Labor ani t^^e Kext '..ar by James Or.e^il LABOR AND THE NEXT WAR By JAMES ONEAL PRICE 10 CENTS Published by the SOCIALIST PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES 2418 West Madison Street CHICAGO »l*loiting investors. If war comes because of this American bullying thou- sands of workingmen will have to pay for it with their lives. Many will leave their bones to bleach under the burning sun of Mexico. The survivors will return home and they and their children will face heavier taxation to pay the expenses of the raid. If Mexico is conquered and a tool of American imperialism is installed by military power in Mexico City, this means a still larger army and a more costly navy to keep the Mexican people in subjec- tion toi American investors. 20 LABOR AND THE NEXT WAR CHAPTER VII. AN OLD DOOTRINE Before the rise of modem imperialism the American Government took the position that it was not within its functions or duties to protect the investments of American capitalists in other countries, much less to dictate the laws of those countries. In 1885 Secretary of State Bayard gave expression to this old doctrine with special reference to Haiti. O'f this doctrine he sad : "I feel hound to say that if we should sanction by reprisals in Haiti the ruthless invasion of her ter- ritory and insult to her sovereignty which the facts now before us disclose, if ive approve by solemn Executive action and Congressional assent that in- vasion, it will be difficult for us hereafter to assert that in the New Woiid, of whose rights we are the peculiar guardians, these rights have never been in- vaded by ourselves." Yet the very thing which Bayard said was not con- sistent with American doctrine and policy has not only beeni done in Haiti but in a number of other weak nations as we have seen. It has been carried out by Republican and Democratic presidents, by Roosevelt, T'aft, Wilson and Harding. The striking thing about the complete re- versal of the old doctrine is that it came when capitalism had developed to that point in the United States when surplus capital began to accumulate for investment over- seas. The material interests of American investors then brought about a change whereby the American Govera- ment regards it as its sacred duty to back up these invest- ments with coercion, threats, marines and soldiers if neces- sary. In December, 1920, Secretary of State Colby in trans- mitting to the Secretary of the Treasury estimates of the LABOR AND THE NEXT WAR 21 financial needs of the State Department for the fiscal year, wrote: "Nations are incited to extend their efforts to the remote and undeveloped regions of the earth in order to establish control over the initial sources of supply to their own advantage." What he means by "nations" is capitalists and in- vestors. Nations do not engage in mining, in building of railroads, sinking oil wells in regions overseas. Colby continues: "It is prohahly in this field that the intervention of government is today playing its most active part. The universality of the struggle for petroleum, the coal and fuel problem, the supply of wood pulp, and of many other essential prime necessaries are exam- ples of this tendency." Secretary Colby's statement is a clear expression of the view that it is the duty of a government to look after the material interests of capitalists and investors all over the world. The natural resources, raw materials and other riches of weak peoples of other countries are regarded as booty for American capitalists and bankers. The govern- ment is looked to to serve this class ii^ obtaining this booty. This is the new doctrine of imperialist capitalism. How different it is from the old doctrine as stated by Secretary^ of State Bayard in a dispatch dated June 24, 1885, which I quote from Latane's ''America As A World Power." Dealing with the claims of American capitalists and bankers on peoples abroad he wrote : "All that our goveryiment undertakes, when the claim is merely contractual, is to interpose its good offices; in other words, to ask the attention of the foreign sovereign to the claim; and this is only done when the claim is one susceptible of strong and clear proof. 