Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1890-03-15
NATIONALISM.
ASPIRATIONS THAT GAVE IT BIRTH
AND
FORCES THAT GIVE IT STRENGTH.
BY DANIEL De LEON.

! the past are Commemorated, a review of
! the conditions and incidents of the pre-
sent is Of interest. Ii serves to show
whether progress has been made, or re
PROGRESSION set in; 1t points the trend of
evolution; it indicates the course of his
tory; in word it forms base upon
which TO strike a balance sheet, SO to
speak, and ascertain where we are.
Among the incidents of the day, one
of the most important, if not absolutely
the most important, is the appearance of
the Nationalist movement and its rapid,
steady strides,
No Socialist is not, or should fail to be,
an evolutionist Movements do not
grow in the sense that IopSy did. Their
! slight tendrils shoot forth from the pro-
pitious soil, and are, according to the
continued and increasing propiciousness
! of surrounding circumstances, nurtured,
developed, and finally caused to blossom
forth with vigor. That the general prn-
ciples underlying that philosophy which
is to day generally known rs Socialism,
have, at an early day, vaguely manifest
ed themselves in this country, the study
of our own history shows and daily
brings forth into clearer light. True, it
were idle to seek for the socialist prin-
ciple, expressed in as many words, in
the writings of the revolutionary fathers;
and much Of the justification for some
of the modern whims notably that most
whimsical Of whims yclept AndrchU
pretended to be found in those sources
is but contorsion of the text, similar
at all points to the forced inter
pretations of biblical passages which
wrangling priests love to hurl at
one another's head. Nevertheless,
the radical tendency and aspirations of
the men who rocked the cradle of the
country could not fail to lead them into
expressions that justified keen observers
of events to prognostcate, as did Alison
in England, that the rebellion in America
and its successful accomplishment
-. Would N time gain upon privilege,
And throw out greater themes tor insurrec-
tons arguing
In what direction rebellion was to gain
upon privilege, and what exactly
were to be the themes thrown out for
insurrections arguing, the line of evo.
luton was evidently TO determine for
itself. Accordingly, soon as the laws
that govern capitalist production had
had an opportunity to reveal their eff
fects, and cause it TO be begun to be felt
that those effects were none else than
the destruction Of all that was precious
in the individual, the first protests begGn
to be heard in the land and from that
day to this, Professor Iadley's compla-
cent diagnosis to the contrary notwith-
standing, have continued to be muttered
with ever increasing volume until those
mutterings have now finally assumed the
character of distinct, articuate sounds
portending organized, intelligent action
i. e. ADEQUATE REFORM, or be it Sue
CESSFUL REVOLUTION.
1t is not necessary TO 30 into the details
of the various manifestations Of socialist
philosophy that, stimulated by the sur
rounding conditions, have one after an
other appeared on the surface, then
seemed to disappear, and again reap
peaIed with increased force. We know
Of the movement in this city, Of 1926
of that in the central part of the state
some fifteen years later; of the New Eng
land uprising in 1916 turned Temporal
rily aside by the abolition movement; of
the Ne1O Democracy agitation again in
this city in 1865, by veterans of the war
whose Socialistic spirit and words are
preserved in their declaration of prin-
ciples of the Greenback agitation and
of the short-lived Anti-monopoly and
Granger conflicts. These all, one by one,
came up, did their work Of education,
and withdrew.
In the meantime, fostered and favored,
mustered and melted by the economic
conditions as well as enlightened by the
discussion during the previous move
ments, the Labor or Social question was
steadily shaping himself. AS u matter
of course, it at first recruited its forces
exclusively from the ranks of the ma
nual workers. Crowded down by the
competitive struggle for existence, they
occupied and occupy to-day the lowest
wrung of the social ladder, and the pres
sure from the ranks above being heavi-
est on them compelled resistance by
them first of all. But the capitalist policy
or system of production carries, like
the scorpion. the means of its own des-
truction in its womb. Being but period
of transition, the law of its existence is
motion. motion that gathers velocity
az it rushes onward : and since that mo-
tion brings with it the gorging and con-
gestion OF wealth at one extremity,
which ever diminishes in numbers, the
other extremity must of necessity be-
| come more and more punched and