage-slaves’ shackles also must be rended, not only the industrial, but the mental slavery of the modern workers must be destroyed.
And comes now swiftly forward that soft-toned, but all-conquering gospel of peace and freedom—freedom for the dumb, voiceless multitude, now deadened with the deafening roar of machinery, deadened with the stifling dust and withering heat of the mills, deadened with the poisonous gases in the mines, freedom for the multitude soon to be glad, happy, loving, laughing in the commonwealth of cooperation, of mutualism, of fraternalism—of Socialism.
Courage, courage. Put the strong shoulders of your twelve million ballots to the “stalled world’s wheel” and push. Strike. March. Dawn-ward toward peace.
Know this, you toil-tormented horde: That shrewd juggler’s word war—word with which the swinishly selfish masters have for ages seduced the gullible multitude into the ditches across which those same masters have then rolled on sneering, snickering and safe, that spell-working word reeking with the blood-rotting stench of centuries, that word war and all that that word war now stands for must be stricken from the language of brothers, struck from the affairs of mankind,—forgotten forever—forever replaced by the sweetening peace and the sane abiding power of warless Socialism.
Brothers of the working class, wherever you are on all the earth, let us all say, altogether:
Peace is patriotism to mankind.
We do not want other people’s blood and we refuse to waste our own.
For thousands of years the ruling class have bled us pale. All cannon have always been aimed at us—by us.
We did not see. Our eyes were blinded with our own blood; our minds were paralyzed with lies.
But now we see. Now we understand. And therefore now we stand erect in self-respect. Now in sincere fellowship we extend the right hand of brotherhood to all the working men—and to all the women and to all the children—of the whole world; and to all these we promise:
We will not fight.
We refuse to plunge bayonets into one another’s breasts.
We refuse to slay the fathers of tender children.
We refuse to murder the brothers and lovers of women.
We refuse to butcher the husbands of devoted wives.
We refuse to “Hurrah” over victories that break the heart and blind the world with tears.
We refuse the cheap rôle of Armed Guard—as the salaried assassins in the service of the plunder-bloated coward ruling class.
If the masters want blood let them cut their own throats.
CHAPTER ELEVEN.
A Short Lesson in the History of the Working Class.
(A very careful distinction should always be made between those who abuse and those who nobly use great offices and powers.)
“We have repeatedly pointed out that every social institution weaves a protecting integument of glossy idealization about itself like a colony of caterpillars in an apple-tree. For instance, wherever militarism rules, war is idealized by monuments and paintings, poetry and song. The stench of the hospitals and the maggots of the battlefield are passed in silence, and the imagination of the people is filled with waving plumes and the shout of charging columns.”—Professor Walter Rauschenbusch, Rochester Theological Seminary.[[332]]
Knowledge of the history of the working class, which includes the history of war, will cement the workers inseparably together—socially, industrially and politically, and will thus many times multiply their power for self-defense.
When the working class understand the history of the working class, a bronze monument erected in honor of a great general will look to the workers like a vote of thanks to the Superintendent of Hell, and an ornamental cannon in a public park will look like a viper on a banquet table spread for a feast of brothers.
In the public schools of the world the history of the working class is almost wholly neglected. No text-book gives the facts, and no teacher is permitted to tell the truth—clearly—about the martyrdom of labor since the dawn of class-form, “civilized” society. The union labor men and women of the world could with great advantage to the working class devote a few thousand dollars for the expense of a five-hundred-page book summarizing: The History of Labor—The Tragedy of Toil.
(At this point please reread first two pages of the preface of the present volume.)
The following pages are offered as suggestions for a half-hour lesson chiefly on the origin of the working class. It is suggested to the working class reader that he teach this lesson to the children of his family and of his neighborhood.
Now, no living thing can be understood without a study of its history, and the study of the history of a living thing requires special attention to the origin of the thing studied. The working class are a living reality, and in order to understand themselves the working class must study their class history—with the very special attention to their origin as a class.
Long, long ago—thousands of years ago—our ancestors lived in tribes. These tribes grew, expanded till finally the pressure of population forced the tribes to enlarge their territories; and thus the tribes trespassed—aggressed upon one another’s territory.
This caused wars—intertribal wars.
This was the origin of war.
This led to the opening of hell—for the workers.
After a while a working class arose—and began to fall into hell. Here is the way it came about:
For a long time in these intertribal wars it was the practice to take no prisoners (except the younger women), but to kill, kill, kill, because the conquerors had no use for the captive men. When, however, society had developed industrially to a stage enabling the victors to make use of live men as work animals, that new industrial condition produced a new idea—one of the greatest and most revolutionary ideas that ever flashed in the human brain; and that idea was simply this:—A live man is worth more than a dead one, if you can make use of him as a work animal. When industrially it became practicable for the conquerors to make use of live men captured in war, it rapidly became the custom to take prisoners, save them alive, beat them into submission—tame them—and thus have them for work animals, human work animals.
Here the human ox, yoked to the burdens of the world, started through the centuries, centuries sad with tears and red with blood and fire.
Thus originated a class of workers, the working class.
Thus also originated the ruling class. Thus originated the “leading citizens.”
Thus, originally, in war, the workers fell into the bottomless gulf of misery. It was thus that war opened wide the devouring jaws of hell for the workers.
Thus was human society long ago divided into industrial classes,—into two industrial classes.
Of course the interests of these two classes were in fundamental conflict, and thus originated the class struggle.
Of course the ruling class were in complete possession and control of all the powers of government—and of course they had sense enough to use the powers of government to defend their own class interests.
Of course the ruling class made all the laws and controlled all institutions in the interest of the ruling class—naturally.
Of course the ruling class socially despised the slaves—that is, despised the working class; this “upper” class felt contempt for the “lower” class—naturally; and thus originated the social degradation, the social stigma that still sticks to the working class, so clearly clings to the workers that, for example, the banker’s daughter does not marry the wage-earning carpenter; the mine-owner’s son does not marry the wage-earning house-maid; the rank and file of union labor are not welcome in the palatial parlors and ball-rooms where the “very best people” are sipping the best champagne and are rhythmically hugging themselves in the dance; the servants, both white and black, in a high-grade (high class, “upper” class) hotel are not even permitted to take a drink of water at the guests’ water fountain tho’ the guest-list may include scores of blasé old reprobates, scores of polygamous parasites, scores of the most infamous, dollar-lusting, law-breaking disreputables in the world. The working class are indeed even yet openly or secretly despised socially by their “betters.”
It was thus and there and then that, long ago, in war, originated the first class-labor form of society, the institution called slavery.[[333]] A class of despised human work animals and a class of domineering masters thus appeared; and these two classes developed, this METHOD OF PRODUCTION developed, to such vast proportions that this CLASS-labor system became the FUNDAMENTAL THING IN THE INDUSTRIAL STRUCTURE OF SOCIETY. It was in this manner that, long ago, one part of society climbed upon the shoulders of the other part of society and became parasites, social parasites, and as a class sunk their parasitic beaks into the industrial flesh of those who had become a working class. (Reread carefully the three quotations at the head of Chapter Ten. They are specially important.)
Of course the industrial blood of the workers tasted good to the masters—that is to say, the more work the slaves did the less work the masters had to do,—and that was lovely, for the masters, for the “leading citizens.” The “leading citizens” knew they had a bright idea—just like a “leading citizen’s” idea of course. The new idea became popular, extremely so—of course. The “leading citizens” were so pleased—with themselves and their “brainy” idea. They were “superior” people—their idea proved that, of course. At that point in human history a ruling class began to flatter themselves and talk in a loud and handsome manner about “the best people,” “the right to ride inferior people,” “the progressive, enterprising part of society,” and so forth. The “leading citizens” knew very well that they had a “good thing”—for the “leading citizens,” for the upper class who thus became so very pleasantly located as an upper class—that is, upon the industrial shoulders of the “lower class,” the working class. (Note carefully the quotation from Dr. Ward at Head of Chapter Ten.)
Very naturally the ruling class at once busied themselves promoting and protecting their new class-work plan, their new idea. The idea was their idea and it was such a splendid idea. Indeed slavery was such a perfectly delightful idea—for the rulers—that, being “gentlemen of push and enterprise,” they eagerly studied the problem of developing ways and means of extending their new advantage. They thought. They planned—to manage the new human mule.
Their first idea was—force.
Kick the mule—and rule.
An institution, an armed guard, was, therefore, promptly organized for holding down the slaves, the “lower class,” by force,—to hold the toilers, as it were, by the wrists. But an armed guard was expensive, and it was expensive simply because one armed guard could not hold many slaves to their tasks—by force. Now, the ancient slave-holding ruling class, like the modern capitalist ruling class, were, of course, eager to “reduce expenses and increase efficiency.” Thus the rulers had another idea, a big bright idea. Mark well the masters.
Their second idea was—fraud.
Fool the mule—and rule.
The brilliant idea of using fraud in ruling slaves, that is, in ruling the working class, was simply this: to have an unarmed guard teach the human horse to “stand hitched,” as it were, or, rather, to work like a trained horse without requiring an armed driver to whip him, to force him to his tasks. This unarmed guard was to hold the workers to their tasks by getting a grip on their minds, on their brains, rather than on their wrists.
This was more “refined.”
This was also much cheaper. This method has always been cheaper. It is cheaper for this reason: One unarmed deceiver acting as a guard by holding the mind, the brain, of the workers, can hold to their tasks hundreds of times as many as one armed guard can hold by force. This was a most happy idea—for the ruling class.
A new era opened.
The ruler smiled at the deceiver. The deceiver smiled at the ruler. They understood—each other, and agreed upon “the best interests of society.”
Precisely so.[[334]]
Here originated the vile rôle of the intellectual prostitute, the cheap part of the chloroformer of the working class, the contemptible business of the professional palaverer. Here, right at this point in human history, the perfumed intellectual prostitute joined the blood-stained soldier,—in the ruler’s service of holding down the robbed and ruined working class. The palaverer taught the toil-cursed workers to be obedient and grateful and humble and meek and lowly and contented, to “forget it” that they have poverty here and keep in mind that “it will be all right over there”—“up above” (over in behind beyond the stars) where they will be “richly rewarded, in the sweet bye and bye, for all their sufferings in this world”; taught them that they should not be “resentful,” but “in patience bear all sufferings,”—bear even the agony of having their daughters raped by rulers, and their sons run through with spears.
Thus the toiler was kept in his “proper place” (at work) by the soldier and the palaverer, compelling and cajoling the domesticated human work animal.
They held him fast.
One seized his wrists, the other seized his reason; one used force, the other used fraud; one used a lash, the other used a lure; one used a club, the other used chloroform; one frowned threateningly, the other smiled seductively. With curses and cunning these two have taught the toiler LAW AND ORDER—THE LAW AND THE ORDER MADE BY THE MASTERS FOR THE MASTERS.
Both guards were “necessary”—in the business of robbing the working class. Both have served the ruling class long and well. Through the long sad centuries these three, the ruler and his two “standbys,” the soldier and the palaverer, have ridden the human beast of burden, the working class. The mailed fist of the hired assassin and the soft voice of the bribed palaverer have held the worker utterly helpless while the ruler robbed him.
