TheWestern Comrade The Western Comrade
Scene in Specialties:
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The Western Comrade ELKSKIN BOOTS and SHOES
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Place stocking foot on SALES paper, drawing pencil DEPARTMENT
around as per above il- lustration. Pass tape around at lines with- Llano del Rio Company out drawing tight. Give size usually worn. 922 Higgins Building, Los Angeles, Cal. 7he Western Comrade
* — The Masses The Eternal Mystery 't-rcS, Z The Western Comrade Devoted to the Cause of the Workers
Political Action Co-operation Direct Action
VOL. II LOS ANGELES, CAL., NOVEMBER 1, 1914 NUMBER 6-7
Luckel Camp on Rio del Llano. Will be remodeled for trout hatchery and motion picture factory
War and Empire WHAT will be the outcome of the war? was dispelled by a series of sharp defeats which the This question is heard everywhere and Germans administered in Poland and when Przemysl many of the replies are as varied as they was relieved and the Slavs thrown back through the are vapid. Carpathian passes. Those having no knowledge of the causes of the The British plan and program contemplates war can give no sensible reply to the question as to stripping Germany of all her colonial possessions; the possible outcome. destruction of the German fleet; seizure of the Ger- A few weeks ago the British were supremely man ships of commerce, and the conquest of Ger- confident. When the Prussian army ceased its pres- many's foreign trade. sure on Paris and the backward movement began Frenchmen cherish the dream of a restoration of
this confidence grew to positive conviction that the Alsace-Loraine ; the destruction of Prussian military
power of German arms was waning. power ; the rehabilitation of Belgium and a war in- Then the Kaiser's army swung about, held the demnity of such magnitude that the Kaiser's people allies in a firm grip in a battle line hundreds of will never again arise as a fighting power. miles long while he hurled his mighty forces on Bel- Little Belgium hopes to be restored and to receive gium's capital. a great indemnity as a reward for heroic service The menace of Russia on the eastern frontier rendered to France and England. The Western Comrade
Holland hopes vainly for neutrality and peace, In his dream of empire the Teuton sees Great
f)ut the fate that awaits her is only slightly less ter- Britain shorn of her colonies, her great fleet de- rible than that of Belgium. stroyed and England reduced tb a place about as Italy's position cannot long be maintained. Only important as that occupied by Norway. He sees the solidarity and vigor of the Socialists have thus Holland, Belgium and Sweden annexed to the Ger- far prevented that country plunging into the vortex man Empire. He sees the Northern Coast of France and hurling a tleet across the Adriatic at the hated a part of German territory. He sees the foreign pos- Austrians. sessions of his enemies beneath the German eagles. Servia and Austria-Hungary can scarcely hope He sees the force of (Teuton arms spread to every for integrity of boundaries no matter how the tide of continent and he believes it will all be for the good
l)attle turns. of mankind. Portugal and Spain will be drawn in and both Under the German plan Canada probably will will meet the fate of Belgium and Holland. be given her freedom, the Czar will be held off until the proper hour and a ready understanding will be made. The Slav will have his way in the south and This brings us to the position of Germany : If the Kaiser tomorrow were to find himself at war that means farewell to Roumania, Bosnia, Herzigo- with the whole world his position would scarcely be vinia, Servia, Bulgaria, Montenegro and possibly changed. Greece and all of Turkey, and India will be given
There is no reason to doubt that, since the war over to Russian rule—and Russian exploitation. i)egan, Germany's prearranged plans have not been In the meantime Germany has a battle line that carried out to the letter. German strategists care- stretches from the Netherlands on the north to the fully figured the losses, discounted plans and made mountain passes of the Vosges on the south, and allowances for all and more reverses than have come from Russian Poland to the Carpathian passes in to their arms. southern Austria. That the German fleet would be securely interned Where the Germans take the offensive they will at Keil and Heligoland was known months before not be denied. On the defensive they are virtually the outbreak. England's navy has inflicted no loss immovable and are dislodged only after inflicting of importance on the German fleet. The Kaiser's terrible loss. Their movements of retrogression are great navy remains intact and in superb condition. marvels of orderliness and system.
No foreign foe remains on German soil. The loss Nowhere is the Kaiser seriously threatened. of a hundred thousand fighting men has not im- Everywhere his soldiery press steadily on. Paris is paired Germany's strength. As for food supply the certain to fall. Kaiser's forces need not know want as long as the France has brought Algerians, England the mur- Vaterland is not invaded and invasion does not seem derous Hindus, and Japan makes a futile foray on probable. the German possessions in China.
The alliance between Russia and England is Colonials rally to the British banner and from all unnatural and there is a profound feeling of distrust the seas pour troop ships to provide "kanonen- between Slav and Briton. futter" for the War Lord's howitzers—and the In striking at Germany the Czar has his eyes stolid Teuton presses irresistibly forward. on the southern outlet to Asia, even as the Kaiser A corporal's squad of Uhlans ride through Lux- declared war on Russia and seized France by the embourg and the little domain is off the map forever. throat. IF -R" 'IP "Tp ^r ^
As to the outcome the German ambition, preten- Let the reader who imagines this is a pro-German
tious as it is, may yet be realized. article disabuse his mind. It is not pro anything. The Western Comrade
It is a calm analysis of events, and of motives back its roots in something far deeper than even personal of the war ; an attempt at contemporaneous history lust of power or thirst for conquest. as it unfolds from day to day. True, there were a thousand quarrels that seem Bismark said Europe must some day be all Slav to us senseless. The eternal conflict over racial dif- or all Teuton. ferences and langTiages in the Balkans was a con- Russia is impregnable, invulnerable and uncon- stant menace to peace. There were scores of minor querable. causes and all helped at the hour of the call to colors. Germany may conquer all Europe but may not Americans will do well to take an impartial, successfully invade Russia. impassioned view of the war and study its causes. Now to venture a few predictions. Let us not grow hysterical, tearful or prayerful. This war will not end all war. European nations are bloodied. The first hot
Slav and Teuton will divide Europe and the two rush is over. Prolonged sieges will follow. Steadily powers will remain for probably a century develop- powers will be worn down toward exhaustion. ing and growing. Russia through (what is now) Peace conferences and extensions of good offices will Turkey to the south and Germany with her vast be in vain and will be illy received. new possessions will be long occupied mth their We may not now assess the blame—if blame multitudinous problems. there be—for the war. For fifty years the world That these governments will be greatly liberal- rode to war and now professes surprise to find itself ized, that conditoins for the workers will be vastly in the midst of a conflict. improved no one can doubt. For the present we have the opportunity to oc- Czar and Kaiser may pass away. Liberal institu- cupy the position of spectators. We should get an tions will be sure to follow. Great republics or the intelligent understanding of what is going forward. United States of Europe may be established. Later we may not be able to take such a detached America cannot starve the war. and abstract view.—F. E. W. The best that can be done here will be to hold to a policy of strict neutrality, keep out of Mexico and adopt a war referendum measure to guard against The Real Cause of It the inevitable hour when we shall again have a AT LAST the real cause of the war has been madman in the presidential chair. found. According to an editorial in the Lokal ****** Anzeiger of Berlin, the English ambassador. Sir We shudder over the morning seareheads and Edward Goschen, on July 30th last, got peeved and say the war is awful. It IS awful, but there is a fired his cook. War was declared five days later. peace that is more horrible and hundreds of thou- It sounds almost plausible as war usually re- sands of workers would far better die on the field of sults when causes arise for the dismissal of the fam- battle in the sunshine, breathing the free air, than ily cook. Of course in this case the cook will have to perish miserably in the stifling mines or have her portrait hung in the great hall of fame. Her their bones ground in the maw of steel. name probably will adorn cigar boxes as other The war will go on despite peace pleas and heroes and heroines of the past. prayers to whatever gods may be. It was inevitable However, it is doubtful if the flesh and blood and it is inexorable. that once surrounded bleached bones of the million We may declare the war perverse and wrong- slaughtered ever heard of Sir Edward's family minded ; we may declare it senseless and say that squabbles or knew he had ever had a cook.—F. it is based on ambition of kings, but this war has H. W. !
The Western Comrade
Comment on Current Events
SINCE the days the nimble dollar dope was first WHAT has become of those intrepid French sprung on lis there has been nothing funnier aviators who were going to sweep the sky than the buy-a-bale-of-cotton bunco game. clear of all invaders? There seems to have been a Socialist writers always take these stunts too lot of bunk aboat the battles in the air. Where are seriously. Frequently one hears a muttered the aerial navies grappling in the blue?
"damn" about the frugal Friday flap-doodle or the The Germans seem to have it all their own way. prosperity poppycock. Don't let them get your ibex They usually select a bright, beautiful Sunday with that stuff. It's only for bourgeoise consump- morning to make a trip over some city and drop a tion. few bombs. Thus far the damage has been slight. As for the buy-a-bale blather—it's merely a game True, they have succeeded in blowing up a hospital for the gullible guy who falls for any thimble-rig where German wounded were being cared for by that is offered. Belgian nurses. They also tore a non-combatant's
There are about 15,000,000 bales in the crop. It's head from his body and dismembered a little gix'l. worth from .$40 to $50 a bale. In addition they killed several cows that were If you buy a bale you won't get any cotton. grazing in a field. People who were "worshiping" You will get a warehouse certificate. If it goes up in churches were nearly frightened to death and in you may win $10. If it goes down—well, you will many instances ceased praying for sucessful murder f)e one of the myriad suckers who fell for the bait of their enemies and rushed into the streets praying and you're stung.—F. E. "W. for their own safety. AAA Possibly these Sunday aerial forays are a part of the censorship of prayer—to keep French sup- HAD Friedrich Nietzsche been alive a few weeks plication from ascending "to the throne of Jehovah ago he would have thought his dream of con- quest had come true. He would have seen the ******* war he predicted and would have prayed for, had he Even as the Germans early recognized the neces- acknowledged a god— (Why not Jehova, the Jews' sity of breeding more kanonenfutter (cannon fod- god of war?) He would have seen the German can- der) so have the British followed quickly. Marriage non reaping its red harvest at the gates of Paris; license taxes are removed and ceremonies are to be performed free for recruits, sailors and soldiers seen the fall of Antwerp ; seen half the world at war who and the black eagle sweeping irresistibly onward. are going to the front.
Nietzsche said: "Man shall be trained for war Blessed institution ! Surely such marriages are and woman for the recreation of the warrior: all made in heaven!
else is folly . . ." Legalize the breedings. Never mind the new
Again he wrote: "A philosophy like mine is crop of bride-widows. Never mind these unborn like a grave—it takes one from the living." orphans. Send on your cannon fodder. That's the main thing. Has Germany followed Nietzsche through ? Cer- tainly this philosophy is of the grave ! AAA It will take millions from the living. There is just one solution to our economic prob- And Cui bono? lems—the seizure by the people of all the sources What good purpose will the murder serve? of life. Put this proposition to the capitalist and
Will it bring a Berlin commune ? The European he shouts "Confiscation!"
commune?—F. E. W. He is Avrong—it is RESTORATION! The Western Comrade
EXPERT investigators of the Interstate Com- SECRETARY BRYAN is rejoicing over the twen- merce Commission, who are delving into the ty-six peace treaties that have been signed by Rock Island Railway books, have made a startling the United States with that many foreign powers. discovery. He is confident Germany, Russia and Austria will They say that the difference between the original sign the treaty. capital and the amount of securities finally issued At the first blush one is inclined to join in the by the manipulators is about $200,000,000. These enthusiasm but the thought of what has happened men declare that five-sixths of the stock issued was to all peace treaties, neutrality guarantees and in- water and that there were many false entries on alienable rights of European countries during the the books which were designed to boost the market past five months brings a chill of doubt as to the value of the stock. value of such documents.
There is something amusing in the naive man- No great amount of reliance can be placed on ner in which the news is given out. treaties signed by emperors who have over-ridden Do these investigators not know that almost all treaties and all agreements. every railroad in the United States is in a condition Safety guaranteed by treaties is like inalienable similar to the Rock Island? rights guaranteed by constitutions. The guarantee Must there be other New Haven crashes before is worthless when a greater power proceeds to abro- people realize that every railroad system is water- gate it. Peace will be guaranteed when all the logged and that under private ownership all are weapons of murder are loaded on the ships of mur- bound to come to the crash that has wrecked those der and the whole sunk to the bottom of the deepest that have gone under? sea. There is a growing understanding of the uni- ****** versal insolvency of the banks but the public is slow President Wilson says peace talk at this hour is to grasp the actual conditions in the "great indus- silly and premature. This may indicate he be- tries" of the country.—F. E. W. lieves the warring powers are so deafened by the crash of resounding arms that they will not hear the appeals of non-combatants. Or, possibly, he ex- pects more and more of the European countries to ENGLAND is shocked and pained by the dis- plunge into the vortex and that all will fight to a loyalty and uprising in South Africa. point of exhaustion. And rightly. The "Starve the War" slogan does not seem to Were not the Boers, those who survived the have penetrated the dim and musty depths of the shrapnel, well treated by the British after the con- White House sanctum. quest 1 Was not the strike of several months ago put Here we are with state capitalism knocking at down with sufficient violence to please the most crit- the door ! Secretary of the Treasury McAdoo an- ical employer? nounces that warehouse receipts for cotton, turpen- Has not a royal commission made a belated re- tine and resin will now be accepted as a basis for port to the effect that the strike was justified? This currency issues. Soon the State will be handling should sooth the orphans of the slain workers and the warehouse receipts direct, then the warehouses. bring surcease to the widows. When will labor be able to get an issue of cur- Everybody should be content and rally to the rency on the potentiality of its productiveness ? flag! The South African proletariat should have joined the other colonials in their onward surge to Anyone deny the press associations are poisoning Berlin singing the Tipperary marching song. the war news? — —
10 The Western Comrade What Did You—In the Great War? By EDGCUMB PINCHON
War—M^hat does it mean to you? Does it May be; but at least have the valor to sweat over its THEmean merely a daily newspaper debauch of splendid logic and life-giving reasoning with the same hashed reports and superficial criticisms? Or persistency as your brothers showed in their struggle
does it, perchance, mean a revival in your breast of back and forth through the crimson mud of the Marne. slumbering racial feeling, and are you secretly or open- "Socialism, Utopian and Scientific," every Socialist is ly preening yourself on the fact that you are an Amer- supposed to have mastered. If you have not done so, ican,—or by birth or extraction a Britisher, a French- get to work. And having ground these basic works man, a Belgian, a German, a Slav? Or are you thump- into the very fabric of your mind, you will have come ing yourself on the chest, boldly announcing yourself at a thorough understanding of the theory of economic
a. "citizen of the world,"—far removed from all an- determinism—which sets forth that a nation's develop- noying pseudo-patriotic feeling, a Socialist, calmly sur- ment is determined by the prevailing mode of produc- veying your ignorant fellow mortals from the height tion. Here lies one third and one third only—of the of a toweringly superior mental excellence, and dis- mighty truth we are seeking. Next to these in order missing from your mind a certain vague uneasiness as of study comes Buckle's "History of Civilization," of a duty shirked, and evading all responsibility in this without exception the greatest work of the human Calvary of the Nations, with the pert dictum, "only a mind. Here you will find set forth with wonderful damned capitalist's war." charm, and with a range of learning unexampled in
Beware ! Oh, beware that you do not stifle the su- the history of literature the thesis that the determin- preme good of this World Agony in any of these petty ing factor in a nation's evolution is the amount of its swaddling clothes of ancient tradition and ignorance exact knowledge—and herein lies the other two-thirds or of narrow modern dogma and half-truth! Search of the truth of social evolution. And now to combine your libraries—and your souls, I say, and be not afraid these two vast conceptions into one harmonious whole, to step naked of prejudice and unbiased opinion into you should master the works of Marx's greatest suc- the New Era that is dawning. Seek to know, and cessor—the "Dynamic Sociology" and the "Psychic knowing, be prepared to offer your life, if need be, in Factors in Civilization" of Lester F. Ward.
