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The Commonwealth. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1911-1914, October 11, 1912, Image 1

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A system that says to Ur-or: "You shall take what
• I offer you without • won! of rcmonsti«nc«s without '
"any confcrtnc* as to itt justice; you shall t«k* it or
yon shall move your family two hundred miles before
you iin a dollar," is as real a system of slavery as ]
anything that was ever endured in the north or any I
of the southern date*, for the man I* utterly unable
to resist his circumstance.—Wendell Phillip*.
fv per I'opy, $1.00 pw \ car.
WHEIN tho saloon is out <>! the way, when men have better opportunity to work than to drink, when the certainty of a good home and the chance to enjoy
the Fruits abundant of his or her own industry is laid before each young man and woman, when avenues of recreation that are beautiful, varied and
inspiring are substituted for capitalism's dives and dens, when man's environment shall have been clarified of the dispiriting, enervating thraldom of today,
when socialism is the order of industry, the liquor question becomes one ol easy solution. But as long as the profit from its sale flows into the coffers of the
Unspenser, as long as poverty, wretchedness and toil is the allotment oi the millions, as long as the conditions of life are such as to invite the assuaging or drowning of
weariness or memory or sorrow or despair or hopelessness in the flowing bowl, the drink habit is but one form of adaptation of life to conditions in which it is engulfed.
By N. A. Richardson in "Industrial Problems"
j There is a story in Grecian mythology
of a many-headed monster, Hydra, thai
took up his abode at the only water
supply of a certain people. One of the
labops of Hercules was to despatch this
beast. The difficulty attendant upon
this task lay in the power of the mon
ster to replace a severed head by one or
more other heads. The "labor" was fin
•ally accomplished by crushing the thing,
heads, body tad all beneath a tremend
. ous rock.
The figure is apt for the purpose in
hand and the attention of our prohibi
tion, pulverize-the-liquor-traffic friends.
is especially invited to it.
ii^XJie .Hionster Hydra of today is an in
■rTuVnil system through which, posses
sion has been taken of our people's
sources of life-sustenance. It is a
■ tnany-headed monster and fully capable
of producing substitutes for any that,
by any sort of device, may be severed
as long as the body remains intact. The
body is the power and privilege to ex
ploit human labor —to amass dividends.
! Now. for the sake of argument, let us
grant the possibility of success of a na
tional prohibition party, the abolition of
the saloon —grant all that the prohibi
"tionist asks. What has he accomplished?
He answers. "I have cut a great head
from the Hydra." Yes, you have cut off
the saloon head, but what about its sub
stitutes by the way of drug stores,
"blind pigs" and "boot-leggers"? "They
are not so bad." Let that be granted,
too; but they are each a secret, insid
ious source of evil and there are three
> of them. We have now granted the'best
that prohibition could possibly do; there
fore, we have a just right to make in-
I quiry as to what it has not done.
If you are sane and intelligent you
I will grant that the concentration of
wealth-ownership in this nation is an
evil that must be remedied; in fact you
will know that it is in concentrated
wealth that the power lies that upholds
the evil you are combating—that up
holds the saloon system. Put every drop
of liquor in the bottom of the ocean —
have you stopped wealth concentration?
You'tell us that if the labor of the na
tion were all sober, were freed from alco
holic stimulants, it could produce on the
W .^mm'S
REV. H. A. LIVERMORE.
jr ~ Key, 11. A. Urtrmore trill lie routed through t>■« ■ Mate of V\
■ii. in an Ulwtraied torture foi thi I omraouwealth. Hii »tereoptii
i In- Rip Saw will !«■ given in liberty H , on NVedi
October 10. \n admiMtoa tickei oti will includi .
Rev. 11. A. I.iwnnore will deliver liis
first Hii* Saw lecture at Bellingham on
Sunday, October 13. From there lie "ill
appear at the following place! and
ilati's:
IKlliujjliam, CVtuVor 13; Burlington 14,
Si'ilroWoolloy 15, Everett, lii, Snohom
i.-h 17, Sultan 20, Seattle Second Ward
21, Taeoma No. '.' •-:!, l'.ut Angclet 25,
l'oit .\ngelos 20, lJirnunpliaiu 2S, Sumai
30.
r " THF. NUMRF.R ON VOUK I.AHF.I. 18 N YOUR SUBSCRIPTION KXHKF.H TWO WF.F.KK KIIOM THBI DMUI KINFX.Y UDTIW AT ONCE.
average ten per rent more than when in
tlucnced by drink. Let us grant thai
I'or whom would it produce the extn
ten per cent? Who would own it wh«a
it had been produced? The producers'.