Both guards have been rewarded—with provender and flattery, with pelf and popularity. The whipper and the wheedler of the toiler, the slayer and the seducer of the working class, have been the specially petted patriots whose ignoble rôle has been to help defend the class-labor system.
The workers have been kicked and tricked for ten thousand years, but chiefly tricked, betrayed into helpless consent and stupid approval. The more fraud the less force.
Undoubtedly far more important than the physical conquest over the working class was the conquest over the mind of the working class. Undoubtedly the idea of teaching the slave to be a slave and to be satisfied with slavery and thus make the slave, the serf, the wage-earner, an AUTOMATIC human ox to bear and draw the burdens of the world in brainless obedience and dull humility—undoubtedly that idea has done more solid service in the successes of injustice than any other idea ever born in the brain of tyrants.
The ruling class have always carefully secured the services of many of the world’s ablest men to play Judas to the carpenters—to the working class. Profound men, gifted men, trained men, eloquent men, enjoying the world’s choicest food, blissfully happy with the world’s finest wine, living in homes of comfort and splendor, dressed in softest raiment, many of these have traduced the slave, the serf and the wage-earner without shame. Tho’ the splendid Christ said: “The truth shall make you free,” these Judases have taught the working class that learning is a useless or an evil thing for the working people;[[335]] that the toilers’ poverty is the will of God, that unrewarded toil in this world would reap a “specially rich reward beyond the grave.” These paid and powerful human things, palavering about the “dignity of honest toil,” palavering about the “joy of the hope of good things beyond” (always beyond)—these themselves have been practical and careful to take cash-down-good-things for their collect-on-delivery services, careful to take a rich and prompt reward here and now in this world, while at the very same time they were advising and urging the slave, the serf, and the wage-earner to accept unsigned cheques payable in heaven.
Always this for the worker: “Your turn will come next”—that is, in the next world.
Following this vanishing lure, hundreds of millions of toilers have, as it were, walked barefoot on broken glass and lain down in their beds of misery mentally paralyzed on the subject of justice. Hundreds of millions of toilers have not only accepted these teachings; but, saddest of all, have been tricked into teaching these same things to their children.
Thus it was that almost the entire working class were tamed and trained for many centuries into spineless meekness, into the docility of humility—helpless—policed by prejudice and fear founded on shrewdly perpetuated ignorance.
“Slaves, obey your masters,” has been taught in a thousand ways for ten thousand years by the stuffed prophets for the profit-stuffed rulers of the robbed and ruined workers of the world.
This perhaps will make it somewhat easier to understand the present intellectual condition of the working class. It thus becomes easier to understand why the workers were taught (and are taught now) to be “satisfied with their lot,” taught the “identity and harmony of interests of capital and labor.” This explains the meekness of the multitude, the docility of the majority, and their political modesty.
Sheepish meekness, self-contempt and prideless obedience long ago took the place of defiant and splendid rebellious self-respect—in the character and the thinking of the working class.
In every possible way the shackles have been riveted to the wrists and brains of the working class—what for?—in order to perpetuate the class-labor system. Under slavery, under serfdom and under capitalism, laws, constitutions, customs, religious teachings, secular teachings, and all the social institutions have been shrewdly conformed or adjusted to THE PREVAILING METHOD OF PRODUCTION for the PROTECTION of that method of production in order thus to SUPPORT THE CLASS who, in the struggle for existence, have had GROSSLY UNFAIR ADVANTAGE BY MEANS OF THAT METHOD OF PRODUCTION.[[336]]
Ferocious wrongs were studiously developed into vast institutions. For example, man-stealing and slave-breeding became the chief business of the mightiest of the ancient pagan societies, the Roman Empire, and was also a flourishing enterprise under the most highly developed modern Christian societies, the British Empire and the American Republic. Christian Queen Anne, of England, unrebuked by her “spiritual adviser,” was a pious stockholder in a slave-hunting corporation composed of prominent and pious Christian ladies and gentlemen.[[337]] The Christian churches, colleges, newspapers, of the United States not long ago, North and South, were almost unanimous in their eloquent and pious defense of human slavery.[[338]] The business was eminently respectable, the business of legally (and piously) sucking the industrial blood out of one’s fellowmen—living like a parasite,—the business of producing nothing and living upon the results of the worker’s labor-power.
Thus keep in mind:[[339]]
(1) The origin of the working class,
(2) The origin of the first class-labor system,
(3) The origin of the class struggle,
(4) The origin of the social degradation, the socially “down-and-out” condition, the loss of social standing—of the working class people,
(5) The origin and growth of the humility of the working class, of the sheepish meekness of the working class, the meekness which today shows itself in the politics of most working men—always suspecting and despising their own working-class political party, always in our day tagging along after some smooth, well-dressed crook candidates on capitalist class party tickets.
(6) The perpetuation of ignorance—in the working class.
(7) The origin of the intellectual prostitute, the moral emasculate.
Now, help your satisfied fellow worker, help him understand why he is satisfied.
Without malice, without anti-culture prejudice, without anti-religious hatred, without anti-church spite, but with knowledge of the naturalness of human behavior domineered by economic necessity, with knowledge of the great historical process, with your vision clear, your heart kind, your courage high, and your purpose fraternal—explain, explain this matter of meekness to your humble, contented wage-slave neighbor. Explain: That long ago the working man was forced and taught to be docile and meek. Under slavery, later under serfdom and still later under capitalism—for thousands of years—he industrially, socially, and politically surrendered. He was compelled to do so. He was taught to do so.
He got the habit.
He had the manhood and the courage beaten out of him, kicked out of him—and coaxed out of him.
He lost heart.
He humbly took his place—as a chattel-slave class, as a serf-slave class, as a wage-slave class.
He has produced wealth.
He has reproduced slaves.
The wings of his aspiration have been clipped. He can hope no higher than a job—for himself. He hopes no higher than a job—for his children.
The top of the plans of his life is—toil.
And therefore even now as a wage-slave he teaches his own children to “respect their betters”—their employer masters.
He forgets.
He is so cringingly grateful for a job that he forgets he should have not only the right to breathe the air, the right to look at the sun, the right to read in the library, the right to walk on the highway, and the right to sit in the park,—but also the right to work, the right to work unrobbed, the right to work under dignifying conditions, and thus maintain himself on this earth at the upmost levels of life, enjoying the full result of his applied labor power,—and without whining for permission to do so.
He forgets.
He is still so very humble.
He is, under the wage-system, forced to obey orders all his life in the factory, the shop and the mine. He is thus habitually so obedient that he will obey any order. He prides himself on his obedience. Under orders he will even plunge a bayonet into the breast of his fellow workers—in the interest of the capitalist class. He forgets the thousand wrongs thrust into his weary life and into the life of his class.
He does indeed forget.
He is still in a dull, dumb slumber.
But he is beginning to rouse from the slumber of meekness—from the social damnation of brainless obedience.
He is beginning to study the history of his own working class; and therefore he is rousing, waking, rising.
Following are some additional short paragraphs on the history of the working class from books by distinguished writers and teachers. It is hoped that these quoted paragraphs will induce further working class study of working class history. These passages confirm the main points of this lesson. (See Chapter Twelve, Suggestion 4.)
Professor Lester F. Ward (Brown University):[[340]]
“Still, the world has never reached a stage where the physical and temporal interests have not been largely in the ascendant, and it is these upon which the economists have established their science. Self-preservation has always been the first law of nature and that which best insures this is the greatest gain.... All considerations of pride or self-respect will give way to the imperious law of the greatest gain for the least effort. All notions of justice which would prompt the giving of an equivalent vanish before it....”
Thus wrote Sir Henry Maine:[[341]]
“The simple wish to use the bodily powers of another person, as a means of ministering to one’s own ease or pleasure, is doubtless the foundation of slavery.”
And thus Professor W. G. Sumner (Yale University):[[342]]
“The desire to get ease or other good by the labor of another and the incidental gratification to vanity seem to be the fundamental principles of slavery, when philosophically regarded, after the rule of one man over others has become established.... It appears that slavery began historically with the war captive, if he or she was not put to death, as he was liable to be by the laws of war.... It seems to be established that it [slavery] began where the economic system was such that there was gain in making a slave of a war captive, instead of killing him.... The defeated [in war] were forced to it [slavery] and learned to submit to it.... It seemed to be good fun, as well as wise policy, to make the members of a rival out-group do these tasks, after defeating them in war.... Inasmuch as slavery springs from greed and vanity, it appeals to primary motives and is at once entwined with selfishness and other fundamental vices.... It rises to an interest which overrules everything else.... The motive of slavery is base and cruel from the beginning.... The interests normally control life.... Slavery is an instinct which is sure to break over all restraints and correctives.... It is a kind of pitfall for civilization.”
Here are a few lines from Professors Ely and Wicker (University of Wisconsin, Department of Economics):[[343]]
“It follows from the need of larger territories [in the hunting stage] that war becomes an economic necessity wherever there is not an abundance of unoccupied land. This same condition of things gives us one of the causes of cannibalism. The pressure of increasing numbers bringing people continually to the verge of starvation, they fall, little by little, into the custom of eating enemies, taken in war.... Captives later came to be recognized as of use in serving their captors, and thus slavery succeeds cannibalism....
“The Origin of a Working Class. Perhaps the most important result of the change which produced the agricultural stage was the growth of slavery as an institution. As we have said, slavery had its beginnings in the preceding periods [hunting and pastoral], but it is only in the agricultural stage that it becomes an important, almost a fundamental, economic institution. Tending the herds did not call for persistent labor, but the prose of tilling the soil is undisguised work, and primitive men were not fond of work.... It is not strange then that they should have saved the lives of men conquered in battle with the design of putting upon them the tasks of tilling the soil.”
On the origin of slavery the eminent French sociologist, Gabriel Tarde, writes:[[344]]
“What do all our modern inventions amount to in comparison with this capital invention of domestication. This was the first decisive victory over animality. Now, of all historic events the greatest and most surprising is, unquestionably, the one which alone made history possible, the triumph of man over surrounding fauna [animals of the region].... To us the trained horse that is docile under the bit is merely a certain muscular force under our control.... The idea of reducing men to slavery, instead of killing and eating them, must have arisen after the idea of training animals instead of feeding on them, for the same reason that war against wild beasts must have preceded that against alien tribes. When man enslaved and domesticated his own kind, he substituted the idea of human beasts of burden for that of human prey.”
And this from Wallis:[[345]]
“But whatever its merits, the consideration of slavery introduces a much larger subject—the place of class relations in social development as a whole. In its material aspect, property in men is an institution by means of which one class of people appropriates the labor product of another class without economic repayment. This relation is brought about [also] by other institutions than slavery. For instance, if a class engross the land of a country and force the remainder of the population to pay rent, either in kind or in money, for the use of the soil, such a procedure issues, like slavery, in the absorption of labor products by an upper class without economic repayment.
“We have observed the origin of the social cleavage into upper and lower strata on this general basis at the inception of social development. If we scrutinize the field carefully, it is evident that one of the greatest and far reaching facts of ancient civilization, as it emerges from the darkness of prehistoric times, as well as one of the most considerable facts of subsequent history is just this cleavage into two principal classes.”
