OCR Interpretation


The day book. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1911-1917, November 12, 1915, LAST EDITION, Image 22

Image and text provided by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

Persistent link: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045487/1915-11-12/ed-1/seq-22/

What is OCR?


Thumbnail for

JSreK5
4 u, VL. mmmigmm
im
THE PUBLIC FORUM
TOO LONG, BUT ALSO TOO
GOOD TO TURN DOWN. As a
working man are you wililng to re
duce the army and navy in the face
of a fighting world?- tr would you
sanction a large army and navy able
to beat off any force or combination
of force.s that could be brought
against us?
Here are two conflicting views of
our duty as a nation. Which is right?
The red blood of humanity flows in
the veins of the workers of every na
tion. Is the working class interna
tional? Do the members of the work
ing class have a quarrel?
Does war bring only death,
maimed bodies, sickness and poverty
to the working classes to the end
that the ruling classes may gain
wealth and strengthen their position
as exploiters of labor? If this is true,
how do you account for the fact that
the working classes in Europe today
are killing and maiming and destroy
ing each other, the red blood of a
common brotherhood notwithstand
ing. You have heard it said the German
Socialists were tricked into voting
the first war budget in August, 1914.
Also we have seen the spirit of im
perialism grow within the movement
there. In France the anarchists, syn
dicalists, Socialists and radicals gen
erally are in favor of the war.
These are all thinkers and they
know why they fight and the reasons
are strong enough to still urge them
on after a year of bloodshed. Again
I ask, do they have a quarrel? They
are not fools and they think they are
fighting for something.
Thousands of men in the trenches
have said: "We have no homes to
fight for, only boarding houses and
rented shacks." Working classes will
never have anything else to fight for
under capitalism. But they fight!
Then there must be something else
that they consider worth dying for.
And now to apply this argument to
America. What should American
working classes do about war and
preparedness for war? We will have
war here in America and the best
blood of the working classes will be
poured out here as it is now being
poured out in Europe in defense of a
competitive capitalistic government
I can hear some one say: "Let the
workers take charge of industry and
manufacture for use and not for
profit and the cause of war will dis
appear," which I believe to be true,
but that day is not here. And com
petitive capitalistic government will
bring war here before that day
comes. Then what shall the workers
do? There are two answers to that
question fight or not fight.
If we are pacificists and do not
want to fight, are we willing to abide
by all the consequences that such a
decision means? Right here I want
to point to the failure of Christianity
in all such crises. Christians claim
to be in favor of peace, but they do
not have the courage of their con
victions. If every professed Chris
tian in Europe would refuse to fight
there would be no war.
But you say the governments
would force them to fight By that
is meant to impress them and take
them anyway. Well and good. Is
death such a terrible thing? The
blood or tne martyr is tne seed of the
church. If you are for peace at any
price are you willing to be stood up
against a blank wall before a firing
squad rather than fight?
Even if American workingmen
have no homes to fight for, which I
do not believe to be true yet, have we
nothing else to defend? Have we
no ideals of democracy or self-government
to defend, that our fathers
obtained through the sacrifice of
much blood? We have a habeas cor-,
pus act, right of trial by jury, free
public schools, religious tolerance
and the ballot Are these things
worthy of defense?
Our government is capitalistic. We
ti

xml | txt