22 LABOR AND THE NEXT WAR "If the sovereign appealed to denies the validity of the claim or refuses its payment, the matter drops, since it is not consistent with the dignity of the United States to press, after such a refusal or denial, a contractual claim for the repudiation of which, by the law of nutions, there is no redress." Yet under the administrations of Wilson and Harding, and beginning as early as the administration of Roosevelt, government power has been used as an agency not only to back up claims of bankers and investors in the Latin- American countries, but to force loans upon them, over- throw their governments, rule the people with bayonets, and establish control in the interest of American bankers. THE DRAGO DOCTRINE The peoples of the Latin-American countries have long understood the grave danger to them of the new im- perialist doctrine of the United States. They have had ample experience with it. They recognize that it is the doctrine of the big powers against the little powers but not intended for each other. The United States Grovem- ment would not think of backing up the investments and loans of its capitalists and bankers in Ebgland. This would mean a bitter war. But the United States can take this attitude towards the little nations because they are weak and are incapable of defending themselves. Luis M. Drago, Foreign Minister of the Argentine Republic, sent a communication to the American State Department on December 29, 1902. This note set forth not only the view of The Argentine regarding military and naval power employed to collect private debts, but the view of practically all Latin- America. Part of this Drago statement reads: "The collection of loans bij military means im- LABOR AND THE NEXT WAR 23 plies territorial occupation to make them effective, and territorial occupation signifies the suppression or subordination of the governments of the countries on which it is imposed "The simplest ivay to the setting aside and easy ejectment of the rightful authorities by European governments is just this way of financial interven- tions The Argentine Republic ivould, with great satisfaction, see adopted by the United States the principle, already accepted, that there can be no territorial expansion in America on the part of Europe, nor any oppression of the peoples of this co7itinent, because an unfortunate financial situ- ation may compel some one of them to postpone the fulfillment of its promises." It will be observed that the Drago Doctrine is nothing more than a statement of the policy which the big imperial- ist powers observe towards each other. These big powers in the matter of trade, loans and concessions, of their cap- italists and bankers with the little nations, pursue a policy of coercion, threats, invasion, bullying and militaiy occu- pation. But they do not follow these policies with each other. The Drag-o Doctrine seeks to obtain the same treat- ment for the weak nations which the big imperialist powers concede to each other. This Drago Doctrine also holds that capitalists and bankers of other countries, investing or loaning money in another country, should invest and loan under the laws of the other country. If they do not like the laws they should not loan or invest. This is the doctrine of the big powers in their intercourse with each other. The United States, for example, requires that foreign capitalists should invest under American laws. The American Government would regard it as an insult if another government were to tell it to change its constitution or its laws to suit alien capitalists! But in late years we have witnessed the amazing 24 LABOR AND THE NEXT WAR spectacle of the American Goveniment sending notes to iMexico telling that government that the Mexican Consti- tution and Mexican laws must be changed to suit the in- terests of a handful of powerful American investors in Mexico. During the past 20 years financial imperialism in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific has been followed by a consistent policy of intervention to collect debts of the little nations contiguous to these waters, establishing naval bases and arranging for police control in the interest of American bankers and investors. THE MONROE DOCTRINE What has come to be known as the Monroe Doctrine was proclaimed by President Monroe in 1823. Tt had its origin in the fear that the Holy Alliance was plotting for the overthrow of republics in South America. Tlie gist of the Monroe Doctrine is contained in the statement that "the American continents, by the free and independent condition whicli they have assumed and maintained, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future col- onization of any European powers. ' ' It went on to declare that "We owe it, therefore, to candor, and to the amicable relation existing between the United States and those powers, to declare that we should consider anj^ attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety." The Monroe Doctrine has had many interpretations since it was first announced. It is not now what it was originally conceived to be. In the first place while it served to i)rotect Latin-America against Euroi>ean aggression, it has not protected Latin- America from American aggres- sion. On the contrary, beginning with the interpretation given to it by President Roosevelt, it has served as a menace to aU Latin-America. LABOR AND THE NEXT WAR '25 What it means today according to the