defence of the truth that is yours. BUT BE VERY But there is no stopping here ! This is a long cam- SURE THAT IT IS THE TRUTH. paign and you must sweat through many a trench of Such as this is not found without labor; but while ignorance yet! Is this war, not merely a conflict of millions of men—men every whit as intelligent as you, economic forces, not merely a conflict of clashing in- as valuable to society as you—are offering up their tellectual developments, but a grapple to the death be- lives on the battlefields of Europe, shall you spare your- tween antagonistic ethical conceptions—the profound- selves the labor of understanding the veritable why and est forces of the human soul? Is this a war between wherefore of their sacrifice? Nietzsche and Christ?—between the Religion of Valor Not if you be worth the name of Socialist! You and that more ancient Religion of Love, which has be- shall not rest, night or day, till you have made your- come a cant of hypocrisy and weakness. You cannot selves master of this grim unmasking of social forces, answer this question till you have mastered the history and thus have won for yourselves not the opportunity of the rise and development of Christianity on the one of indulging in a pert dictum, but the right to deliver hand, and of modern German philosophy on the other. a profound judgment—a judgment worthy of thinking For the study of the former there is but a single work men and women,—a judgment by which you may stand which can be regarded as authoritative and complete with assurance in the searching days to come when the remarkable researches of Stinson Jarvis embodied men shall ask of you: "What did YOU—in the Great in the "Jarvis Letters." This work, which I under- War?" stand is about to be produced serially in the magazine There are some round dozen of books without the called "Dawn"* is comparable, in its revolu- thorough knowledge of which no man, however gifted, tionary bearing upon the entire range of hu- can pretend to give even a provisional judgment upon man thought, only to the epoch-making work the questions involved in this struggle. Needless to of Charles Darwin in biology; and as such, un- say the first and foremost of these is "Das Kapital" doubtedly, it will be regarded by the next generation, of Karl Marx, or at least tlio first volume. Hard work ? if not l)y this. In its pages you will come face to face
•Published in Sant.a 8arl>ar:i by Sydney Greenbie and Princcllopkins. ' —
The Western Comrade 11
with fact and proof—not with fine-spun theories or man thought the principles of national development gratuitous guess work. You will learn of the great and decay—as determined by the Sword. Without a Druid priesthood which ruled the world from the fast- thorough mastery of these works the student still will nesses of England sis thousand years before the sup- be hampered in his thought by a sentimental prejudice posed birth of Christ—and whose influence is potent against war; he still will be forever declaring its yet, a priesthood which curbed the savage by the most "needlessness" or talking foolishly of "arbitration" cunning deception—nay, rather by the most superb in- and the "Parliament of Man." Homer Lea with his tellectual excellence, a priesthood which wrote not only unflinching facing of facts, with his pitiless logic and the Vedas, the Old Testament, the Homeric ballads and unerring analysis once for all destroys the "Peace- most of the classics, but which wrote the New Testa- Dove" theory of social development, at least as far as ment itself, and manufacturing Christianity as delib- the present epoch of ignorance and apathy is con-
erately as a carpenter makes a chair, floated it forth cerned; and he gives to the layman a conception of upon the world to do its work of ameliorating the pas- the fundamental laws governing the rise and fall of (sions of men by the sentiment of pity; a priesthood States from the point of view of the Statesman-Soldier. which established its missions from Java to Wales and There are two more works, of a lighter nature, but from Mexico to Babylon, which made religion and lan- almost equally important, which must be mastered be- guage contemporaneously, and whose decadent relics fore the battle to understand the War is won; "Ger- still slumber in the Vatican—all that is left to attest many and the Next War," by General Bernhardi—of the once vast reign of the Mitre. the German Staff, and "Germany and England," by This you must read, and wrestle with, and then you Professor Cramb, an English scholar deeply versed in will understand the purely adventitious nature, not German culture. These two books sum up for the stu- merely of Christianity, but of those fundamental eth- dent the immediate and specific issues of the conflict in ical conceptions which are supposed to be common to a very thorough and illuminating manner, and will be all religions and all times. Then at last you will be invaluable in aiding him to make special application of able to turn with an unbiased mind to the study of the principles gained in the fundamental works to the situation. Christianity 's antithesis—Nietzscheism—the Religion present European of Force and Valor—^the cult of the Superman. And That mind—and only that mind—which with the without understanding this you cannot understand most careful thought and deliberation has mastered modern Germany, nor her ideals, nor her wonderful not Swallowed—these works, will be in a position to unity in the present conflict. To the German, you will view the present struggle intelligently, and to take part, then see, this war is not merely a war for markets, nor as thinker and interpreter, in the present gigantic Ar- This is for territorial expansion—and it is both—but also a mageddon of conflicting social forces. a day of veritable "Holy War" against the hypocrisy and de- vast saeriflces, of superhuman efforts, of deeds that lift cadence of an outworn Christianity, which has rotted men in the doing of them into the stature of giants. the soul of man and spread its fungus blight of fear and Comrades of America awake to the heroic nature of superstition over half the earth. The German may be the Hour, emulate your brothers in Europe—but on wrong in his conception. But only when you your- another battlefield, make vast sacrifices, superhuman self have read the works of Nietzsche—read them, freed efforts^not to slay, but to know; in sedulous study lift from prejudice and with a will to understand his yourselves into the stature of Thinkers and men who thought—and also the remarkable application of his Know, and Know that they Know. Then when the ' philosophy to the current problems of Germany by his day shall come when men shall ask ' What did YOU disciple Treitschke, will you be able intelligently to in the Great War?" you shall be able to reply, "I did judge of the measure of righteousness in the Germanic not fight in the Great War, I did better, I labored to
' conception of the "Armed Nation, the Superman and understand it. the World-State." There is one more trench to be taken—the Philoso- Everywhere the murderous boy scout movement is phy of War as set forth in the two most original and having a revival. It is evident that the powder tnist is profound documents the American genius has yet pro- alive to its opportunity to get more victims. Tens of duced. I refer to the "Valor of Ignorance" and the thousands of mothers who sit in desolate homes in Eu- "Day of the Saxon" by General Homer Lea—youthful rope today were assured the boy scouts were purely a cripple, hunchback, general, genius—and consulting peaceful institution. Children are being murdered and strategist to five great powers. Here the iron doctrine are being made murderers every hour. This is the hour
of Necessity is set forth with unpitying clarity; here for enlightenment. Peace meetings will be of no avail. we see laid down for the first time in the history of hu- Anti-war and anti-military action is what we need. 12 The Western Comrade After the War, What?
HAT effect will the war in Europe have terests will save him if I can put a bullet into his skull on the Socialist movement of the world? before he puts a bayonet into my throat. And, if I have any means by which I can take the fighting spirit Any attempt at an answer will be purely- out of that man so he will let me live in peace in future speculative but everyone has a right to —I'll use them. a theory. In order to arrive at any point where The Dailv Citizen, organ of the British labor move- aq; o% sb ap^ra aq ubo uoisn[onoD b ment, says: hopes of the Socialists one must get the The moment Russia moves toward war the Russian ideas of those who have had the best opportunity to people move toward revolution. And not the Russian study the situation. people only, but also nationalities like Finland and Po- Probably no writer in America lias a clearer view land, upon whom Russia has trampled with clumsy and than Allan Benson, who writes in the New York Call, heavy foot. * * * is the position of the Kaiser happier than under the title: "Let the War Go On!" Nor much that of the Czar. Kaiserdom is on its last legs in Ger- I hate war, but I do not hate it so much as I do many, even as Czardom is in Russia ; the steady advance some kinds of peace. of democracy will put an end to both. The German I regretted to see this war come on, but now that it workers are peace-loving and do not want war; least has come, I want to see it go on until its cause shall of all do they desire to be dragged at the tail of the have been wiped out of existence. Hapsburgs. What is its cause? Comrades may say that capital- ism was its cause. Quite so. But that is not sufficiently H. G. "Wells emphasizes the position of the thinking definite. It is no more nearly definite than it would of will not tolerate an attack on the be to say that the atmosphere is the cause of the aero- people England plane. Without the atmosphere the aeroplane would German people or on Germany. not have existed. Without capitalism, the present Eu- It will be a sin to dismember Germnay or to allow ropean war would not have been begun. The present any German-speaking and German-feeling territory to European war is the result of capitalism, plus the pre- fall under a foreign yoke. datory and military spirit of Germany as tjrpified by its Emperor. Let us English make sure of ourselves in that mat- ter. There may be restoration of alien territory to the Germany won an easy victory from France forty- French, the Polish, the Danish and the Italian ; but we four years ago. From that day to this she has been have seen of racial subjugation to be sure drunk with confidence and ambition. * * * enough now that we will tolerate no more of it. From the Rhine to Why not stop the war then. We may omit con- East Prussia, and from the Baltic to the southern limits sideration of the fact that it would be precisely as near- of German-speaking Austria, the Germans are one peo- ly possible to try to stop an eruption of a volcano after ple. Let us begin with a resolution to permit no new it had begun to spout. We should not try to stop the bitterness of conquered territories to come into exist- war because the spirit that has caused this war is a ence to disturb the 'future peace of Europe. menace to civilization. Civilization will not be safe un- Let us see to it that, at the ultimate settlement, Ger- til that spirit is crushed. If it were not to be crushed mans, however great this overthrow may be, are aJl left now, it would cause another war. Until the war came free men. the world would be compelled to arm against it. No nation would be safe over night. The suddenness with In an article printed in American newspapers Wells which Germany precipitated the present war shows the dangerous character of such a spirit. says: Comrades may recall the fact that in this great war The defeat of Germany may open the way to dis- as in all others, workingmen are doing the fighting and armament and peace throughout the earth. To those the dying. Comrades may even argue that German who love peace there can be no other hope in the pres- workingmen are fighting and dying only because of ent conflict than her defeat, the utter discrediting of their ignorance. Comrades may explain that if the the German legend—ending it for good and all—of German workingmen knew wherein their interests real- blood and iron, the superstition of Krupp, flag-wag- ly lay they would not fight and that therefore it is in- ging, Teutonic Kiplingism, and all that criminal sham human to kill them off. efficiency that centers in Berlin. I don't care who puts a bayonet to my throat, Disaster to the German Army, if it is unaccom- whether he is a capitalist, a workingman or even a So- panied by such a memorable wrong as dismemberment cialist workingman—if I can get to him first I will kill or intolerable indignity, will mean the restoration of Mm. The fact that he is misguided will not save him. the greatest people of Europe to the fellowship of the The fact that he is ignorant will not save him. Not western nations. * * * even fact the that he is working against his own. in- France, Italy, England, and all the smaller powers The Western Comrade 13
of Europe are now pacific countries. Russia, after a conquest by the Russian despot and looks hopefully to- hug-e war, will be too exhausted for further adventure. ward the day when the German army, beaten and ex- [This remark should be much stronger. The Russian hausted, shall become a great class conscious mass ready government will be bankrupt certainly, and Czarism for the revolt. will probably be overthrown.] Shattered Germany will be revolutionary. Germany will be sick of the uniforms Germany is so important a factor in the work of and imperialist idea as France was in 1871, as dis- civilization that, even when we are at war with her, illusioned about predominance as Bulgaria is today. we must aim finally at the conservation of her power, to defend her Russian frontier. This need not discourage us in the field. On the Bernard Shaw also takes the stand that the war is contrary, we shall punch Prussia's head all the more against the Imperialists and the Emperors. He looks gloriously if we do it for honor and not for malice. with considerable apprehension on the prospect of a Then, when we have knocked all the militarism out of ' : —: ! ! !
14 The Western Comrade her and taught her to respect us, we can let her up If then we are determined that when this whirlwind again. of bestiality shall have passed we shall not have an- As to non-intervention, it is merely an insular super- other, if we wish a condition under which the structure stition. The leaders of the modern labor movement of society shall not be blown down, hvunan intercourse know that labor politics is international and that, if shall not be destroyed, civUiaation shall not be set back- militarism is to be struck down, a mortal blow must be ward, and the earth shall not be bathed in blood, the aimed at Potsdam. * * * one possible way to that condition is to eliminate for- Had our Government possessed a real modem for- ever the causes of war. eign policy, Asquith might have said furiously to Prus- Instead of business for private profits we must have sian militarism Business for the Common Good. Instead of private "If you attempt to smash France, we two will ownership of the means of life we must have the means smash you, if we can. We have had enough of the of life owned by the public for the public welfare. In- Germany of Bismarck, which all the world loathes, and stead of gigantic fortunes gathered at the general ex- we will see whether we cannot revive the Germany of pense and used for individual power we must abolish Goethe and Beethoven, which has not an enemy on poverty, and give to the poorest child in the land all earth. ' the education that can now be seciwed by the richest. Instead of outworn feudalism we must have the full William English Walling in the New Review says measure of democracy for men and women. If the war is to create a United States of Europe Abolish capitalism, take away the huge, selfish, re- or even if it is to result in several democratic fed- and morseless, savage power of profits and profits can no eral republics, then Socialists must say with Benson: longer plunge the nations into war. ' ! ' Let the if the War Go On " But war does more than Give to the people the sole control of their own af- this, if it leads to real social revolutions, to the com- fairs and they will never lead themselves into wholesale plete overthrow of the ruling aristocracies and pluto- slaughters. cracies—even though it does not carry any country as All other talk of remedies, reforms, measures, exhor- far as Socialism—^within a few years it will have amply tations, appeals, preachments, agreements, treaties, repaid its cost in blood and treasure, no matter how peace, conferences, gabble, talk fests, protests, peace so- staggering the cost may be. cieties, arguments and resolutions is childish prattle, one thing or the other. Abolish the sources of war or Charles Edward Russell declares that there will be prepare to see civilization crushed and your own coun- no end to wars and nothing of value grow out of this try with the rest reverted to the state of the cave men. war unless the competitive system is abolished. Which shall it be? RULES FOR SLAUGHTER WHEN German aviators flew over Paris in the You may not lawfully poison the wells and water night and dropped bombs which killed women sources and kill people by the hundreds, but you may and children in their beds, protests were made poison the air by the stench of rotting, unburied dead, and the world was asked to recoil with horror be- and torture them by terror until they perish by the cause The Hague Peace Conference decided some time thousand » ago that nations should not kill women and children You may not rightfully rob the dead on the bat- by this method. tlefield, but you may hold an entire city as a hostage The conference granted people a right (an inalien- and squeeze millions out of the working class through able right?) to believe they would not be murdered their masters in their beds by men shooting from above. This be- conquered a people, you lief and the "rights" were alienated by the resounding Finally, when you have crash of the explosions. For those unschooled in the may not select the tenderest and cook them over a rules of war it is difficult to understand some of the fire and eat them, but you may enslave them indus- usages. trially and devour their lives and those of their chil- It is not permissible to slaughter a mother's baby dren forever more in its cradle, but it is permissible to murder the same Andrew Carnegie, supporter, if not father, of these child in the trenches when he has grown old enough beautiful and humane rules, left Skibo Castle in Scot- to wear a boy scout's uniform! land and returned to America, fearing some of his You may not "legally" murder men with dum-dum "inalienable rights," under his rule bf wars, might bullets, but you may kill their wives and children be alienated by a foreign foe. with starvation, pestilence or by rapine—provided you Possibly Andy can evolve some more rules to still have "legally" conquered and lawfully killed their further rob war of its terrors and add to the blessings natural guardians. that hallow our days.—G. E. B. '
The Western Comrade 15
By A. F. GANNON HYPNOSIS -
THENS was agog. One of her pillars, a incalculable benefits in the way of advertising. It prominent financier, was toppled by the dwelt lovingly upon the Silverwahl Medal of Honor, hand of a dastard. Seated at his desk which was presented at appropriate exercises to heroic in his private office in one of his large firemen, by the gray-haired, kind-hearted financier in buildings, Herman Isidore Silverwahl, person each year at the Silverwahl Theatre. Starting
with a knife tucked in between two of the subscription list with $500.00, it suggested the erec- his ribs, was found by his stenographer tion of a suitable memorial in his honor, "to show the
early one morning. nation and the world that Athens is not lax in paying The compositors on the prints of Athens set up its respects to genius and rectitude." many a *'his" when working on matter pertaining to One paper, an eight-page evening sheet that re- Silverwahl, the old German-Jew money-lender and fused to hunt with the pack and had consequently been clothing manufacturer. This, with the fact that the accused of harboring every "ism" in its bosom but initials H. I. S. also made up the word, and a slight rationalism, while deploring the murder, though not in play on his middle name, led to the private (very,—he slobbering vehemence as the others, insisted on baring being a sacred cow) cognomen among the newspaper the victim's antecedents. From humble immigrant to menof "OldHizzy." ol'clo's man, to pawn-broker and money-lender it fol-
Extras of each of the "star-eyed intelligences" lowed his career to final eminence. Claiming that it that had their habitat in Athens were being hawked on was no secret that the old man plied his early calling of the streets soon after the gruesome find of the stenog- money-lender, and that no loan was to small or fee to rapher. Under screaming heads they gave most mi- large in his eyes up to the time of his death ; it averred nute details of the crime, and demanded, as one, of the that among these necessity-driven wretches, his clients, detective department, then in bad odor with the grow- the culprit would be found, and that in some extra ing phalanxes of reform, the immediate apprehension hard-hearted, cold-blooded bargain lay the motive. of the slayer. These conjectures were met with silent contempt by In the regular issues followed verbal chromos of its contemporaries, in whose columns the crime was the deceased and his super-secret beneficence, written daily discussed hysterically from every conceivable as- by the star tear4easers of each staff. Ponderous editor- pect. ials dealt with the murder from many view-points. One With the police to the last man at work, a mass rabid journal that stood for "industrial freedom" laid meeting for the purpose of raising funds for a memorial it at the door of the "unionites, " with whom the vic- was called, the date set being the afternoon of the day tim had had difficluties some months before, over an following the funeral. attempt to organize the workers in his overall factory. * * * It complacently concluded that as this was "a free Silverwahl's Theatre was packed with humanity. country, men should be allowed to run their own busi- The Honorable Thaddeus Swinton was fervidly mop- ness to suit themselves, without the aid of Socialist or ping his incarnadined and perspiring brow during the anarchist agitators, who should be at once deported." applause that came hurtling upon the heels of his an- Another champion of the "peepul" laid editorial nouncement that the Silverwahl Memorial Fund had stress upon Silverwahl's unswerving loyalty to Athens reached the handsome total of $10,000. in establishing his factories there, despite the seductive "It is," he said in tremulous tones, "from the bot- offers from neighboring cities, and that "in his un- tom of my heart, heavy vsdth a sorrow that doubtless seemly taking-off the working class lost a true friend." weighs upon every member of the community, that I Opining editorially, a third held that from the mas- thank you for your generous response to the call of sive signs reading: civic appreciation for a man of solid worth and simple grandeur. ' SILVERWAHL In an effort to give some measure of relief to the OVERALL, sweltering auditors who filled the illy-ventilated the- THAT'S ALL! atre, the attaches had opened wide the front doors and ATHENS. an exit on either side of the house. As the Honorable Thaddeus proceeded with his which the deceased had caused to be erected along highly tinted eulogy of the departed, the noises from the railroads throughout the state, Athens had received street irritated him exceedingly. At one point in his 16 The Western Comrade oration the clanging of all the gongs and whistles in Followed an account of the ghastly happening, Athens seemed for a few instants to have centered in wherein was shoMOi gross criminal carelessness, open the lobby. In the throes of metaphoric delivery at the contempt of law and an appalling, dehumanizing pur- time, he stopped short and sarcastically informed the suit of profits. Restrictive rules even in the obeying of doorman that the audience probably considered his dis- nature's calls were shamefacedly related by many sur- course more entertaining than the combined clanging vivors. of trolley-ear and fire-engine bells. Half an hour later In all the sordid, pitiful ruck of the catastrophe was the Honorable Swinton gave way to the brave General one bright, tear-compelling incident. The forelady, Sa- Barleybeard, proprietor of the paper that stood for die Connors, nick-named among the driven girls, The "Industrial freedom." His harangue consisted chiefly Ogress, deliberately sacrificed her life for her trapped of innuendoes delivered at the "unionites," whose sisters. AVith all the pent up love of her suppressed ex- machinations, he intimated, made the blackhand look istence as a slavey of Gain loosed in the instant of peril, like a kindergarten at prayertime. she entered the flaming structure time after time to A church dignitary followed him, and in a masterly snatch an unconscious shape from the human huddle address that attested to the speaker's magnetic person- at the broken down exits, carry it down the rickety ality and native wit, brought both tears and laughter stairway to safety and re-enter for a similar burden. by his rather unhampered portrayal of the old Ger- Viciously fighting off restraining hands, her short- man-Jew financier. cropped greying hair singed to a sort of blonde halo, she With a competent committee of five appointed and nished to her death a few seconds before the flimsy given discretionary power in the matter of deciding the fire-trap collapsed. form of the memorial, the meeting forally adjourned. The real meaning of that pompous phrase "the Amid the buzz preparatory to the departure of the au- power of the press," coined to induce in the mass a feel- ditors the churchman re-arose, holding aloft in his right ing of security that cool consideration is unable to in- hand a yellow message-form. Silence quickly super- culcate, was well exemplified during the succeeding vened. Visibly affected, but in a steady, sonorous fortnight. With an unanimity and will that must have voice he began: made the gouty God of Things that Are wear an unc- "God, with infinite wisdom, that it were presump- tuous smile of approbation, the dailies of Athens, save tuous for mortals to question or seek to fathom, has the recalcitrant sheet hereinbefore mentioned, harped seen fit to visit upon our city a supremely sad acci- upon the "accident" as being the "will of an inscru- dent. Since we have here assembled to honor the mem- table diety." General Barleybeard even went so far as ory of a brother, many souls have passed from Athens to editorially admit that there was yet a glimmer of to be adjudged of The Maker. I pray God that each be hope for the workers while a Sadie Connors could arise found Avorthy. The details of the accident shall no among them,—pointing out, however, in the closing doubt be thrust at you by those who harbor resentment paragraph that she was not of the abhorred "union- against their more prosperous fellows, interpreted in ites." the glare of their prejudice, but I trust that your innate Sob-sisters froih the larger cities invaded Athens, American broadness and Christian fortitude in time of and for a brief moment the name and fame of Sadie chastening shall prevail over these agents of social Connors assumed proper proportion and grandeur. disorder and demoralization." Smugly appropriating the world's homage to an heroic As the vast audience, mellow from its benevolent worker, Athens speedily subscribed a fund for a silver labors, surged out into the comparatively cool summer tablet, engraved thereon the golden deed of the dead evening air, the strident Extry! Extry! of a horde of heroine and publicly presented it to the tearful, totter- newsboys eager for the harvest smote discordantly on ing old mother of Sadie Connors. the consciousness of many a madame with the glitter Sixteen days after the "accident" the facts upper- of tears unshed in her eyes. most in the average Athenian consciousness were—that, The irony of fate was startlingly evident to those regarding a certain mint chewing gum, "the flavor who hurriedly procured and scanned the extra of the lasts," and that Theodore Roosevelt on the previous evening paper. day shot some sort of a thingumbub in South Ameri- 75 GIRLS DEAD! M\NY INJURED! HE1VI\STEAD can wilds, and that the home 'team had cinched the STREET FACTORY SILVERWAHL OVERALL CO. pennant.