Vti while labor power is ■ commodity
The extra per cent would go to the ex
plotters, some of whose chief function
irics, advocates of the system that con
:entrates wealth-ownership, arc prohibi
■ionists. The only conclusion that car
Je drawn from your own argument is
that, granting all you ask, this evil is
lugmented.
Again grant all that you ask, are the
■onditions thai would then obtain goinj
to cure the unemployed and the panic
:vils? There are nearly half a millior
laborers now employed thai your pro
jr.uii would at once throw upon the
labor market, at least nine-tenths oi
whom are unfit to make a living ii
>ther forms of industry— to th<
qualification for citizenship that youi
'sacred system of industry" provides
"Ah," but you say, "there would b(
more work in the manufacture of shoes
clothing, etc., for laborers would have
more money to spend for such things ii
they did not drink." Grant it; and there
ire half a million more laborers at onc<
lemanding jobs. Can your Industrie
system absorb them No, the additiona
lemand for produce could be suppliec
perhaps several times through any sort
->{ well-directed effort of those now idle
It must be kept in mind that there arc
ilways now hundreds of thousands, yes
■ommonly a million or more, and often
(everal millions who are constantly 01
martially "out of work" —for whom the
•apitalist system can but partially pro
ride. These alone could easily meet al'
ldditional requirements that would re
mit from "more money to spend.'
'Then you socialists contend that those
tiundredos of thousands in the liquoi
business should be permitted to carry
m this awful traffic in order that thej
nay make a living?" No, we argue
nothing of the sort. We simply cal'
pour attention to a condition that musl
needs follow the enforcement of youi
lemand while the system of industry
which you uphold obtains. No, do what
)-ou will with the liquor traffic, you wil

Qlht Commoutoealtf)
not through mieh mi the prob
li'in of tin 1 unemployed.
\nd how about pantos 1 hej
From producing too muoh. t*bor in ■
prohibition oountry would still oomume
fifth, or whatever part hli to it-*
share m the mUm ol tti commodity, It
lertainly would u'l't no more for that
oommodity than Iti \aliu 1. What about
th« surplus! Would it be Increased or
diminished! The former i- the only p"<
eoneliiaion. But ihi- i> ■ phase ol
Batten political that doee not concern
you. You hare no Internal In the ■
elation ol this liqnor traffic with the
•:n of Industry that foetere such
thing*. The system js» good enough for
you as lonir as yOUT j'»b. or your privil
ege to exploil labor, is not menaced.
Then there I* ■ billion dollar* 1 worth
of property in the liquor industry. \ our
policy confiscate* that unqualifiedly.
Your answer is that property that is he
ing used to degrade mankind ought to.
be confiscate). Suppose we grant that,
too. Now tell us if anywhere this tida
of hades there is any property that is
being used for purposes of deeper or;
more, thorough degradation, for more;
death dealing purposes than that In
which we find the child and woman slave
—the mills, mines, factories and sweat
shops wherein they by hundreds of i
thousands are employed? If the prod
ucts of this enslavement were as gener- j
ally scattered and as conspicuously dis-j
played as is the effect of drunkenness, it|
would shame the prohibitionists and
would probably awaken many of them]
to a realising tense of the needs of thei
hour. How about confiscating these
properties ? Why, some of them doubt- j
less belong to members of the prohibi
tion brand of eonfiscators.
"But we are opposed to child labor;
our platform so states." declares some
prohibitionist. And what does your
platform say about the system of in
dustry of which child slavery is a regu
lar and consistent part? and that de
mands that you get your party into!
power in every state, county and city
before you can enact AND ENFORCE
AFTER YOU HAVE ENACTED your
proposed legislation? The enemies of
such enactments are the holders of the
pursue strings ol the people. They are
the chief beneficiaries of the present
system of industry. They control thej
political machine and elect "servants of
NO "HAY" FEVER.
'Chehalis, Wash., Oct. 4, 1912.
Editor Commonwealth, Everett, Wash.