development it has had in the hands of Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson and Hard- ing is that Europe shall still keep hands off Latin-America but that the L^nited States will act as a policeman for the Eluropean powers, and the United States as well, in coerc- ing and gradually destroying the independence of Latin- American peoples. In 1904 President Boosevelt stated this conception of the United States as a policeman for the bankers and cap- italists of the world. In a message to Congress he said: "If a nation shows that it knoivs ho2v to act 'with reasonable efficiency and decency in social and 'political matters, if it keeps order and pays its obli- gations, it need fear no i7iterference from the United States (But) in the Western Hemisphere the ad- herence of the United States to the Monroe Doctrine may force the United States, however reluctaritly , in flagrant cases of.... wrong-doing or impotence, to the exercise of an international police power." Notice that the United States is to judge of the "wrong-doing" of another nation. The reader's attention is again called to the account given of how the agents of American capitalists stir up trouble in Latin-America for the purpose of getting support of this "international police power." Readers are asked to remember Mr. Roosevelt's connection with the "revolution" in Panama. Is not the sinister character of this sort of Monroe Doctrine apparent when it is remembered that both Wilson and Harding have acted in accord with it? Its conflict with the Drago Doc- trine is alsoi evident. Considering that all Latin-America subscribes to the Drago Doctrine it is evident that the ]>eoples of that vast region are ranged against the mailed fist that now goes with the Monroe Doctrine. 26 LABOR AND THE NEXT WAR CHAPTER VIII. POLITICAL PARTIESi AND IMPERIALISM By 1900 the United States was launclied upon a career of imperialism by its acquirement of overseas terri- tory which it obtained in the Spanish- American War. The Democratic party made the national issue in the campaign of that year one of imperialism. In its platform of that year it warned that "no nation can long endure half re- public and half empire, and we warn the American people that imperialism abroad will lead quickly and inevitably to despotism at home. ' ' The Democrats also made the fol- lowing significant declaration: "We oppose militarism. It means coyiqtiest abroad and intimidation and oppression at home. It means the strong arm ivhich has ever been fatal to free institutions. It is ivhat millions of our citizens have fled from in Europe. It will impose upon our peace-loving people a large standing army, an un- necessary burden of taxation, and would be a con- stant menace to their liberties." It is a remarkable warning and prophecy considered in the light of the second Wilson administration. But the Democrats also said in this platform. ''This republic has no place for a vast military establishment, a sure forerun- ner of compulsory military service and conscription." This conscription they denounced as "un-American, undemo- cratic and unrepublican and as a subversion of the ancient and fixed principles of a free people." Within 20 years after the Democratic party denoun- ced all these things it imposed all of them upon the masses of this country, including conscription! It did all these things with the aid and willing cooperation of the Repub- lican party! It inaugurated "oppression at home" by sup- pressing public meetings. With the "strong arm" it threw critics into prison, suppressed newspapers, and inaugurated a reign of terror. The man who was the chief author of LABOR AND THE NEXT WAR 27 the platform of 1900, William Jennings Bryan, was a mem- ber of the Wilson administration which brought this reigTi of terror and autocracy! By 1912 the Democratic party had accepted the full program of the imperialism which it had denounced in 1900. In its platform of 1912 it said that ''every American citizen residing or having property in any foreign country is entitled to and must be given the full protection of the United States Grovemment, both for himself and his prop- erty." It is this protection of American property abroad that is the source of the imperialism of the mailed fist in Latin-America. The Eepublican party pledged the same thing in its platform of the same year. The Eepublican party was the original party of im- perialist capitalism. It was imperialist in 1900. In 1916 the National Hughes Alliance published an advertisement in. the daily papers of October 11 in favor of Hughes for President. These Eepublicans said in that document : "The rivalries that begin in commerce end on battlefields. The history of war is green with international jealousies. What- ever the diplomatic excuse, every great conflict in modem times had its origin in some question of property rights." The Massachusetts Eepublican platform in 1917 con- tained this paragraph: "After this war of armies is over, a war for the conquest of the world markets will begin, and for this we must prepare." It is always markets, investments, loans and more in- vestments for capitalists, traders, bankers, and concession hunters which the two-party machine of capitalism favors. "Whatever the diplomatic excuse, every conflict in modern times had its origin in some question of property rights." Tlie workers of thei United States are expected by both parties to hold themselves in readiness to die abroad to promote these "property rights." 