BURNS IN TWENTY MINUTES Speaking seriously of the Czar's habit of changing EXITS LOCKED , geographical names over night the Brooklyn Eagle sug- "I didn't know!" says young Silverwahl. gests that he change the name of Europe to Abbatoir. ! ' Profits ' ' ' says Union Head. Good idea—either that or Gehenna. '
The Western Comrade 17 DEALING A HAND FOR DEATH By FRANK H. WARE
A king's a king 'n a jack's a jack "Yes," groaned the other and rolled over so he 'N a queen's alius a queen; 'N bullets is trumps 'n blood's th' stakes might better see the speaker. On th' battlefield 'atween. "Did you ever know that bullets have sense?" Th' discard's coffins draped in black, asked the first. 'N losers lose 'n curse; in th' 'N board's a play game o' war. "Not to my certain knowledge do I know it, al- When war is hell, 'n worse. though I may well say, with as much emphasis as my shattered body allows, that I tasted enough shrapnel OR two years had the siege of the capital and bullets to be transformed into a patchwork—but I been on. For two years had the battle don't know " raged and in those two short years ten "You understand me, although you do not admit million brave hearts cursed and died. it. By bullets having sense I hold that when you first The young men, the flower of the na- go into battle, cheering and possessing a whole skin, tions, long had been plucked and now lay half exposed, half buried in the reeking,
rotting trenches "wdiere they fell. Thousands of mothers smothered their grief and with calloused hearts donned the cast-off uniforms of their husbands and sons so they too could be fodder for cannon. Why they were fighting had been for- gotten. Most of them had never known. And as the ranks became smaller the area of fighting dwindled and dwindled until at last the combined armies of all the warring nations centered about the great city. Most of the heavy artillery was silent. Germany let England master the sea by abandoning her ships and using her marines and sailors with the land forces. Airships and aeroplanes were a thing of the past, as far as this war was concerned. No more mechanics were available. The cavalry was annihilated. A few machine guns, "home-made" cannon, vicious hand- made bombs (the work of women and invalids) com- posed the entire ordnance. The debts of each nation were appalling. Civilization trembled on the brink of the pit. Rulers of non-combating countries made countless peace overtures only to find them ignored by the war- ring powers. you think of nothing but slaughter. Your eyes are Kaisers, Czars, Emperors, Presidents, Kings and wild with enthusiasm and patriotism floods your soul. petty rulers of countries embroiled in war paused and Urged by your comrades you become insane and revel shook their heads. "We started it," they said to them- in the butchery. At last a bullet sears your skin, and selves, "but we cannot stop it." Then these same rul- goaded by the pain and warm blood you become a ers issued proclamation after proclamation urging "loy- demon filled with fury. As your company charges for-
! ' alty and support for their country in the grace of God ward you run to the front. You want to be first. You "In the grace of God, eh?" said one of the survivors rush into the very jaws of a roaring cannon and spear as he read one of the proclamations. "And by the a gunner. You reel and fall, your body full of cuts grace of all the Gods what for?" It seemed, that as and bullets. When you come to you find yourself on he lay there on his cot, a great light dawned upon his a cot and a nurse and doctor bending over and an mind and with a smile he turned to a companion in the officer standing nearby to compliment you for your next cot. bravery," "Are you awake, comrade?" he asked. Here he broke off and reaching out his arm touched '
18 The Western Comrade
the dress of a nurse as she was passing. "Bring me "Remove that man!" roared an officer to the sur- water !" he begged. She did as he bade and he drained geon. the cup. "Remove this man!" ordered the surgeon. Two "Are you listening, friend?" he asked when the orderlies ran forward. nurse had departed. "Take this anarchist out of here and put him in "Aye, and you are telling your story quite well," the guard house!" again roared the officer. came the answer in husky tones. "But," he continued, The pale faced comrade in the next cot heard the "what has that to do with bullets having sense and shuffling as his unfortunate friend was borne away. A why " here he broke into a terrific cough which faint smile flittered across his face. He smiled be-
lasted several minutes. When he had finished he was cause he saw the end of war. He saw his King ; his al-
too weak to resume but signaled his companion with a lies ' kings and monarchs; his enemies' kings and mon- slight nod and movement of the hand to continue. archs flghting side by side against an angry horde. He "That Avas a pretty close call and for a moment I saw those who had been forced into this war rebel, arise thought you were gone. You deserve au iron cross and strike these monarchs down. And last, he saw for rallying, but hereafter let me do the talking. ' these joined in one great brotherhood. The ashen face of his friend broke into a smile and He smiled again and beckoned to a nurse. She came his dark brown eyes took on a faint luster. He again and sat beside him. Commanding all his strength in nodded weakly. one great effort he pulled her to him and whispered in "I was just at that point where the bullets and a hoarse, death rattle, "Goodbye, I'm gone—to Hell, I sense enter. I had reached the point, I believe, where guess. I'm many times a murderer—but I played the you were on the road to your senses. You receive your cards as they dealt them. I'm gone—for the love of my compliments very graciously—that is—as graciously as country—and gone—in the grace of God !" your war-torn conscience permits. But you have lost all your lust for blood. The bullets that struck you CHURCH NEWS_FROM AFRICA down have set your brain to thinking. Uppermost now, in your mind, are your chances for recovery. You view (By the Benighted Press.) war from a different angle. the You see murderous T T NGAARD, Central Africa, Oct. 25, 1914.—Res- side as it should be seen and your patriotism takes a ^^ olutions were read and adopted in the Central Blump as you read proclamations from your King con- Cannibal Church protesting against the Christian war,, doling the wounded and wishing speedy recovery. now being in Europe. The resolutions con- What for? To give you another chance to vvnrestle with waged bullets for the love of your country and the grace of demn the wanton destruction of life, except for pur- God!" poses of food. His voice had slowly and steadily raised in volume The Ladies' Heathen Society of the First Church of ending in quivering high-pitched tones. A nurse the Unredeemed voted to send a boatload of yams, rushed to his cot to quiet him but he waved her back, gourds and breadfcuit to the starving vnves and chil- shouting, "Don't disturb me! I have not finished yet!" dren of Christians whose husbands and fathers are at His face was flushed and scarlet. Back of his fev- war. erish and pained expression was a look of bitterness The Young Men's Pagan Society of Junglesia adopt- mingled with hate. He had debated over and over ed resolutions calling on all young pagans to resist the again with himself that day the folly of war. He had insiduous teachings of Christianity ; and to dedicate only let go of his surplus energy when the nurse bore their lives to peace. down upon him. She tried to calm him but he would not listen. At the Church of the Voodoes, the Fire Worship- "Disturbing ray comrades, eh 1" he sneered. They're pers' Temple, and the Second Buddists' Congregation
not my comrades. They 're my fellow murderers ! " He of Tong Yong Ya, collections were taken up to carry on flung her hand away as she tried to sooth his brow, foreign missions among the French, Russians, Germans and pointed toward an approaching surgeon. and English peoples. "And you, too!" he shouted in rage. "You patch Missionaries will go among these warlike people and us up as fast as we come in. You send us out again as endeavor to persuade them to forsake their blood-thirs- fast as we can wabble. What for? So you can patch ty Gods and worship the One True God of Africa. lis again for up the love of your country—and—the— "Europe for Vood in 1915," is the slogan of these " grace He fell back and his eyes began to glaze. loyal religionists.—Mary Field. The Western Comrade 19 Co-operation in Europe and the War
The War's Message By Ernest O. F. Ames LAST year in Glasgow, Scotland, delegates from crisis,—this calamity caused by the capitalist system every civilized country, representing thirty mil- of monopoly and inequality. lion co-operators, met in the International Co-op- The reserve force of co-operation will largely stem erative Congress. Among other things, they renewed the devastation and ruin caused by capitalism. Co- their pledges of international peace and disarmament. operation will thus be revealed as a constructive force,
Today, one year later, many of the nations repre- while capitalism is destructive in its career and leads sented are at each other's throats in a death grapple. finally to more complete destruction, such as this war Each nation in the fight will surely have many of these exhibits. The vast funds of the co-operators will save co-operators in its ranks. its members from immediate want and postpone, if not It is the object of this article to show the effect entirely remove, actual hunger and starvation, such of this war on the co-operative movement and the re- as for instance already afflicts the Balkan people, who lation of co-operation to the war. The immediate fu- have been at war so long. ture is serious for co-operation economically and from In this way by the very magnitude of its forces the material standpoint. Educationally, the co-opera- and by virtue of its stand for a higher and different tive movement may be the gainer, but at how great a form of life, in which "each for all and all for each" cost we shall see. will be the rule, instead of fraud and aggression, the Co-operation will prove of inestimable benefit dur- co-operators have performed a great service both to ing the war to the people, both members of co-operative their own members and the millions of poor people, societies and non members. Co-operative stores have Avho otherwise would have been at the mercy once already justified their existence by the steadying ef- again of greedy traders and market gamblers. fect they have had on the market- The amount of suffering and privation prevented, When the war broke out and panic seized big busi- the stamina and independence saved, will go a long ness, or rather Avhen big business seized upon the way towards the reconstruction of democratic forces, panic and made it an excuse to inflate prices and to which will be so greatly needed at the close of this hold the market, the co-operative stores stood firm. up fearful capitalistic climax. No increase in prices was permitted. While co-operation is showing its immense value as The peoples' stores published broadcast in the an economic saving force for its large membership, and press, and by other advertising means, the statement indirectly for the whole community, it stands in the that they were not advancing prices. They went fur- first line of the war's victims. The arrest of produc- ther, they warned the public against overbuying from tion, the wholesale devastation, the monstrous expen- the stores, thereby deplenishing stocks and assisting ditures of life and property, will pile up a load of debt the tendency toward high prices. Members were beyond the conception of even modern economists. strongly urged not to withdraw their savings or capital All waste and debt always has to be met by labor. from the co-operative funds, but to continue living in More labor must replace labor wasted and expended all respects as normally as possible. The co-operative and replace it with interest. The working people and factories put on extra workers to counteract any un- their institutions are the first to suffer when wars employment due to the war. come. They foot the bills, inevitably. The strain of The effect of this attitude by the vast co-operative supporting the people during this ghastly war, added business interests was immediate. In Great Britain the to the burden of debt which the war will create, and industrial and commercial panic at the declaration of which will immediately fall upon the laboring classes, war was almost instantly squashed. The attempt to will bring financial ruin to many of the peoples' co- artificially inflate prices was nipped in the bud and the operative enterprises. food pirates held in check. In some other European countries, where the power of co-operation was not so The co-operative societies will continue to pour out great, the government interfered to accomplish the their substance to ward off starvation of women and same end. children. Thousands of men folk will be killed in the The co-operators will thus, by the accumulated war, and general impoverishment of co-operative so- savings made in the control of their own business for cieties will result from this unnecessary world calam- many years past, be enabled to survive the present ity. 20 The Western Comrade
—'tS?. \
Group of Colonists at Llano del Rio
The greatest loss that co-operation will suffer, how- chequers for reforms. The gradual removal of taxa- ever, and more calamitous even than the loss of funds tion from labor to unearned increment and the in- creased claim upon the latter for funds to administer and property, will be the loss of progress in the great measures of social justice has characterized the strug- social reforms that co-operation, along with other gle for equality of opportunity. The fight has been social forces, has advanced so steadily during latter long and hard to get a few millions for such work and all hu- years. The great crime of this war against the advent of war, with its spending of millions, sad- manity will be the setting back of all social reform dens the hearts and chills the hopes of all who serve for generations. in the cause of progress. Already the old reply seems
Social workers, better than any other people, know to be renewed "there is no money for social amelior- how much remains to be done to bring things to an ation." The deadly apathy, the sullen lack of interest, approximation of justice ; at the same time it is readily which characterizes a generation of people for whom admitted that the last twenty-five years in Europe have there is no relief in sight from hard unremitting toil been years of great accomplishment. The chief fight and want, is an impassable barrier to progress. has been to secure money from national and state ex- (To be concluded.) WALL STREET'S NEW HORROR—By Max Hays Now the dude bookkeepers, clerks and typewriters other by pelting the speakers with orange peelings, ap- of "Wall Street, who have always displayed con- ple cores, peanuts, etc., accompanied by hoots and sneer- siderable scorn toAvard the very common persons who ing remarks to display their great wit (and long ears). work, are against the real thing. up Now they are getting at least a partial dose of their Hundreds of the snobbish crowd have been laid off medicine. A New York paper says large numbers of or discharged outright on account of the closing of the office men and women flock around the buildings in the Stock Exchange, the bankers, brokers and other manip- financial district and make anxious inquiries about the ulators having little or no work for office servants. possibilities of securing employment. It is only a few months ago that unemployed meet- They frankly admit that they are up against a seri- ings were held in the Wall Street district for the pur- ous situation, for the most of them are virtually with- pose of impressing the money changers with the fact living has that there were unfortunate people in the world who out means, as the high cost of in New York deserved to be treated justly. become a nightmare. The real labor element is shed- The nasty little satellites of the hankers and brok- ding no tears of sympathy for the flunkies of Wall ers created much amusement for themselves and each Street, who ordinarily glory in their slavishness. The Western Comrade 21 NOTES ON THE WAR By HOMER CONSTANTINE
The Kaiser has conferred the iron cross on 189 sol- NEW YORK—Society women are rejoicing over the diers and the double cross on about forty million others. solution of the vexatious servant question. "Starva- tion and widowhood will drive the women of Europe
If you want to get up a reputation as a prophet just here by the thousands and they will be willing to work at our terms. The present give it out at this hour that the Austro-Hungarian coal- scale of wages will go down ition will collapse with continued Russian victories. as the numbers increase," said the wife of a prominent financier It's virtually in the goulash now. who has made millions in western mines and lands.
According to cable reports the submarine that sank three British cruisers was the U 9. English sailors de- Germans complain they are being killed by dum- clare it came from the Dogger banks and this gives rise dum bullets fired by the French soldiers. A dum-dum to the suspicion that it was really the K 9. bullet has a hollow point and soft nose. Entering the human body it disintegrates and tears the flesh to a "Forward with God!" says the Kaiser. pulp. Andrew Carnegie had this bullet barred by rules !" "Full steam ahead with the Almighty at the helm of the Hague peace conference. (Yes he did—like says the King. Kelly did). "What damned barbarians!" says the Fiji Island Cannibal. A gun store in Los Angeles is displaying in a win- dow a Mercier-Bennett machine gun that fires 600 shots Enter Henrietta Dubb,—vide the following dispatch— a minute. The gun is the property of a company of the PARIS—Among the wounded brought to Nois-le- California National Guard. The notable thing about Sec, a town in the department of the Seine and near the display is the fact the gun and extra clips are load- the Ource canal, was a young laundress in a soldier's ed with soft-nose or dum-dum bullets! Shall we call sending her to the rear the command- uniform. Before a new Hague conference? ing officer complimented her on her bravery.