Herbert Spencer has written:[[346]]
“The sequence of slavery upon war in ancient times is shown us in the chronicle of all races....
“Ready obedience to a terrestrial ruler is naturally accompanied by ready obedience to a supposed celestial ruler; ... Examination discloses a relation between ecclesiastical and political governments ... and in societies which have developed a highly coercive secular rule there habitually exists a high coercive religious rule....
“The Clergy were not the men who urged the abolition of slavery, nor the men who condemned regulations which raised the price of bread to maintain rents. Ministers of religion do not as a body denounce the unjust aggression we continually commit on weaker societies.”
Dr. Ward writes:[[347]]
“Passing over robbery and theft, which, though prevalent everywhere, are not recognized by society, let us consider war for a moment as a non-industrial mode of acquisition. In modern times, most wars have some pretext besides that of aggrandizing the victorious parties engaged in them, although in nearly all cases this latter is the real casus belli [justification of war]. This shows that the world is so far advanced as to be ashamed of its motives for its conduct, but not enough so to affect that conduct materially. In olden times no secret was made of the object of military expeditions as the acquisition of the wealth of the conquered people.... We may regard war, then, strictly considered, as a mode of acquisition.... War, then, when waged for conquest, is simply robbery on so large a scale that in the crude conceptions of men it arouses the sentiments of honor.”
In Dealy and Ward’s Text Book of Sociology, pp. 86–88, is this luminous passage:
“The stage of race antagonism is reached and the era of war begins. The chase for animal food is converted into a chase for human flesh, and anthropophagous [cannibal] races arise, spreading terror in all directions.... The use of the bodies of the weaker races for food was, of course, the simplest form of exploitation to suggest itself. But this stage was succeeded by that social assimilation through conquest and subjugation. The profound inequality produced by subjugation was turned to account through other forms of exploitation. The women and the warriors were enslaved, and the system of caste that arose converted the conquered race into a virtually servile class, while this service and the exemptions it entailed converted the leaders of the conquering race into a leisure class.
“Such was the origin of slavery, an economic institution which is found in the earlier stages of all the historical races.”
The next selected paragraph is from Professor Simon Patten (University of Pennsylvania), Ex-President of the American Academy of Political and Social Science:[[348]]
“The human hordes turned upon each other, and their prowlings about the precarious supplies of food evolved in the course of time the ‘wars of civilization.’ There was little peace where nature was most productive, and the conquering populations of the better lands, governing and protecting by conquest, built up whole states on the traditions and practice of fighting.... Statesmen and philosophers set forth the necessity and beneficence of destruction. It was in such a world, where a man’s death was his neighbor’s gain, that OUR social institutions were grounded.... Predatory habits, which originated in the hunting of game, developed a zest for hunting men as soon as conquests and the possession of slaves made the agricultural resources of the valleys more desirable than those of the mountain or upland plain.... The contests evolved social institutions, which do perpetuate and conserve, and which do not improve, man’s adjustment to nature. Here arises the distinction between the social institutions ... and the economic institutions.... The former establish status and the rights of possession and exploitation; the other increase nobility of men and goods, promote industry, and give each generation renewed power to establish itself in closer relations with nature.
“The result of these conditions is two kinds of obstacles that hinder advance. On the one hand are the obstacles economic, maladjustments between man and nature, which forced men in the past to submit to a poverty they did not know how to escape; and on the other hand are the obstacles social which do not originate in nature, but in those past [social] conditions retaining present potency that have aligned men into antagonistic classes at home and into hostile races abroad. The economic obstacles are being slowly weakened by the application of knowledge, science and skill; but the social obstacles will never be overcome until an intellectual revolution shall have freed men’s minds from the stultifying social traditions that hand down hatreds, and shall have given to thought the freedom that now makes industrial activity. The extension of civilization downward does not depend at present so much upon gaining fresh victories over nature, as it does upon the demolishment of social obstacles which divide men into classes and prevent the universal democracy that unimpeded economic forces would bring about. The social status, properly determined by a man’s working capacity, has now intervened between him and his relations with nature until OPPORTUNITY, which should be impersonal and self-renewed at the birth of a man, has dwindled and become partisan.”[[349]]
Thus Professor Patten, tho’ a conservative and a nonsocialist, frankly points out the necessity of such social reorganization as will destroy the artificial barriers to equality of opportunity for each to secure an abundance. And it is certainly true, as Dr. Patten suggests, that we have arrived at that stage in our knowledge of nature and in our industrial evolution, which renders industrial reconstruction of society logically necessary—both to avoid war and to secure industrial justice and freedom for the working class.
Anent this matter one of America’s noblest and most scholarly women, Miss Jane Addams, writes as follows:[[350]]
“Existing commerce has long ago reached its international stage, but it has been the result of business aggression, and constantly appeals for military defense and for the forcing of new markets.... It has logically lent itself to warfare, and is indeed the modern representative of conquest. As its prototype rested upon slavery and vassalage, so this commerce is founded upon a contempt for the worker, and believes that he can live on low wages. It assumes that his legitimate wants are the animal ones, comprising merely food and shelter and the cost of its replacement.”
Frederic Harrison thus:[[351]]
“Within our social system there rages the struggle of classes, interests, and ambitions; the passion for wealth, the restlessness of want. The future of industry, the cause of education, social justice, the very life of the poor, all tremble in the balance in our own country, as in other countries; this way or that way will decide the well-being of generations to come.”
The wars of long ago originated because it was extremely difficult to get a living out of nature’s store-house of supplies—when men were ignorant of nature’s resources and ignorant of how to make nature yield abundantly. Those wars were due chiefly to ignorance of physical nature, due to our inability to get into right relations WITH PHYSICAL NATURE. But the wars of the present are carried on, and the wars of the future will be carried on, chiefly because of the following combination of circumstances:
(a) We have so much knowledge of nature’s forces and resources that it is easy, now, to get livings from nature’s store-house, easy to produce abundantly; and
(b) Under the wage-system the worker’s power to produce abundantly is so much greater than his permitted consuming power that the surplus product becomes so large as to make a foreign market, a world-market, necessary; and,
(c) Since many nations have reached and more nations are rapidly approaching this stage of development in production, yet still remain under the wage-and-profit plan of distribution, THE WORLD MARKET IS INSUFFICIENT FOR ALL OF THEM.
Hence there will be wars, if the working class permit them.
The future wars will be due chiefly to ignorance of social nature, due to our inability to get into right relations WITH ONE ANOTHER industrially.
War produced slavery, chattel slavery. Chattel slavery evolved into serf-slavery. Serf-slavery evolved into wage-slavery. And wage-slaves produce so much and are permitted to consume so small a proportion of what they produce, that the capitalists must order the wage-slaves to fight for a foreign market for what the wage-slaves produce and the capitalist employers do not consume or invest and the wage-slaves are not permitted to consume. War thus originated slavery and now slavery [wage-slavery] ends in war.
War, conflict, struggle, Antagonism is in the social structure wherever there is slavery.
Slavery is fundamentally unsocial—anti-social.
Now, the capitalist employer insists that the wage-earner and the employer are in proper relation to each other. The capitalist is satisfied to have had the first two class-labor forms of society (slavery and serfdom) pass away. But he accepts the present class-labor form of society (the wage-system) as correct; it is satisfactory—to him. And he craftily has it taught in the high schools, colleges and universities that the employer and the wage-earner are at present in proper relation to each other.
The capitalist enjoys his own freedom at the expense of the worker’s freedom.
He is eager to have the wage-earner believe that he too is free; and that, being free, he should be satisfied AND KEEP QUIET.
The capitalists explain that the wage-earners are free because the wage-earners have the privilege of making a contract, a contract to work for wages; that the wage-earners being thus at last free to make a contract, they have reached their final status, an ideal status; and that thus (Blessed be the Lord!) evolution has finally finished its great work—the work is done and well done.
Capitalists and the intellectual flunkies of the capitalist class do all possible to have the world believe the following proposition:
The evolution of human relations is finished—perfect—in industry; and, therefore, the wage-earners are foolish and ungrateful to be discontented, after having developed to their present stage of industrial freedom.
Following is a sample of the familiar soothing congratulation on our having reached the present noble form of industrial freedom and civilization. Professor Fairbanks (Yale University) writes thus:[[352]]
“When captives taken in war could be utilized for work instead of being destroyed or eaten, a genuine means of production was secured.... Feudalism marked a decided advance on slavery.... The serf had certain interests of his own, not wholly identical with his lord’s.... Then masters gradually learned that hired labor [the wage-system] was more profitable than forced labor, and the principle of serfdom, like that of slavery before it, had to give way to a higher form of organization for production [the wage-system]....
“The laborer [at present under the wage-system] is bound to his master by no tie except such as he voluntarily assumes.”
How frankly profits are admitted to have been the motive inspiring the origin of the wage-system.
And how entertainingly ridiculous is the last proposition quoted above. What cheap palavering about freedom. What clownish antics pleasing to the kings—the industrial kings. It certainly pleases the industrial Caesars to have the Professor turn intellectual somersaults to induce the wage-slave to smile sweetly and admire the slave-bands on his own wrists. Are not those bands plainly marked “Free”?
Notice that Professor Fairbanks uses the words “master” and “bound” in referring to the relation between the employer and the “free-contracting” wage-earner.
A free man does not voluntarily BIND himself to a master.
With the lash of hunger cutting him and the wolf of want at the throats of his wife and children, the “free-contracting” hired laborer, the wage-earner, promptly and voluntarily seeks an employer—“master,” and “voluntarily” “contracts” to produce a dollar’s worth of value for twenty or forty cents in wages and thus “voluntarily” degrades himself and thus “voluntarily” submits to have his wife and little children robbed of the abundant livings he wishes to provide for them. This is the freedom, the free contract, of the wage-system, the present (the third) form of class-labor system. This glorious freedom of the modern wage-slave is easily seen in the picture opposite the title-page of this book.
The “freedom” of the wage-earner in thus making a contract, with starvation behind him, vagrancy laws reaching for him, police, militia, soldiers, jails and bull-pens ready for him, this freedom is about as complete as that of a citizen facing an armed and threatening highwayman who commands, “Hands up!” The wage earner and the held-up citizen are free to comply, free to surrender and free to be robbed, and also free to decline and take the consequences—all “voluntarily” of course.
No one is free indeed till he is free in the most fundamental activity of life, the activity of getting a living.
In the evolution of mankind the worker has, in some parts of the world, secured:
Freedom to investigate,
Freedom of thought,
Freedom of assemblage,
Freedom of speech,
Freedom of the press,
Freedom of suffrage—for male workers,
Freedom of political party organization and association.
This indicates the stage at which we have arrived in the development of freedom for the working class. These preliminary forms of freedom are the means with which, if we have pride enough, we shall secure freedom indeed—freedom in getting a living, freedom from capitalist employers who, with soldiers and the lash of starvation, force us into wage contracts, freedom from the blue-blood social parasites who despise our common blood in social relations, suck our blood in industrial relations, and waste our blood in war.[[353]]
In the evolution of mankind the ancient free barbarian, taken prisoner in war, loudly and grandly protesting, became a chattel slave without any kind of freedom; the chattel slave became a serf without industrial freedom or any other kind in reality and completeness; the serf became a wage-earner, a wage-slave, without industrial freedom—that is, without the fundamental freedom, freedom in getting a living. However, in very recent times the wage-earner has come into the possession of several of those extremely important forms of freedom with which he can defend himself as soon as he has sufficient self-respect to do so.
