""No; the bricklayers built them."
""Did he dig the clay hole?"
""No; those men over there dug it."
""Why do they dig clay holes?"
""It"s their work. The boss pays them to do it."
""Oh! does he pay you, too, to make these bricks?"
""Yes."
""But where does he get the money to pay you with?"
""He sells bricks."
""And you made those bricks he sold?"
""Yes."
""Don"t you think you"d better come inside?...
""But I say, how much will the boss sell those bricks for?"
""Oh! about $500."
""How long will it take you to make them?"
""About ten weeks."
""How much does the boss pay you for working so hard?"
""Two dollars and fifty cents a day."
""That will be $150 in ten weeks. Ha! ha! ha! aha! he! he! he!"
""I don"t see (wiping the sweat from his brow) the joke, you confounded a.s.s."
""You must come inside. He! he! he!!!""
American Socialists, therefore, as well as the early German revolutionists, teach that to the laborer all wealth is due.
Though the low wages that many workingmen receive is a disgrace to our civilization and an abuse that cries to heaven for vengeance, still it is absurd to hold that wages should be so much increased as to leave nothing for the capitalists. For, in the first place, if the workingmen should enjoy the entire profits of their firms or industries all the owners would soon become bankrupt and fail, and, in the upheavals due to unemployment and the impossibility of supplying the necessaries of life, the present system of our Government would certainly fall a prey to revolution, the Socialists would come into power and then would follow the terrible disturbances shown in Chapter XVII, "Socialism, a Peril to Workingmen."
We have no defence whatsoever to offer for dishonest capitalists, but maintain that honest capitalists are ent.i.tled to a reasonable share in the profits arising from their investments. For, in the first place, if it were not for the capital in the possession of honest capitalists, millions of workingmen would be terribly handicapped in earning a living. If this fact is not immediately evident to the reader it will become so when he reflects that many farm, mill and factory workers, and the employes of many big business houses would have to seek other positions if the capital required for the industries was not supplied by the owners. The buildings, machinery, raw materials, etc., in most cases are not and cannot be supplied by the laborers and workingmen, but are furnished by the capitalists who, if they wished, could sell them and spend the money obtained from the sale for their own personal enjoyment. For this reason, and also because the capitalists referred to are subject to many financial worries, a.s.sume great responsibilities, run the risk of incurring serious losses of one kind or another, including business failure and bankruptcy, it is only just that they should receive a reasonable recompense for their share in the production of the goods.
From what has been said regarding the falsity of the Marxian doctrine, that to the laborer all wealth is due, it follows that the Socialists, by teaching this false principle, have been misleading the laborers and workingmen for over half a century.
Some of the best known American Socialists, when confronted with the evident fallacy of the Marxian doctrine concede that Marx was mistaken and that they do not approve of his teachings on this subject. Now, if these leaders and their followers are in the majority, they should long ago have compelled the minority in the party to stop deceiving the uneducated. On the other hand, if they themselves const.i.tute the minority, their own personal opinions amount to little, since the majority of the members of the Socialist Party would in that case be guilty of advocating foolish and absurd doctrine.
The attractive and popular motto, "Workingmen of the world unite. You have nothing to lose but your chains," has moved many a poor workingman to enlist in the revolutionary cause. Very little reflection, however, is needed to expose the absurdity that is found in the second part of the motto. For no matter how badly off men may be financially, it has been shown that they not only would not lose their chains by uniting under the red flag of Karl Marx but would be completely crushed by the much heavier ones of b.l.o.o.d.y revolution and a wretched form of government which would bring with it a religious prosecution and widespread lawlessness, crime and chaos.
Realizing that the police would do much to help the revolutionary movement, if they could be made friendly to it, some Socialists have been extremely anxious to win them over. To certify this statement we shall quote part of an article which appeared in "The Call," New York, April 25, 1911, urging Socialists to get control of the police force:
"A policeman"s vote, like any other person"s vote, counts one.
Policemen are wage-earners, who, like other wage-earners, are eager to improve their circ.u.mstances. Policemen will vote the Socialist ticket when they realize that the Socialists in office will insist upon their receiving more pay, more leisure, more sick and old age benefits, more privileges.... Adopt constructive resolutions demanding that constables be paid higher wages, that they be granted shorter hours, that they be given more days off each week, that they be exempted from paying part of their wages into the superannuation fund, that they be accorded the right of combination, that a more generous system of sick benefits be drawn up, that they have the right of appeal against dismissal and abuse to a representative committee of citizens."
The revolutionists are leaving nothing undone in their extraordinary efforts to gain recruits for the overthrow of our National Government.
This is evidenced by the appearance in their papers of articles like the following, ent.i.tled, "The Pure Water Problem," which was published in "The Call," April 30, 1912:
"As a political organization, the Socialist Party must address itself to every question that interests the electorate. And in each case it must offer the public a carefully thought out solution instead of mere generalities and hackneyed phrases. Otherwise it will not succeed in winning the confidence of the majority of voters. Now almost every city in America is confronted with a pure water and sewage disposal problem.... If the Socialist Party steps into the arena with clear-cut proposals that deal in a radical, constructive and common sense way with this problem, it will not only help to secure pure drinking water for citizens, but it will break down considerable prejudice against the Socialist movement, and cause people to study the more revolutionary features of our own official platform."
Information comes to us that on account of recent Government raids the Red organizations are a.s.suming a variety of aliases. The Communist Party has taken the innocuous t.i.tle of "The International Publishing Company,"
alias "The International League of Defense." The I. W. W. operates under any local name which comes handy. Individual Reds often spread their doctrines, and incite workingmen to take part in outlaw strikes, while professing to be members of no radical organization.