"See the grisly texture grow! PARIS The Matin prints a photograph of a saber — ('Tis of human entrails made.)" near Meux, belonging to the Forty-sev- bayonet found During the battle of Hofstade, near Malines, King Prussian infantry, one edge of which was notched enth Albert of Belgium motored out and participated in the Matin says that many similar saber like a saw. The general engagement. The Belgians forced the German bayonets have been found. When this bayonet is artillery to retreat. Skid chains were used on his ma- thrust into the human abdomen and withdrawn it jesty's motor before he left the scene as the highway, intestines which frequently are trailed brings out the where a cavalry charge had been checked by shrapnel, twenty feet away. Scores of living men have been was slippery with fragments of human flesh, blood and terrible condition. found in this entrails.
seriously to war the Demon Rum When Russia went The bristled boar in infant gore received a terrible swat. The government, which has Wallows beneath the thorny shade. had a monopoly of the booze business, stopped the sale At Tomazow a Russian lieutenant (a Petrograduate of vodka throughout the empire. The declaration is from the imperial war college) showed his skill with made that a great war cannot be fought on alcohol or the bayonet when he took a rifle from one of his men any of its compounds. Great petitions are being circu- and with the bayonet tossed a baby high in the air and lated asking the government to make prohibition per- caught it again and again on the point of his weapon. manent. These petitions set forth the statements that The young mother of the infant, who stood shrieking at vodka has been the national curse. Meantime Petro- the sight, was taken away by the soldiers and the fol- grad is as dry as Knoxville and the cable carries no lowing day found dead and mutilated in their deserted news of national disaster. camp.—German dispatch. '
22 The Western Comrade WHY THE WAR?
By J. H. R YCKMAN EFORE the war the Christians of the them the forces of reform or revolution, for revolu- whole world prayed for peace, but God tion is only reform raised to the ninth power. was on a journey or perhaps he slept and On the continent these forces have grown so power- heard not. After the war came, the ful, their demands are so insistent, their adherents Christians of Germany by direction of so numerous that they have become an immediate the Kaiser, prayed to the same God for menace to every throne and every chancellery of Eu- victory to perch upon the standard of rope, and to every religious and political superstition the Hohenzollerns, and they modestly in the world. In France the Socialist Party at the re- reminded God that he was in honor bound to give cent election increased its vote from 1,100,000 to 1,400,- the victory to them as they were the best friends he 000 and its representation in the parliament from 76 ever had. Likewise the Czar and his priests of the to 102, and at the next election it was safely counted Holy Catholic Church prayed to the same God for that they would capture the government in every the victory and incidentally mentioned the fact that department and thus brave, gallant, beautiful France the Russian people were the only really steadfast ad- would take its place at the head of the grand proces- herents of the one true God. sion of co-operative commonwealths that are soon This morning I saw in a London paper an appeal to girdle the earth. for 100,000 volunteers and it wound up with "God In Germany the forces of reform were even more Save the King." Even the British don't intend to rely powerful, the Socialists alone having 110 members in wliolly upon the volunteers. the German parliament and 4,500,000 votes—about But these millions down on their knees appear to 38 per cent of the whole, and at the next election might have forgotten that even if this God could answ^er readily have captured the government. In Italy, Aus- their mutually antagonistic prayers, he seems to prefer tria, Belgium, Denmark, Holland, Finland, Norway to keep the promise he made in his own book. (Prov. and Sweden the movement was growing with astonish- 1 :26-28.) ing rapidity. The ruling class was stricken with "I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock dread. 'The people were crushed with a burden of when your fear cometh: when your fear cometh as debt imposed for the building and upkeep of the desolation and your destruction cometh as a whirl- paraphernalia of war. Austria, doubtless at dictation wind, then shall they call upon me but I will not from Potsdam, declared war on Servia on the flimsiest answer. ' possible pretext. We have no time for futilities, either of protest The Czar mobilized his troops on the Austrian against the war, or speculation as to the outcome. "We frontier- Germany .declared Avar on Russia and had leave such things to those who will follow us. We completed mobilization of her army in 20 hours—the look facts in the face and seek for causes. greatest war machine ever constructed, and jumped, This war is but a i)hase of the world-wide, age-long not at the throat of Russia, but at the throat of the conflict between autocracy and democracy- French Republic—started not for St. Petersburg, but In England we saw a while ago, the extreme wing i"or Paris—to wipe off the map of Europe at one fell of the ruling class, the Tories, feeding the fires of re- blow Europe's greatest republic and to block the volt against Home Rule in Ireland and we see the mod- forces of progress possibly forever. erate wing, the Liberals, throwing women in jail rather It was not Russian despotism that was to be crushed than give them the ballot. And so the battle rages the but French republicanism. Germany's war lord and world around between autocracy whether disguised his apologists seek to justify their declaration of war as Czar or Kaiser, President or Prime Minister on the against Russia by saying that the autocracy of Rus- one side and democracy on the other—between king- sia is a menace to the high civilization of Europe. craft and priesthood and their prerogatives on one France agrees with him, England and Italy and Bel- side and the common people, the workers of the world, gium agree with him and all that the Kaiser had to do on the other, in their effort to get control of the gov- when Russia menaced Austria was to beckon England ernment. and France and Italy and all Europe to his side and Crossing the Channel we see the forces of progress the Czar of Russia, coward that he is, would have marshaling by millions. I care not whether you call called off his dogs of war and the peace of Europe I :
The Western Comrade 23
Your Class Must Win!
By Allan L. Benson YOU cannot win unless your class wins—the working class. You cannot win unless you get together and stick together. The Socialist platform is the only place in America in which you can get together without finding grafters and bunco men sandwiched in among you. The Socialist Party is a working man's and a working woman's party. Graft-
ers have no use for it. Bunco men steer clear of it. Its platform does not contain a splinter of comfort for any of them. It is on the level and on the square. It will not break down and it will not blow up. If we had a Socialist Congress today, this country would enter upon such an era of prosperity as the world never saw. As a matter of fact, the world has never seen much prosperity, except for a few. The rest of the people are always close to the hunger line.
would have been assured for 100 years, probably for- SEPTEMBER MIDNIGHT ever. But the Kaiser and his government are only the By SARAH TEASDALE- executive committee of the ruling class, the capital-
ists, and such a dream of peace and progress was not to be realized. Russia has not won a great war in 100 LYRIC night of the lingering Indian Summer, years. She was the first white nation to be ignomini- Shadowy fields that are scentless but full of ously defeated by a handful of the yellow race—lit- singing, passed through a violent in- tle Japan. She has just Never a bird, but the passionless chant of insects. revolution whose fires are merely smouldering ternal Ceaseless, insistent. ready to burst out again into a conflagration. It be- the Czar to precipitate a foreign war to avert hooved The grasshopper's horn, and far off, high in the maples,. upheaval at home, and he seized the opportunity an The wheel of a locust leisurely grinding the silence to back Servia, when menaced by Austria and declared Under a moon waning and worn, broken. war. It fitted well the plans of the Kaiser to engage Tired with summer. the forces of reform in the slaughter of their brothers in France and the war is on- Let me remember you, voices of little insects, Let us hope that out of this horrible carnage will "Weeds in the moonlight, fields that are tangled with emerge a Europe without a King, a Czar or a "War asters. of Lord or a Mailed Fist ; that every vestige autocracy Let me remember, soon will the winter be on us, and militarism will disappear and every scion of kingly Snow hushed and heavy. rule be driven into exile; that every SAvord shall be turned into a plowshare and every spear into a prun- Over my soul murmur your mute benediction, ing hook That the war drums shall throb no more and the battle- "While I gaze. Oh fields that rest after harvest, flags be furled, As those who part look long in the eyes they lean to. In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the World. Lest they forget them. 24 The Western Comrade
Impressions of Llano
4*= By J
WAS awakened early Sunday morning the day, and not a very distant day, when a happy, people, and in Palmdale. I was on my way to Llano contented surrounded by every comfort manj-- luxuries, will cluster in civic cen- Del Rio, which is twenty miles east of and around a Palmdale, and was to have been met at ter where there will be schools, library, theatre, mov- the train, but a misunderstanding left ing pictures, pool,' billiards, ball grounds, golf links, me stranded in the little city for the etc., etc. night. However, a telephone message Plans for these things and many more are being to the colony headquarters speedily Avorked out, and their concrete realization, in a com- brought an auto, and I was whisked over there in less paratively near future, seems certain. One section of than an hour- a hotel, which will accommodate a hundred people, Llano Del Rio Colony is situated on a plain gently has just been completed. This will be tem- sloping to northward and westward. Its smooth porary headquarters. It will consist of sleeping- surface is dotted with sagi^lirush, greasewood, yuccas, rooms and apartments, a large dining-room and etc. "With the exception of these and an occasional kitchen, a storeroom and the company's office- It is ranch house, with or without its clump of trees, ac- cording to the time it has been occupied, the eye sweeps the unobstructed plain for many miles. The outsRirting scenery is one of splendor. Mountain tops meet the sky in every direction. Two hundred miles to the north lie the Tehachipis, their crests scarcely discernible from the fleecy coluds floating over. Midway in the valley are the "mystic" buttes, a long line of low-lying sentinels, cast up by nature when the earth was young. They are like a line of huge battleships menacing intrusion. Though mas- sive rock, they are sheathed in halo, their contour is " graceful, their coloring divine. 'Tis distance lends enchantment," never was truer word said than of these, when in early morn shafts of light bathe them in glory, one by one, or in the "waning hours," Mdien Hunter's Camp at Jackson's Lake. About a Dozen they change from soft purple to pale gold with the Deer Were Brought Out by the Colonists During shifting of their position to tlie sun- From out of the Season the "mists" into the "mists," mute and immutable, there they lie, a column of silent grandeur under the claimed that this is the only building that will be made star-lit sky, a thing of eternal beauty under the "orb of wood, as all the raw materials for making cement, of day." l)rick and stone houses are on the land, and will be To fully appreciate Llano Del Rio, you must have converted into the finished product by the workers vision. You must see with the mental as well as the themselves. physical eye. You must be able to look into the future This is a constructive, co-operative corporation and see that which does not exist today. The scenic in which the individual members form a working unit. beauty, the fine, dry, invigorating air, the blue sky Singly they could do little, collectively they can ac- above and the bounteous earth -below, will lend complish wonders. It is inspiring to see these earnest, wings to your imagination. You must be able to see determined men and women go about the task of con- The Western Comrade 26 glRio Co-operative Colony is R. Nickum^ ^^
'.i
Orchard
Scene
6 g 6
Llano
Colonists
verting this so-called desert into what must soon be- Antelope Valley, for the first time, at the solicitation come a veritable Garden of Eden. These people are of one who is now a member of the colony- He tra- pioneering, they are building an empire, a kingdom versed the country for many miles around. He com- in which each will be a king or a queen as the case pared its soil with that of the thousand-doUar-an-acre may be. pear orchards at Little Ilock, ten miles away, and found The green trees, shade, ornamental and fruit, the it the same. He talked with the scattered ranchers, luxuriant fields of alfalfa and the rank growth of all and heard their plaint of isolated efEort. Then he vegetation upon the ranches where water now flows visited its water sources high up in the mountains. He attest, with unmistakableness, the fertility of the soil. saw their volume, their waste and their possibilities, As to the water, I haven't the technical knowledge and he dreamed a dream. But, dreams alone are fleeting to measure, or even guess its quantity, or the number pleasures, and had he stopped there this story would of acres that may be brought under its influence, but not have been written. I am informed, by what I consider absolutely reliable Job Harriman has given the best years of his life authority, that from the water rights now owned by to a cause other than which there is none greater. To the company sufficient water may be conserved to ir- better the condition of the poor, the oppressed, the rigate many thousands of acres, and that enough may down-trodden, he has ever striven. He has seen con- be stored to tide over two or three years of drought, ditions as they exist, and their cause with a clearer should one possibly occur. vision than most men. Llano Del Rio Colony was an inspiration. It was Out of the world's unrest at the ever encroaching conceived in the brain of Job Harriman. It was born greed of capitalism, many co-operative plans have been of him, and by him it is being fostered. His is the devised and put into operation to obtain relief, but master mind, his, the directing hand. with largely indifl'erent success. Harriman familiar- Not so very long ago Harriman visited this part of ized himself with all these plans. He pondered over 26 The Western Comrade them, he analyzed them and noted their elements of that accruing to all m.embers. Neither iiarriman, Snell shares of stock failure. With these milestones of failure as beacon or McCorkle owns or can own more jf colony. lights to guide him from the shoals encountered by than can be owned by any other member the those who had gone before, a plan formed in his mind Each member may own 2000 shares at a par value of which gradually unfolded and grew to maturity. It $1.00, but he can own no more. was the realization of this plan of which he dreamed It is not within the nature of things that there when he stood on the mountain heights and viewed should be absolutely "clear sailing" at Llano in the the broad acres spread out below- Being a man, quick beginning At first there will be little jealousies, lit- little bickerings, little jockeyings for to act, when convinced of the logic of his course, he tle anaraosities, immediately set about it to make his dream come true, and he certainly has cause for gratification at the rapidity with which the erstwhile plain is being in- habited and brought under sub.iugation. The end of each week finds Harriman on the ground, in khaki and elk-skins. A stranger would not pick him out as one of the big lawyers from the city. He would pass readily for one of the "boys" who, by their sweat are doing the actual work of building Llano. But, here, as elsewhere, that he may be found, he is a busy man. Every detail of the work is scrutinized. He counsels with all, and listens to, and makes sugges- tions. He doesn't say "go," he says "come" and that is the spirit that prevails at TJano.
How dear to Harriman 's heart is this enterprise, and how much it means to him may be summed up briefly in the words of a member of the colony : "Its success or failure means life or death to his hopes." Before having seen this location, Harriman, to- gether with A. F. Snell and G. F- McCorkle, both of
^' '* iMft.j_ii - ^'^Hf*. tU (
favored place, and this would not be strange—in fact
' - it is to be expected—for each of these workers is fresh m *^«». iT\ from the grinds of capitalism, order live,, f <*m-^ where, in to mpBK9l..n« every man's hand is against every other man's hand. Each, in spite of his philosophy, has been forced
throughout his life, by the iniquitous competitive sys- tem, to take every advantage of every one with whom
he came m contact. . His life, his every act, his very
— --^ ZJL being has been modeled and shaped by the conditions, Sunday at the Goodwin Ranch, Llano del Rio Colony under which he has liA'ed. He may have looked into- the future, and, in his mind's eye, seen the Co-opera- whom are bankers, had traveled over much of the tive Commonwealth spread out before him. He may .state, and looked over many different sites for a colony. have looked into this land of fraternity, of bounty, of One, a 20,000-acre tract, was considered as being favor- plenty, where not a single human being in all the able, and a deal for it was seriously contemplated. earth went hungry, and longed for the day Avhen he However, Llano Del Rio was seen to have many ad- could enter therein, but this so far has been only a vantages not possessed by any of the others, hence its phantasy, and not a reality. He still is in capitalism. selection. The first money put up to secure conces- He thinks in the terms of capitalism, and works in the sions of land and water was furnished by these three ways of capitalism. men, and this without hope of individual profit, except He crosses the line. He enters this co-operative The Western Comrade 27
colony, which, by the way, while not the Co-operative
Commonwealth, is a mighty long step in that direc- The Colony Is a Paradise for tion. Yesterday he worked competitively. Today he the Children works co-operatively- Does the mere crossing of this boundary line enable him to completely change his mental attitude Can he, in a day, throw off the habits acquired in a lifetime under capitalistic en-
• virons ? He certainly cannot. He, of course, upon en- tering this new atmosphere, feels a great change. His spirits lighten, and his heart swells with emotion. His resolves are higher, his determination firm, yet, he will have a struggle to keep, inviolate these exalted
resolutions. He will find it difficult to accept assign-
ments to work that is not just suited to his inclinations. Little Charlotte Earle and The food set before him may not all be exactly to his Her Pets taste, yet, I must say, after having partaken of it, that
it is very good, very wholesome, and far above that
which is spread out on the average working man's the fact, that he owns an equal interest with all other
table. There may be, and very probably will be, many workers in this rich empire he is helping to build, its little things about which he feels, when he forgets green fields, its orchards, its water, its machinery, its himself, that he has a "kick" coming. But this is live stock and the beautiful white city that will arise, only his transitory stage from competition to co-opera- peace and contentment and joy will occupy his soul. tion, and even here, by girding himself, he will be able He will be ready to work where his work will count to keep his resolves, in the main, and as the days pass, for most. He will co-operate indeed and in truth with the necessary effort to do so will become less and less. all his comrades. He will stretch out his hand and And when he comes to fully realize, and appreciate "lift up," not "press down." THE REAL BATTLEFIELD
By GEORGE R' LUNN
THERE is before me a picture which reveals bet- It is a battle without hope for no star illumines the ter than words the unspeakable horrors of human shadow of that struggle. butchery. No bands are playing, no drums are beating, no It is a picture of the real battlefield. trumpets are sounding on this battlefield.
I see a home where starvation is ruling with ghastly The father is gone, sent, he knows not why, to be iron hand. murdered.
The cupboard in the poverty stricken home is not The helpless mother and fatherless children are left burdened with even a crust of bread. behind; left to fight hopelessly against starvation and On the kitchen table lays the baby of the household death. •sleeping the sleep from which there is no earthly awak- Here is where we see the real war, war in all its ening, a tiny victim of starvation. hideous nakedness. Kneeling with her head buried in her hands which Not on the plain or sea where the thousands are rest on the table is the grief-stricken mother. nerved to action by the brutal excitement of death's
To her right a little girl of about eight years at- carnage, but in the homes where slow starvation grips tempting to rise but too famished to walk. the innocent children and where the pitiful sight of
Behind, holding on to his mother's dress, is a boy the dead babe brings collapse of courage to the of five years, thin, emaciated and so pitiful, looking wretched mother, is the real battlefield. frightfully toward the door. This is a picture of the real ravages of war. Has your subscription to the WESTERN COM- Always in the foodless, fatherless home the battle RADE EXPIRED? Renew it now and get a few
of life and death is fought to the bitter end. neighbors to subscribe. — ——
28 The Western Comrade
THE DESERT By ALBERTA LESLIE
THE Desert slept, E'en so the desert hides, Breathless, 'Neath noonday's molten heat 'Neath twilight's veil, her cruel face: Naught living stirred, on wings or feet, The burning stars reveal no trace Till evening breezes, cool and sweet, Of Death in that mysterious place O'er her broad bosom swept. Where Death abides.