Thus and therefore the QUESTION OF OUR DAY is this:
Are the working class proud and keen enough to use the freedom they have, to secure the freedom they need most—namely, freedom in industry, freedom in getting a living in a socialized society, a society with equality of opportunity for all, all of us with our feet firmly planted on the collectively owned industrial foundations of society, a society of rational Mutualism, with Justice, Plenty and Peace?
Reader, if you are with us in our peaceful struggle to win the world for the workers, start a fire—in your neighbor’s mind (if he has one)—hand him a torch, a torch of truth. Let us shake hands and fight—the enemy—with light.
With the truth we shall halt the galloping cavalry, silence the cannon, “ground arms,” and close the class struggle—in a co-operative commonwealth.
With a dollar’s worth of literature you can reach a hundred brains.
It is your move.
CHAPTER TWELVE.
More Suggestions and What to Read.
(1) Invite your pastor to preach against war, urge him to do so, and render him any assistance you can in the way of literature on war. Help get out an audience to hear the sermon. Urge others to do likewise.
(2) Inform your own children and other children concerning the class struggle and war, and urge them to talk about the class struggle and against war, at school. Teach them the cause of war. See also Chapter Eight, Section 20, and Index, “Recitations.” Rouse the children.
(3) Wherever possible—in colleges, high schools, labor unions, fraternal organizations, women’s clubs, churches, Sunday schools, at picnics, and so forth—have debates, declamations and essays on war. Help the debaters, writers and speakers, find literature on war, and, if possible, get the subject presented from a working-class point of view, showing especially the fundamental cause of war and what war always means for the working class. (See page [350], last two lines.)
(4) Have as many persons as possible call at your public library for books on war, and suggest books on war to be called for. Suggest books for purchase by your public library management. If the books you urge for the library are not purchased, discuss the reason. All the sociological works quoted in Chapter Eleven should be in your public library.
(5) Get articles and letters on war into your local newspapers and labor union journals.
(6) On the 30th of May, the 4th of July and other “great” days, when the blood-steaming praise of human butchery is poured forth by the noisy “patriotic” orators, pass around all possible literature helpful in counteracting the befouling suggestions commonly thrust into the minds of the people at such times. Chapter Two and other selections from War—What For? making an inexpensive sixteen-page booklet, may be had, printed separately, for such purpose.
It is possible to compel an entire community to think about the vast outrages against the working class. As long as the workers have the privilege of spreading the printed page, one of their highest pleasures and powers will be found in forcing society to consider the case of the working class. The first thing on the program in every community is to take the community by the shoulders, so to speak, and compel it to consider the most vital subject of the hour.
(7) A Ten-Dollar Cash Prize for the best essay or debate, or declamation on war as a phase of the class struggle by local school-children under eighteen years of age would create much interest in the vicious slaughter of men of the working class and in the new working class politics, if the proper literature were brought to the young people’s attention. See Chapter Eight, Section 20, Suggestion (7).
(8) It would be easy to make here a pretentious parade of a discouragingly long list of books on war. But War—What For? is primarily for the class of readers who are usually too busy in the present warlike struggle for existence to find time to read a roomful of books on war. However, it is hoped that the present volume may also have readers with opportunity to make extensive studies of the subject. Such readers will find abundant bibliographies already prepared. Excellent book lists for the student of war are as follows:
(a) The Political Science Quarterly, December, 1900: over 200 titles, at the close of an elaborate article of great worth, “War and Economics in History and in Theory,” by Edward Van Dyke Robinson.
(b) A pamphlet, International Peace, a list of Books with References to Periodicals: 600 titles with comment on contents, published by the Brooklyn Public Library, 1908.
(c) A well selected list of readings in The Arena, December, 1894.
Following is a list of pamphlets, magazine articles and books, directly or indirectly on the subject of social conflict, of which war is a phase. The list is short, tho’ sufficient, it is hoped, to make a helpful beginning, a short reading course, for any one who would understand the subject of social conflicts, that is, would understand, not the science of war, but the cause, the meaning and results of class struggles and war.
There is a vast amount of worthless, or worse than worthless, literature on war: worthless because of the writers’ neglect of the heart of the problem, namely, the industrial structure of all class-labor forms of society, with their unsocial purpose and method of production, resulting in the class struggle.
Whoever would understand war must give special attention: (1) to the economic interpretation of history; (2) to the class struggle, considered historically and currently; and (3) to surplus value, produced by the workers, but legally escaping from their control to the capitalist class—as a result of the institution of private ownership and private control of the collectively used means of production. The fact, the method, the purpose, and the result of the legal confiscation of that part of the world’s wealth which the workers produce and are not permitted to enjoy—must have careful study. In the light of such studies, national and international policies, politics and war can be understood. And as war is thus understood we can make rapid headway against war. Pretty little speeches and essays on the beauties of peace, with “please-be-good” perorations,—such efforts, however carefully prepared, tearfully punctuated, elegantly printed and prayerfully delivered, will result in—nothing. That is to say, occasional literary and oratorical snowballs ignorantly, gracefully and grammatically tossed in the direction of hell will have no effect on the general temperature of that warlike region. (See Index: “Another War,” “The Hague Peace Conference,” and “The Explanation.”)
A Reading Course.
In the following list of readings those indicated by parenthesis thus () would serve as a shorter course.
(1) Kautsky: The Capitalist Class; The Working Class; The Class Struggle; Ethics and the Materialistic Conception of History; and The Road to Power, Chapters 8 and 9.
(2) Simons: The Man Under the Machine, and Class Struggles in America.
(3) Marx: Wage-Labor and Capital; Marx and Engels: The Communist Manifesto.
(4) Massart and Vandervelde: Parasitism—Social and Organic.
(5) Myers: History of Great American Fortunes, entire work is an account of social parasitism in America; special references: Vol. II., pp. 127–38, 291–301; Chapters 11 and 12; Vol. III., pp. 160–176.
(6) Veblen: The Theory of the Leisure Class.
(7) Ross: Social Control; The Foundations of Sociology, pp. 219–23, 272–76; Social Psychology, Chapters on Suggestibility, The Crowd, and Mob Mind.
(8) L. F. Ward: Dynamic Sociology, Vol. I., pp. 565–597; Psychic Factors in Civilization, Chapters 33 and 38; Applied Sociology, pp. 224–295, 300–302, 307–313, 319–326; Pure Sociology, pp. 266–72; “Social Classes in the Light of Modern Sociological Theory,” American Journal of Sociology, March, 1908; Education and Progress, Address delivered before the “Plebs” League, Oxford, England, August 2, 1909.
9 W. G. Sumner: Folkways, Chapter 6.
(10) Morgan: Ancient Society, pp. V.-VIII.; Pt. I. Chs. 1–3; and all of Pt. IV.
(11) J. O. Ward: Ancient Lowly, Chapter—“Spartacus.”
12 Shoaf: The Story of the Mollie McGuires.
13 Hanford: The Labor War in Colorado.
14 ——: “Secret Army Guards New York Against a Traffic Strike,” New York Herald, Mag. Section, March 20, 1910.
(15) Debs: Class Conflict in Colorado.
(16) Wright, U. S. Commissioner of Labor: A Government Report on the Great Strike in Colorado.
17 Darrow: Speech to the Jury in the Haywood Case.
(18) Untermann: The Dick Militia Law (U. S., 1903).
19 Commons: “Is Class Conflict in America Growing and Is It Inevitable?” * * * Carver: “The Basis of Social Conflict”; * * * Keasby: “Competition.” American Journal of Sociology, March, 1908. See also Papers and Proceedings of the American Sociological Society, Vol. II., Special Topic: “Social Conflicts.”
20 Small: General Sociology, Chapters 26 and 27.
(21) Shaler: “The Natural History of War,” International Quarterly, Sept., 1903; also The Neighbor.
22 Ridpath: “Plutocracy and War,” Arena, Jan., 1898.
(23) Jordan: “The Biology of War,” an Address, Chicago, 1909, reported in Unity, June 10, 1909; Imperial Democracy, Chapters 1, 2, 3, and 7; The Human Harvest; The Blood of the Nation.
24 Chatterton-Hill: Heredity and Selection in Sociology, pp. 316–24. Thompson: Heredity, pp. 532–34.
(25) Jefferson: “The Peace-at-any-Price Men,” The Independent, Feb. 4, 1909; “The Delusions of the Militarist,” Atlantic Monthly, March, 1909.
(26) Charles Edward Russell: Why I Am a Socialist.
27 Tolstoi: Bethink Yourselves; Patriotism and Christianity, and Thou Shalt Not Kill.
(28) Robinson: “War and Economics in History and in Theory,” Political Science Quarterly, Dec., 1900.
(29) Ghent: Mass and Class.
(30) London: The War of the Classes; Revolution, Chapter, “The Yellow Peril”; also, “Revolution,” Contemporary Review, Jan., 1908.
(31) W. T. Mills: The Struggle for Existence, Chapters 4–23.
(32) Hillquit: Socialism in Theory and Practice, pp. 36–65, 153–167, 296–302.
(33) Spargo: Socialism, Chapters 4, 5, 6, and Common Sense of Socialism, Chapters 2–7.
(34) Ferri: Socialism and Modern Science, Chapter 7.
35 Seligman: The Economic Interpretation of History.
36 Boudin: The Theoretical System of Karl Marx, Chapters 1–5, 8–10.
37 Patten: “The Economic Causes of Moral Progress,” Annals of Amer. Soc. Pol. and Soc. Sci., Sept., 1892.
(38) Engels: The Origin of the Family, Property and the State, special attention to Chapters 8, 9; and Socialism—Utopian and Scientific.
(39) Hobson: The Evolution of Modern Capitalism; Imperialism, special attention to first six chapters; The Psychology of Jingoism; The War in South Africa, Part II.; and John Ruskin—Social Reformer, Chapters 3–8 inclusive, and Appendix 1.
40 Ferrero: Militarism.
41 Liebknecht: Militarismus und Anti-Militarismus.
42 Büchner: Industrial Evolution (Wickett’s translation), Chapters 4–5.
(43) Robinson and Beard: The Development of Modern Europe, Vol. II., Chapters 18, 30–31.
(44) Weale: The Coming Struggle in Asia, special attention to Parts II. and III.
45 ——: “Peace on Earth,” Public Opinion, Dec. 4, 1908, p. 635.
46 Schierbrand: America, Asia and the Pacific.
47 Harrison: National and Social Problems, Part I., Chapters 1, 6–11.
(48) Strong: Expansion, Chapters 2, 3, 4.
49 Bolce: The New Internationalism, Chapters 1–6 inclusive, and 15.
50 Fisk: International Commercial Policies, Chapters 13–16.
51 Reinsch: World Politics.
52 Asakawa: The Russo-Japanese Conflict.
53 Kennan: “The Military and Political Memoirs of General Kuropatkin,” McClure’s Magazine, Sept. 1908.
54 Smith: The Spirit of American Government, Chapters 4, 11, 12.
55 McCabe and Darien: Can We Disarm?
56 Carver: Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 132–73.
57 Jaurès: “Socialism and International Arbitration,” North American Review, Aug. 1908.
58 Broda: “The Federation of the World,” The International, July, 1908.
(59) Hervé: “Anti-Militarism,” The International, July, 1908; Anti-Patriotism; My Country—Right or Wrong.
