The Washington socialist. [volume], May 14, 1914, Image 1

About The Washington socialist. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1914-1915

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The Wstsh.in.gton. Socialist
, FOR SOCIALIST NEWS AMD PROPAGANDA.
.V per Copj . $1.00 per >.:\r
PROCLAMATION ON THE MEX
ICAN WAR
By the Socialist Party of America.
f.\i:;im wo are- being lashed Into w;«r
by thoso who profit, from wit
Capitalist drums are. Heating, trump
ets blaring nnd forces . rutting
AH this that the nation may be
goaded into war and the workers made
to consent to shoot and be shot.
For centuries the resources of Mex
ico hare lain dormant. Of late that
country has been touched by the
magic wand of capitalism ami the
same develop! is taking place
there that always takes place when
modern capitalism clashes with back
ward feudalism.
Ninety per cent of her population
is still landless and propertyless. For
hundreds of years her people have
struggled against almost insurmount
able difficulties to overthrow tyrants
who have ruled and ruined men. ,
r For hundreds of years the Mexican
'-. people have been in a state of con
tinuous revolt because the great ma
jority are in a condition of peonage.
.Ilobbed of their land in an agricul
tural country, the change from the
Spanish rule to an independent repub
lic avails the Mexican people little or
nothing. So long as peonage remains,
revolt must follow revolt !
in vain did the Mexican people ale
vate Madero-to the presidency. Their
hope that he would recognise their
need and restore the land to the peo
ple was not fulfilled. They" are still
fighting to win Mexico for the Mexi
cans.
In Sonora, Durango and Chihauhau,
where the revolutionists are in con
trol, the people are taking possession
of the land. Xow, when the revolu
tionists believe that victory is in Bight,
the great American republic controlled
by sinister capitalist interests and
without a declaration of war. lands an
armed force on Mexican soil. No na
il tion in modern times has ever begun
hostilities upon a pretext so shallow
as the flag incident at Tampico.
The war will inevitably unite all
factions in Mexico against the invad
ers of their, country. Their resistance
to the forces of the United States must
fail, yet it will cost thousands of- lives
through bullet, bayonet and disease.
In order to subdue Mexico, the
American army must march across
that country like Sherman marched to
i the sea. Our army will leave behind
a path of desolation, ruined homes and
health.
And finally, when American arms
have triumphed, who will be the win
ners? The American people will not
win. The Mexican people will not
win. German, English and American
capitalists, backed by our army, will
exploit Mexico and the Mexican peon
as capitalism always exploits the work
ing people everywhere.
Moreover, the effect of the war on
our own country will be deplorable.
War strengthens every force hurtful
to civilization, every force hurtful to
labor. While war lasts there will be
no social legislation. Enough money
Will be used up in dealing death to
human beings to provide old age pen
sions, accident, sickness and unem
ployed insurance for every worker in
America for a generation.
Every piratical power will seize this
opportunity to prey upon our people.
Exploiting capitalism will meet every
attack by wrapping the American flag
around its plunder.
Remember that the capitalist class
in Colorado, destroying with machine
guns American workers struggling for
better conditions, is the very same
class that seeks to rule Mexico.
The Socialist party is opposed, as a
, matter of principle, to every war of
i aggression. We believe that there is
\ but one justification for war, and that
,1 is to fight for freedom. Our freedom
. has not been assailed by the Mexi
cans. There is no reason why Ameri
can workingmen should leave their
homes and families to have their
bodies mangled on Mexican battle
fields.
In the name of two million Ameri
can Socialists, in the name of thirty
million Socialists throughout the
world, in the name of humanity and
civilization, we protest against the
war with Mexico.
BY THE NATIONAL EXECUTIVE
COMMITTEE! OF THE SOCIALIST
PARTY.
Victor Berger.
Adolph Oermer.
Ceo. H. Goebel.
James H. Maurer.
J. Stitt Wilson.
Attest: Walter Lanferseik,
Executive Secretary.