28 LABOR AND THE NEXT WAR chapter ix. the; cost of imperialism The most authoritative study of the costs of the world war is that made by Professor Bogart in his book on ''The Direct and Indirect Costs of the Great World War." He shows that in all the wars of the nineteenth century, be- ginning with the wars of Napoleon, the total dead was about 4,449,300. Tlie total deaths from direct causes in the world war was twice the number of dead in all the wars of the nineteenth century! When we include those who also died of indirect causes in the world war we get the staggering total of 20 millions of dead! The total cost in wealth is estimated at the enormous sum of nearly $338 billion dollars, of which the 26 billion dollar debt of the United States is a part. But this 26 billions is not the only cost to the working people of this country. In the Searchlight (Washington) for April, 1920 Basil M. Manly, formerly Joint Chairman of the National War Labor Board, reveals the enormous war profits of the great capitalists of America. Secretary of the Treasury MoAdoo reported in 1917 that the mine owners of bituminous coal realized from 15 to 2,000 per cent on their capital stock and that "earnings" of from 100 to 300 per cent on capital stock were not uncommon. Only a small number of his report known as Senate Docu- ment No. 259 was printed. A paragraph from Manly 's article is amazing: "At the time that the coal operators were mak- ing profits as high as 7,856 per cent on their capital stock, the meat packers ivere making profits ranging as high as 4-,24-4 per cent, canners of fruits and vege- tables 2,032 per cent, ivoolen mills 1,770 per cent, furniture mayiufacturers 3,295 per cent, clothing and dry goods stores 9,826 per cent, arid to cap the cli- max, steel mills as high as 290,999 per cent!" LABOR AND THE NEXT WAR 29 Meantime the soldiers served for $30 per month. The great masses were told to "buy till it hurts" of Liberty Bonds. They were put on rations. The masses were told to "work or fight." Those who tried to expose the shame- less profiteering were tarred as "pro-German". Others were mobbed and still others were sent to prison for long terms. The profiteering was tremendous. It will be noticed that the mine owners, the woolen manufacturers and the steel manufacturers, whose enormous lootings are men- tioned above, are among those who in 1922 were waging a campaign for heavy wage reductions! All this must be added to the costs of the war so far as the costs affect the working people of the United States. They constitute the staggering cost of imperialism. In ad- dition to all this the soldier workers and all other workers are commanded by the capitalist masters of the country to give up their trade unions and accept the ' ' open shop. ' ' Mr. Manly gives another illustration of the cost to us in the following paragraph: "It is clear that if the national government at the beginning of the war had taken over the essential lines of industry, and the American 'people had heeii required to pay the prices which private manufactur- ers and merchants have charged them, there would have been sufficient profit to pay for every dollar's 'worth of capital stock, and leave the nation in pos- session of practically all its manufacturing plants!" This is the price we pay for the imperialism which serves bankers, international traders and investors. Out of the sweat and toil of the working masses is heaped up surplus capital for foreign investment. When investments are fixed in other countries navalism, militarism and im- perialism follow. Efforts of capitalists and bankers to con- trol the weaker countries lead to war. The workers go to war, not the investors. The latter stay home to "keep the home fires burning." 