60 Edmondson: John Bull’s Army from Within.
61 Mead: Patriotism and the New Internationalism.
62 Kampffmeyer: Changes in the Theory and Tactics of the (German) Social Democracy (Gaylord’s Translation), Chapter 3.
(63) Sombart: Socialism and the Socialist Movement (Epstein’s Translation), Sixth Enlarged Edition, pp. 175–223.
(64) Stoddard: The New Socialism, Chapters 14, 15.
(65) Campbell: Christianity and the Social Order, pp. 176–230.
66 Warner: The Ethics of Force.
67 Wallace: The Wonderful Century, Chapters 19, 20.
68 (Anonymous:) Arbeiter in Council.
(69) Walsh: The Moral Damage of War.
70 McLaren: Put Up Thy Sword.
(71) Bloch: The Future of War.
72 Molinari: The Society of Tomorrow.
73 Brooks: The Social Unrest, Chapter 6.
(74) Kim: Mind and Hand, Chapters 2, 17, 21, 22, 24.
(75) Seidel: Industrial Instruction.
(76) Eastman: Work-Accidents and the Law; Oliver: Dangerous Trades.
77 Addams: The Newer Ideals of Peace.
78 Anitchkow: War and Labor.
79 Cooley: Human Nature and the Social Order, Chapters 1, 3, 4, 7, 12.
80 Lloyd: Man the Social Creator, Chapters 1, 6, 11.
81 Kropotkin: Mutual Aid.
82 Bellamy: Equality, Chapters 22–27 and first half of 33.
83 Henry George: Progress and Poverty, Book 10, Chapter 3.
84 Amos: Political and Legal Remedies for War, Chapters 1, 2.
85 Charles Sumner: Addresses on War.
86 Fiske: The Destiny of Man.
87 Kelly: Government and Human Evolution, Vol. II.
(88) Barry: Siege of Port Arthur—A Monster Heroism.
(89) Sakurai: Human Bullets.
(90) Von Suttner: Lay Down Your Arms.
(91) Andreief: The Red Laugh.
(92) Zola: The Downfall.
(93) Wells: The War in the Air.
94 Channing: Lectures on War.
(95) Hugo: Les Misérables—the Battle of Waterloo; also William Shakespeare, Anderson’s translation, pp. 294–312, 341–48, 384–95.
96 Sienkiewicz: With Fire and Sword.
(97) Crosby: Captain Jinks—Hero, and Swords and Ploughshares.
98 Mr. Dooley: In Peace and War.
99 Kipling: Barrack-Room Ballads—“Tommy.”
100 Mrs. Browning: Mother and Poet.
The various “peace societies” have published considerable literature on war and peace—in most cases with good intentions, no doubt. However, there could be no peace between a chattel slave and a chattel slave’s master; nor can there be peace between a wage-slave and a wage-slave’s employer—if the wage-slave be awake; nor between the wage-slave class and the capitalist class. Until “peace societies” cry out against capitalism,—the heart of which is the wage-system,—until then their literature will be discouragingly ineffective.
Reread first page of Chapter Nine, paragraph beginning “The cash cost of militarism.”
The one war sublime is: Light against Darkness.
The printing press is the machine-gun for the slaves against slavery.
It is a high privilege to make a human brain ferment—with facts.
THE END.
[1]. Reports of the Department of War for the years 1907, ’08, ’09, pp. 17, 21, and 18 respectively. The Reports of the Secretaries of War include no losses by suicide from 1901 to 1906 inclusive. The suicide record reported by the Secretaries of War for 1907, ’08, ’09, are: 1, 26, 39 respectively. Fifty-eight per cent. of all desertions in 1906 were desertions by men (boys) in their first year of service; over half of these in first half year of their service. See Index: “Desertions.”
[2]. The present wholly unpretentious book has a distinct purpose (announced in the Preface and also on this page), and has, too, it is hoped, an effective plan and method for the realization of that purpose. Readers in search of conventionally elaborated theses on war are referred, for suggestions, to Chapter Twelve, Sections 8 and 9.
[3]. “An’ you’ll die like a fool of a soldier.
Fool, fool, fool of a soldier.”—Rudyard Kipling: “The Young British Soldier,” in Ballads.
[4]. Andreief: The Red Laugh, passim. (Russian-Japanese War literature. Published by J. Fisher Unwin, London.)
[5]. See Chapter Seven (“For Father and the Boys”), Sections 14, 15, 16—“Were not some of the rich men of today soldiers at one time?”
[6]. The Foundations of Sociology, pp. 220–221.
[7]. See New York World, Nov. 21, 1909. Also Chapter Eight, Section 16.
[8]. Excellent English translation published by The Macmillan Company, New York. Excerpt printed with kind permission of publishers.
[9]. In Chapter Five, “Hell,” Section 1, “Modern Murdering Machinery,” is plenty of proof that since the war of 1870–71 the slaughtering equipment has been improved horribly—more than a hundredfold. See Index: “Franco-Prussian War.”
[10]. On the historical origin of war and of the working class, see Chapter Eleven.
[11]. “The modern newspaper is a Roman arena, a Spanish bull-fight and an English prize fight rolled into one. The popularization of the power to read has made the press the chief instrument of brutality. For a half penny every man, woman and child can stimulate and feed those lusts of blood and physical cruelty which it is the chief aim of civilization to repress and which in their literal modes of realization have been assigned ... to soldiers, butchers, sportsmen, and a few other trained professions.... The most momentous lesson of the [Boer] war is its revelation of the methods by which a knot of men, financiers and politicians can capture the mind of the nation, arouse its passion and impose a policy.”—John A. Hobson: The Psychology of Jingoism, pp. 29 and 107.
“The Bourses [the European Wall Streets] of the West have made Cairo and Alexandria hunting-grounds for their speculation. Their class owns or influences half the Press of Europe. It influences, and sometimes makes, half the Governments of Europe.”—Frederic Harrison: National and Social Problems, p. 208. See also John Bascom: Social Theories, pp. 100–116; and W. J. Ghent: Our Benevolent Feudalism, Chapter 7.
[12]. Census Report, 1900. Vol. II., p. cxcii.
[13]. The Meaning of the Times, p. 131.
[14]. The Development of the European Nations, 1870–1900, Vol. II., p. 333.
[15]. The Federalist, Number 4. (The numbering of The Federalist papers varies slightly in different editions.)
[16]. The Federalist, Number 6.
[17]. The Theory of Prosperity, p. 4.
[18]. Editorial, Oct. 13, 1909.
[19]. May 5, 1909, Chicago, Illinois, at banquet given by the Chicago Association of Commerce; Press reports.
[20]. Lester F. Ward, Dynamic Sociology, Vol. I., p. 582.
[21]. Sociology and Social Progress, p. 170. Emphasis mine.—G. R. K.
[22]. See Index: “Recruiting.”
[23]. For excellent example, see Chapter VI: “Tricked to the Trenches—Then Snubbed,” Fifth Illustration.
[24]. W. E. Lecky: The Map of Life, pp. 153–54.
[25]. Biglow Papers.
[26]. Lecture on Voltaire.
[27]. “I want for soldiers young men not only willing but anxious to fight,”—that foul and savage saying is one of the choice mouthings of Theodore Roosevelt, in a public address in which that cheap, distinguished and much flattered Noise disgraced the office of President of the American “Republic.”
[28]. See Chapter Five, Section Two; Chapter Eight, Section 11; also Index: “Disease in the Army.”
[29]. Chatterton-Hill: Heredity and Selection in Sociology, pp. 320–22.
[30]. Annual Report of the Secretary of War, 1907, p. 17.
[31]. Annual Report of the Secretary of War, 1909, p. 17. Emphasis mine. G. R. K.
[32]. Quoted by Elbert Hubbard in Health and Wealth. See New Age, Aug. 5, 1909.
[33]. See also President D. S. Jordan’s brilliant sociological studies of war, references in Chapter XII. of present volume. Of some interest are Victor Hugo’s estimates in William Shakespeare, Part Third, Book III., Chapter I.
[34]. Chatterton-Hill in Heredity and Selection in Sociology makes the total 21,000,000.
[35]. See Galey: Classic Myths of English Literature, pp. 57–8.
[36]. Restelle: Arena, October, 1906.
[37]. “In round numbers ... so that it is safe to say that more than 700,000 men were killed in the war.”—Professor MacMaster: School History of the United States, p. 422. See Index: “Non-combatants.”
[38]. See quotation from Preface of Bloch’s Future of War near close of present chapter.
[39]. Financial History of the United States, Vol. III., p. 241.
[40]. Arena, Jan., 1897.
[41]. The appropriations for the Navy alone in 1910 are $134,000,000,—which amount is just ten times as great as in 1886. The New York World’s estimate (editorial, March, 1910) is $500,000,000 as the annual cost of militarism in the United States.
[42]. The Contemporary Review, August, 1909.
[43]. New York World, March 1, 1910. See also The World, February 1, 1910.
[44]. See Report of Commissioner of Education, 1908, Vol. II., p. 617.
[45]. See Report of Commissioner of Education for 1908, Vol. II., pp. 616–17. These 464 admit men only, or both men and women.
[46]. P. F. McCarthy in the New York World.
[47]. Address delivered at the Peace Banquet, Chicago, May 4, 1909; quoted in Unity, June 3, 1909.
[48]. New York World, April 4, 1910. See also New York Times editorial, February 19, 1910.
[49]. In the House of Commons, March 29, 1909.
[50]. The Society of Tomorrow, p. 30.
[51]. Editorial, May 4, 1909.
[52]. Reference for most of the phrasing of this paragraph has been lost.
[53]. C. E. Jefferson, in the Atlantic Monthly, quoted in Public Opinion (address?), March 26, 1909.
[54]. Public Debts, pp. 3, 4, 6.
[55]. Arena, January, 1898.
[56]. See The Investor’s Review, London, April, 1901, and National Review, London, June, 1903, respectively; quoted by Walter Walsh: Moral Damage of War, pp. 416–17.
[57]. See Bloch’s Future of War, pp. 137–39; recent Statesman’s Year-Books, “national expense” tables; also Labor Leader (London), Nov. 1, 1907.
[58]. Kim: Mind and Hand, pp. 290–92. Italics mine. G. R. K.
[59]. The International, July, 1908.
[60]. See Index: “Socialist Party and War.”
[61]. Italics mine. G. R. K.
[62]. “The export trade of all nations combined amounts to less than $12,000,000,000 per annum.” Harold Bolce: The New Internationalism, p. 87.
[63]. Economic Interpretation of History, pp. 393–94. Italics mine. G. R. K.
[64]. Bloch: The Future of War, Preface, p. XLVIII. Italics mine. G. R. K.
[65]. Addresses on War, p. 292.
[66]. Henry W. Longfellow: “The Arsenal at Springfield.”
[67]. See Index: “Desertion,” also “Suicide, startling increase of, in American Army.”