Comrade —Speaking before a represen
tative audience of Chehalis 1 "best citi
zens," Governor Hay last night made the
following admission: "We do not elect
a man to office because he li particularly
fitted to fill the position nor because he
lias been prepared for public service, but
because he i- a vote, getter. So the state
In order to protect the people and to see
that their money is properly bandied
has formed the accountancy commis
sion."
lie also laid that there had been con
siderable antagonism between labor and
capital and the state had pasted the
laborers' liability law to protect the
workers and the old friction had disap
peared because there was no longer cause
for It. Pretty rich, coining from the
chief executive, li it not?
Thought perhaps you could use ii for
a news item.
Yours for the real progress,
C. B. THIMBLE,
Corresponding Secretary Chehalii Local.
1710 • hehalii avenue.
Anna A.Maley Speaks
at Sedro Woolley
Sedro-Woolley, Wash., Oct. B, 1912.
Editor Commonwealth:
On October 1 Co-Trade Anna A. Maley
add rested one of th most enthusiastic
and largest audiences ever gathered to
hfiir a political address in Sedro-Woolley,
Comrade Malej's excellent address was
well received and did great good for the
eailM of socialism. Hon. W. E. Humph
rey gave what was supposed to be a
non-political address a we«'k before, and
be was backed by all of the press and
the boosters in the town, yi-t there was
not one-third of the audience or one
tenth of tin 1 enthusiasm as at the social
ist meeting. 1". E. BODDY.
Comrades—Patronize the mer
chants that patronize your paper
/\ SOCIALIST WEEKLY
RVERKTT, WASHINGTON, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1912
Seoond. It would aboil i lal fea
the public" for 11 m" v -1 purpi i
thwarting the enactment or enfo
of legislut lon advei m to ' he In! i i
themselves and i Heir els v \ml you
are upholding t lie 13 item of Indu 11 j
thai thus fortifies your political cue
niies. that nullifies your own efforts,
"Hut the saloon 1 1 ponsrful means
for the oorruption of elections, Wt will
stop that," says some thoughtless en
thusiast, Are you lincere and simply
ignorant in saying thai it' cvi \ drop "i
liquor were transported to liars, we
would, to any appreciable degree, be
purified! Elections are corrupted for the
purpose ol obtaining special privileges,
franchises, etc. The lalooa II ueed as a
means to this end for one reason and
one only -it is nwie • uvenienl and
oheaper than some other means. Abol
ish the saloon and you change not men's
ambition to own these things; you
simph compel resort to the i if the
means that ranks next to the saloon in
cheapness and convenience.
"Likewise." says a prohibitionist, "we
are opposed to war." And in the next
breath he denounces iv unmeasured
terms some enlightened citizen who is
devoting his life in effort to abolish the
thing—and the only thing—that makes
war a necessity capitalism. Put the
liquor all in the sea—will that stop war?
Xot while capitalist prosperity depends
upon conquest and retention of foreign
markets—not while capitalism is the or
der of industry.
Yes, there are mnny heads to this
Hydra, capitalism, and he winks at the
puny efforts of the prohibitionist.
"But." says some advocate, "we want,
We must have prohibition now. We can't
wait for the establishment of a co-opera
tive commonwealth, we can't wait for
the enforcement of the common remedy
NO RESERVED SEATS.
There are no reserved seats at the
Warren meeting. The first in the Coli
seum can choose their own seats.
CITY NOTICES
Distribution Sunday.
Saturday night—Settle for War
ren tickets.
Settle for out-of-town Warren
tickets Sunday.
T. K. ROBE IS AFRAID
TO DEBATE
Refuses the Challenge of Comrade
Ballinger, Socialist Candidate
for the Legislature from the
Forty-ninth District.
Granite Palli, Sept, 28, 1012.
Granite l-'alN Local of the Socialist
Tarty:
Gentlamen -Replying to your favor of
the 23d ln»t., will iay thai being unable
to cc wherein a 10-oalled "debate" be
tween Mr. Ballinger and myielf would
be productive ol an] g I. 1 decline t<>
accommodate you.
Y.iiira very truly,
T. K. ROBE.
Note by Comrade Ballinger.
The sui, l.l: ol fered wa« "Hare
aae for luppoi
The ia, ' !-. Mr. ■
§§§§®@§@© ■:::■ : 0 ■:■ O O O O O O O O O O O &■ O O O O O O O O ■:::■ -.::■
• Fred D. Warren, editor of the Appeal to •
• Reason, will speak in the Everett Coliseum Sun- ?
