“We are prepared to use any means, any weapon—from the ballot-box to the bomb; from organized voting to organized revolt; from parliamentary contests to political assassination—which opportunity offers and which will help in the end we have in view. Let this be understood, we have absolutely no scruples as to the means to be employed.”

Frankly: Do you hate your employer? Would you harm a hair of his head even if you had the chance? Do you curse him whenever you think of him, crying with Archibald Crawford: “Damn the Boss! Damn the Boss’s son! Damn his family carriage! And damn his family, too!”? Do you think that Herron knows what he is talking about when he says that “our whole system of life and labor, with all that we call civilization is based on nothing else than war ... a war so terrible, so full of death, that its blood is upon every human hand, upon every loaf of bread, and upon every human institution”? Do you agree with the conclusion that it is “only folly, or worse, falsehood, that prates of peace in such a society”? (Quoted by The Revolt, April 25, 1912.)

Yet this is but a sample of the “truth” as it is taught from the soap-box. Wherever there is a militant propagandist, you will hear this kind of an appeal. “In fact, the repetition of the bitter denunciation of society is so constant,” says Peter W. Collins (The Common Cause, January, 1912), “that on the mind of him who becomes an attendant at the soap-box, this doctrine of class-hatred, of enmity among men, gradually sinks into the mind and heart and the poison does its work, as the dripping of water wears away a stone.”

This is what the Socialist wants. His prime object is to create a force among the toilers that may be welded into a great revolutionary movement. In this appeal slumber the darkest and the most cruel instincts of man’s nature.

There is no room in this country for class-hatred. It does not exist outside of the ranks of the Socialists. There is, in fact, more class-hatred shown by the rival factions in the Socialist movement in their squabbles with one another, than there is between employer and employe. Yet, by means of cunning misrepresentation and perversion of facts, all who come under the influence of Socialism—even the children in the Socialist Sunday schools—are made to take this wrong outlook upon life; their mental balance is upset; they are incited to develop a feeling of bitter hatred against those from whom they have suffered no harm. In this way, by sowing the poisonous seed of prejudice and class-hatred, it is hoped later on to reap the harvest of The Revolution.

CHAPTER XIII
SHALL WE TAKE IT OR PAY FOR IT?

My dear John,

While some of the more mild-mannered advocates of Socialism will try to make you believe that the change from private ownership to collective ownership will be accomplished without confiscating anybody’s property, there are few among the authoritative Marxists who consider such a course, even as a remote possibility. Marx didn’t think that it could be done, as you will see if you will turn to Engels’ “Preface” to the English translation of “Capital” (p. xiv), and in this theory he is supported by almost every Socialist apologist of note. Once in a while we encounter a socialistic writer who proposes to compensate owners if they will permit themselves to be expropriated “with a good grace,” a theory which assumes that, if the owners of property are not entirely willing that their possessions shall be taken away from them, they will be punished by being forcibly deprived of their goods, whether they like it or not.

And, if you want still more corroborative testimony, turn to “The Ethics of Socialism,” by Belfort Bax, and on pages 127 and 128 you will read: “The Socialist has a distinct aim in view. If he can carry the initial stages towards his realization by means of the count-of-heads majority, by all means let him do so. If, on the other hand, he sees the possibility of carrying a salient portion of his program by trampling on that majority, by all means let him do this also.”

Not long ago I discussed this question with one of the conservative Socialists who believe that those who own property will be very glad to help on the new régime by relinquishing their possessions.