The workingmen of our country, to whom the Socialists are especially appealing, often fall an easy prey to the deceptive arguments of the "Reds." Many of them do not weigh matters carefully and do not realize how far the acceptance of radical doctrines may lead them. The men who started the Russian revolution did not know how far it would go. The party of Lvoff and Miliukoff did not foresee Kerensky. The followers of Kerensky did not foresee Lenine and Trotzky; and probably few of the followers of Lenine and Trotzky dreamed of the abyss of barbarism into which they in turn have plunged bleeding Russia. The Socialists of the United States use pamphlets and leaflets, much more than books, in appealing to workingmen. Books are more expensive and require more time to read. Leaflets are attractive, short, to the point, easily remembered and almost costless. Anti-Socialist leaflets, distributed by the millions, would do untold good and would soon start a tremendous opposition among laborers to the Red Flag movement.
Since the foreigners in our country, especially Russians, Italians and Jews, take to Socialism very readily, something should be done to protect them by native Americans who are especially able to do so.
Patriotic persons and organizations should have immense numbers of anti-Socialist books, pamphlets and leaflets published in the different languages and distributed free of charge to foreigners who are not yet acquainted with English.
Socialism has made terrible inroads among the Jews. To give one example, "The Forward," a Yiddish daily of New York City, has a circulation of about 150,000 copies. This paper should be watched very carefully by the government, for it has been doing some very dangerous work in the line of revolutionary propaganda without English-speaking people being aware of the doctrines it is advocating.
In order to counteract Socialist propaganda among girls and boys, a simple and limited knowledge of the evil plottings of the "Reds" ought to be imparted in all the grammar and high schools of our country. With a view to this, text-books should be prepared. The boards of education in the different cities should see to it that anti-Socialist instruction be given to the children.
Editors who have a good understanding of the evil consequences of Socialism have a fine field rapidly opening up to them. Since the Marxian principles are spreading, there is a rapidly growing demand for articles to refute and combat them; yet many on the editorial staffs seem to have little definite knowledge concerning the teachings of the revolutionists.
All patriotic citizens who understand Socialism and the tactics of the "Knights of the Red Flag" should expose them, violently attacking them in their conversations with others, so that it may no longer be said that the revolutionaries are more zealous in trying to ruin our country and overthrow out government than loyal Americans are to save them.
Attention should be paid to the men who are advocating Socialism in the mills, factories, shops, stores, mines, etc. A thorough exposure of their unsound doctrines will be prolific of much good. The ardor and zeal of the anti-Socialist should go still further, and the illogical revolutionary orators should be driven from their soap boxes, not by violence nor by physical force--for this would only give them another opportunity for complaining and enable them to win the support of sympathizers--but by arguments with them so effective as to compel them to step down and walk off in disgrace under the jeers of their audiences. In arguing with the visionaries, proofs for the truth of their statements should be demanded and the fact ought always to be insisted upon that, even if they could show that the present system of government and industry was corrupt and useless, it would in no way follow from this that the Socialists" regime--however magnificently pictured by an unbridled imagination--would provide a true remedy for any of the evils and abuses of our day.
The letters that Socialists send to the daily papers for publication, to further their cause, can, as a rule, easily be refuted. All that is required, in most instances, after a brief introduction of the question at issue, is to connect, by a few short sentences, several of the damaging quotations that can be found, for example, in the present volume.
Men who have talent for public speaking can make good use of their eloquence in the warfare against our nation"s foes by giving lectures and delivering speeches. Good writers should devote their talents to the preparation of books, pamphlets and leaflets against the revolutionists, and should furnish suitable articles for the newspapers and magazines.
The follies of Socialism also afford an abundance of suggestions for dramatists and cartoonists.
Socialist school teachers and princ.i.p.als, because of the revolutionary doctrines that they gradually instill into the minds of the young, should be eliminated from the school-room. Students of colleges and universities, in which the Intercollegiate Socialist Society is organized, could give a n.o.ble example of patriotism and loyalty to our country by forming clubs to oppose the influence of the Socialist chapters and offset the great harm they are doing.
Patriotic members of the American Federation of Labor should attend as many of its meetings as possible in order to prevent the Marxians and radicals from gaining the upper hand in the organization, endorsing the Socialist Party, or adopting revolutionary principles of any kind.
As Socialist women are trying to destroy our Federal Government, the women who are opposed to Socialism should give ample proofs of their loyalty and devotion by taking an active part in the defense of their country.