Then fades the day. Upon her breast
Life stirs anew, the Desert wakes; Lie whitening bones by dust concealed A rabbit's scream the silence breaks Which, in the noon-day's sun revealed. As Death, swift-footed, overtakes Show even man—proud man—must yield The gaunt coyote's prey. His life at her behest.
Stirs Life—Death stirs also. But this shall pass. And from his hidden earthy bed Some day, from hidden founts unsealed, The rattler rears his loathsome head, 'Tis Life, not Death, that she shall yield
Waiting some creature's careless tread In flowing stream and blooming field
To lay it low. And greening grass.
A bat flits by. Bide yet awhile. And now the new moon's silver rim And on this water famished land, Dips near the far horizon dim. .Which now bears cactus, sage and sand,
And yucca branches sharply limn The stacks o:^ golden grain shall stand Fantastic shapes against the sky. And homes shall smile.
Veiled by the dying light. A little while and I Through gathering dusk, now palely gleams Shall see the orchard trees take root; (Like lovely unreal shapes in dreams) The tender leaves and branches shoot
The cruel chollas shape which seems And jewel tints of ripening fruit
A thing of beauty soft and white. Shall with the sunsets vie.
And when I've seen
The Desert's power to hurt all spent
God's blessing on the Desert sent,
I, too, shall pass in deep content With things that once have been.
Llano del Rio Colony, October, 1914. The Western Comrade 29 Major Jarero, Who Went For Zapata By EMANUEL JULIUS
-^PATA—the Robin Hood of Mexico's most of the time, but never hesitated to leave their a mj'th. Terrible Z (the last letter in plows and grab their guns whenever they saw an opportunity to pick off a few of my men." southwest—is more than a man ; he is the Mexican revolutionary alphabet) is Asked how it happened that he permitted the peons to carry on such warfare, the major shrugged his more than a leader; he is a flag. Peons shoulders and said: spealv of Jesus and Zapata in the same "What could I do? Zapata owns the country down breath. Praying peons often mumble there. Every man I talked with would deny he was Zapata's name when they mean to use a Zapatista. It wiis hard to prove they weren't, since the name of Christ. their guns were hidden. They did not fight habitually. Zapata and Jesus—rebels, both of them. True "They are just humble peons when they work on they differ in some respects. However, the rough Za- their land their leader steals for them, but as soon pata, like the gentle Jesus, fights for the landless, as they take their guns they become brave fighters who penniless, ragged scum of the earth. Jesus turned fear nothing. the other cheek. Zapata never does that. Jesus was "They would work quietly when they saw a com- crucified. Zapata is better equipped, having splendid pany of my men march by, but they would count my rifles and quick-firing guns; so, there is little likeli- men—I couldn't stop them—and when my men were hood of his being "dismantled." The difference be- gone, they would quicklj^ organize a force twice the
tween Jesus and Zapata as fighters for the poor is one size of my party, which may have had only 50 men. of efficiency. Zapatistas would follow, set a trap and exterminate Jesus had his Pontius Pilate. Zapata had his them. Then they would hurry back to their land, hide their guns and go to work. could I Major Pablo Zayas Jarero, erstwhile leader of 4000 What do? Some- times I wouldn't hear of my loss for weeks. It was Huertistas in "the green valleys of Morelos," not awfully exasperating!" many miles southwest of Mexico City. And this brings The major frankly admitted that it was impos- us to the story. Zapata is still in Morelos—a rich, sible to down Zapata's followers. Of course, the only beautiful country. Major Jarero isn't. That's an im- action (from the major's viewpoint) —to execute the portant difference. Z is an "in"; Major Jarero is an thousands of peons in Zapata's country—is impossible. "out", a hopeless "out". The Major is in New "Zapata is their god," Major Jarero continued. York, which is a compliment for the leader of the "The people worship him. He is a Socialist who knows peons of Morelos. little of the theorj^ or philosophy of Socialism, but who As a major in the federal army, Jarero had the instinctively understands its spirit. Zapata's secre- unpleasant and difficult tasks of annihilating the rebel tary, a school teacher, is an intelligent man of pro- army of the southwest and sending Zapata to king- nounced Socialist views, who is the brains behind Za- dom come. Don Pablo Zayas Jarero began four years pata's bravery." ago; he quit recently. Zapata and his army are still Zapata, according to the major, has an elaborate doing business at the same old stand. method of taking toll from the rich sugar planta-
In the restaurants of the "Whitehall Building, Bat- tionists. As it takes considerable capital and expen- tery Park, I met the major and heard his story. At sive machinery to raise sugar, Zapata, probably un- the table were Mr. Carlo de Fornaro, noted caricatur- ready to confiscate the lands, allows the rich to hire ist, author of "Diaz, Czar of Mexico," and Manuel Zapatistas, provided sufficient sums are first paid to Esteva, New York Consul during Huerta's regime. his agents. Failure to pay results in destruction of "About 2000 Zapatistas were always carrying on the crop and machinery. This money is used to pur- a guerrila warfare against my men," said Major Ja- chase guns and ammunition for the peons, the major rero. "Zapata's regular army had about 2000, but he said. had a fighting force of at least 40,000 men, women "Zapata," said the major, "is a strange leader, al- and children (children fight for Zapata) who had most a myth. He goes from village to village, never and still have guns and ammunition and were ready remaining longer than a night. When I was after him, to fight at a moment's notice. They tilled the soil I found it impossible to trace him, because the peons ! ! —
30 The Western Comrade everywhere gave my men wrong directions, often send- I tell you, Zapata is a funny sort of man." ing them into traps." Zapata is hopeless, said the major. He cannot be The major then told of an incident that showed eliminated. Former Consul Esteva interjected with this: the sort of dare-devil Zapata is. "I believe the government should let Zapata have "I was looking for Zapata near the village of Jo- the country unmolested. The more he is fought, the jutia, in Morelos, and at last decided to give him up stronger he becomes. If he becomes governor, he will as a hopeless ease. He looks like an ordinary Mexican, become conservative before long." and Mexicans, in the main, look alike. At a little "But Zapata scoffs at the idea of becoming gov- hotel, a man approached me with the time of day. He ernor of Morelos," said Fornaro. told me he wished I would find Zapata, the bandit. I Said the major: "Every man suspected of being a soon became attracted to him and invited him to eat Zapatista should be sent to distant states." with me. He impressed me as a simple-mannered man, "Why not let the peons have what they want?" quiet and sympathetic. We slept in the same bed that asked Fornaro. "They want land to work on." night. Next morning we parted. An hour later we "Oh," exclaimed the major; "that can't be done. learned that a score of my men were being attacked, They are too poor to pay for the land. They haven't so I hurried to their aid. We finally succeeded in sav- the capital." ing some of them, and in doing so, we took a prisoner. "Why speak of capital?" Fornaro asked. "The Of course, the usual thing is summary execution, which peons are giving capital no thought. They have rifles we decided upon. The peon said he would tell me that is better than capital. Let the peons work on the something of great interest if I should order his free- land and they will let their rifles grow rusty from dom. 'Tell me what you know; I'll decide afterward,' disuse." I told him. He answered that I had slept with Zapata But the major didn't seem to understand.
THAT ROTTING BRAIN LOVE WITHOUT WINGS AM an admirer of virility and strength. To me CHINA, like Dick Swiveller, has to sit up and in- power and beniaty and life are synonomous. Witli quire of the old min is friendly. Japan notifies I this in mind I attended the first day's session of China to remove all civil and military officers and all the Industrial Relations Commission in Los Angeles. soldiery from the Tsing-Tao and the Tsinan districts I wanted to see strong men. I hoped even to see a and to worthy foeman in Harrison Gray Otis. My disap- abandon the railway there. The order, couched
pointment is bitter. in terms of polite request, naively adds the statement What I saw there when the "tyrant" gave his tes- that any opposition will be considered an "unfriendly timony filled me with chagrin, humiliation and nearly act." pity. How sweet is friendship Instead of virility and intellect I saw a fat, flabby dotard sans mind, sans body, sans everything. He sat on the stand, a dull lackluster glare in his HE WAS WILLING almost invisible eyes. His fading intellect scarcely ^ CCORDING to the advance announcements in grasped the questions that were asked him. jlV Chicago newspapers, with the God willing clause, When he delivered himself of a particularly veno- Voliva has delivered his important address entitled mous utterance he chuckled toothlessly, then fell into "The End of the World: or When Christ Appoints the silence like an owl molested in its darkened roost. Mayor for the City of Chicago." Otis spoke, in muffled tones, through his dirty, re- pulsive moustache and "goatee." His words and ac- Later on God was willing again and Voliva utterly tions betrayed senility and bespoke early decay. spifflieated a trinity of infidel theories by swatting Governor Johnson said Otis has "a rotting brain "modern astronomy" (was the ancient astronomy bet- and a gangrened heart." As we looked at him on the ter?) ; knocking the pee-wadding out of evolution and stand these words came back again and again. taking a pot shot at that delightfully nebulous thing A member of Organized Labor said: "higher criticism." "And we are up against that sort of thing If we had but to outwit that, and failed, I would go down Chicago must be grateful that Jehovah is so willing and jump off the dock."—G. E. B- and so obliging these days.—E d'O. The Western Comrade 31 TAHITI'S CRABS AND CATS By FREDERICK O'BRIEN
N Tahiti, the most joyous isle in all the the tree about 40 feet, and encircles it with dirt and seas, 4000 miles south of here, two leaves. -The robber descending, with thoughts of things struck me as being very funny. gouging out the soft, delicious meat of the nut and Cats are fine fishers, and crabs climb eating it in comfort in his little parlor by the beach, trees. The crabs dote on cocoanuts. They climb the palm trees after the nuts, and they cause considerable loss to the owners by their thievery. They are called robber crabs, because of their wicked habits. Of course they are really water residents, like other crabs, but they have become so enamored of a cocoa- nut diet that they have suited their natures to their appetites to a large degree, and often remain entirely away from the water, except in the love-making sea- son. They have a huge claw that is very strong, and Avhen the fancy for a nut overcomes them they climb the tree in search of it. A full-grown, healthy cocoa xC-^.^&§mi^^'- is from 60 to 100 feet high, and the nuts are palm Making Copra nearly at the tiptop. The crab disengages the nut from its stem, and lets it drop to the ground. If his stomach urges him, he will sever two. The nut or strikes the garland and in his fool crab brain thinks nuts grounded, the robber comes down leisurely, in he has already reached the ground. He lets go, and his backward way, to enjoy his dinner, just as a is hurled to the earth, where the mad Tahitian has capitalist goes to his club to dine and wine after he spread rocks for his landing. The wretched crab has shaken the nuts off the labor tree. smashes to death on the stones beside the nut he has The Tahitian hates the robber crab, and sometimes designed to eat. This is for the native, takes the trouble to punish him for his abstraction. "nuts" not the crab. In fact, the native has crabbed the robber's game. When the crab is away up by the green leaves, saw- But about the cats that fish. Dr. Williams, the ing off a few pounds of grub, the native climbs up 32 The Western Comrade
' ' ''' * ^"^^SM^J^KS^f^^MSj^S^ '%, IK' " H
'
-JP^^^BBiHR|i[^B|^v \ ' V -jfi. "Tailof^M^^M ^^^f<~'''^'^bl>^^^^l
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Tahitians Are Wonderfully Natural and Graceful Dancers
American vice-consul at Tahiti, owns an island, Te- such a cat-and-rat time. But the day came when the tuaroa, a few miles from Tahiti, and has planted 90,000 last rat, the tiniest mouse, had perished by the dread- coeoanut trees on it. He was much troubled by rats, ful cataclysm that had overtaken their race. who ate the young shoots of the trees and prevented Tetuaroa is an atoll- It is a coral islet, and the the nuts from reaching their growth. A coeoanut tree soil is coral dust-, It has no population except the should bear from 60 to 100 nuts a year, worth a cent few natives sent there by Consul Williams to plant
and a half or two cents each. Dr. Williams baited and gather cocoanuts. There is no ploughing nor traps and set out Rough-on-Rats to stop his losses- cultivating, for cocoanuts grow without man's aid. but to little purpose. The rats learned to know that The natives live on fish they catch, and on taro and traps were inhospitable, and that poison disagreed feis sent from Tahiti. But they could not catch enough with their health- fish for a thousand cats, and besides with the rats
day someone cats. course, it gone, in idleness these I One suggested Of why support meowing myriads?
was an old maid. AVho else? She said that in Cali- Worse than that ! This rattling home for cats fornia cats were the devil on gophers, and that they had not been a Tomless Eden. The cats had multi- should do deadly work on Tetuaroa. The doctor j)lied. Nature had taken its arithmetical course. It
bought cats. While he was about it he bought enough. looked very black for the feline families. Cats were swarming in certain districts of Tahiti, But right here, atavism, heredity, survival of the and when he offered a franc a piece, two whole dimes, fittest —whatever you may call it—intervened. Time every Tahitian kid l)rouglit a cat or two. When he was when cats or their ancestors gained their living had a thousand he cried "Scat!" to the next boy, put by fishing, as other felines do today. Instead of perish- them on a schooner and shipped them to Tetuaroa. ing for lack of rats, some wise old cat, courageously Rat meat was cat meat for tnonths. The cats overcoming his fear of water, went to fishing. chased the rats up trees and into caves. Never was Soon hundreds of cats spent their many hours a ': ' : ' ! ! I
The Western Comrade 33
!" day in snaring the many kinds of crustaceans and claws ! "Mew say the little kittens playing on shore, scaled fish that croAvd those warm and exquisite as mama eat, leaping from rock to rock, brings the ^f waters. food to them- It is a revelation in the adaptability of
It is a sight to see them ! A huge Tabitha crouched the living to the necessities of environment. upon a coral rock, her eyes intent upon the lapping The rats are gone, the robber crabs have scuttled tide, her paw tense for the strike! She watches the back to their natural habitat, fearful of the cats, and gold and green, the purple-striped, the pale pink and these have taken up the trade of Peter Bar-Jonah. scarlet fish play hide and seek in the holes of the coral. Life is serene on Tetuaroa. Of course, it's hell on Let one rise within her reach, and slap goes her the fish. FOR KING AND COUNTRY THE worker bowed over his task. Blazing in the said the courier. And the workers shouted aloud, heavens the sun sent down scorching rays merci- drowning the wails of the women and followed after lessly baking the earth and the toiler of the field. At the trumpets and the flags. the point nearest the highway the weary one raised his As the workers marched they drew myriad others eyes and saw a stranger looking steadfastly at him. to them. Then the music ceased and they heard Fear gripped the worker's heart and choked him into groans. Noises like the rending of the heavens smote silence though he tried to speak. their ears and a black pall arose and blotted out the "You do well," said the stranger. "Prepare the sky. The way grew slippery and many fell. Then grain, I shall need this harvest. Then I shall send for they knew they were wading through blood and frag- you," and he pulled a black cloak about his fleshless ments of flesh and human entrails. Some sought to turn head and disappeared into the forest. back, but were stricken and crushed down. On through the forest the stranger strode com- They marched steadily forward numbered in the mending the workers there. In villages and towns and millions. They approached an ineffable abyss, where cities, through factory, mill and mine, he saw the works all were doomed to plunge, and they saw on the brink of men and commended them. Most of all was he the figure of the stranger, the black cloak drawn about pleased with the toil of armorers and gun-makers. All his hollow skull. Beside him stood the courier whose he summoned to be in waiting but all shrank from him garments were reddened and splashed with blood and crying "No! No! No! We will remain at our task!" the banners and music were gone. And the stranger chuckled mirthlessly and drew his The stranger spoke to the courier and said: "You eloak about the cavernous eyes and said: "My mes- have done well. The crop is good !" Then the doomed senger will come. Be ready!" workers on the brink knew the two were DEATH and The toilers forgot their resolve to avoid all strange WAR.—G. E. B. messengers and cling to their tasks. The sun shone and the birds came and the toilers sang in their fields. Then came a courier in rich panoply. He was ac- THE FACTORY HAND companied by banners and a fanfare preceeded him. PINCHON Trumpets sounded and tlags waved aloft. The toilers By EDGCUMB arose in the fields and heard the shouts The loathsome light is here—Auother day
"Dulce est pro patri mori!" The monster whose daily food am I is yelling for me ! "Gott und Vaterland!" Nervously I rise and run, yea—run, lest He become im- "Viva la Republique!" patient—angry, and refuse to gulp me. "God Save the King!" I hasten, gibbering with cold and dread, prostrate my- ' ! ' are me ' Hurrah for the Old Flag self before Him, His tentacles around — The toilers left the fields and forest and mills and clutch them eagerly. I am engulfed mines and followed the courier shouting the cries, My sinew, bone, my nerves, my heart, my blood, my thougli their women wept and clung to their men they brain—^my Soul—are His—The hours writhe by: were flung otf and from the earth cried out to the With brutish unconcern he crunches me between his courier steel-clad jaws, rolls me beneath his iron tongue, "Who are you? Why do you take our loved ones sucks up my life—my Self! away ? ' And spews me forth at eve—a Thing—to gather as I
' ! ' ' I am patriotism and I follow the path of glory may fresh blood for morrow's feast. !