2 day afternoon, October 1 3, at 2:30. •
• •::•
2 Admission 25c. All who come will receive a subscription to °
% The Appeal and a copy of Warren's new pamphlet entitled, "S2OOO ?
% aYear and a Six-Hour Work Day." The Commonwealth of October £
© 1 Bth will contain Comrade Warren's speech in full. . o
■:::• •:::• O O O O © 0 O •:::•■•:: O OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO»OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
[Of all the M ci il v We mil-;! rule lln m
one at a time." n ire an to waH for
the national ol the pi
la order to part tally rid ourselves
of one- evil and :i OORI pondlnglj loir;
i nne in remedy eaofa oi < i i'■
millenniums are to be oonsui lin
il procrastination 1 !!;«-<
the prohibition party ever secured prohi
bition i" an] i iii. oounty or even city
oi anj noie? Prohibition has been oarried
In such statei as Maine and Kaaai prao
tloally independently of any political or
;':mi/;lt ion, liy the people who 111 c op
posed to the traffic on moral grounds,
because of the self evident evil of the
tiling; and in the Houth as an economic
necessity. In these contests the prohibi
tion party, as such, was not a consider
able factor. The southerner mast katp
liquor from the workers in order to bet
ter qualify them for exploitation; but
we may rest assured the southern brand
of prohibition will not seriously incon
venience the members of their "chiv
alry."
Socialists are by no means oblivious
to the devastation wrought by the rum
habit; but we classify it where it be
longs, us but one of many evils conse
quent in large measure, if not entirely,
upon an industrial system —the system
of profit. The saloon business in its
every phase, like any other business in
capitalism, is run for gain, run because
there is a possible eight-cents profit in
a ten-cent drink. Socialism would abol
ish the saloon by abolishing the profit
upon which it thrives. Then we would
leave the question of a local dispensary
and all else that pertained to it, as all
such questions must ultimately be left,
to the people of a locality to decide for
themselves.
With the saloon gone, there is left to
deal with nothing that pertains to the
traffic except the thirst for liquor for
its own sake —the desire to drink for
the sensation produced by the poi3on.
Here again it is evident that a co-opera
tive commonwealth would, in this in
stance as iv others, fall heir to a lot of
the wrecks of capitalism and be com
pelled to (leal with them as best it could.
But socialism would accomplish vari
ous things that would soon do away
with the evil entirely. First. As before
stated, it would at once eliminate the
institution known as the saloon by elim
inating the profits for which it is run.
Robe could not support anything in a
11-1 ■;111 * us he is not posted on anything
utoept the chicken business and the cold
rtorage whioh geti all the e^s Prom bil
>ig ranch.
He evidently realiiei that the progres
lire party has nothing real for the work
■r, and is afraid of a debate.
ILLUSTRATED LECTURE
[n Everett October 16, Wednesday
Night, at Liberty Hall—Tickets
Give Subscriptions to the "Rip
Saw.''
\ -J.~m' ticket to the illustrate.l lecture
if I,'rv. Uvennore, aj Liberty hall, on
Wdiics.lay, October lii. will be good for
mbicripl lon to the Ki[> S;m
The lecture will be extremel]
|on»] as well as entertaining, \ll Ev
rett BOolalUl npathizen ihould
ii'ar this lecture] as Rev, Livermore will
our ii, n the i ommoo
in i all should I 1' 1 in
WK CANNOT TRAFFIC IN OUK PRINCIPLES, WE
LAN MAKK NO COMPROMISE, NO AGREEMF.NT
WITH THK RULING SYSTEM. WE MUST BREAK
WITH IHI RULING SYSTEM AND FIGHT IT TO A
FINISH I.IEBKNECHT, "NO COMPROMISE."
the drink 11 and in tha
prevent, in very large measure, tt
drunkards of young men and
11 "men. Third. With n very small I'rne
tion of what now goes i" support para
■ltes and idlers (an Insignificant frae-
Mob ol the $8 worth) it would estabHeh
recreative centers such as gymnasiums,
reading rooms, lecture halls, theatricals,
etc., that woull be far more attractive
than buying a jug of liquor and seeking
some wohided quarters for a debauch.
Fourth. It would abolish poverty and
slavish toil —the chief causes of indul
gence in strong drink. Fifth. Socialism
would not seek to change human nature.