Anti-Socialist clubs should be formed throughout the country to study Socialism and to devise means for combating the zealous propaganda carried on by the thousands of Socialist locals and branches.
Influential members of the anti-Socialist clubs should see to it that the public libraries were well stocked with anti-Socialist literature and that Socialist publications are kept only for legitimate purposes of reference.
Several very important works of defence remain to be undertaken by our National Government, if the conspirators are to be prevented from destroying it. Socialism has already struck deep roots into the soil of America. Consequently, the Government of the United States, in leaving to individuals the defence of the nation against the well organized forces of the revolutionists, is running a risk almost as great as if it were to entrust the suppression of an armed insurrection to individual action. The Socialists availing themselves of every opportunity for spreading their propaganda among foreigners, have already gained many recruits from the immigrant cla.s.s. With this serious condition of affairs confronting it, the National Government should employ strenuous measures to break the grip that Socialism already has on the nation, and to prevent the immigrants who are landing on our sh.o.r.es from becoming a menace.
A law should be pa.s.sed by Congress forbidding the publication or circulation of any paper, magazine or book which advocates the unlawful destruction of our present form of government. The officers of the army and navy should take precautions for preventing the spread of such publications among soldiers and sailors.
So far we have spoken only of the negative measures that the United States Government should adopt for its defence. It remains to add a few words concerning a positive campaign against the conspirators. If the Government neglects to stem the rising tide of Socialism it will not be long before a disastrous insurrections[23] will be upon us. Millions of dollars a day would then be spent in defraying the expenses of what might turn out to be an unsuccessful campaign. Congress should now appropriate the sums of money necessary to suppress the Marxian uprising and entirely uproot Socialism out of the United States.
The American people as a body will never tolerate Socialism, once they have been made to realize its full meaning and ruinous consequences.
This knowledge could be brought home to them most effectively by means of anti-Socialist information issued periodically under the direction of one of the departments of the Government and furnished to the press of the country. Such material should also be distributed to all labor organizations and every public library in the country, and to clubs, societies, clergymen, legislators, judges, and men and women of influence. If such a plan were adopted, the forces arrayed in the line of battle against the Socialists would become tremendously strong and the danger now seriously threatening our nation would presently disappear. Surely the Government could afford to spend a few million dollars a year against revolutionists who are already undermining its very foundations and whose activities, if unopposed, will bring upon us evils incomparably greater than those coming from a foreign foe.
Orators attacking Socialism could be recruited by the Government to speak all over the country for five or ten minutes at a time, after the fashion of the Four Minute Men.
Those who have read this book have seen that the principles of the revolutionists are logically unsound and would deluge the land we love with rivers of blood and plunge us into an abyss of discontent, strife, crime and chaos. It has been shown that the Socialist Party is an organization controlled by bosses and politicians with the avowed object of gaining votes by the most unscrupulous methods. Notwithstanding their pretentions to honesty and sincerity, evidence has been cited time and again of the deceitfulness of their propaganda, and of their plottings to overthrow our const.i.tutional form of government, destroy religion and ruin family life.
We, however, who sincerely love America, will never tear down the Star-Spangled Banner and in its place fling to the breezes the blood-stained flag of Karl Marx.
APPENDIX
THE NATIONAL CONVENTION OF THE SOCIALIST PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES, MAY 8-14, 1920
After "The Red Conspiracy" went to press, this Convention was held at Finnish Hall, New York City. Of its 156 delegates, sixty were of foreign birth. By some newspapers the Convention was incorrectly styled "mild"
and "conservative," so well were the avowed revolutionary designs of the Socialists camouflaged behind seemingly harmless innocuous phrases for the deception of the uninformed. "Vote-catching" was the key-note of the proceedings. As this book shows, the Socialist Party in 1919 lost the vast majority of its members to the Communists and the Communist Laborites and had, therefore, to seek new members. These, however, could be won only by concealing for the time being the true revolutionary objects of the Socialist Party. This covering-up of its conspiracy against the United States, and the resultant gathering into the conspirators" net of the timid halfway Socialists as yet members of other political Parties, could be accomplished only by the lure of a Convention Platform so worded as to convince the unwary that the Socialists as a Party had discarded their ultra radicalism and blatant un-Americanism.