EX MAYOR EMIL SEIDEL, LATE SOCIALIST MAYOR OF MILWAUKEE, WILL SPEAK IN PEOPLE'S THEATRE MAY 28, 8:00 P. M. \
'PATRIOTISM: THE LAST REFUGE OF THE SCOUNDREL. "—DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON Author of the Fir.t En fl liih Dictionary
Formerly The Commonwctilth
BVERKTT, WASHINGTON, TlllkSDA V, MAY | |. pill.
No. 17.">.
EXPOSING THE WAR GAME
"MURDER IS MURDER."
Workers of America, Let Not the
Profit Mongers Use You for
Claws and Teeth!
Mrs. Andrew D. White—"Does an
American gentleman shoot the man
who insults him? Not usually in this
generation, much leu his wife and
family. Shall we destroy many in
nocent Mexicans by bombarding Tam
pico because an official bandit insults
our flag? Nothing he can do, only
what we can do, can dishonor. the
American flag and nation."
- E. D. Mead, peace advocate—"The
talk of war upon such petty pretexts,
with which Washington and the coun
try have been bo suddenly deluged, Is
disproportionate and monstrous to the
point of grotesqueness. Compare these
trivial | affronts to the indignities suf
fered by England when the Russians
fired on her fishermen at the Dogger
bank, killing several of them and sink
ing their boats."
Norman Angell. author of the anti
war book, "The Great Illusion." —"It
required three years' fighting for 400,
--000 British soldiers to subdue 100,000
poverty-stricken Boers at a cost of
$1,250,000,000. These same figures
would apply if the United States ever
attempted to subjugate the Mexicans.
English politics has been paralyzed
for years by the problem of Irish sub
jugation. American politics would
likewise be twisted if this country at
tempted to conquer Mexico." ":
The National Honor.
Ernest Untermann. —"The national
honor follows the pork barrel.
"The national honor never winced
during all the fifty years since the
Civil War, when both Republicans and
Democrats repudiated annually every
pledge made to the wage-worker and
small farmer. "
; "The national honor was not tainted
by the outrages committed with the
connivance of Republicans and Demo
crats against the workers jin Penn
sylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts,
West Virginia, Michigan, Colorado and
California. ""' . ■
"The national honor grinned with
delight when a militia general in Mich
igan tore the . Stars and Stripes from
the hands of a working girl and
trampled * the emblem" of the nation
into the mud.
• "The national honor remained spot
less when Sherman Bell shouted: 'To
hell with the constitution,' or when
New York's chief of police announced
that 'the club is mightier than the
constitution.'
"But when the English oil trust in
Mexico began to back Huerta, when
the oil wells of the American trust
were threatened, when Hearst's big
ranches in Mexico, when Colonel
Greene's mines in Cananea were <in
danger- of falling into the hands of
the Mexican people, the national honor
was insulted by the convenient arrest
of a few marines and nothing would
purify the flag but an armed invasion
of Mexico — the customs revenues
of Vera Cruz."
MEDIATION! FOR WHAT?
Now they are trying "Mediation"—
anything and everything to rescue
from the fire the foreign investor's
chestnuts and impose on the rebel
lious Mexican peasant a good, strong
government which shall take care of
him.
That is precisely what he does not
want. He wants to be in a position
where he can take care of himself,
and for that he wants possession of
the land.
Consider who those new interven
ers are. The Argentine minister, de
scribed as "a diplomat of wide ex
gterlence; an international lawyei "
The Brazilian ambassador, a "trained
diplomat." The Chilean envoy, 'Tor
some years Chilean minister at Mex
ico City." Krock-coated, uniform-be-
Bpangled idlers, who have as much in
common with the toiling peasant as
the lamb haa with the famished wolf.
Not by any such hocus-pocus can
this fundamental question of the right
to a free and equal seat at nature's
overflowing banquet-table be settled.
As for good government! We have
had our bellyful of it in these United
States. It's name is Roosevelt the
hardest taskmaster the disinherited
could have. Woodrow Wilson is his
logical successor. —Wm. C. Owen in
Regeneraclon.
COMRADES!
Don't inisß "The Brtlke," shown at
the Princess Theatre, Friday mid Sat
urday, it revealt the futility of "di
rect action."