The Young People"s Socialist League, closely affiliated with the Socialist Party, planned to use disguises, if necessary, after the Socialist Party adopted its anti-war program in 1917. Thus in "Outlines of the Evidence Taken Before the Judiciary Committee of the a.s.sembly of New York," pages 608-9, appears a letter of William F. Kruse, National Secretary of the Young People"s Socialist League, written to the secretaries of its different branches, in which he urged them to have an "unofficial emergency committee," have "several copies of your most important records and especially your mailing list stowed away in various safe and secluded places," and have "three trustworthy officers broken in for each important job." "At least one of these officers should be a girl," he continued, "so that if our boys are jailed for refusal to serve, the girls can keep the League going." He added: "If ever the Y. P. S. L. is suppressed you will immediately get together all its members as quietly as possible under the name of some athletic club, dance society or pleasure club. The name of this organization should have nothing in common with Socialism."
In concluding this chapter the attention of the reader is called to the fact that the Socialists are trying their best to make it appear that the interests of the American workingmen in general are jeopardized when a member of their party is put in jail or is on trial. This is rank hypocrisy. Even if the Socialist Party was a real workingman"s party, this fact would not give it the right to set up its justly condemned bomb throwers, its preachers of Bolshevist revolution, its teachers of race suicide, etc., as working-cla.s.s martyrs and protagonists of free speech, which they claim is no longer allowed in our country.
There are millions of workingmen in the great Republican, Democratic, and other American parties who don"t need and don"t want bomb-throwers, imported Marxian revolutionists, race suiciders, free-lovers, atheists, hypocrites, professional liars and deceivers to pet.i.tion the Government in their name for the release of imprisoned Socialists on the plea that these are being prosecuted because they are leaders of the working-cla.s.s. First of all, Debs, Haywood and their crews are leaders of blood-thirsty revolutionists, and not the leaders of the law-abiding workingmen who maintain the Democratic and Republican parties. They are the enemies of the latter, and the real object of the Socialists is to stir up trouble in our country by endeavoring to procure amnesty for a set of scoundrels who, after their release, would, by their subversive and dangerous doctrines, try to plunge the country we love and all honest labor into a much more terrible abyss than that into which the Bolsheviki have plunged Socialist Russia.
CHAPTER XXV
THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE REDS
It has been shown in the preceding chapters that the base doctrines propagated on every side by the revolutionists are among the gravest evils threatening the welfare of our nation. No doubt the reader perceives that unless this conspiracy against our country, religion and family is checked, the Socialists will soon overwhelm us with a b.l.o.o.d.y rebellion and establish a government that will mean nothing less than a reign of terror and a widespread prevalence of discontent, strife and crime, finally terminating in chaos or anarchy.
Provisions must, therefore, be made for averting the dire calamities that would attend the unfurling of the red flag over Washington in place of the Star-Spangled Banner. Measures of defense must quickly be taken and an army of attack must immediately be set in motion. In this way alone can we hope to prevent the success of the revolutionary propaganda that is characterized by a marvelous activity and an ever-increasing popularity among the unwary and uneducated. The country we love and the Government which has bestowed upon us innumerable blessings, notwithstanding abuses, call upon us for help in the hour of need. True patriotism bids us take up suitable weapons and wage relentless war against that which would destroy our present const.i.tutional form of government.
Who can turn a deaf ear to the call? In our heroic work we shall be helped by millions of patriotic citizens whose devotion to their country has already rallied them to the defense of the Stars and Stripes. All that we need do, to fan into flame the fire of patriotism already glowing in their hearts, is to arouse them to a full realization of the dangers that threaten the very existence of our nation. Now is the time to act, before we hear the cry "Too late!" The great weapon must be education and the ones to be enlightened on the evils of Socialism are not merely scholars, professors and teachers, but the great ma.s.ses of the people.
If we wish to bring home to the American people a clear realization of the threatening calamity, we ourselves must not only be thoroughly equipped with knowledge of the Socialistic teachings and their evil consequences, but must also be able to refute the alluring and deceptive arguments of the revolutionists. We must acquire a thorough knowledge of Socialism. But to do this, it almost goes without saying that we should carefully read and study the excellent and thoroughly up-to-date anti-Socialistic works that can be had at a moderate price or readily obtained in the public libraries.
Among the best anti-Socialistic books in the English language may be mentioned "Socialism, the Nation of Fatherless Children," edited by Goldstein and Avery. This book, whose authors were once Socialists, contains hundreds of very strong and useful quotations and is of the highest value to every student who is studying the evils and dangers of the revolutionary movement. Published by T. J. Flynn & Co., 62 Ess.e.x Street, Boston, Ma.s.s.
"Socialism," by Cathrein and Gettelman, a very scholarly and learned work, admirably explains and refutes the various Marxian doctrines. It is published by Benziger Bros., New York City.
A third book of recent publication, and of great value to the anti-Socialist student is "The World Problem," by Rev. Joseph Husslein, S. J., published by The America Press, 175 East 83rd Street, New York, N. Y.
One who is truly interested in the fight against the national enemy should not content himself with the reading of anti-Socialist literature, but should pa.s.s the matter on to others who may become interested in the battle against the enemies of our country.
Business men and persons of wealth should not only urge their friends to read anti-Socialist works that have appealed to themselves, but should show their patriotism and generosity by extensively purchasing anti-Socialist literature, whether in the form of books, pamphlets or leaflets, to be sent to public libraries, clubs, high schools, colleges and universities, and reading-rooms, and placed within easy reach of their employes and customers.