34 The Western Comrade The Glory That Was Rome By SYDNEY MILLIARD
O ONE can count the books that have A poet must indeed be a marvelous thing that is !)ocu written about Rome. Historians, the distilled essence, the ultimate filtration of the near-historians and professors of almost destruction of millions of the bodies and of the souls everything on earth and in the heavens of the best of humanity. A noble philosophy that the have hnd to jolly us along a little about degredation of a thousand girls can flower in a line of something to do Avith Rome. Genera- Roman verse
tions of schoolboys have been stall-fed Slavery ! No figures can encipher its extent in and force-fed on Rome until they knevr the days of the glory of Rome. Slavery in the United more about Rome than they do about home. States was a chautauqua picnic compared to it. South And all these near-historians and others have tor- Carolina was a Dorcas meeting alongside of a single tured the language to find eulogiums and encomiums day of the glory of Rome. On such a single day in a suitable to portray what they called the glory of Rome. single market as many as a hundred thousand slaves Most of the school and college histories are ablaze with were sold, and twenty thousand was no uncommon sale. it. Boys think that Rome was a fountain of splendor, The western and southern borders of the Mediterranean the headwaters of human achievement, the dayspring and far inland were depopulated, and have remained of the waters of life. so ever since. And so, from the point of view of the tribunes, After the free Italian husbandman had become ex- praetors, patricians and aristocracy in general, it may tinct, had gone to live in Rome on stolen wheat and have been. It is their view which has been handed glory, and sometimes on glory without wheat, his place down to us. The other classes were not in a position was taken by chained tribes working under the lash to hand down their views. They were not permitted who had been driven thither from peasant valleys to have any views. It is the view of the aristocratic where now the jackal began to roam, and has done class, or at all events of the dominant class, which ever since. The ruin of Italy followed by the ruin of
gets into book form. The other is extinguished. Syria seemed to be necessary to the glory of Rome. From the point of view of the international Roman The punishment of slave revolt was crucificion. proletariat and the Italian peasantry, Rome was a There were many slave revolts, notably in the Island hideously diseased octopus consisting of clutching of Sicily. More than one of these were for a time suc-
fingers eternally endeavoring to fill a bottomless belly. cessful. Eventually they were overthrown and the Nothing satisfied her but the fairest, the youngest, roads were lined with crosses on which hung tens of the strongest; nor was there ever such a thing as thousands of bodies of beings whose crime was similar satisfaction. Just as the tenderloins of New York to that of George Washington or Abraham Lincoln. and London will seize everything beautiful and reach The gladiators, who fought to satiate the appetite and reach for fresh beauty to devour, so was Rome. for blood of those who dared not fight, were largely She was an international brothel. The wide-eyed Vir- slaves. Once in a while they, too, would revolt and gin of the country village, the young mother with babe attempt an escape to their native forests. But gen- on her delicate breast, the strong-armed Syrian peas- erally they were recaptured and crucified to the glory ant, the dreamy Persian shepherd boy, the Gallic fisher of Rome. Actors were virtually slaves. They were lad—these were the prizes of Rome, and what became bound to a profession always loathesomely indecent of them? Ask of the winds that blow up from the and generally obscene, women and men alike being
lawland seas! born into it or sold into it, and, once there, being It is to be charged against them that the textbooks obliged to go through performances of abominable lust in the schools and universities tell none of these things. and degredation until death or total incapacity re- Their view is that of the Roman Senate, not of the hill- leased them. side goat-herder. Before the empire was established by Julius Caesar To the classicist, one Roman poet was worth the there Avere always factions in Rome, each one trying to sacrifice of a million virgins and a million peasant obtain the supreme power. But they were ruling, or boys, and of this was the glory that was Rome. aristocratic factions, and at no time had they any con- But to us, to the modern proletarian, the question ception of a free laboring class. It was always Twee- comes, how many poets were there among those two dledum versus Tweedledee. It was as though the million boys and girls sold into slavery? American Senate, Congress, President, Wall Street ! !
The Western Comrade 35 and the landed property owners were continually in Cinna and Octavius fell upon citizens who had collected arms, with the various governors of the states siding to vote, and heaped the streets with the bodies of the now with one, now with another. When the president slain. Sulla, armed with absolute authority, backed wins he massacres every stockbroker, when the real by overwhelming military strength, after his victories, estate men win they slaughter the president and thou- organized proscriptions which meant the death of all the families of all his enemies. sands of merchants. Governors are up and down, su- He murdered 40,000 people after the defeat of the Marians as though Mc- preme today, dead tomorrow, like Jack-in-the-Boxes. — Kinley and Hanna had murdered 40,000 Nebraskans The quarrels of stock brokers and politicians, how-
after the defeat of Bryan in '96 ! In the absence of ever, would not alone be of such deep significance, if Sulla, IMarius and Cinna grabbed Rome and Marius everyone else w^ere not dragged into their wars. Their gratified his thirst for revenge by a frightful slaugh- troubles would not matter so much to the American ter of his political opponents. It was as though the hired man in Western Iowa, or the lumber-jack in peerless one, now secretary of state, should cut the California. But in Rome the hired man or slave who throat of every gold democrat and gold republican happened to be on the wrong side had his throat cut, in New York and shovel their bodies into the Hudson too, and the properly executed victory meant the while he annexed their property and sold their children total extinction of the enemy and all his relatives, to the Chinese. friends, servants, peasants, freedmen and slaves. His Octavius, capturing bands of runaway slaves, cruci- country was repopulated with old soldiers and the fied 6000 of them and sent 30,000 back to their masters. favorites of the winner. Under the Second Triumvirate the horrors of the pro- Much has been made of the personal vices of such scriptions exceeded those of Marius and Sulla, and men as Tiberius and Nero, but the condition of the wliile the forum swam with blood, and the streets were empire was little if at all effected by them. It was encumbered with corpses, the dead Julius Caesar was the imperial vice of wholesale economic exploitation proclaimed a god ! It was as though President Wilson that ruined Rome. Individual vice, even the vice of should bayonet every high tariff man in New England having yourself worshiped as a god in imperial tem- and ordain the public worship of Grover Cleveland. ples and having a priesthood dedicated to one, as was Of such was the greatness and the glory of Rome the case even with Augustus, will not injure a peasant. Under whomsoever, it matters not—consul, emperor, The vice and glory of Rome was in making the peas- senate or band of soldiers—it seemed as though any- ant pay for it. one could govern Rome, and always for its "glory." Modern society escapes the onus of finding a true That common men should be encouraged to live lives explanation for the horrors with which the glory of of common decency, or even permitted to do so, was Rome was mixed by laying the blame upon the per- unthought of in a thousand years of Roman history. sonal vice of individuals. Today some of our New Among so many periods of glory there is none of York 400 have personal vices but those vices are not decency. the cause of the hundreds of thousands of the unem- Farming, long before the empire, became unprofit- ployed that parade our streets. It is an economic able, and its l.-iborious life Avith scanty or no returns mistake that brought the glory of Rome to dust. M'as contrasted with the stirring life of the camps, Even imperial flesh and blood came cheap Avhen with the booty or with the largesses and gay spectacles glory began to get a little dear. From 211 A. D. to 284 of the towns. A. D. twenty-three emperors sat in the seat of Au- Of the booty taken in war rightfully belonging to gustus, and of these all but three were murdered by the Roman people, by far the greater part was ap- their soldiery. Of the remaining—three, one fell in propriated by the successful general and his soldiers. battle—Deeius ; one died in prison ^Valerian, and one Thus the wealth drawn from the provinces by the Ro- died of pestilence—Claudius. Oh, noble line of kings man state was trifling compared with that which in- Glory must be a toothsome diet to command such dividual citizens acquired. The provinces offered an terms. unlimited field for money making ; the nobles or quaes- Not only emperors, but long before them, dictators tors, the publicans, the negotiatores, the slave dealers, had met the same fate. Flaccus, Sertorius, Cinna and penetrated every corner of the empire and beyond it scores of other leaders were murdered by their own and, protected by the legions, rivalled each other in officers. What would we say of the glory of America the exploitation of the provinces. While Rome ex- if Winfield Scott, Taylor, Grant, Farragut, Lee, Roose- tended her boundaries, and while her nobles and mer- velt, Fletcher and Funston and hundreds of other gen- chants amassed enormous fortunes abroad, the Italian erals had been murdered by the colonels, majors and farmer sank deeper into ruin. The burden of military privates they commanded? And yet what would you? service pressed on him, he had to compete with stolen .36 The Western Comrade
foreign corn and with foreign slave labor purchased of a single man, the Emperor or Dictator, and the glut- smiled. the or stolen by the rich. tonous degenerates upon whom he And glory of these ghouls was the glory of Rome. Nearly all the various colonization schemes were Outside the Roman pale were the Goths. Amid the entirely abortive. The promoters, whether Senate, forests of Germany were no slaves, no catacombs; Gracchi, Sulla or Emperor, always failed with charac- there were no prostitutes, no tax gatherers. On the teristic cowardice and stupidity to strike at the root Baltic, woman was free, the equal of her husband. On of the evil—exploitation. They had to keep the favor tlie Adriatic she was the universal courtesan, more than of the rich, and the rich insisted on exploiting. half the women had no husband, and they were prob-
Everj-^ era was an era of glory ; none of liberty. By ably better oft' than those who had. On the Baltic the time Augustus had the empire at peace, a hundred was barbarism and life ; on the Mediterranean was fifty years of extortion, extravagance and pecula- and civilization, glory and a corpse. tion, followed by twenty years of civil war, coupled Anyone who tried to emimerate the monstrosities with unbridled brigandage by land and piracy by of Rome, republic or empire, in an article short or water had produced complete financial exhaustion. long, would be a foolish scribe. Rome's crime against
Taxes fell on the poor : taxes and tribute on the poor the working class of all humanity can never be for- of the provinces. given her. Only the satellites of a somewhat similar Even in the time of Marcus Aurelius, whom our system can possibly be found to overlook it. To the lecturers so persistently eulogize, any Roman governor American laborer the glory of Rome must always be could make a fortune in a year. His fortune was spent a thing, not for monuments but tears. His class was ci-ucified, all but obliterated; obliterated in in banquets, fetes, races, wines and prodigious retinues many places, to feed a few Avho might have descended from of slaves. Dancers, cooks and prostitutes were the IVlars for all the sympathy they had for him. popular favorites, v/hile these scholars, poets and Was Rome worth while- Historians have spoken; philo.sophers, of whom we have since heard so much,
literatures have spoken ; professors and lecturers have pined, for the most part, in attics or kennels. IMore spoken; maybe tliey know; maybe they are prejudiced than half the population were slaves, over 60,000,000 and do not. However that may be, Rome was Rome, of them, but many of them were better off than millions irom the Tweed to the Tigris, from the Guadalquiver of so called freemen. The sick were left to perish; to the Caspian, wherever she touched it was the Roman public charity was unknown and unthought of; educa- touch and wlien the Roman Avas away from Rome he tion Avas derided; ;jnd nothing went but the glory of did as Rome did. liome. Two tliousjind people owned the whole civilized It was the same in Constantinople. Rival bands world, and tlieir incomputable fortunes were spent in of charioteers, blues and greens, were able to create
demoralizing it. Their palaces and clothes were mag- iiere. as in Rome, factions among the populace. Justin-
nificent : ih'^'w souls rotten to the core. ian and Theodora were at one time knee deep in such Our le;irned tulk highsoundedly of the glory of a furore. Finally a rebellion broke out there which Kome in jurisprudence. It was the lawgiving of Tweed was only put downt when the empress sent three thou- and Murphy. It was not only expensive to go to law, sand soldiers to the Hippodrome and massacred the it was ruinous. The Bench itself was owned by the mob. ownei's of eveiything else. Dungeons were for those It Avas as though the Nationals and Americans in
Avho couldn't keep out ; the gallows were for those who New York were at gun fighting. President Wilson, sid- disapproved. ing in Avith the Nationals, both baseball leagues rebel The glory of Iioman art was the inflaming of the against Congress. Federal troops from Washington passions. Costly, indecent pictures were hung in baths charge the polo grounds Avith bayonets and cover the and public places. Literature was flattery. There was bleachers Avith thousands of the slain. Surely even never any real manly protest from literary men against glory can come high! the vices of the social system—not even from those Glory! What must Britain, Parthia or Mesopo- philosophers of whom we hear so much. It was as tania have tlioiight of Rome? What Avould Mexico though all American literature was written for the adu- Ihink if the TTnited States of iVmerica Avere to conquer lation of the New York 400. As to the hideous cruel- her and sell Iut population under the hammer? What ties practised on slaves right next door to them, on value Avonld Canada set on glory if we conquered her slaves of their own fiesh and blood, no one of the Avrit- and drove the farmers of Ontario into the forests of ers, arti.sts, sculptors, poets, utters a word of protest. lingava and used their native fields as cattle ranges The whole civilized world was deeefved, fettered, then and grain farms tilled by slaves bought by New York mocked, all the wliile forced to contribute to the lusts millionaires in Mexico? That must have been the The Western Comrade 37
value placed by the peasant on the glory that was tolled in Rome in 476 clanged out again, and Constan- Rome. tine 's speech was the funeral oration of the Roman Empire. For the last offered Was Rome worth while? Was, or is, any empire time the sacrament was based on slavery, force and exploitation worth while? in St. Sofia, the night was spent in prayer and prepa- ration, and the following day saw the end of Rome. Is the leisure to indulge in every ghoulish debauchery AVhat was Rome ? It was never an achievement, it to be preferred to the simple virtues of barbarism? was an opportunity. Rome was a lost opportunity, If there be but the choice between the crude, hardy and opportunity lost in the glory what was Rome. life of forest, swamp and mountain, and that of Rome, The Roman proletariat saw no way out of these which shall we have? But let us hope that there is things, therefore it could never alter them. Unless a third alternative which will some day break in the American proletariat clearly SEES a way out of upon us. its own degredation, poverty and exploitation, it too In the night of May 28, 453, Constantine Palaeo- will never alter its mode of life. Until the working logus addressed the Roman and Greek nobles on the class actually sees the Promised Land it will never affairs of the morrow's battle. The death bell that enter it. THROW OFF YOUR DUNCE CAP By JOHN M. WORK
MAXIM is frequently a lie. We have had Homestead, and Pullman, and Ward- A Now and then, however, we find one that is strict- ner, and Hazleton, and Croton Dam, and Cripple Creek, ly true. the great steel strike, the great coal strike, the great The maxim that experience is a dear teacher is one copper strike, and tens of thousands of minor strug- of the true ones. gles. What then, if we do not learn by one experience, Every one of these thousands of strikes has drawn but must have our lesson all over again ? the class line taut. The experience of the working class, which ought Every one of them has repeated the lesson that the to have awakened it to the situation, have been repeat- working class must wrest the political power from the ed again, and again, and yet again. hands of the capitalist class before it can hope to eman- The great railroad strike of 1877 alone, the first cipate itself. great battle in the class war in America, in which the And yet, throughout the entire period covered by power of government was arrayed against the working these class skirmishes, the votes of the workingmen of class, ought to have been sufficient to demonstrate to America have kept their enemies, the capitalists, in the workers that they must cut loose from their ex- power to rule over them. ploiters and fight shoulder to shoulder for their own Workingmen of America, it is high time for you to emancipation. It ought to have been sufficient to dem- throw off your dunce caps and act like men instead of onstrate to the workers that so long as the exploiters kids. control the political power the exploitation will con- Quit voting the Republican, Democratic and Pro- tinue, and that, in order to emancipate themselves, the gressive tickets, and thus keeping your enemies in workers must conquer the political power, take the power to rule over you. reins of government into their hands, and strike off Vote the Socialist ticket and put yourselves in their own fetters. power. With this lesson in mind, what have the workingmen of America been doing to profit by it during all these Political campaigns are both bad and good for years ? Socialism—they are bad when they transform good, Why, incredible as it may seem, throughout the efficient comrades into opportunists, traders and entire time, they have by their votes kept their enemies trimmers. in power to rule over them. Campaigns are good when Socialists make the most If they had gone to the public school and learned jf their opportunity to spread propaganda and in- their lesson so poorly, the teacher would have made crease the understanding of the working class. them stand in the corner with their dunce caps on. And, what is worse, the strike of '77 is but one of a ReneAv your subscription to the Western Comrade myriad of experiences teaching the same lesson. todav. You can't afford to miss it. :
38 The Western Comrade
Interference With God The Purpose of Socialism FROM the days of the wapentakes to the modern fly- SOCIALISM stands for a new civilization. It is a copper, policemen have added to the gaiety of world-wide movement of the working class and its the people of the world by efforts at censorship. sympathizers for better food, better clothing, better The latest is a censorship on prayer, homes, more education and culture—in short, a more Jerry O'Connor of the Chicago force censored abundant life. "September Morn" from the store windows of that Socialism starts out with two terrific propositions, virtuous city and made the shivering but pulchritu- to wit: dinous wretch loved and famous. Since that hour (1). All men are brothers, not merely brothers in nothing so funny occurred until the police of Dres- name, but brothers in fact, with a common blood, com- den started their censorship over the prayers sent up- mon interests, common cause. The welfare of one of ward at the English Church in that city. us is the brotherly concern of all of us, and being Picture two husky harness bulls standing beside the brethren, all war and strife and hatred should cease, dominie during services to prevent a prayer to God to (2). The things that men need in common should help the British workingmen in their most laudable be owned in common and supplied for the common good efforts of disemboweling and dismembering German and not for private profit. workingmen on the blood-soaked fields if France. In wireless telegraphy they have a system of "in- With these ideas,in mind the Socialists make some terference" by which a powerful station can so dis- very constructive proposals turb the static waves in their course that less potent In the political field we demand the rule of the peo-
plants are unable to transmit messages. ple, i. e., democracy. In the economic field we demand May not this be a suggestion? the public ownership and operation of public utilities. Can't the warring powers rig an aerial of inter- Broadly speaking, it means: ence that will prevent all prayers reaching the throne (1), That the means of production and distribution of grace, thus permitting the best equipped murderers of wealth, which are social and public in nature, should to do their work undisturbed? be publicly owned. This would include all the coal, This would seem all the more necessary now, that oil and iron lands, the rivers, forests and other natural the Turks are praying—to an unchristian god—for resources. It would also include all the great public the success of one of the Christian armies. utilities, such as railroads, telegraphs, express com- Why not cut all the wires and give God a rest — panies, and in short, all the great trusts and monop- G. E. B. olies.