It is not human nature to be a drunkard,
any more than it is human nature to
keep a few hundreds of thousands of
women and children at work in sweat
shops or mills and mines. Socialism
would revolutionize the environment that
breeds drunkards and sweat-shop work
ers just as cesspools breed maggots.
Human nature would then assert itself
along right lines. It is not human na
ture to do wrong—to maintain injurious,
abnormal relations between individuals
or between men and things; but it is
human nature to seek compensation for
effort, no matter where that compensa
tion is found, even though that reward
may be so slight and strange a thing as
a temporary surcease from the effects
of toil or trouble or the sting of poverty
by distortion of the brain with stimu
lants. A system of industry that lava
rewards in the direction of wrong do
ing, that "puts a premium on every act
that smells of hell," must needs lead
human nature, must guide human beings
into evil courses. The basis of morality,
that from which we garner our concept*
of right and wrong relations between
things, lies in our environment; and the
most potent elements of that environ
ment are vested in our industrial sys
tem.
Sweden, even in capitalism, through
the medium of a system in some fea
tures similar to the one that would
naturally form a part of a socialist com
monwealth, has in recent years reduced
her distilleries from 23,000 to 132 and
her national per capita consumption of
liquor to less than one-third the quan
tity that obtained when her system was
first inaugurated.
Attention should also be called to this
act, that while the men now engaged in
terested in the work of the comrade who
will ioon lie buiklinj* up our paper.
Tin- Rip Saw or the lecture alone is
worth 25p. Together they are a splendid
combination.
ANNOUNCEMENT.
The < 'onimonwealth of October IS will
contain Fred D. Warren's Kvoiett spcnli.
You may secure extra copies at I'/,
cent 9 etch.
Twenty-five Cents in Stamps
Will buy:
Ten t\>iir page oopiei Warren 1! ■] 1 h
in B>vi rett,
Ten two paga oopli -1 M»' ipeaek la
Kvcrctt.
Ten Cents in Stamps
Will buy:
I'ivr BOpiM D«bl' Kvcti'l! ,|iit.-li.
Kivr
Conir;uUs Patronize the mer
chants that patronize your paper.
No 98.
iir l i <l ll< p r- traffic can plead juitifioation
for their opposition to prohibition on the
ground that it is unjust to confiscate a
business that, under license of law, was
permitted to grow and absorb • :ipita!,
and likewise unjust to deprive without
recompense aayoaa of a means of liveli
hood long sanctioned by legal enactment,
no such plean can hold against the meth
ods of socialism. Sooialism would de
stroy alike the saloon business and the
grocery business as they are now oper
:ip{\—ns profit yielding concerns; but
it wonld provide alike for the grocer and
the saloon keeper (and for every one
pise) a means of livelihood better than
that of which either would be deprived.
Unlimited access to the means of pro
luction and the full social equivalent of
one's labor —the least that socialism can
offer —would make the average gain from
a saloon or a grocery shop look small
indeed. Socialism may take away a
means of life, but it offers a far better
one in exchange; prohibition takes every
thing in sight and offers in return—the
capitalistic labor market or the road.
The trouble with the prohibitionist it
that he knows nothing whatever of eco
aomics and consequently he no more
:hinks of associating the great evil of
the rum traffic with our system of in
lustry than with the differential cal
culus. The fact that it is but one head
}f a polyeephalus hydra has never
lawned upon him. When the saloon is
jut of the way, when men have better
jpportunity to work than to drink, when
;he certainty of a good home and the
chance to enjoy the fruits abundant of
lis or her own industry is laid before
sach young man and woman, when ave
iups of recreation that are beautiful,
varied and inspiring are substituted for
•apitalism's dives and dens, when man's
mvironment shall have been clarified of
he dispiriting, enervating thraldom of
;oday, when socialism is the order of in
lustry, the liquor question becomes one
il easy solution. But as long as profit
'rom its sale flows into the coffers of
lie dispenser, as long v poverty, wretch
edness and toil is the allotment of the
nillions, as long as conditions of life are
uili as to invite the assuaging or drown
ng of weariness or memory or sorrow
ir despair or hnpalwiwuii in the flowing
>owl, the drink habit is but one form of
idaptatinn of life to the conditions in
vhich it is engulfed.

I SfcvSj&^c ' ■'■■■'■■■■■ • ' : ' KV'&feSra^jSzS^j&gK&SK
Fred D. Warren, editor Appeal to Kea
son, who speaks at the Everett Coliseum
Sunday afternoon, October 13.

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