The San Francisco call., 1905-05-07


IN his new socialistic book, The War
Of the Classes" The Scab'' is one of |
the seven essays which make the book,
and it is the best. but it does not dis
tance the other six. for ii sets pace
which they, striving to follow close in
cleverness, all get placed near to. If
Jack London ever writes any work of
elaborate length favoring industrial
collectivism as strong in argument,
clear in exposition and brilliant in the
Wit of its presentation as is the paper
called The Scab,'' then may the social
lists well crown him as one of their
most forceful and attention.
writers Properly speaking, there are
but six essays; the last paper is a bit
Of succinct autobiography. 1t is called
How ] Became a Socialist 1t may be
best 70 make this last first and begin by
telling how began in London's brain the
evolution toward the writing of these
socialistic papers.
He tells us in this sketch of his life
that in his youth he belonged to the
school called ''individualism" and that
be sang the paean Of the strong with
sA his heart That was because he
was strong himself-strong with the
strength Of good health and hard mus
cles. Later his adventures led him to a
condition in life where he saw men who
had been stronger in the start for the
social struggle than he. and yet they
ended in the shambles at the bottom
az the social pit He listened to these
unfortunates The woman Of the
streets and the man of the gutter drew
very close 10 him, and he says: LAS 1
listened my brain began TO work" Then
there came 70 him this-a sort of wax
ing nightmare: Il saw the picture Of
the social pit as vividly as if it were a
concrete thing, and at the bottom of
The pit I saw them. myself above them,
not far, and hanging on to the slippery
wall by main strength and sweat. And
/ confess a terror seized me. What
when my strength failed?" This vision,
with some added experiences, such as
being sentenced TO thirty days in the
penitentiary for having no fixed abode
nor visible means Of support, finished
the job Of what he calls hammering the
rampant individuaIism out of him.
In the preface the Importance of So
cialism is shown and some of the fig
ures given Of its vote in this country
400 per cent gain in the last four
years, and now 435.0O The author
explains that socialism is revolution
ary in its purpose and in it's scope
greater than any revolution that has
ever occurred in the history of the
world.
1T presents new spectacle to the
astonished world-that of an organ
lied, international revolutionary move
ment." Nearing the end of his pref
ace. London lets out from the fighter
from his socialistic creed because of
their complacent. superficial knowl-
edge Of il: The average member of
the capitalist class, when he discusses
socialism, is condemned out of his own
mouth. He does not know the htera-
ture of socialism, its philosophy, nor
its politics. He wags his head sagely
and rattles the dry bones Of dead and
buried ideas
The first essay is called The Class
Struggle" and in it is maintained the
uselessness Of trying to deny that
there is such a thing as a class strug-
gle in America. The struggle is be-
gun, and the question now is what will
be the outcome Of the class struggle.
In this paper the policy and the prog
ress Of socialism to capture the trades
union is explained. The adoption of
.socialistic principles by the Western
Federation of Miners is cited as an
example. The second paper, called
The Tramp" is a fine sociological
study The view is taken that the
tramp is q representative of the vast
army Of the unemployed and that
these are mainly made so by social
conditions It is shown that this shift
ing army of the unemployed is neces-
Il n
maintains that systems integrity more
potently than the courts. police or
military.
In the third paper, called The
Scab." il is shown that we are all
scabs. The epithet is admitted to be
opprobrious, but it is shown that it
fits us all except very few, such as
Rockefeller, and even he scabs on oc-
casion. Not only individually do we
scab. but collectively. as America, we
scab against England. A scab is de-
fined to be one who gives more value
for the same price than another. Now
this is very cleverly shown by Lon
don to be a wrong thing TO do, for by
it. although we do not always starve
out our neighbor, we certainly injure
him and diminish his happiness and
his living To avoid thfs error 1t is
necessary TO be a non-scab. Now to
be non-scab consistently it is proper
10 strive always to give least for most.
This is universally branded as being
stingy, selfish and unchristian-like.
This leaves us in dilemma. It's be-
ing between the devil and the deep
sea. Turn either way and we must
needs do mean thing.
You may try to dodge by saying 1t
is just London's cleverness which
places us all in this dilemma, but he
maintains that il is the present social
system which forces these disagree
able alternatives upon u.s. That is the
evil of ~individualism. Whilst he has
us placed in that dilemma is London S
opportunity to argue socialism TO us
Since to give least for most, and to
give most for least, are universally
bad, what remains? Equity remains.
sola &c <rfxra like for like neither