30 LABOR AND THE NEXT WAR CHAPTER X. THE "NEXT WAR" The world war, we were assured, was a. "war to end war." Already the statesmen, bankers, diplomats and politicians are talking of the "next war." This war will certainly come and more wars will come. They are the inevitable fruits of the present capitalist and imperialist order of society. Ghastly as the world war was the next world war will be more ghastly. The next war will be fought under such conditions and with such weapons that all civilians will be combatants. Every man, woman and child, the aged and the sick, will be within the zone of war. In the last war liquid flame— burning men alive— was introduced on the Western front. Efforts are being made to perfect and extend it. As the war drew to a close the most deadly gas known to chemistry was being manufact- ured. Will Irwin in his notable book, "The Next War," tells '^us of this Lewisite gas: "It was invisible; it ivas a sinking gas, ivhich "x'oidd search out the refugees of dugouts and cellars; if breathed, it killed at once — and it killed not only through the lungs. Wherever it settled on the skin, it p7^oduced a poison which penetrated the system and brought almost certain death. It was inimical to all cell-life, animal or vegetable. Masks alone ivere of no use against it. Further, it had fifty-five times the spread of any poison hitherto used in the ivar Now we have a hint of a gas beyond Leivisite. It cannot be much more deadly; but i7i proportion to the amount of chemical which generates it, the spread is far greater. A mere capside of this gas in a small ■ grenade can generate square rods and even acres of death in the absolute." All this means that the next war wiU be a war of aeroplanes loaded with gas shells. Experience in the world war has shown that civilian populations are not immune LABOR AND THE NEXT WAR 31 from attack. Tlie aiTny of one nation bombs a city of the ''enemy" and the ''lid is off." Tons of gas bombs may be easily dropped from the sky upon cities. A gas that is invisible, that follows refugees into cellars, that has a spread fifty-five times that of any other gas, that penetrates masks, that means death when it penetrates the clothing- such warfare means death for the population of whole cities. EVen the population of the countryside can be des- troyed. "In the next wear, this gas bombardment of capitals and great towns is not only a possibility but a strong prob- ability—almost a certainty," writes Irwin. Technicians, experts and chemists are now at work in the leadings coun- tries perfecting these ghastly agencies of wholesale mas- sacre. Disease-bearing bacilli are also being prepared in the laboratories. "Then by night-flying aeroplanes, by spies, by infected insects, vermin or water, by any other means which ingenuity may suggest, scatter the germs among enemy forces.... Among the possibilities of the next war is a general, blighting epidemic, like the Black Plagues of the Middle Ages— a sudden, mysterious, undiscriminat- ing rush of death from which a man can save himself only by fleeing his fellow man." This hideous prospect is outlined by one of the fore- most war correspondents of the country. It is based upon a careful investigation of what lias been accomplished and what is being coolly prepared by the men who are ad- ministering the "civilized" governments of the twentieth century. Any "civilization" that can give rise to sucli ghastly preparations for the slaughter of babes, the aged, the sick and infirm, is thrice damned in the eyes of thinking men and women. It is a hideous product of the present era of imperialist capitalism. Is this teiTible thing, this ghastly spawn of imperialism, the thing you would have? 32 LABOR AND THE NEXT WAR CHAPTER XI. LABOR AND IMPERIALISM The war placed a bloated plutocracy in the saddle. Its coinmand of the mercenary press was never more secure than now\ It has its propaganda societies in the Navy League, the American Defense Society, the National Se- curity League and the National Civic Federation. The enormous accumulations of this plutocracy during the war surpass anything ever gathered by any other ruling class in the same period of time. It itches for more. Toi protect its ill-gotten gains from criticism it labels all its critics ''Bolsheviks." It has jailed many of its critics and it would like to jail them all. At the beginning of the twentieth century the great corporations, trusts and mergers appeared on the scene. The old era of small, scattered and competing industries was passing into the era of the great combinations of finance and capital. Industries of the same kind not only consolidated but industries of a different kind were gather- ed under a single control, including mines, transportation companies, blast furnaces, rolling mills, iron and steel pro- ducts, and in some cases the marketing of finished products is under a single control. The value of manufactured pro- ducts increased from more than 11 billion dollars in 1899 to more than 24 billions in 1914. The invasion of foreign markets began about this time. The world as a whole showed a tremendous development of capital and com- merce. The commerce of the world in 1890 was ITV^ billions. By 1914 it had