[68]. Financial History of the United States, Vol. III., p. 245.
[69]. School History of the United States, p. 423.
[70]. Quoted in Mead’s Patriotism and the New Internationalism, pp. 18–19.
[71]. See J. Bloch: The Future of War, a volume of great value, packed with information concerning several different phases of war under present conditions. Published by Ginn and Company, New York.
[72]. The Making of America, Vol. IX., Special Article, “Army and Navy,” p. 388.
[73]. Report for 1908, p. 33.
[74]. See A. Williams: Romance of Modern Mechanics, Chapter 27.
[75]. McLaren: Put Up Thy Sword, p. 127.
[76]. The Nation’s Navy, p. 292.
[77]. Published by Houghton, Mifflin and Company, Boston.
[78]. Published by Moffat, Yard and Company, New York.
[79]. Published by J. Fisher Unwin, London.
[80]. Published by The Macmillan Company, New York.
[81]. Published by Ginn and Company, New York.
[82]. Arbeiter in Council (Anonymous), pp. 155–56; published by The Macmillan Company, New York. A valuable book.
[83]. See Bloch: The Future of War; also Morris: The Nation’s Navy, p. 289.
[84]. The Future of War, Preface, p. XXV., also pp. 9 and 157.
[85]. Published by Moffat, Yard and Company, New York. Italics mine. G. R. K. See pp. 82–83.
[86]. See Literary Digest, Nov. 9, 1907.
[87]. See Index: “Insanity in American Army.”
[88]. The Nation’s Navy, pp. 289–90.
[89]. The Future of War, pp. 21 and 22. Italics mine. G. R. K.
[90]. Lecture, “The War of the Future,” at Amherst College, Dec. 3, 1909.
[91]. Quoted in Charles Sumner’s Addresses on War, p. 138.
[92]. See Scientific American, Sept. 21, 1907.
[93]. J. F. Haskins, New York Globe and Commercial Advertiser, Feb. 1, 1909.
[94]. Appleton’s Magazine, April, 1908.
[95]. The Rough Riders, pp. 202, 209.
[96]. The Nation in Arms, p. 376.
[97]. War and Labor, p. 54.
[98]. But see Professor Mayo-Smith’s Statistics and Sociology.
[99]. Arbeiter in Council, pp. 150–51.
[100]. Annual Report of the Secretary of War (William H. Taft), 1907, p. 25. Italics mine. G. R. K.
[101]. Editorial, Oct. 7, 1909.
[102]. See Index: “Another War.”
[103]. March 14, 1907. Italics mine. G. R. K.
[104]. World’s Work, March, 1906.
[105]. Museum of Safety and Sanitation, Bulletin, issued December, 1909.
[106]. North American Review, Nov., 1906. Emphasis mine. G. R. K.
[107]. The Forum, Jan., 1905.
[108]. Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Feb. 13, 1907.
[109]. Labor Leader, London, July 17, 1908.
[110]. C. F. G. Masterman: Contemporary Review, Jan., 1902.
[111]. The Blood of the Nation, pp. 45–47.
[112]. The History of Napoleon. Emphasis mine. G. R. K.
[113]. In an address, “The Biology of War,” May 3, 1909, Chicago.
[114]. Reference for substance and part of phrasing of this paragraph has been lost.
[115]. See Index: “Four Historic Events.”
[116]. See “What to Read,” Chapter Twelve.
[117]. J. H. Rose: The Development of the European Nations, 1870–1900, Vol. II., p. 328.
[118]. Copied from a Government advertisement in front of recruiting headquarters in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, September 7, 1907. Italics mine. G. R. K. This same form of advertisement has also been used in many other cities.
[119]. “Lecture on War.”
[120]. See Bloch: Future of War, Preface XXXII.
[121]. See Charles Seignobos: The Political History of Europe Since 1815, p. 504.
[122]. See Brodrick and Frotheringham: The Political History of England, Vol. XI., p. 172, et seq.
[123]. Work and Wages, p. 507.
[124]. Jephson: The Platform—Its Rise and Progress, Vol. I., p. 283.
[125]. History of the English People, Vol. IV., p. 377.
[126]. A Student’s History of England, pp. 877–80.
[127]. The Political History of England, Vol. XI., Ch. 8.
[128]. Sir Robert Peel, Ch. 3.
[129]. The English Constitution, p. 423. Italics mine. G. R. K.
[130]. See, for example, J. F. Bright: A History of England, Period III., p. 1352.
[131]. Arbeiter in Council, p. 501.
[132]. Bourienne’s Memoirs, Vol. VII., c. 20. Reference in Arbeiter in Council, p. 499. For cases equally monstrous in the American Civil War history, see Myers’ History of Great American Fortunes, Vol. II., pp. 127–38, 291–301; Chapters 11 and 12; Vol. III., pp. 160–176.
[133]. History of the American People, Vol. III., p. 120.
[134]. A History of the American People, p. 556.
[135]. “Apart from the phraseology of the statutes it appears during the early years of the War the possibility of the payment of the bonds in other than coin was hardly raised. According to the explicit statement of Garfield in 1868, when the original five-twenty bond bill was before the House in 1862, all who referred to the subject stated that the principal of these bonds was payable in gold, and coin payment was the understanding of every member of the committee of ways and means.... It thus became practically an unwritten law to pay the obligations of the United States in coin.”—Dewey: Financial History of the United States, paragraph 148.
[136]. Hepburn: The Contest for Sound Money, p. 188.
[137]. Finance, p. 540, also Public Debts, p. 131.
[138]. Rice: The Father of His Country—Year Book.
[139]. The Economic Interpretation of History, p. 454. Italics mine. G. R. K.
[140]. Twenty-Eight Years (new edition Fifty Years) of Wall Street, p. 194.
[141]. Mr. Clews relates this whole matter in detail in his Twenty-Eight Years in Wall Street (new edition Fifty Years, etc.), in which noble tome naive conceit and the pleasures of self-contemplation beget an almost equal degree of incautious loquacity and innocent candor.
[142]. By “clear the decks,” and “unload,” when financial storms threaten, bankers mean that any soon-to-shrink stocks and bonds held by them are to be at once sold to (dumped upon) somebody else, to let somebody else stand the certain loss—just as a sinful deacon might sell to his neighboring fellow-worshipper a horse he was sure would die next day, or as an enterprising grocer might sell a rotten lemon to a blind child. It is “legitimate.” It is “opportunity.” It is “business.” And conscience is a nuisance to some people when there is “opportunity” to do “business.”
[143]. “It is a well-known fact that the War of the Rebellion was prolonged as a result of the manipulations of the speculators who invested in bonds. While the boys in blue were baring their breasts to the enemy in a heroic struggle to save the Union, for $13 per month, the bond sharks were speculating upon their necessities and the necessities of the Government. At one time President Lincoln was so exasperated by their greedy and unpatriotic actions that he declared they ‘ought to have their devilish heads shot off.’”—Congressman Vincent, of Kansas, in the House of Representatives, April 18, 1898.
[144]. History of the United States, Vol. IV., pp. 44–56.
[145]. The Wall Street Point of View, p. 29.
[146]. Railway Problems, p. 95.
[147]. See Davis: The Union Pacific Railway, p. 187.
[148]. Davis: pp. 89–202.
[149]. Railway Problems, p. 94.
[150]. Professor Frank Parsons (Boston University): The Railways, the Trusts and the People, p. 64. And see Report of the Wilson Investigating Committee, pp. III, IV, et seq., and Parsons’ Chapter on “Railroad Graft.” Italics mine. G. R. K.
[151]. “Similar franchises and subsidies were at the same time given to the Central Pacific Railroad Company.”—Parsons: The Railways, the Trusts and the People, p. 128.
[152]. The United States in Our Own Time, p. 103.
[153]. Wilson, for several years Land Commissioner for the Illinois Central Railway Company, cited by Andrews.
[154]. Parsons: The Railways, the Trusts and the People, p. 106.
[155]. Davis: The Union Pacific Railway.
[156]. The Railroads, the Trusts and the People, p. 128.
[157]. Professors Cleveland and Powell (University of Pennsylvania): Railroad Promotion and Capitalization, p. 250. Emphasis mine. G. R. K.
[158]. See Professors Cleveland and Powell: Railroad Promotion and Capitalization, pp. 250, 255.
[159]. See Lalor’s Cyclopedia of Political Science, Political Economy, and United States History, Vol. III., p. 514.
[160]. The Railways, the Trusts and the People, p. 107.
[161]. The Fourth Illustration was prepared before the appearance of Mr. Gustavus Myers’ History of Great American Fortunes, in which the reader can find much concerning the land steals. Myers’ three volumes are brimful of bombshells for the “noble record” of the glistening barnacles that have clung to the body politic ever since George Washington was under indictment for swearing off his taxes. Mr. Myers has sadly bedimmed the glory of the illustrious “solid men of business.” The work serves as a great contribution to the literature on social parasitism concerning which the wage-earner should make all haste to get all possible information.
[162]. See discussions in Congressional Record of the period.
[163]. See Congressional Records.
[164]. D. R. Dewey: The Financial History of the United States, p. 467.
[165]. The Rough Riders, passim. Italics mine. G. R. K.
[166]. April 1, 6, 9, and 20, 1898.
[167]. See Tribune for real name in full.
[168]. School History of the United States, p. 476.
[169]. Roosevelt: The Rough Riders, passim.
[170]. See McClure’s Magazine, Sept., 1908.
[171]. The Moral Damage of War, pp. 332–33.
[172]. National and Social Problems, pp. 211–12.
[173]. Gen. U. S. Grant. Compare also Grant’s comment on the cause of the Mexican War: Memoirs, Vol. I.
[174]. See Chapters Seven, Section 7–12.
[175]. New York Evening Sun, Editorial, Feb. 24, 1910.
[176]. In an address, New York, May 25, 1908.
[177]. British authority for this statement; but exact citation unfortunately lost.
[178]. But see Index: “Desertion.”
[179]. Expansion, pp. 101–2.
[180]. Italics mine. G. R. K.
[181]. National and Social Problems, pp. 186–88.
[182]. Charles Seignobos: Political History of Europe Since 1815, p. 819.
[183]. Similar practice was common in our Civil War.
[184]. But see Index: “Four Historic Events.”
[185]. May 21, 1909. Italics mine. G. R. K.
[186]. Report of the United States Pullman Strike Commission: Carroll D. Wright, Chairman.
[187]. See Chapter Ten on “What Shall We Do About It?”
[188]. See article by Labor Commissioner C. D. Wright: North American Review, June, 1902; also R. T. Ely: Outlines of Economics, Edition of 1908, pp. 397–98.
[189]. International Journal of Ethics, April, 1908.
[190]. C. D. Wright: Practical Sociology, p. 38.
[191]. See Report of Secretary of War, 1908, p. 155. Italics mine. G. R. K.
[192]. An excellent edition of the law with notes, analysis, history, and suggestions by Mr. Ernest Untermann, can be had for 5 cents, of any Socialist literature agent.
[193]. London, March 21, 1908.
[194]. Miss Jane Addams: Newer Ideals of Peace, p. 232.
[195]. Civil Liberty, pp. 116–117.
