War and the Proletariat - - adolf Haus TTTAJR, in any case, signifies an extraordinarily pow- became known, the mood against the war grew and France. Numerous regiments the front. ” mutined at erfui convulsion of all the forces of capitalism. swelled, until finally, the spark was thrown Into the Officers were killed. Enthused, the soldiers sang the Many a bourgeois government, having arrived at the powder keg: Czarlsm, trembling with anxiety, had “International.” end of its tether, has tried to check the threatening the workers demonstrating before the Winter Palace As on the German front later, so too in France proletarian revolution by engineering a foreign ad- shot down. That let loose the uprising. Workers’ in the summer of 1917, the troops going to the strug- venture. Thus 1 the outbreak of war brings aft in- and soldiers’ soviets arose. gle were greeted with the cry: Strikebreakers! crease of strength to the capitalist government. The Russian capitalists had to make peace with Down with the War! But—also in France the state But—the strengthening ts only a transitory one. If the Japanese in all haste in order to be able to pro- power was victorious. Hundreds of upright prole- the war lasts for some time or If It ends without tect Itself against the enemy within. tarians were deported to the colonies, many shot a decided victory, the fighting spirit of the prole- Here too we see: The Russo-Japanese war was according to martial law. tariat grows the point rebellion. War signi- ended by the proletarian revolution. to of It can be said without any exaggeration: The pro- fies such mighty threat to proletariat that a the The World War and the Proletariat. letarian Revolution ended the World War. In Rus- after a short time It mnst openly declare itself The World War was the attempt of aspiring Ger- sia the Revolution was victorious. German and ■gainst war; It most declare war against war and man Imperialism to strike down her hated competi- French capitalism escaped the same fate with great •gainst its own capitalist government. tor. Great Britain. difficulty. Let as glance at the last great wars of capitalism. Let speak first Russian proletariat. The Why did the proletarian uprising win In Russia What red a did the proletariat play in them? us of the July of the year 1914 saw barricades in the streets and why was the German and French proletariat War of 1870-71 and The The Proletariat. of Leningrad. The war broke out. The enormous defeated? Prussian-Germ capitalism grew very The an fast. chauvinistic propaganda apparently swept the class To begin witk, this question Is to be answered by breaking up of Germany Into numerons little states conflict from the order of the day. In reality, it the fact that German and French capitalism had at hindered this development. The bourgeoisie of 1848 was only driven from the surface. Years full of Its disposal a ranch more solid state apparatus than had ignomtnously betrayed its task—the creation sacrifice and Mood passed. In 1917, the Russian the young Russian one. That is one side of the of a unified empire. Bismarck Therefore carried the front broke. Czarism was incapable of carrying on matter. However, we want especially to draw atten- revolution thru from above in a aeries of wars the war. The bourgeoisie seized the state power tion to the other side: to the proletariat. It won (1884-71). But instead of ending the of 870-71 war J. Itself in order to carry on the war. The Russian In Russia because a determined group of elass with the Germany, German capitalism unification of bourgeoisie wanted to carry the war to a victorious fighters, because the illegal bolshevik organization, reached conquests. out after end side by side with the capitalists of France and conscious of Its goal, carried on a war against war. Thereby war became a reactionary one. The the England. The Bolsheviks, In a clear, concise slo- In Germany and France there was wanting this de- answer to the procedure of the German junkers was gan, expressed the wishes of the proletariat and the termined vanguard of the Revolution. Or, in Ger- the proclamation of the .Commune. The French peasants: Peace and bread! The slogans inflamed. many, thanks to the betrayal of the Social Democ- bourgeoisie had fled from Paris and abandoned people racy, it was too weak to organize the war against pro- The arose. France. It trembled before the revolutionary war. * The victorious proletarian revolution in October, letariat and called the Prussians to its aid. They brought dictatorship of thfe proletariat and The proletariat must not let itself be confused wanted to overthow the Parisian proletariat with 1917 the the by the pacifist, social-democratic slogan "Never — For the first in the history of Prussian bayonets. Thereby the defense of Paris —peace. time world, proletariat the state power with Again War” nor by the anarcho-syndicalist "War the war against Prussia—became the affair of the the seized What a difference between the against ALL War.” It is a ridiculous superficiality proletariat. With the defense of Paris, the prole*- full consciousness. of 1871 and the Bolsheviks of 1917! to believe that war can be fought by pseudo-revolu- tarian revolution was defended. Communards There, lack of clearness—here, will tionary declamations. But just as dangerous is the The heroic Parisian proletariat could not hold out hesitation and and highest clarity! X allegedly revolutionary slogan “War against ALL against the Prussian army. The betrayal of the to power War.” As Communists, we are against war, but we French bourgeoisie as well as the weak attitude of But the year 1917 must not be named without men- know that the imperialist war can done away the petty-bourgeois leaders of the proletariat brought tioning the events in Germany, France, Italy and be with solely by the civil war. Under Communism the Parisian proletariat to its downfall. Sweden. In the year 191 J there occurred in Germany there will be no more But till then there We assert- the Franco-Prussian war ended with the the first proletarian struggles. In many industrial is still a long and difficult road. The usufructu- uprising of the Parisian proletariat. After a few cities, the economic distress had reached a point proletariat aries of present-day society who also draw gain months of heroic struggle, it was suppressed by the where it was no longer bearable. The from every great slaughter, will not renounce their Prussian armies. went out on the streets and demonstrated against the .prerogatives—of plundering the The Rus&o-Japaneae War 1905 and the Proletariat war. But the movement wae *ot organized—the people—pjoodmatuU es edly. They must be forced down in struggle, The collision of the czar’s empire with the aspir- capitalist state was victorious. The second attack the weapon in hand. ing great power of the far east, Japan, soon ended in the year 1917 came from the navy. Here highly proletarians, Let us summarize: Today, no war can con- with the military defeat of czarlsm. The war broke qualified workers —and class conscious be ducted without the proletariat im- out at a time when great strikes were convulsing were united. But this movement too was struck answering the perialist with Russia. The outbreak of the war of 1905 inter- down: Reichpietsch and Koebes paid with their lives war the civil war. The more deter- proletarian the vanguard of the rupted the proletarian struggles for a short time. for their faithfulness to the revolution. mined Revolution carries on passed thru the war, the certain is When the first tidings of the defeat in the far east Simultaneously a revolutionary wave more It of the proletariat.