(2). That all social utilities, being collectively Every Socialist should work unceasingly for the owned, shall be under democratic control for the benefit proposed war referendum. of all who work, in order that profit-making, whereby one person exploits another, shall be abolished. EVERY student of modern economics knows of (3). That all who are able shall be given opportun- the universal insolvency of the banks but not ity to labor in the collectively ovnied industries and everyone knows that the insurance companies each shall receive the full profit of his toil. are in such a precarious condition that they could (4). That each shall have for his own private prop- not survive a large conflagration in any American erty all that his labor earns of food and clothing, shel- city. ter, house and home—books, music, education, recrea- tion culture. The European war has paralyzed stock trading. and That the government, municipal, state Stock exchanges everywhere are closed. Securities (5). and cannot be liquidated and insurance would not be national, shall be made truly democratic, so that the will and wish of the people the paid if demands were made on the companies. may be law of the land. This will be accomplished by means of the initiative, The companies admit that a vast amount of their referendum, recall, proportional representation and security holdings is not at this moment worth much other measures making for popular government. more than the paper on which they are engraved. When you see the warnings issued to policy holders to use ertra caution in guarding against fires you War is the statesman's game, the priest's de- will know the reason. light, the lawyer's jest, the hired assassin's trade. —Shelley.
I ! ! ! ! ! ! — ! —
The Western Comrade 39 The Field of Glory. U U U By Harry Payne Burton A GAUCHE! La gauche!" called the old after ring of the battlefield, on toward its very heart. I French woman to me from the upstairs win- There were more bodies now, and the cabbages had * ^ villa been pulverized by tramping feet and blown apart by ty dow of her little pink brick that stood in its prim little garden on the white ribbon road to falling shells, and the leaves, clutched in dead men's Trilport, France, and her long, bony finger betokened hands, were brown with dried blood. a passage over miles and miles of cabbage fields that ******** lay flat as a griddle, hissing in the overpowering sun. But now it was not just dead soldiers that pro- "La gauche?" (to the left?) I questioned again, for claimed the wake of battle. About me everywhere were at the far end of these hot, sticky cabbage fields I saw broken bottles—wine bottles and whisky flasks and only a heavy forest swimming in the heat. canteens bent beneath artillery wheels. And here and "Oui! Oui!" she cried, resorting to my monosyllable there, proud helmets—of Uhlan aqd dragoon alike French as if to make me comprehend. covered with dust, were beaten into just tin. And so I started "to the left—through the Woods Muskets, too, cluttered the land, and great guns, of Meaux—to Trilport—and then to Paris!" shot from their carriages, blazed in the sunshine among the dead. One of them had fallen full across two Ger- Cabbages ! Cabbages ! Nothing but cabbages For half an hour I dragged my way through that man soldiers, crushing their heads into the ground. palpitating, sticky, saffron-grounded field until these Nor had the cavalrymen's horses escaped. Beauti- countless, blue-green heads swam dizzily before my ful, sleek colts were dead there by hundreds, and many eyes. of them had, in their death agonies, crushed their rid-
And then, suddenly, I saw that the dead were all ers to death also. around me Pieces of shells, jagged and merciless, were strewn I was face to face with the most terrible sight in about thickly, and, as 1 approached the woods, grew in all the world—a battlefield of yesterday number. It was evident that the shell fire had been di- ******** rected against the forest. I kicked my way through I could not count them. the debris and pierced the cool, green aisles of trees, I could not, with the first shock, even differentiate and the birds were singing. them—French or English or German. But below For they were just people to me. Clean, beautiful There, in the very trenches from which they had fired, the German troops they who had been just human beings—men and boys—young as I or younger were — —with most of life still to unfold before them and now cheerful, happy boys of the Valley of the Rhine, it was marred and battered and bruised and cut into one easy to see—mowed down by sheets of raining lead. So reeking mass of carrion thickly were they packed in, in some places, that they ** * * « * « • stood in death, for they could not fall And this was only the very fringe of horror—this Trees were shattered on every side—just as the cabbage field! men were shattered on every side by the diabolical in- I knew that, for, farther on, I could now see that struments men have made. Flowers and ferns were the dead were lying—not singly among the turquoise torn up by hundreds ; bushes and saplings had been of their soil, cabbage heads, but in ghastly little heaps where they blown out and the nests of the birds, and the birds themselves, were scattered all about the had fallen in groups of two and three and four—fallen, ground. perhaps, without time even to say "good-bye" into **•*•••• each others' ears. And in the woods beyond there I But, after all, it came to me, as I turned to flee knew I should see the full price of war ******** from the sight and horror of more, nature has tri- umphed over the military spirit a few overlords foster I had a little bottle of camphor in my pocket. Liv- among the peoples of the earth. For at my very feet ing on "grospain" and raw onions produces indiges- lay a Frenchman and a German, the arm of one about tion that only camphor can alleviate, and I poured the other and an empty canteen between them. And I some of the balmy fluid on my handkerchief. With the like to think that, as they died they divided their wa- cool, pungent cloth pressed tight against my nostrils, ter and their rations and knew that, after all, the peo- I stumbled on through this path of victory ple of the Rhine are brothers to the people of the Seine, The horror grew. and that they themselves had no quarrel with each It became more involved as I, plunging through ring other. : :
40 The Western Comrade United States of Europe By BASIL HOWARD
HAT became of Prinzip (I believe that prepared to sacrifice their own lives, and this young was his name), the young assassin whose madman, like others, was prepared to die. And you " accurate and deadly aim in killing Fran- think he foresaw cis Ferdinand and his consort, doubtless "However tremendous the events that have fol- to his utter amazement, has plunged the lowed, it is not impossible he foresaw it all—and what world into war?" said Wurtzel care- is yet to come." lessly, as he began to arrange the pieces "Do you really mean to say that " Wurtzel on the chessboard for a game with his started off, but Ballard broke in friend, a fellow newspaper man. fThey had seated "From the instant the fatal shot was fired every- themselves at a table in a secluded corner of an East thing that has followed was not only logical, but Side cafe, behind the vine-covered trellis work on the reasoning from cause to effect, I might say inevitable; sidewalk. "In the tremendous import of the events and, having followed the game so far, I can myself that have followed I have not seen him mentioned." foresee the end—universal disarmament and the estab- " Ballard, his companion, did not answer—indeed lishment of the United States of I seemed so plunged in profound study he forgot to place "If the Allies win ?" broke in Wurtzel. his men (the blacks) upon the board, and Wurtzel, "The United States of Europe," continued Ballard, having arranged the whites, also, again spoke confidently.
"Why so abstracted? We sat down to play a "jind if, by any possibility, Germany should win?" chess game, but from the expression of your face one "The United States of Europe—there can be but would think the fate of the world depended upon your one result." solution of a problem." "If the war should last six months, a year, two "Assassin! Yes, so they call him—a madman, too years?" —and I do not know what has become of him. But "The higher is piled the war debt—surely not less " what if than twenty billions—the more certain the people are " "Well, go on. But what if to refuse to again arm and later on fight the war over. Ballard remained silent some time, and Wurtzel had They will look for a solution, and there is but one pos- begun the game with the Ruy Lopez opening, absently, sible solution, the United States of Europe—the boun- but seemed waiting for his friend to speak more than daries of the different States of Europe being on nat- for a counter play. ural geographical and racial lines."
' "But what if—one hesitates to conjecture, or at ' But each nation in Europe will resist to the utter- " least to express such a conjecture—but what if most any attempt to change its present boundaries," He paused again. Then, gathering courage, he went objected Wurtzel, "except the change increase its own on: "But what if this so-called assassin foresaw all territory in which to hold a monopoly of trade, and the events that were to follow the death of Francis they will require armies to defend this area—everlast- Ferdinand, and made up his mind to kill him and pay ingly adding jealousies and friction." the price—with his life?" "In other words every nation in Europe demands "You stagger me with such a suggestion, that this an increase in the area in which they may exercise free man was not an assassin, but a—well, what would you trade—to the exclusion of others—and having built call the fiend from hell that would set millions of men these tariff walls they require armies to defend them?" to cutting one another's throats?" asked Ballard, seeing Wurtzel was opening a way to "But what if he foresaw that to this war there be surrounded. | could be but one end—the end of all war, universal "Exactly," said Wurtzel, confidently, feeling that disarmament, and the establishment of the United he had won the argument however Avillingly he would States of Europe?—and finally, perhaps, the Federa- have lost it. tion of the World?" "Then every nation in Europe is fighting for free "Then this assassin would be like the Son of !" trade?" asked Ballard. He stopped short, with opening eyes. "Your imagina- "No; for the extension of its protective tariff tion is truly extravagant!" After a moment Wurtzel walls " Wurtzel was hesitating, not certain of his continued: "But half or all of these assassins are own position. ' — ! ' ! ' —
The Western Comrade 41
"Go on,'' said Ballard; "go on—to increase the Hague abolish tlie Tariff' tomorrow, would not the war area in which to " he paused. he fought to its bitter end?" "Trade freely!" Wurtzel fell in, wonderingly, as "The war would cease immediately. It would be he began faintly to realize his own argument had been absolutely impossible to continue it. T defy you to shaken. suggest the faintest purpose any nation would have to Ballard remained silent a moment that the point of continue the war after the Tariff Walls had been de- AVurtzel's forced admission might sink in. stroyed. The soldiers of all countries would shoulder "And if there were no tariff walls between the vari- their guns—or throw them away—and start home. ous States of Europe," said Ballard, "each would have Seventeen million men would start for their respective all they are now unconsciously fighting for—the con- countries over flower-strewn roads lined with happy, tinent of Europe as a market! Each would govern it- deliriously happy women and children in what had self as it does now, and the continent of Europe would been the enemy's country, and war would be no more " be like —destruction, desolation and death to be succeeded by
' "The United States of America—oh, the United a world of work and wealth !
States of Europe! I see it, I see it!" Wurtzel ex- "It is not possible that I could continue this game," claimed in joyous surprise, rising from the table, ut- said AVurtzel, as he gathered up the chess from the terly beside himself. "Something I have dreamed of board, "even had you made a play and were willing all my life!" to continue. I find myself engaged in such amazing- He did not speak for some time as the great truth speculation—I seem to have discovered a new world that had dawned upon him was being more firmly a game of chess would be puerile——" grasped in his reason. Regaining somewhat his com- But Ballard, interrupting him as they rose from the posure he resumed his seat at the table. table, said: "What a simple solution of a world problem!" he "I suppose you doubt the possibility that Prinzip .said at last. "The rulers and statesmen of Europe might have foreseen " Ballard hesitated. "You have been as blind as I! AVhat a seeming paradox! know there is only one possible end to the war, no mat- " That every nation in Europe is unconsciously fighting ter who wins, and Prinzip " for freer trade—seventeen million men cutting each "Here, come dine with me at 'The Boulevard,' other's throats to break down trade walls—for some- said Wurtzel, "and I'll listen tp your theory of Prin- thing they could have for nothing!" zip, while you in turn shall know of the great military "Yes," said Ballard, and not one of them would mistake of the Kaiser and his advisers." have what they think they are fighting for if you'd Ballard seemed stunned. "I wonder if you, too, give it to them for nothing—for restricted trade that have discovered the tremendous blunder of the Kaiser would isolate them all, carried to its logical conclu- —for he could have had all the world with him in-
' sion, would destroy all commerce ! stead of against him!" [The Public]. "Seventeen million men," repeated Wurtzel, "fight- ing for something they could have for nothing, and A JOB FOR DEATH not one of them would have what they think they are 64TT TANT a life job with a humane employer where fighting for if you'd give it to them!" V V there are no strikes or lay-offs, with a con- But Ballard remained silent, and Wurtzel con- stant change of scene, plenty of .amusement and healthy
? ' tinued : work
"But insane national and racial jealousies as to That is the wording of the advertising put out to lure loss of nationality and the location of the capital young men into the naval service. Paris, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Vienna or Rome—would There is an error in the wording: Is it a life job? prevent a union such as ours, Florida exchanging what Is it?
she produces cheapest for what New York produces Go ask of the bleaching bones in the Baltic ! Ask
cheapest; as Italy should with Germany, France with of the over gorged sharks of the Adriatic !
Russia. But they would all fear loss of nationality." Life ? Ask the German crew of the U 9 who wept "There would be no loss of nationality, and there as they sank three British cruisers withoiit a chance to need be no capital at all! Just meet at The Hague, live
abolish the Tariff Walls and go home ! The war Would •Job for Life be over." Let's tell the truth: "Wurtzel seemed doubting. "But with a world Young man, if you want a job that is a living death
gone mad with war, who would stop to think? Did ill times of peace, and murder and hell in times of war
every nation in Europe in congress assembled at The —join the navy of any country at any time ! —G. E. B. 42 The Western Comrade THE WESTERN COMRADE SONGS OF REVOLT THE MACHINE GUN 11^^^^ 43 J. A. Williams has compiled an I speak with the voice of men and Entered as second-class matter at the post office at Los Angeles, Cal. anthology of revolutionary poems, devils. My messengers speed their among them a number of liis own unerring flight to countless hearts. 924 Higgins Building, Los Angeles, Cal. and a few selections of prose com- I work between two voids—back of Subscription Price One Dollar a Year position dealing with the class strug- tne a pile of empty shells, in front In Clubs of Four Fifty Cents of me a widening circle of gle. This pamphlet is entitled: "The empty Job Harriman, Managing Editor hearths. I am no respecter of per- Revolution in Song and Story." It sons. Frank E. Wolfe, Editor is 48 pages of the choicest selections My victories lie in a horizon of No. of the rebels of modern times. The Vol. 2 Oct.-Nov., 1914 6 & 7 homes. Hell inspired me, man cre- poems run the gamut of human emo- ated me, women and children pay for tions from the humorous lines by the EXPLANATION me. Each day of battle I prepare a author entitled "When Socialism feast /^WING to my prolonged and un- of bodies, with Death as the Will Die," to the heroic verses by ^'^ avoidable absence in the East host. James G. Clark: "Justice to Lil)- the October number of the WEST- With my blackened wand I touch Enlightening the AVorld." ERN COMRADE was delayea so erty the breast of man, and forthwith dedicated there springs the incarnadine long that it has been deemed ex- Comrade AVilliams has river of pedient to combine the October and his booklet in a touching manner to death. the November issues of the magazine. his comrades who have stood with I turn but an inch, and the lives of An effort has been made to make him in the ranks and fought in the maidens are blasted, mothers and sis- this number larger and better than work. Fifteen volumes the size ters mourn, and a hundred babes are ever before. All subscriptions will An introduction by Frank E. fatherless. be set backward one month on the Wolfe tells the story of Comrade Science, Christianity and Civiliza- tion list so that every subscriber will re- AVilliam*' devotion to the cause of stand sponsors for me.—Life. ceive the full twelve numbers for Socialism. The pamphlet sells for the year or six months for the half ten cents a copy. A copy will be AND DESERVES MORE year. sent free to all new yearly subscrib- Friend—Do you get more for a The management wishes to take ers to The Western Comrade who re- poem now than you did twenty years this occasion to thank scores of com- quest it. ago? rades who have sent in new subscrip- Poet (sadly) —Yes. As I get older tions and clubs during the month RED WEEK I can't defend myself so well.—Chi- and who have said so many encour- cago News. a word about Red Week and jicring things about the magazine. JUST the Western Comrade. AVe re- PRANK E. WOLFE, ceived more subscriptions during NOT A FIRELESS COOKER Editor. September by a vast number than Brawn—See that man. He's so ill tempered his wife STRINGING JOHNNY ever before. One comrade alone sent can't keep any in forty-two. Others from four to servants. He's fired six cooks in Boy's Mother (poking her head out twelve. This without the usual the past six months and now his of window) —Say, you kids stop pick- deathbed appeal or gurgling gasp wife has to do the work. ing on my Johnny. He ain't no for help. Strawn—Oh, I see, he's a sort of dolin. It was just the voluntary hustling cookless firer. of comrades who know that every Tlic joys of swimming who'll com- ' time they take a subscription for the ' I understand the bride and gi'oom pute Western Comrade they are giving are back from their honeymoon To youthful lives and nimble 100 cents worth and that they are trip." But 't don forget your bathing suit. doing excellent propaganda work "Yes." (It's in your grandma's thimble.) for Socialism. "Are they all settled?" To these devoted friends and yoke- "Yes." DRESSER PHOTO CO. fellows we extend our sincerest "And happy?" Lantern Slides thanks and good wishes. It's all "Very. She can hardly wait for Copying Made and Exhibited Enlarging Kodak Finishing— Free Developing teamwork for the good eavise.—The his first pay day to come."—Detroit Mail Orders editors. Free Press. 2.301/2 SOUTH SPRING ST. Phone A-2298 Los Angeles. Cal. The British Columbia Federationist No skinning. One price to all. C. A. WILSON R. Parm Pettipiece, Managing Editor The Watchmaker and Jeweler Room 217 at the A labor paper unparalleled by any labor paper of Canada. Union Labor Temple, 532 Maple Avenue, Labor Temple Endorsed by the Victoria Trades and Labor Council and Los Angeles is a union watchmaker. Vancouver, B. C. New Westminster Trades and Labor Council. Oflficial ALL PRICES RIGHT orprari of the Vancouver Trades and Labor Council and $1.25 Per Year British Columbia Federation of Labor. The paper for U. S. W. V. Roosevelt Camp No. 9, Industrial Unity, Political Unity, Strength and Victory I 1. O. O. F. No. 150 Louisiana, K. of P. Issued Weekly If you do not take this paper you should subscribe today! No. 186 Louisiana. ' I
The Western Comrade 43 THE SCOURGE OF GOD? AXT'IIPjN the Kaiser sent his troops ^^ forward on the Pekin expedi- tion, this was his message: THESOGIALIST CAMPAIGN BOOK F0R1914 "When you meet the foe, you will defeat him (Chinese, mostly unarmed or carrying mediaeval weapons). NO Will give you up-to-date Information about QUARTER WILL BE GIVEN, no prisoners taken. Let all who fall Trie Socialist Movement Tbe fligli Cost of Living into your hands be at your mercy. Gain a reputation like the Huns Tne Labor Movement Wbite Slavery under Attila." Co-operation Crime At Louvain the German comman- der blundered and fired on his own Exploitation TKe Old Parties advance guard. This awful error Wages and Hours 1 ne Progressives was covered by the sacking and burning of the city with the conse- Unemploymenl Syndicalism quent loss of life and priceless art Cnila Labor Concentration or \Vealtn treasures. Is the Kaiser still posing as the Woman ana Labor Tbe Trusts Scourge of God?—E d'O. Inaustrial A.cciclents Profits COULDN'T BEAT HER Poverty Socialists in Office Ellanora had been the negro maid at Mrs. Hopson's for several years and many otner things of interest to Socialists and left to get married. She moved and students—too many to mention. to another city, and nothing had been seen of her for a couple of It has been compiled by the INFORMATION years, when one day she called on DEPARTMENT OF THE SOCIALIST PARTY her former mistress. and is the most complete reference book of that so you have a little son, El- "And character that has ever been published. lanora?" said Mrs. Hopson. "Yas'um," smiled the woman—"a Sound m ilexible clotli, 350 pages. nice litte boy." "And what did you name him?" 50 CENTS A COPY. queried Mrs. Hopson. "Well, we calls him Eggnog," re- plied the colored woman. THE WESTERN COMRADE $1 PER YEAR "Eggnog!" said the other. ' ' ' That 's a funny name for a boy. SPECIAL COMBINATION "Well, you' see, missus," ex- We will send you THE WESTERN COMRADE for one year and THE plained Ellanora, "det cullud woman CAMPAIGN BOOK for $1. Address Circulation Department, 924 what lives nex' doah to me named Higgins Building, Los Angeles, Cal. her twins Tom and Jerry, an' I didn't want to be outdone by her."—De- lineator.