[196]. G. Stanley Hall: Adolescence, Vol. I., pp. 222–23.
[197]. The Rough Riders, p. 139. Found in Edition of 1899, published by Charles Scribner’s Sons; page 152, as published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons.
[198]. System of Ethics, p. 660.
[199]. Militarism, pp. 60–61.
[200]. William Shakespeare, Pt. 3, Bk. 3, Ch. I.
[201]. See Chapter Eight, Section 11,—of special interest to women who incline to be “perfectly delighted” with soldiers.
[202]. Quoted by Thomas E. Will, Arena, Dec., 1894.
[203]. Moral Damage of War, pp. 146–47.
[204]. Education and the Higher Life, p. 171.
[205]. Works, Vol. IV., Dresden Edition, p. 124.
[206]. “Lecture on War.”
[207]. The Destiny of Man, pp. 100–103.
[208]. Lester F. Ward: Applied Sociology, p. 264.
[209]. Bloomfield: “Farmer’s Boy.”
[210]. Pope’s Homer’s “Iliad.”
[211]. Militarism, p. 316.
[212]. Quoted by John A. Hobson: John Ruskin: Social Reformer, p. 346.
[213]. Militarism, p. 317.
[214]. See Chapter Eleven.
[215]. See Chapter Ten, also Index: “Revolution of Opinion.”
[216]. See McCabe and Darien: Can We Disarm? p. 56.
[217]. See Index: “What War Decides”; also “Blood Cost of War.”
[218]. Thomas Carlyle: Sartor Resartus, Book II., Chapter 8.
[219]. See Index: “Parasites.”
[220]. Italics mine. G. R. K.
[221]. Report, 1907, p. 73.
[222]. See Report of Department of War, 1906.
[223]. See Annual Reports of the Secretaries of War for the years named; also Preface of the present volume.
[224]. Italics mine. G. R. K.
[225]. See Report of the War Department, 1908, p. 21; see also Index: “Insanity.”
[226]. The World’s Work, May, 1907.
[227]. Italics mine. G. R. K.
[228]. See Reports of the Department of War for the respective years.
[229]. Report of the Secretary of War, 1907, p. 72.
[230]. Mr. Roosevelt’s kill-for-pleasure hunting trip in Africa in 1909–10 included, according to the press reports, “a splendid time,” “a corking time,” shooting monkies—murdering his ancestral cousins, so to speak—“a careful count being kept of the exact number” of the jolly, playful little creatures butchered for the brave and noble gentleman’s amusement on his “old home” trip.
[231]. A private, writing from the Philippines, in Everybody’s Magazine, April, 1908.
[232]. Imperial Democracy, p. 272.
[233]. The Moral Damage of War, pp. 150–51.
[234]. Quoted by Professor E. A. Ross, in his Social Control, p. 89.
[235]. See Chapter Eight: “For Mother and the Boys,” Section 1.
[236]. See Index: “Bankruptcy, Danger of.”
[237]. The International, July, 1908. Italics mine. G. R. K.
[238]. Documents of the American Association for International Conciliation, 1907–08, p. 22.
[239]. See The Peace Conference at The Hague, pp. 93–120, and 151.
[240]. Harper’s Magazine, Vol. 87. See International Conciliation—Documents of the American Association for International Conciliation, 1907–08: Third Paper—“A League of Peace.”
[241]. See footnote on page [13]; and also introductory paragraph, Chapter Seven, preceding Section 1.
[242]. See Index: “Another War.”
[243]. See Chapter Seven, Section 30.
[244]. See Index: “Napoleon.”
[245]. The Moral Damage of War, pp. 97–99.
[246]. See The Downfall, passim, Part II., also p. 446. This powerful story (published by the Macmillan Company, New York) is here again heartily commended to all readers of War—What For? Again the author thanks the publishers for reprint privileges.
[247]. Precisely! Never stopping to inquire: Who declared this war? or what for?
[248]. Quoted by George Allan England, in New York Daily Call, Dec. 2, 1909.
[249]. See Lucia A. Mead’s Patriotism and the New Internationalism, p. 22.
[250]. Read Walter Walsh’s Moral Damage of War, Chapter Three on the “Moral Damage of War to the Children.” The chapter is of startling importance.
[251]. New York World, editorial, May 6, 1910.
[252]. See New York Times, October 31, 1908, long article on the increasing manufacture of such toys.
[253]. Quoted by Walter Walsh: Moral Damage of War, p. 380.
[254]. The Economy of Happiness, pp. 519–20.
[255]. Walter Walsh: Moral Damage of War, p. 376.
[256]. Imperial Democracy, p. 270.
[257]. See Annual Report of the Secretary of War, 1908, p. 22.
[258]. See Social Diseases, p. 24, March, 1910; Contents—A Symposium concerning a phase of venereal diseases, being addresses and discussions at a meeting of the American Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, held at the New York Academy of Medicine, December 9th, 1909. Address: Social Diseases, 9 East 42d Street, New York. Italics mine. G. R. K.
[259]. See Walter Walsh: Moral Damage of War, pp. 151–52. Emphasis mine. G. R. K.
[260]. Edmondson: John Bull’s Army from Within.
[261]. Elbert Hubbard: Health and Wealth, quoted in the New Age, August 5, 1909. See Index: “Venereal Diseases.”
[262]. See Chapter Seven, Section 18.
[263]. International Journal of Ethics, April, 1908.
[264]. Arbeiter in Council, pp. 38–39.
[265]. Don Juan, VIII., IX.
[266]. E. C. Stedman: “Alice of Monmouth.”
[267]. Works, passim.
[268]. See Census Report, 1900, Vol. 2, p. CXCII.
[269]. Autobiographical Note.
[270]. Isaiah: Chapter II., par. 4.
[271]. “Biglow Papers.”
[272]. The Kingdom of God.
[273]. Quoted by John A. Hobson: John Ruskin—Social Reformer, p. 346. Italics mine except for “The Real War.” G. R. K.
[274]. See Index: “Christ.”
[275]. See The World To-Day, p. 956, Sept., 1905.
[276]. Italics mine. G. R. K.
[277]. See Chapters Nine and Eleven.
[278]. American Brigadier, November, 1907.
[279]. Frederic Harrison: National and Social Problems, pp. 237–40. Written in 1880.
[280]. Ernest Crosby: Swords and Ploughshares. Published by Funk and Wagnalls, New York.
[281]. See Prose-Poems and Selections from the Writings and Sayings of Robert G. Ingersoll. Published by C. P. Farrell, New York.
[282]. See William Shakespeare, Part Third, Book III; M. B. Anderson’s Translation. Published by A. C. McClurg and Company, Chicago; and An Oration on Voltaire, delivered in Paris, May 30, 1878. It is worthy of remark that the orator was repeatedly applauded while delivering the oration, and at the close the entire audience rose and wildly cheered. In the declamation, as here arranged in two parts (to be given together, if desired), the excerpt from the oration begins, “Whoever says today.”
[283]. Slightly abbreviated excerpt from an Oration at the Soldiers and Sailors’ Reunion, Indianapolis, September 21, 1876. Reprinted from Prose-Poems and Selections from Writings and Sayings of Robert G. Ingersoll. Published by C. P. Farrell, New York.
[284]. Very slightly abbreviated excerpt from a Decoration Day Oration, delivered at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York City, May 30, 1888. Reprinted from Vol. IX., p. 453, Dresden Edition of Ingersoll’s Complete Works. Published by C. P. Farrell, New York.
[285]. See Chapter Four, Section Two, “The Cost of War in Cash.”
[286]. “Documents of the American Association for International Conciliation,” 1907–08.
[287]. See Chapter Eight, Section 13 and 14.
[288]. It is mildly encouraging to reflect that very heavy and very general international investments in national and industrial bonds would have at least some tendency to dampen the bond-buying capitalists’ enthusiasm for war; because, in some cases, a disastrous war might result in the repudiation of bonds and, in most cases, might easily result in a great temporary reduction of dividends from industrial investments. Another thing to be noted here is that sometimes the investors in the bonds of an unstable nation about to go to war, may regret the threatening war and urge against it and even decline to buy war bonds, before the war is declared, in order to protect their investments already made. But after the war is once entered upon these same regretful investors feel almost compelled to purchase the new issue of war-bonds in order to make victory more certain for the nation whose bonds they already hold, and thus protect the market value of their original investments. French investors in Russian bonds and enterprises to the extent of more than a billion dollars found themselves in this predicament in the case of the recent Russian-Japanese war. See Index: “Bankruptcy, Danger of.”
[289]. See Chapter Seven, Section 17.
[290]. Swinburne: “A Word for the Country.”
[291]. See Index: “The Hague Peace Conference.”
[292]. See Chapter Four, Section One.
[293]. See Index: “Another War.”
[294]. Published by Ginn and Company, New York.
[295]. Italics mine. G. R. K.
[296]. Voltaire’s Philosophical Dictionary.
[297]. The Psychology of Jingoism, pp. 41, 133.
[298]. National and Social Problems, pp. 252–53.
[299]. The New York World, editorial, August 15, 1907. Italics mine. G. R. K.
[300]. Newer Ideals of Peace, pp. 114–15. Italics mine. G. R. K.
[301]. Social Control, pp. 376–79. Italics mine. G. R. K.
[302]. General Sociology, p. 233.
[303]. Dynamic Sociology, Vol. I., p. 582. Italics mine. G. R. K.
[304]. See The Theory of the State, Bk II., Chs. 17, 18.
[305]. Introduction to Sociology, pp. 132–36.
[306]. See Chapter Three, The Explanation.
[307]. “Classes differ in readiness to twist social control to their own advantage.... In general, the more distinct, knit together, and self-conscious the influential minority, the more likely is social control to be colored with class selfishness.”—Professor E. A. Ross, Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin, Social Control, p. 86.
[308]. See Chapter Eleven for suggestions on the origin of large-scale parasitic aggression; and on the origin and history of the working class and of the class-labor form of society.
[309]. See Dynamic Sociology, Vol. I., pp. 581–97; Psychic Factors in Civilization, Chapter 24.
Note carefully the quotation on methods of social parasites at the head of the present chapter from Dr. Ross’s Social Control. Professor Ross is generally recognized as one of the most profound and brilliant writers on Sociology.
It is important to consider, too, that, as a Socialist, Dr. Franklin H. Giddings, Head of Department of Sociology in Columbia University, recognizes the capitalist class’s parasitic relation to society. Dr. Giddings is recognized in all the universities of the world as having few equals as a sociologist.
The social parasites of the world will never forgive the learned Socialist, Dr. Thorstein Veblen, recently of the University of Chicago, for writing his bold and astonishing book, The Theory of the Leisure Class. The screaming mockeries and glittering pretensions of the “princely-fortune” parasites of capitalism are mercilessly explained by him.
It is noteworthy too that the Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Sociology, and Head of the Department of Sociology in the University of Chicago, Dr. Albion W. Small, has for many years been calling attention, in lectures, to the parasitic nature of one of the forms of capitalist income, thus: “There is no moral justification for the taking of interest incomes.” In his General Sociology, pp. 268–69, Dr. Small says: “In the first place, capital produces nothing. It earns nothing.” See also his suggestions on social parasites on page [266], where he is clearly in considerable degree in agreement with Dr. Ward.