The Convention of May, 1920, therefore, was guided, under the adroit management of Morris Hillquit and Victor L. Berger, toward a Platform worded more mildly and conservatively than might have been expected. No thinking person, however, Socialist or decent American, will be deceived into believing that the beast of prey has changed its ugly spots because a gauzy veil of lies has been thrown over them.
"The Red Conspiracy" has proven that the Socialists in the United States have been, almost to a man, in thorough accord with the principles and workings of the blackest Bolshevism. They have consistently and completely supported the I. W. W. They are avowed foes of the American Federation of Labor, though willing enough to use this organization by sending traitors to join it and to bore their rat-holes of corruption from within its respectable membership. One of the delegates to the Socialist Convention of May, 1920, George Bauer, of New Jersey, said: "We must remember that there are four or five million men in the A. F.
of L., and I don"t believe we can establish a co-operative commonwealth without them." The Convention, following this argument of expediency, adopted a resolution stating that the Socialist Party did not intend to interfere with the internal affairs of labor unions; but added a statement that the Party favored the organization of workers along the line of industrial unionism, acting as one organized working-cla.s.s body.
The I. W. W. is, of course, the leading industrial union in America, and the Convention"s resolution set another seal to the sympathetic bond between Socialism and I. W. W."ism, with the added encouragement of the Socialist Party"s support of the less powerful industrial unions now within the American Federation of Labor.
The Camouflagists at the Convention politely declared that the Socialist Party did not seek to interfere with the inst.i.tution of the family. But Hilkovitz whitewash is not white enough to obscure the lurid red of the free-love and race-suicide propaganda carried on in the Socialist press, Hillquit"s favorite sheet, "The New York Call," being one of the chief offenders. A visit to the Rand School in New York City and examination of the books for sale on its book-store shelves and the periodicals and pamphlets there for sale will present appalling and convincing evidence of the Socialist efforts to destroy elementary decency as well as the inst.i.tutions of marriage and the family.
Another declaration of the Camouflagists at the Socialist Convention of May, 1920, stated that the Socialist Party "recognizes the right of voluntary communities of citizens to maintain religious inst.i.tutions and to worship freely according to the dictates of their conscience." As August Claessens warned the Convention: "Cry out against that which men cherish as holy, and you rouse an antagonism which no argument can defeat." This counsel of discretion is interesting side by side with another Convention statement, made by William Karlin of New York: "If the churches do stand for the old order, it will be a bad day for them when the new order comes, because the churches will go down with the old order." Mr. Karlin, however, accepting discretion as valor"s better part, admitted that "There are many people to whom we can appeal if we don"t arouse their religious prejudice;" while Delegate McIntyre, of the District of Columbia, prudently advised the members of the Convention to "get the voters first and talk religion out of them afterward." Again, a visit to the book-shop of the Rand School is suggested if proof is desired of the Socialist propaganda of atheism, sacrilege, and, specifically, hatred of Christianity. The reader of "The Red Conspiracy"
will have noted enough of the Socialists" blasphemies to prevent the Convention Camouflagists" hedging on this subject from having any effect but added disgust at hypocrisy.
The Convention declared in favor of political action for the attainment of the Socialists" ends. Exactly! Chapter XVI of this book, "The Conspiracy Against Our Country," has shown for what purposes political action and political power are to be used. Get traitors in office and when the Revolution comes the forces to coerce the American people and destroy the American Government will be in the traitors" control.
Camouflagists[25] and their opponents of the Convention united in the nomination of Eugene V. Debs, convicted criminal, for President of the United States. Let us hear the words of this man whom Morris Hillquit stated resembles "the Nazarene," and who styles himself "a flaming revolutionist." A press report, from Atlanta, Georgia, dated May 14, 1920, quotes him as saying:
"Personally I am a radical. I have always been one. My only fear has always been that I might not be radical enough. In my own party I always led the minority, but I hope to lead a united Socialist Party to the polls this Fall. They are fighting within my own party today. It is a good healthy sign. The radicals keep the conservatives from giving away too much to popularize the movement.
That is what killed the Populist Party. The leaders sought to popularize its political propaganda by pandering to more conservative elements. They lost the radical support of their party, which became the Socialist Party, and naturally the conservatives had no further use for them. To begin to placate your enemies is to invite decay."
The radical minority in the Socialist Party formerly comprised the Left Wing members who later on became Communists and Communist Laborites. J.
Louis Engdahl of Chicago at present leads a new Left Wing radical minority within the Party.