increased to more than 37 billions. The Department of Commerce was created in 1903 to look after the foreign trade and investments of American cap- italists. LABOR AND THE NEXT WAR 33 Professors Jenks and Clark in their work on "Tlie Trust Problem" wrote in 1917: "Milliofi dollar output plants producing 38 per cent of the country's output in 190 Jf ivere producing hU per cent in 1909. If this same swift rate of change has been maintained since 1909, huge million dollar output plants are today producing more than half the value output of the manufactured goods of this nation In 1909 the number of plants whose average value of products ivas above $100,000 a year, was only 11.5 per cent of all the listed manufactur- ing establishments of the country (yet they are) ac- credited tvith 82.2 per cent of ivhole value of manu- factured products." These giant oflfshoots of the old system of competi- tive industry, as well as other consolidations in Eiirope, heaped up masses of capital for investment overseas. This extension of trade, investments and loans abroad was a big factor in bringing on the world war. Remember that the Hughes Republicans in 1916 said: "The rivalries that begin in commerce end on battlefields." These rivalries ended in the greatest slaughter in all history. But even before the bloody shambles had ended the governments were preparing for the next rivalries. Dr. W. E. Aughin- baugh of New York University, writing in the New York Commercial of June 4, 1921, states that as early as 1917 Great Britain prepared to give ''effective assistance" to "private enterprises abroad." A Department of Overseas TVade w^as created and all branches of the diplomatic and consular services were overhauled "to secure the best qual- ified men." The French Government has also created the National Oflfice of Foreign Commerce with a series of bu- I'eaus for looking after overseas interests of its bankers and capitalists. Holland, Denmark, Norway, Germany and Japan are also making similar preparations, 34 LABOR AND THE NEXT WAR Everywhere the modem nations of the world are organizing their governments to serve the profit and gain of capitalists and bankers. Tlie toiling hosts of labor bend their backs in mill, mine, shop and factory, working for wages and heaping up surplus commodities and surplus capital, the first to be sold abroad and the latter to be invested abroad. When the rivalries to control the backward areas of the world issue in war, the masses are summoned to the colors, drilled and sent abroad to con- quer in the name of King Capital. The powerful chiefs of the great financial institutions and combinations of cap- ital have never been found fighting at the front. They will not be at the front in the next war although it is these gentlemen who have stakes in the struggle. THE MENACE OF LOANS Still more menacing is the international financial oligarchy. What is known as the Cliinese Consortium is an international organization of the great bankers of Eng- land, France, Japan and the United States. They have combined for the ^'development of China." This Con- sortium was initiated by the State Department. These gov- ernments have agreed to support their respective bankers in loans which they will make for concessions in China, building railways, docks, etc. Suppose that the people of Cliina rise some day and establish a government representing the masses, at the same time repudiating the hard bargains of the interna- tional bankers. The governments are already pledged to use their powers to see that the interest and the principal of the loans shall be paid. What will happen in the case of such a Chinese revolution? The governments will com- bine in a joint protest to the new China. They will demand that every dollar of interest and principal be paid. It LABOR AND THE NEXT WAR 35 would make nO' difference to the imperialist governments whether the loans were made with grafting Chinese mili- tarists of which China has quite a number. The Chinese people will be told to accept the yoke of the world's bank- ers. If they do not agree, then there will be a declaration of war on China. Now such a war would mean that you, the toilers of this nation, would be called to go to the front. You would be ordered to go to China to serve the dollars of not only American bankers but the bankers of England, France and Japan. The bankers themselves would certainly stay at home to repeat whatever catch-words would be coined to glorify such a war. China could not have the kind of gov- ernment and social system it might choose. The toilers of four nations would be armed and sent abroad to suppress the aspirations for freedom of the Chinese people and to perpetuate the yoke of the international bankers. Because of the disorganized state of China; because of having already been cai'ved into "spheres" by the im- perialist powers; because of the adventurers, bandits and grafters that infest China, some of them in the pay of some imperialist powers, the Chinese Consortium is almost cer- tain to issue into a war for the world's bankers. This is a prospect which should make intelligent workingmen and women recoil with disgust and a determination that they will do their part to change a system of society that holds this prospect out for them and their boys. 36 LABOR AND THE NEXT WAR CHAPTER XIT. WHAT'S TO BE DONE? The writer hopes that he has made it plain what this new period of history means for us. Tlie old age before the world war is dead. A new epoch is before lis. The old period of American isolation from world politics and world struggles is gone never to return. Our capitalists, bankers and traders are after oil, railroads, mines, minerals and other natural riches in all parts of the world. They are interested in Persia, Syria, Mesopotamia, Cliina, Latin America and Asia. They drag us behind them after their intrigues, concessions, loans and trade. They insist on the powers of government sustaining their ventures wher- ever their dollars are sent. They demand that the army and navy be placed at their service when their gains re- quire it. We want peace, security, enjoyment and happiness but these are phantoms under this new order of world imperialism. War will always brood over every household, the ghastly war of chemicals and gas. Like the peo}3les of Ehrope for nearly two generations we will know that war is coming but will never know the date of its arrival. We have no choice in making the decision. It is made for us by the imperialist diplomats who work in secret and who serve the great powers of finance and capital. What are we going to do about it? That is a. big question. Where do the capitalists of the nation get their surplus commodities and surplus capital for export abroad, that export which brings rivalries and that leads to war? They get this surplus from the toil and sweat of the work- ers of the United States who produce it in the mines, mills, shops, factories and great plants of production owned and mastered by capitalists and financiers. That is where the LABOR AND THE NEXT WAR 37 surplus comes from and nowhere else. Their ownership and control of the great powers of production, transporta- tion and exchange is the source of their power. It is the source of their mighty riches. This power makes them supreme in modem society. When the industries were small and scattered, located in thousands of villages, towns and cities, ownership by capitalists was not so bad. But the hundreds of thousands of small owners are rapidly disappearing and a few giant cori^orations are taking their place as we have already seen. Those who own the giant combinations of industiy are the masters of America. The mass of workers are doomed to serv^e them by selling labor power. A few may escape into the upper ranks of the masters now and then but the masses are doomed to wage service. Industrial concentration is accompanied with political concentration. Back of all the great property combina- tions are laws. The ownership of the natural resources and great industries has been made legal by these laws. Back of the laws are the parties that have placed them on the statute books. Back of them are the many millions of voters. The ownership of the natural riches and great in- dustries, therefore, rests upon the consent of these millions of voters. If you can give your consent that these great powers of production shall be owned by a privileged class you can also withdraw your consent. It is simple enough. Quit voting for the major political parties that are in favor of the great capitalist combinations owning the powers of wealth production. Vote for a party of your own which stands for a program of recovering the great industries for the service and welfare of the workers of hand and brain. 38 LABOR AND THE NEXT WAR CHAPTEE XIII. THE SOCIALIST SOLUTION Notice the development of industry. The individual owner, the partnership, the pool, the corporation, the trust, the holding company, the merger, the international al- liances. The tendency has been greater combination, greater power, increasing mastery for a class of owners. Wliy should the combination end at its present stage of mastery for a few 1 Why not a still greater combination, the nation itself, organized in its collective capacity, relieving the mas- ters of ownership, just as the slave owners were relieved of their ownership? In other words, these great empires of capital have become so dangerous and so menacing to the welfare of the masses that the only organization capable of absorbing them is the nation itself. The workers of hand and brain, skilled and unskilled, must seek through their voting power