THE MOUNTED BULL GREAT POPULATOR VICTORY FOR WORKERS "My papa is a mounted police- A Louisville man tells of an inci- Carl Persons, the fighting editor man," said small Eric to a visitor. dent at a Sunday school convention. who killed a notorious gunman, has "Is that better than being a walk- In answer to the roll-call of the been acquitted of a charge of mur- ing policeman " asked the visitor. states reports were verbally given by der by an Illinois jury. The work- "Course it is," replied Eric. "If the various state chairmen. When ers rallied nobly to the defense of there is trouble he can get away Texas was called a big man stepped their yoke-fellow. This should be quicker." into the aisle and in stentorian tones encouraging to those who have exclaimed: "We represent the im- charge of the defense of Rangel, MAKING HIMSELF SOLID perial state of Texas. The first white Cline and their comrades in a Texas Examining Admiral (to naval woman born in Texas is still living prison. Funds are needed for the candidate"! —Now mention three —she has now a population of over defense of these men. great admirals. three million." Whereupon a voice All contributions should be sent to Candidate—Drake, Nelson and— from the gallery cried out in clarion Rangel-Cline Defense Committee, beg your pardon, sir, I didn't quite tones: "Send that woman to Idaho Victor Cravello secretary, Labor catch your name.—London Punch. —^we need her." Temple, Los Angeles, California. — —
u The Western Comrade FAKES OF JOURNALISM TV/TAX SHEROVER of Buffalo has written a pamphlet entitled "Fakes in American Journalism." He has devoted only 66 pages to the Pictures for great battle for human freedom. Propaganda of the American Encyclopedia would be required to cover even a portion of the fakes in American journalism during the past five years. Shoot Capitalism The pamphlet will do good ex- actly in the ratio it is given circula- tion. Many of the instances of With a cheating are tagged with the names of the newspapers and the dates. Stereopticon Others are not given these marks of authenticity, but one is inclined to believe them as all are in the bounds Anyone can lecture with the aid of pictures; they tell the of modesty compared with the au- story, you point out the moral. Pictures draw a crowd where thentic eases of fraud set forth in other means fail. They make your work doubly effective. the booklet. tell you how to get the greatest results at the least This pamphlet is well worth read- We ing. The price is ten cents and it is expense. published by the Buffalo Publishing Send stamp for complete information. Company. W. SCOTT LEWIS
The Los Angeles Citizen 3493 Eagle Street. Los Angeles, California A Labor paper that never backs down, a Labor paper that always goes ahead ON THE STRAIGHT ROAD! LOVE 'S PATRIOT The Citizen is known from Coast SOCIALISTS 1 saw a lad—a beautiful lad to Coast as the best trade union pa- AVith a far-off look in his eye. per the nation has. The Citizen Who smiled not on the battle flag ATTENTION brings to you each week an average AVhen the cavalry troop marched of more than 12 pages of news and by.. In order to olace a copy of our catalogue inspiration and education concern- And, sorely vexed, I asked the lad of union-made goods in the hands of ing organized labor. Where might his country be, every reader of The Western Comrade, we will send postage prepaid, on receipt Edited by STANLEY B. WILSON Who eared not for his country's flag. And the brave from oversea. of FIFTY CENTS, one of our genuine The Citizen is edited by Stanley B. sheepskin-leather card cases BEARING "0, my country is the land of Love," Wilson, one of the nation's THE UNION LABEL. Big Men Thus did the lad reply This card case contains four pockets, of Labor! His editorials are as "My country is the land of Love, one large for bills and papers, one for widely copied all over the country as And a patriot there I." your dues-stamp book, and two with are the am editorials of any other Labor transparent for union "And who is your king, my patriot windows member- fighter today. That is the sure test ship cards. This is the ONLY boy, CARD of quality. Others know that what CASE on the market made by Organized AVhom loyally you obey?" Labor and bearing the union label. It is Wilson writes is THE REAL "0, my king is Freedom," quoth the no longer necessary for a class-conscious THING ! There's an inspiration and lad, Socialist to be inconsistent. a breadth of view in the writings of Send fifty cents in stamps or money this man "And he never says me nay." seldom found in the work order. of editorial writers. "Then you do as you like in your In no other pa- MUTUAL UNION TRADING COMPANY per can you get the WILSON EDL land of Love, (The only exclusive union label TORIALS Where every man is free " ! Subscribe to The Citizen merchandiser.?) today! "Nay, we do as we love," replied the (Owned and managed by members of the lad, working class) The Citizen will come to you for a whole year—52 big issues—for one And his smile fell full on me. 9 Board of Trade Court, CHICAGO, ILLS. dollar. Wrap a bill in a sheet of Ernest Crosby. paper and mail it. Get a money or- THE JONES BOOK der if STORE you prefer, or send a check. It "Wil-yum, what can you tell us all goes. BUT DO IT NOW! The about Columbus?" 226 West First St., Los Angeles, Cal. Citizen, P. 0. Box 135, Los Angeles, "It's next to last in the American Headquarters for the best Socialist Cal. Association."—Buffalo Express. books and literature. ;
The Western Comrade 45
AEMAMENT IS DESTRUCTION
Congress has just appropriated $30,000,000 for two battleships, the Here*s One Magazine upkeep of which will be tremendous for about six years, when they will be antiquated and thrown on the scrapheap. You Want The annual expenditures on ex- tension of the naval department of
the United States will be about $150,- Pearson's Magazine is the 000,000. only magazine of its kind. Hearst is advocating a navy that Its form enables it to depend would cost $300,000,000 a year. on its readers alone — on All of this inevitably leads to one advertisers not at all. It end. Europe is at that end. Arma- can and does, therefore, ment can result in a cataclysm. Only print facts which no maga- a few Hearsts are left and they, hap- zine that depends upon pily, are dwindling away. advertising for a living can "afford" to print. It does print such facts every ELOPING UP-TO-DATE month. Every issue con- tains the truth about some coatless careless The man puts a arm condition which affects 'Round the waist of the hatless girl your daily welfare, which While over the dustless, mudless you want to know and which road you can find nowhere else. In a horseless wagon they whirl. Besides, it prints as much Like a leadless bullet from hammer- fiction and other entertain- less gun, Charles Edward Russell ment as any general maga- By smokeless powder driven, zine. If you want one " advise all persons They fly to taste the speechless joys The reason why I radical magazine to live and a press to support By endless union given. that believe in free grow, subscribe to Pearson's. Pearson's Magazine is because Pear- son's is the only great magazine that Pearson's is the only big The only luncheon his coinless purse is free." magazine in America in Affords to them the means which the Socialists get an Is a tasteless meal of boneless cod, equal opportunity with others to present their case, not occasionally Wtih a dish of stringless beans. but in every issue. He smokes his old tobaceoless pipe. for Socialism is presented by the leading Socialist writers And laughs a mirthless laugh The case of America, including Allan L. Benson and Chas. Edward Russell. When papa tries to coax her back One copy will convince you that you want Pearson's. On the news- By wireless telegraph. stands, 15c per copy. By the year, $1.50.
The papa pulls his hairless locks And weeps with tearless wails. His shrieks ring through the frost- Here^s Another Magazine You Want less rocks In shrill chromatic scales And with a wingless aeroplane Scoots through a cloud-wracked The Western Comrade sky The only illustrated Socialist magazine west of Chicago. It is And looks aloft at the beamless moon excelled by none in America. Hundreds of subscriptions are And sniffles a sobless sigh. .'coming in from Socialists who are anxious to keep in touch t with news of the development of the Llano del Rio Colony. Skimming above in his noiseless Our aim is to make the magazine better and brighter with each steed, issue. Subscription by the year $1. Her parent spies them afar, And drops a wad of dynamite COMBINATION In the path of the valveless car. By special arrangement with Pearson's we will send you Hoisted aloft in hasteless speed, THE COMRADE and PEARSON'S Toward the gibbous, honeyless WESTERN MAGAZINE moon, ONE YEAR FOR $1.25 They join in the neb of the nebulous Address Circulation Dept., 924 Higgins Bldg., Los Angeles, Cal. tail Of a comet athwart the gloom. — '
46 The Western Comrade
THIS WILL HAPPEN TONIGHT Main 1407 F-5849 The American Socialist I was sent by the "Outlook" to Xnis Stands for Russia at the time of the war with the Best in Con- Official Organ of the Japan. fections, Creams One night with a Russian friend, Socialist Party ot America. and Ices -:- -:- on a train whose fifth class ears 427 SOUTH BROADWAY The American Socialist speaks cattle cars and nothing more—were with authority. It is a powerful packed with wounded men from the ARGU^IENTS FOR PEACE news and propaganda weekly Front—out of one of those murky "In Vienna there are 20,000 ' and is the only paper in the traveling hells we pulled a peasant wounded. thousand wounded passed United States which gives an boy half drunk, and by the display "Five through Orleans daily for five days." account of the official business of a bottle of vodka we got him to "I counted 30 trains choked vdth of the Socialist Party. come with us to our second-class wounded."
Every Socialist. Every Student of Socia- compartment ahead. So rxin just a few of the returns pulled off his coat and showed from behind the firing lines. lism should be a subscriber. He his right arm. From the shoulder to There's not a city or village, Subscription Price the elbow ran a grim festering swol- there's scarcely a farm house left 50 cents a year. len sore. Amputation was plainly a standing in the embattled countries matter of days. But it was not to on which war has not already laid its bloody finger prints and the re- The American Socialist and The forget that event that this peasant — turns are just beginning to come in. Western Comrade can be had in kid had jumped off at each station It is easy for the czar to say that combination for one year by send- to spend his last kopecks on vodl^a. he Avill take Berlin if it costs him his ing $1.15 to No, he was stolidly getting drunk because, as he confided to us, at dawn last peasant ; for the kaiser to tell his THE WESTERN COMRADE he would come to his home town and people that they must "fight so long there he knew he was going to tell as a man remains alive." 924 Higgins Building twenty-six wives that their men had But what of those who have to Los Angeles, Cal. been killed. He laboriously counted bleed and suffer ; who have to die ? them off on his fingers, each wife and The rulers say they aren't ready
each husband by their strange long for peace ; that the war must go on Telephone Home A-4533 Russian names. Then he burst into till the enemy is beaten to his knees. HARRIMAN & RYCKMAN half-drunken sobs and pounded the But, after all, it is the people who his fist. have the last say. Attorneys at Law window ledge with It was the fist of his right arm, and When they get their fill of misery 921 Higgins Building the kid gave a queer sharp scream of and sacrifice, it will not be so hard to Los Angeles, Cal. pain. He looked to be about six- make a peace. teen. Young Hopeful Mummy, have Broadway 1592 F-1592 This is happening in Europe to- — night. ERNEST POOLE. gooseberries got legs? A. R. HOLSTON . —The Masses. Mother—No, dear. Attorney at Law Young Hopeful—Then I've swal- 331-2 Douglas Building William Francis Seeman, registered loAved a caterpillar. Los Angeles, Cal. patent attorney and mechanical engi- neer, successor to Arden & Seemann, 416-17-18 Citizens' Bank Building; pat- JAMES R. TOWNSEND ents all countries; specializing intricate (Attorney) CHARLES O. MORGAN and difficult mechanical, chemical, elec- Attorney and Counselor Suite 712, San Fernando Building at Law and trochemical and metallurgical cases. Fourth and Main Streets Notary Public F-5743, Main 9474. 1010 California Building, Corner Second Los Angeles, Cal. and Broadway 100 Per Cent Settlement Home Phone A-3913. Los Angeles, Cal. Home A-2003 Main 619 JOSHUA E. YOUTZ A. J. STEVENS Insurance Underwriter Home F-2164 Notary Main 7618 Dentist GOLDMAN & SHAPIRO 360 I. W. Hellman Building 306 South Broadway Attorneys at Law Los Angeles, Cal. Tel A-4559 Room 514 Los Angeles, Cal. 537-8-9 Douglas Building 3rd and Spring Sts Every evening till 6. Sundays 11 to 12 JOHN HERMAN, B. SC. Los Angeles, California Assayer and Chemist Oscar— Harry A. Goldman Chaim Shapiro WIN BURN—Charles THE I do not guarantee satisfaction WORKINGMAN'S LAWYERS I guarantee accuracy 700 San Fernando Bldg., Los Angeles 252 1^ South Main St., Los Angeles, Cal. Insurance, all kinds. P. D. Noel, 921 Phone A-3638 Phone A-2299 • Higgins Bldg., Los Angeles. NOTARY PUBLIC All Work Done in Duplicate —; ——; ! ; :
The Western Comrade 47 GOLD By Arthur Guiterman itA/TEED of the toiler," "Flame of ^^^ the Sea"— REVOLT Such were the names of your poets for me. "Metal of IMammon," "Curse of the ' world ' IN MEXICO These are the libels your preachers have hurled. Read the Correct Interpretation of Underlying Motives in the Dug from the mountain side, washed Most Remarkable and Valuable Book of the Year in the glen. Servant am I, or the master of men. Steal me, I curse you; earn me I bless you The Mexican People— Grasp me and hoard me, a fiend shall possess you. Their Struggle Freedom Lie for me, die for me, covet me, for take me -By- Angel or devil, I am what you make me. L. Gutierrez de Lara and Edgcumb Pinchon ¥ ¥ ¥ Falsely alluring, I shimmer and V. shine Eugene Debs says that hold Over the millions me "* * * It is written from the point divine of view of the working class, the tillers of Trampling each other, they rush to the soil, the producers of the wealth, and adore me, Heaping the dearest of treasure be- shows that through all these centuries of toil fore me and tears and blood and martyrdom they Love and its blessedness, youth and have been struggling for the one purpose of its wealth, emancipating themselves from the tyranny Honor, tranquillity, innocence, of a heartless aristocracy, buttressed on the health one hand by the Church and on the Buying my favor with evil and pain Roman Huge is the sacrifice, poor is the gain, other by the military power." Naught but my effigy, passionless, ¥ ¥ ¥ cold,
God of a frenzied idolatry—gold ! Georgia Kotsch says:
"* * * It strips the glamor of THE BLOODTHIRSTY KAISER benevolent motives from the dealings with "We must play a great part in the Mexico of the United States and other coun- world, and . . . perform those tries and presents the stark truth that deeds of blood, of valor, which above American and world capitalism has been, everything else bring national re- nown. By war alone we can acquire and is, in league against the proletariat of those virile qualities necessary to win Mexico for its ovsti sordid interest. And in the stern strife of actual life." while the Mexican master class is depicted in The reader doubtless recognizes as the most depraved and bloodthirsty in the above the familiar strain of history, the Socialist will see that the story thought of that semi-barbarian, Wil- of the Mexican proletariat is in greater or liam II. And the reader is right. This particular expression, how- less degree and in varying circumstances the ever, came from the pen of our dearly story of the proletariat in every country." beloved Theodore Roosevelt. How ¥ ¥ ¥ he must envy the Kaiser now ! —The Masses. Published by DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & CO. F»picc Sl.^O Distressed Damsel—Oh, sir, catch
that man ! He wanted to kiss me. We will send you this book and The Western Comrade for one Passive Pedestrian That's all — year for $1.50. right. That's all right. There'll be another along in a minute. Workers Wanted!
Llano del Rio Colony in the Antelope Valley, Los Angeles County, California, offers employment to hundreds of men and their famihes.
All departments are under the management of experts, but we are in need of men of experience in the various industries. We are still in search of an expert poultry raiser. One with experience in poultry raising on a large scale in California pre- ferred. We will take over any number of chickens the applicant may offer. Correspondence desired with prospective members who are in western states and who have poultry or stock. The colony wishes to add milk cows of good quality to its magnificent dairy herd. Men and women of nearly every useful occupation are in demand. Every member an equal shareholder in the enterprise. Every worker to get the full social product of his efforts. Write for particulars concerning new plan for prospective colonists, who may secure their membership and join the colony at any time during the next five years. Don't let any imaginary obstacle prevent you from acting now.
Co-operafion Is Not Merely a WORD-lt Is ACTION!
For Full Particulars Address LLANO DEL RIO COMPANY Colony Department JOB HARRIMAN, President
, 924 Higgins Building, Los Angeles, California