The Wages of Poverty m m m By C. A. Moseley cleanest, most wholesome looking chap 1 had seen were about the two finest young fellows I derwear, fearing he had Inadvertently stolen some*- by City of Chicago the in many a day. He greeted Charlie and was Intro- THEYhad ever met in Chicago, either in or out of lice, owned and bred the at detective bureau. The Bridewell crowded and- duced to me. His name, we will say, was Eddie. Jail, in or out of college, in or out of church—as- was unsanitary. night, large as prowled He was an automobile racing driver. Ever, singe suming, for the sake of the argument, that I ever At rats as cats through corridors. walls were bloodstained: his eighteenth year he had driven motorcycles on meet any in church. They were both just out of the The the perpendicular walls of motordromes or racing- Bridewell, and I entertained them in my modest from mashed bedbugs. The food was coarse and breakfast, (called "con- cars on speedways. A clean liver, in the pink of apartment; Jailbirds as guests! None of the near insufficient. For oatmeal prison vernacujar) and black coffee, condition. silverware was jnissing after their visit. crete” In the both without cream or sugar. Fridays were fast (!) He told me how he had happened to be in the I met the first chap in a small park. He was sit- days; for dinner, a plate wiffr some syrup on the Bridewell. His story too was simple—too simple ting on a bench and*looked at me as if he felt that bottom of five slices of bread superimposed thereon. from the point of justice. One evening he was in I was a sympathetic chap. He thought correctly; 1 For thirty days of Charlie’s stay, he had as a cell- a railway station, waiting for a cousin to arrive by am, hopelessly so. About the first thing he told me mate a stupid man of about *5. a sexual degenerate, train. While there he met a “fluzzey.” As she was was that he was Just out of the Bridewell. to whom Charlie ‘‘looked good." leaving on a train, he had no object in talking to her At last his sixty days were ended. He was given except to kill time. But a policeman, who evidently His story was simple, but interesting. He was a back his suit, cleaned and pressed—the only de- recognized the girl for what she was, interfered. boy, out there had met a young fel- California and cent service they had rendered him. He explained Eddie resented it and “talked back”—result, sixty boy urged low from Decatur, Illinois. The Decatur why he had no underwear and was given a clean days. to him,*where they Charlie come home with would suit, probably belonging to some other prisoner. both, thought, get jobs, the The two boys debated whether to start for De- he be able to so two His overcoat had not been fumigated, and, as it was way by catching troit that afternoon or wait until morning. I men- beat their to Illinois auto rides. old and the weather was now mild, he calmly Charlie to his tioned that they could both stay at my place over At Decatur, the friend took own dropped off a bridge into the Chicago River, for night if they wished. That settled it.' I took them home. After two weeks of fruitless search for the same reason he had burned his underwear. work, Charlie, noticing that his friend's people were to the apartment where we had lunch together, an- my apartment. nap, poor, felt that he could no longer impose upon their 1 took the chap to After a he other “wonderful” meal in Charlie’s opinion. They meal, said, hospitality, so he came to Chicago. had dinner; the best he that he had had slept there. Four or five times, Eddie exclaimed: in months. Before going to bed, he mentioned that "Gee, I didn’t expect to tumble into anything like It was In February. He reached Chicago with he wished to go to the Bridewell in the morning to this when I left the Bridewell." little or no money, and was walking the streets. meet a fellow whom he had first known there and Next morning, after breakfast, they bade good- Becoming cold, he stepped into a pool hall to warm who was to be discharged next day. The two had me bye, and again, thanking for my kind- himself, and while there the police raided the place. decided to be pals and to go to Detroit to look for over over me boys gentlemen, Finding the youth engaged in the suspicious task work. ness. These were both in the best es doing nothing, he was picked np and taken to meaning of the word. Mayor Dever might have felt As Charlie laid down hiß napkin next morning, he the detective bureau, m his pocket he happened no condescension in entertaining both in his own remarked that it had been a "wonderful” breakfast. But, being Ctty Chicago to have a letter which he had written to a sailor- home. strangers, the of had He then asked if I would like to go to the Bride- friend in Frisco but had forgotten to post. That “taken them in.” At the expense of the municipal- well with him. I went. The place outwardly was ity, city •roused suspicion; he was perhaps a deserting sail- the had entertained them in one of. Its quite attractive. Green grass, an artificial lake, and, er, and the police can obtain a fifty dollar reward largest Institutions, that they might not feel from which ran a brook, with even a small attempt pauperized thereby, they permitted for turning in a deserter. Bo he was held four nights had been to ■t a waterfall. Charlie pointed out fine wing of the work there. In a cell at the burs*a, a place Infested with vermin. building, where, he said, 600 were confined. Then a police judge gave him sixty days tn the These boys were not grafters, bootleggers, gun- Bridewell. After a wait, the prisoners discharged that day men, or crooks. Thoir Inexcusable crime ni that Arriving thore, his first set was to burn his u- filed out ha the line was a fellow of 24, about the they were poor. 5