Arizona republican., 1911-02-26
Socialism and Peace.

Mr.. keir Hardie. the leader of the
socialist party in England, thinks the
day will soon be at hand when the
workingmen of Europe will veto any
declaration of war made by their re-
spective governments He would use
the strike as preventive of war be-
tween nations, and the scheme is not
altogether a dream. a universal
strike would, of course. compel uni
versal peace. If a war between Great
Britain and Germany were to break
out, Mr. Hardie would end it by hav-
ing the workers of the two countries
unite in a solemn resolve To suspend
all productive work on the day it
was declared, and to resume il only
when the war was enGed The war,
he says. could not last long, for no
government could long carry on war
if all its laborers refused to work.
while millions Of suffering consum-
ers would exert an influence which
the most determined militarist could
not withstand
The chief defect in the scheme is
in Mr.. Hardies premise that the
workers of the several nations could
be persuaded to forget the national
spirit, which is the moving cause in
leading every nation to engage in
war Even the socialists of Germany,
although they are opposed to national
expenditure for the purpose of put
ting the nation on an aggressive war
footing. never hesitate to vote money
for the national defense.
1t is possible. however, that in time
the doctrine of the brotherhood of
man" will gain such strength that it
will serve To break down the spirit of
nationalsm. one evidence Of the
growth of the Hardie propaganda is
found in the result of a vote taken
at the recent conference of the labor
party of England. At this cOnven-
ton. in which delegates represented
more than a million workers. the pro-
posaI to strike against any declara-
ton of war was beaten by only six
votes
Practical socialists readily admit
that. while their doctrine that a man
should call himself citizen of the
world" instead of any given country
has met with wide favor in France,
England and Germany, and that al
though in the abstract the solidarity
of labor is recognized as the para
mount aim 10y hundreds of thousands
in England and on the continent, II
is not to he expected that any con-
siderable number Of citizens of any
given country would at present re-
sist the call of the fife and drum if
their native land was in danger. They
paign for universal peace will sue
coed some time.
Socialism being so essentially a doc
trine of peace. il is rather confusing
to superficial students of politics to
find that so many agitators call
themselves socialists while in fact do
ing their utmost to bring on civil
war. But the explanation is simple
The mere word socialist" has no
meaning for the average agitator of
deficient education beyond his under
standing that socialism means tearing
up by their roots all the existing sys-
TENS of government. A great ma
jority of the street orators who i'm
this country call themselves social
lists are in fact anarchists at heart.
They appear to be incapable of un-
derstanding that in principle socialism
and anarchy are as widely separated
as the poles of the earth. las a man
thinketh, in his heart so is he" An
ignorant man may think he can be a
socialist and at the same time preach
anarchy. but he must be classified by
his acts and words. and not by his
own mistaken notions of the meaning
of socialism.