Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1896-05-15
INTERNATIONAL.
DOWN WITH JINGOIsM!

Press.
Country or Class?'' asks London JUS
tice. And then our contemporary answers
this question as follows:
1--WE seem to be witnessing perfect
fever of patriotic jngoism, not only IN this
country, but in most European nations,
and in America as we'll. ''My country,
right or wrong,' seems to be the prevail
ing sentiment in the Frenchman. the Ger
man, the italian, the Russ and the
Yankee, as well as that of the proverbially
belicose Britisher. 1t is not question OF
safe guarding any supreme interests, any
| popular rights, the National safety, or even
| its very existence; nor even resistance 10
the advances of sterlising, numbing des-
potism: all of which may be urged as rea-
sons for the maintenance of an efficient
navy by Great Britain; but blind, unrea-
soning, idiotic belief in the right OF ones
own country to supremacy, to dominance,
quite oblivlous of the fact that this is not
really national supremacy after all, but
only the domination of class. In this con-
nection there appears to be absolutely moth
ing to choose between the various nation
alities. The marauding expedition OF
France in Madagascar and Italys wholly
uniustifiable campaign against the Abys-
sinians, are well matched by Jameson
raid and the disgraceful way in which that
has been openly approved by all classes
here.
| This feeling is not only common to all
nationalities, but it is shared by all classes.
1t is common mistake to assume that it is
only the rich and powerful, only monarchs
and statesmen, only those who stand to
win something and risk nothing by war,
who are jingoes. Unfortunately this is
very far from the truth. The most blat-
ant lingo is the average work.
man. Going to and from his
work, in the workshop, or in the pub
lie house, he talks grandiloquently about
"our'' country-as if he really had stake
in it-'sour'' colonies, 'our'' army and
"our'' enemies, and describes in blood
curdling language the terrible punishment
he would infict upon any foreign invader or
any of the multitudinous ''rebels,' as
the inhabitants of an invaded country
are always described against whom
British soldiers are called upon to
fight. We Social Democrats, who are not
patriots, are disliked by him for that very
reason. To his mind there is an insanity in
our not sharing his bitter hatred of the
foreigner which is almost criminal.
WHY is this? What has the workman to be
patriotic about? He has no country. His
home is where his work lies; when he can
no longer find work, or when he is no lon
ger able to do it, he is kicked out and be-
comes a homeless vagabond. What
are the greatness and extent OF
the glorious British Empire, or of any other
empire, to him? He is mere clod, part OF
the raw material of which this greatness is
made; food for powder or food for profit as
the case may be. Yet it is simple, this feel
ing of patriotism on the part Of the work
man. 1t has been bred and born in him.
Hammered into him at school, preached
at him from the pulpit, Numbered at him
from the platform, this love of country, OF
his native land. ''Lives there man with
soul so dead, He never to himself hath said,
This IS my own, my natiVe iauu! Lib
love Of country involves hatred
of all other nations, and this
hatred manifests itself in approval
of the most elaborate means for
making war upon these other nations; the
most terrible explosives, the most fright
full, most diabolical, implements of de-
struction. And all these things are not
only approved by all respectable peo-
pie and by workingmen who may or may
not be respectable, but they are blessed by
the ministers of religion, and to deprecate
their manufacture or their use is to court
being regarded as a criminal or traitor.
AS we have said, this feeling is shared
by all classes and all nationalities, and
this implies and involves a national antago-
nism. But this national antagonism is,
after all, not nearly SO strong as the class
antagonism which exists in every country
Because, while national antagonisms are
largely due to sentiment, the class antag-
onism has material basis. Material con-
alterations are always stronger than senti-
ment, as blood is thicker than water,
and, as Marx says, strenuously as the
church would fight for her thirty