Gustavus Myers’ History of Great American Fortunes is here again commended as an extraordinary record of remarkable social parasitism in American history.
[310]. See Twenty-Eight Years in Wall Street, p. 388; by Henry Clews, a very well known banker of Wall Street.
[311]. See Chapter Three, “Explanation”—Surplus.
[312]. Andrew Carnegie is a sample of a profit-stuffed tyrant whose parasitic industrial income is tens of millions per year without rendering industrial service, whose legally parasitic heirs, rendering no industrial service, will, like leeches, suck up many millions per year. The audacity of his hypocrisy is typical of his class. In recent international peace congresses Carnegie has been steadily grinning and chattering in the spot light. But study this man for a moment:
(1) In the Homestead industrial civil war, in 1892, Pinkertons received $5 per day and expenses for murdering Carnegie steel workers.
(2) The Carnegie Company furnished the Russian Government steel armor for warships at about one-half the price the same company patriotically charged Carnegie’s own dear, dear country.
(3) “Our records show that the companies governed by Mr. Carnegie received more rebates [in anarchistic defiance of his country’s laws] during the time when rebates were given by our road, than any other shipper in any line of business.”—First Vice-President Green of the Pennsylvania Railway Company. Quoted in the New York Independent.
(4) This same crafty gentleman recently provided enormous old-age pension funds for college and university professors. This will perhaps tightly seal the lips of thousands of teachers on the raging civil war in industry in which war Carnegie is already a blood-stained tzar. Fearing to lose their old age pensions, teachers may find it easier and more “respectable” to desert the working class in its struggle against the capitalist class—Carnegie’s class. (See Index: “Hague Peace Conference”; also Chapter Two, pages [24]–25.)
[313]. “If, however, there occurs some general industrial disturbance of a serious sort, such as a condition of over-production, ... it is likely to turn out that these vocational groupings will be weakened or even destroyed. In their place the economic classes will enter the political arena, and carry on the conflict with great energy.... It may be that the standard of life of an industrial class may be so seriously threatened that this class struggle will reach the extreme of absolute hostility.”—Professor Albion W. Small, Head of Department of Sociology, University of Chicago: General Sociology, p. 264. Italics mine. G. R. K.
[314]. Reread first page of Preface.
[315]. William E. Gladstone.
[316]. “... Non-resistance would be fatal.... If ever war is done away, it will be when the spirit of aggression, not of protection, shall have been quenched.”—Lester F. Ward: Dynamic Sociology, Vol. I., p. 684.
[317]. See Chapter Seven, Section 12.
[318]. William Howard Taft: Present-Day Problems, pp. 162–63:—
“... It is also true that had the Elkins bill never been passed, the same acts could and doubtless would have been prosecuted ... under the Interstate Commerce Act of 1889 which the Elkins law supplanted.... Under the 1889 amendment, however, the individuals convicted could have been sent to the penitentiary, whereas under the Elkins Act the punishment by imprisonment was taken away.... The chief effect of the Elkins law had on these particular prosecutions ... was ... to save the guilty individual perpetrators from imprisonment.
“It was well understood that the Elkins bill was passed without opposition by, and with the full consent of, the railroads, and the chief reason was the elimination of the penitentiary penalty for unjust discriminations.... The imprisonment of two or three prominent officers of a railway company, or a trust ... would have greater deterrent effect for the future than millions in a fine.”
Theodore Roosevelt knows a good deal about the capitalist class. He wrote on pages 5, 6, 9, 10 of his book, American Ideals, as follows:
“The people that do harm in the end are not the wrong-doer whom all execrate.... The career of Benedict Arnold has done us no harm as a nation.... The foes of order harm quite as much by example as by what they actually accomplish. So it is with the equally dangerous criminals of the wealthy classes. The conscienceless stock speculator who acquires wealth by swindling his fellows, by debauching judges, and corrupting legislatures, and who ends his days with the reputation of being among the richest men in America, exerts over the minds of the rising generation an influence worse than that of the average murderer or bandit, because his career is even more dazzling in its success, and even more dangerous in its effects upon the community. Any one who reads the essays of Charles Francis Adams and Henry Adams, entitled A Chapter of Erie, and the Gold Conspiracy in New York, will read about the doings of men whose influence for evil upon the community is more potent than that of any band of anarchists or train robbers.... Too much cannot be said against men who sacrifice everything to getting wealth. There is not in the world a more ignoble character than the mere money getting American, insensible to every duty, regardless of every principle, bent only on amassing a fortune ... whether ... to speculate in stocks and wreck railroads himself, or to allow his son to lead a life of foolish and expensive idleness and gross debauchery, or to purchase some scoundrel of high social position, foreign or native, for his daughter. Such a man is only the more dangerous if he occasionally does some deed like founding a college or endowing a church which makes those good people, who are also foolish, forget his real iniquity.” Italics mine. G. R. K.
[319]. Theodore Roosevelt: in a speech at the State Fair, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 3, 1901.
[320]. “If the public economy of a people be an organism, we must expect to find that the perturbations, which affect it, present some analogies to the diseases of the body physical. We may, therefore, hope to learn much that may be of use in practice, from the tried methods of medicine.” Roscher: Political Economy, Vol. I., pp. 85–86.
[321]. It must be added for the sake of clearness (and fairness):
(1) That some members of the capitalist class detest the capitalist system; that these regret their unsocial relation to the social body; and that while they are living under the capitalist system they are in somewhat the same difficulty that a democrat is in Russia. One can believe in democracy in Russia, but he can not practice democracy under the autocratic form of Russian government. So under Capitalism: one may believe in industrial democracy, but he cannot practice it under an industrial despotism.
(2) That some members of present society belong partly to the capitalist class and partly to the working class.
(The Theory of the Leisure Class, a brilliant book by Dr. Thorstein Veblen, helpful in understanding social parasites, is urged upon the reader’s attention. Also W. J. Ghent’s Mass and Class.)
[322]. “The government which has the right to do an act and has imposed upon it the duty of performing the act, must, according to the dictates of reason, be permitted to select the means.”—Supreme Court of the United States, March 7, 1819. See Supreme Court Reports, Vol. 17, pp. 409, 430.
[323]. Political Science and Constitutional Law, Vol. I., p. 87.
[324]. Sociology, pp. 45, 47.
[325]. “It is the peculiarity of the social struggle that it must be conducted by a collective whole ... EVERY SOCIETY [OR CLASS] MUST SECURE SOME SUITABLE ORGAN FOR CONDUCTING THE SOCIAL STRUGGLE.
“Thus the ruling classes, through their parliaments, exercise the legislative power and are able, by legal institutions, to further their interests at the cost of others.... Thus the rulers themselves forge the weapons with which the ruled and powerless classes successfully attack them and complete the natural process.”—Gumplowitz: Outlines of Sociology, pp. 145–146. Italics mine. G. R. K.
[326]. The Communist Manifesto.
[327]. Reread Chapter Seven, Section 4.
[328]. Fearing that the powerful suggestion might reach and rouse the slumbering working class the capitalist press of the world kept silent as an oyster on the behavior of the clear-visioned soldiers of Norway and Sweden. Only the working-class press properly reported the sublime event. (See Challenge, page 206 et seq.)
[329]. For an excellent and convenient discussion of the Socialist Party’s opposition to war and militarism, see Werner Sombart’s Socialism and the Socialist Movement, pp. 193–211; Morris Hillquit’s Socialism in Theory and Practice, pp. 296–302.
[330]. “It is no easy task to detect and follow the tiny paths of progress which the unencumbered proletarian with nothing but his life and capacity for labor is pointing out for us. These paths lead to a type of government founded upon peace and fellowship as contrasted with restraint and defence.... From the nature of the case, he who would walk these paths must walk with the poor and oppressed, and can only approach them through affection and understanding. The ideals of militarism would forever shut him out from this new fellowship.”—Miss Jane Addams, of Hull House, Chicago: Newer Ideals of Peace, p. 30.
[331]. The class who despise you so thoroughly that they would be willing to have you murdered on the battlefield—would these hesitate to tell you a lie? Certainly not. And they have lied to you about “different kinds of Socialism,” “Socialists don’t seem to know what they want,” etc., etc. But secretly the capitalists are worrying because they know that the Socialists of all the world do know what they want and also know how to organize the necessary power to get what they want.
[332]. Christianity and the Social Crisis, p. 350.
[333]. It is true that even before this time woman occupied a servile position and virtually constituted an industrial class. See August Bebel’s Woman—Past, Present and Future.
[334]. Professor E. A. Ross (Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin) gently hints thus (Social Control, p. 86):
“Under the ascendency of the rich and leisured, property becomes more sacred than persons, moral standards vary with the pecuniary status, and it is felt that ‘God will think twice before He damns a person of quality.’”
[335]. Even great literatures, regarded as divinely inspired and boasted to be The Truth, have been kept from the free access of the people—the “plain people,” too plain to understand the literature said to have life in it. Such literature has been hidden from the people for many hundreds of years—or “rightly divided” and diluted.
[336]. The inauguration of human slavery was a profound change in human relations—the greatest possible “change in circumstances”—down at the very foundations of society. Vast fundamental changes resulted—inevitably—in changed, and even new, institutions.
“Institutions must change with changing circumstances, since they are of the nature of an habitual method of responding to stimuli which these changing circumstances afford.... The institutions are, in substance, prevalent habits of thought with respect to particular relations and particular functions of the individual and of the community....”—Thorstein Veblen: The Theory of the Leisure Class, p. 190. See quotation from Dr. Small at the head of Chapter Ten. Also consult Ross’s Social Control.
[337]. See Thomas’s History of the United States, p. 68.
[338]. See Hyndman: The Economics of Socialism, Lecture 1, Methods of Production.
[339]. And get these things into the minds of the children. If the teacher at your nearest school does not know these things, have the children teach the teacher.
[340]. Pure Sociology, p. 61. Italics mine. G. R. K.
[341]. Ancient Law, p. 164.
[342]. Folkways, pp. 262–3 and 307. Italics mine. G. R. K.
[343]. Elementary Economics, pp. 27–33.
[344]. Laws of Imitation, Parson’s translation, pp. 277–79.
[345]. American Journal of Sociology, May, 1902, pp. 764–65. Italics mine. G. R. K.
[346]. Principles of Sociology, Vol. III., pp. 84, 92, 148, 448; Appleton’s Edition, 1899. See also Lester F. Ward: Dynamic Sociology, Vol. I., pp. 287–90. (Italics mine. G. R. K.)
[347]. Dynamic Sociology, Vol. I., pp. 583–85.
[348]. The New Basis of Civilization, pp. 67, 69. Italics mine. G. R. K.
[349]. See discussion of parasites in Chapter Ten.
[350]. Newer Ideals of Peace, pp. 115–16.
[351]. National and Social Problems, p. 255.
[352]. Introduction to Sociology, pp. 136–39.
[353]. For a powerful argument showing the intellectual equality of the working class and the ruling class see Professor Lester F. Ward’s Applied Sociology. The political foolishness of the working class is not due to lack of brains, but to lack of books—books that tell the truth, the truth that clears the vision and rouses the passion for freedom and points the way.—Suggestions, next chapter.