The American public may at times be gullible, but hardly sufficiently so as to believe in the sincerity of Hillquit and Victor L. Berger, who filled the air at the Convention with phrases of moderation and disclaim of treason and revolution, following their gentle verbiage by nominating Debs who scores those who "sought to popularize" "political propaganda by pandering to more conservative elements." "Panderer" is not a pretty thing to be called, but the pleasant Messrs. Hilkovitz and Berger swallow it. That their conservative phraseology would fool no one was recognized at the Convention by Irwin St. John Tucker, who said: "You can disguise yourself by sprouting pink whiskers." Mr. Tucker, however, would not join the Camouflagists, remarking: "It may be that the American people are not yet ready to accept Socialist principles, but I would rather lose an election than lose those principles."
Hillquit himself said in the Convention, on May 13, 1920, that the nomination of Debs "proves that we have not receded from our position of revolutionary Socialism and that we will be more effective and still more revolutionary than ever before."
J. Louis Engdahl may be an enemy to the United States and to society in general, but he is man enough to say boldly what he really thinks. At the Convention he declared: "I say that it is time to inaugurate the revolution immediately. The time to prepare for victory is now.... We can"t fool anybody here by decorating the walls with the flag of Wall St."
Delegate Oneal, one of Hillquit"s own faction of political actionists, volunteered to furnish a reason why camouflage was a useful policy for the Socialists to adopt until "The Day" arrived,--the black day when the United States of America should be gasping in the throes of death-agony, like wretched Russia. Oneal sapiently remarked at the Convention: "The time and conditions which favored the Russian revolution must be studied before we attempt to adopt them here."
But the Camouflagists of the Convention did not sever and did not wish to sever the close bond of union between the Socialist Party of the United States and the Third or Moscow International, the Convention, in its majority report, stating that "The Moscow organization is virile and aggressive, inspired as it is by the militant idealism of the Russian revolution," the majority report further stating that the Socialist Party of the United States, "retaining its adherence to the Third International," "instructs its executive committee, its international secretary and international delegates to be elected" "To partic.i.p.ate in movements looking to the union of all true Socialist forces in the world into one International and to initiate and further such movements whenever the opportunity is presented." The said majority report follows, as reported in "The New York Call," May 15, 1920:
"The international organization of Socialism has been disrupted as a result of the world war.
"The old Second International is represented princ.i.p.ally by the majority party of Germany, the Socialist parties of the countries carved out from the former Austro-Hungarian empire, and of most of the countries of Europe that remained neutral during the war.
"The parties affiliated with this organization have largely abandoned the revolutionary character and the militant methods of working cla.s.s Socialism. As a rule, they co-operate with the middle cla.s.s reform parties of their countries.
"The Third or Moscow International was organized by the Communist party of Russia with the co-operation of several other Communist organizations recruited in the main from the countries split off from the former Russian empire and some Scandinavian and Balkan countries. The Third International also includes the Labor party of Norway and the Communist Labor party of Poland. Of the other important countries, the Socialist parties of Switzerland, Italy and the United States, and the British Socialist party have expressed their intention to affiliate with it.
"The Moscow organization is virile and aggressive, inspired as it is by the militant idealism of the Russian revolution. It is, however, at this time only a nucleus of a Socialist International, and its progress is largely impeded by the att.i.tude of its present governing committee, which seems inclined to impose upon all affiliated bodies the formula of the Russian revolution "The dictatorship of the proletariat in the form of Soviet power."
"The Independent Socialist party of Germany, the Socialist party of France and the Independent Labor party of Great Britain are unaffiliated. They have initiated a movement to unite all truly Socialist parties of the world, including those represented in the Moscow organization, into one International.
"At no time was an active and effective organization of a Socialist International more vitally necessary for the success of Socialism than at this crucial period of the world"s history. Socialism is in complete control in the great country of Russia. It is represented in the bourgeois governments of several important countries of Europe. The Socialists const.i.tute the leading opposition parties in most of the remaining modern countries. It should be the task of the Socialist International to aid our Comrades in Russia to maintain and fortify their political control and to improve and stabilize the economic and social conditions of their country by forcing the great powers of Europe and America to abandon the dastardly policy of intrigue, war and starvation blockade against Soviet Russia. It should be its task to help the Socialists in countries of divided political control to inst.i.tute full and true Socialist governments, and to support the struggles of the Socialists in the capitalist-controlled countries, so that they may more speedily secure victory for the workers in their countries.