The Commonwealth. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1911-1914, 1913-12-18
CAPITALIST TRIcKERY AND
PROGRESSIVE" FRAUD

ing if not a hypoerite Sometimes. al
so, he is phrase monger. A man
without a conscience is often facile
paragrapher, And he dotes on antithe-
teal phrases that means nothing in
particular, but tickle the ears of his
unthinking victims, The mob loves a
demagogue-for a while. And for a
while only. They have almost forgot
ten Roosevelt already.
The working class of France rallied
to the support of their bourgeois eX-
ploiters on a phrase. to-wit: Liberty,
Equality and Fraternity"
Four words that sound pleasant to-
the servile ear can precipitate a reyo-
luton, though they signify nothing tol
the patriots" but dusky death.
And four suggestive words may still
do yeoman service for the willy poll
tician, deluding the brainless, and
hypnotising the semi-intelligent;
namely the average worker who votes
a capitalist ticket, and thinks the
thoughts MS master Wis.
Up in Arlington they have just held
an election in which, by fraud and mis-
representation, two honest. and effic-
lent Socialist school directors were
recalled. During the contest nearly
every statute pertaining to recall cleo
lions was violated. Yet it were fool
ish to so to a capitalist court to have
the election annulled But that is
another story.
AS an evidence of the kind of
phrase mongering that an unintelligent
public will stand for, we quote below
two paragraphs from dodger distri-
buted by the high-minded patriots CD
who desired to have the two Socialist
members of the school board recalled.
Here is how the dodger reads:
My Pledge.
| pledge my allegiance to the flag
and the republic for which it stands
one country, one flag, one God.
Socialists Pledge
/ pledge my allegiance to Socialism
and the principles for which it stands
no country, the red flag and no God.
There you are:-
One country, one flag, one God.
No country, the red flag, and no God. |
"Ain't it cute?"
But now see the hypocrisy of these
office-hungry rascals.
They say they stand for zone coun-
try, one flag, and one God" And they |
imply by their next paragraph that
the Socialists, as a political party, |
stand for the very opposite.
AS a matter of fact, the Socialists
alone stand for zone country and one
flag" CAS- a political party they
have nothing to do with. religion; SO
the question of deity does not concern
them as a political organization. AS
most Socialists believe,
also, in zone God" So their pa
triotic" opponents deliberately lied on
this point)
The opponents of Socialism do not,
as a matter of fact, stand for lone
country, one flag, and one God" The
Socialists do. And this is precisely |
why their constituencies opponents
declare that they are "unpatriotic,"
seditiously disloyal, and Goddess.
Believing as most Socialists do in
the fatherhood of God and the broth
erhood of man, their country, their
zone country" is the world; their
zone flag" the red flag of international
brotherhood.
So it is a malicious falsehood to
say that the Socialists pledge their
allegiance TO mo country" and that
mo God" is a principle of the Social
list party teaching
1.-THE world for the workers." This
is allegiance" not only to the United
States, but to the whole flower-decked
globe.
So the earth itself is our zone coun-
try." and the red flag our zone flag,
the symbol of the brotherhood OF man.
Now if there is but zone God,' the
father of all mankind, and we are all
children of the same zone God why
should we not declare our allegiance
to the only flag that stands for "one
country" zone flag" and the brother
hood of man?
If we are all children OF "one Cod
one big family, why should we have
more than zone flag?"
And If we have but one flag as the
symbol of our brotherhood. why
should it not be red. symbolical OF the
same red blood that runs through all
our arteries?
And il God is Love-" as our oppon'
ents affect to believe. why should we
own allegiance to their various war