to transfer the great industrial powers to themselves as the organized nation of the workers. Legalize this transfer by obtaining control of the governing powers through a party of their own. If through the ballot our fathers and their sons could make class ownership lawful we can make national owner- ship for the welfare of all lawful. This is the reason why Socialists organize into a party of their own. They want the mills, mines, railroads and industries in general to cease being sources of enrichment for a small class of powerful owners. When that class ceases to own we will cease to pile up surplus goods and capital for them to export abroad and draw us into imperialist wars after the goods and capital. There should be no surplus sent abroad so long as there are those in want at home anyway. When 'we, the LABOR AND THE NEXT WAR 39 masses of America acquire mastery over the industries of the country we can introduce democracy in industry by our own initiative and control. The mill, mine, shop and plant should be as democratic as a town meeting. Today they are so many autocracies presided over by agents of absentee owners. Most of the latter rarely see the plants in which their capital is invested. They do not manage. They do not superintend. They do nothings but own. When they die the son who inherits becomes an absentee owner and the agents, managers, superintendents act for him. When the masses become the masters of their indus- trial life they can make the agents, managers and super- intendents act for them and be responsible to them. These managers and superintendents will be responsible to work- ers who are also owners instead of being responsible to owners who are not workers. When humanity acquires this mastery over its great powers of production all useful labor will be engaged in solving problems of management, apportionment of rewards, hours of labor. A new age of history will dawn. The process of combination that began two generations ago will issue into the greatest combina- tion of all— organized humanity! This is the essence of Socialism, the liberator of the workers of our time. It means the end of imperialism, foreign conquest and war. It means that disarmament may be a reality. It means that the peoples of the world may live in peace with each other. But to obtain the mastery and scientific control and management of the industrial powers of America also means the education of all those who fear the black ten- dencies of the present system of capitalist imperialism. It means organization, too. It means building a party of the workers of this country representing their claims and interests. 40 LABOR AND THE NEXT WAR The Socialist Party presents its claims for the support of all those who do useful labor. It stood steadfast during the trying period of the world war. Its capitalist enemies tried to destroy it. They failed. They will always fail. Had the Socialist Party sold its soul to the enemies of the workers it would not be worthy of its claims upon you. Join it. Work for it. Circulate this booklet. The future is black with the menace of more wars. Capitalism has outlived its usefulness. The Socialist movement seeks to reorganize it on a basis that will free the masses from the servitude that is the lot of millions today. National ownership of the great industries with democratic control by the workers is the issue of the hour. Make it yours and hasten the day of universal liberation for the toilers of this country and of the world. the; end. READ THESE BOOKS /5 SOCIALISM INEVITABLE? An explanation of the forces of social progress By AUGUST CLAESSENS Instructor at the Rand School of Social Science, Member of the New York State Assembly, Author of "The Logic of Socialism" etc. PRICE 10 CENTS. * * * * DEBS' CANTON SPEECH This is the speech for which Eugene V. Debs was sentenced to ten years in the Federal Prison at Atlanta, Ga. Every working man should read this pamphlet and understand that American citizens can be imprisoned for telling the truth. PRICE 10 CENTS. * « « 4> LABOR IN POLITICS By ROBERT HUNTER A study of the political policies of organized labor. Should be read by every union man in this era of injunctions and strike- breaking by the United States government. PRICE 25 CENTS. * * * * SOCIALISM WHAT IT IS & HOW TO GET IT By OSCAR AMERINGER The best and simplest explanation of Socialism for the begin- ner. Just the thing to hand your neighbor who is becoming interested. PRICE 10 CENTS. « * * « ORDER FROM THE SOCIALIST PARTY 2418 West Madison Street — Chicago, 111. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 7P. Form L9-25m-9,'47(A5618)']44 NATIONAL OFFICE, SOCIALIST PARTY 241 8 W. MADISON STREET CHICAGO, ILL. i tMnrr. ™^ LIBRARY UNIVERSITY 0. CALIFORNIA ^OS ANGELRS UCLA-Young Research Library HX87 .0581 y L 009 575 822 3