The Commonwealth. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1911-1914, 1913-04-11
LAWYERS AND THE SOCIAL
IST PARTY.

"
IFS as popular today as ever There is
no more cheap and common way to
win public applause than to TRADE
against lawyers. On every hand they
are dubbed az parasites, who live on
the misfortunes of humanity. It is
freely predicted that in the near fu-
ure, in the to-be-created common
wealth, they will be as useless as a
diseased yermiform appendix and will
be accorded the same treatment as
the yellow fever mosquito
Socialists quite generally fly at each
others threats in disputing the ques-
ton whether or not lawyers should be
allowed in the party. Being a lawyer
myself, l take a personal as well as
a professional interest in the discus
sion. I was a red card socialist before
| was admitted to the bar and / am
interested in knowing what transfer
nation has been worked in me that
makes me now an object of suspicion
in party circles.
Socialists are pretty well agreed
that intellectual effort is entitled to
its reward as we'll as physical effort.
Also if they take the position that the
socialist party should be operated in
/ the interests of and controlled by
wage-workers Chose who receive a
fixed wage stipend) they exclude small
farmers, ranchers, solicitors, doctors,
small contractors and preachers as
well as lawyers. Such a policy of ex-
clusion would mean the self-inflicted
death of the socialist party as po-
litical party, and it could constitute
only an industrial or educational or
ganization, without hope of ever win
ming at the polls. In effect it would
mean an abandonment of political
action.
q The foregoing is true because of the
numerical position of the wage-work-
fers, in the strictest sense, and because
fof the large percentage of that num-
Der that are disqualified politically,
because of their being aliens or not
having the necessary residence quail
fications. To verify this, get a copy
of the poll books in your district and
see just what percentage of those reg
istered would be eligible for member
ship in such purely wage-worker So
cialist party. Unless you live in an
exclusively manufacturing district,
you will find that the pure wage-work-
ers are outnumbered unless they unite
with others who would be benefited
by and believe in the overthrow of
capitalism.
The charge that lawyers are en-
ployed in useless work, even if true,
puts them in the same class, as most
of those engaged in the advertising
business. liquor business and that
great army of men now engaged in
the wasteful methods of competition.
In conclusion, the only exclusive
that can properly be made against
lawyers, is that they are conservative
and reactionary. A charge such as
this, however, should not altar our at
titude towards individual members of
that class. Against a presumption of
conservatism, the actual facts should
prevail, and the locals to which law
yer, or any non-wage worker should
apply for admission, should have au-
thority to determine for themselves
whether or not the applicant was
desirable member. The rule that all
lawyers are conservative does not
work in the case of Clarence Darrow,
Job Hartman of Los Angeles, c. e. S.
Wood of Portland and a score of other
lesser lights all over the country.
The only request of the author is
that socialist judge prospective or
present members for what they actu-
ally are, rather than by some cut and
dried formula as to what the general
average ought to be, if, under certain
conditions, etc. In point of fact, the
average Workingman is also a fool,
but we do not hold the class charac-
IerlSJlC against WOrhluSu man WIZ
asks for admission to the party, nor
do we limit his activity in the party
Apply the same principle to all appli-
cants, and the writer will abide by
, and be satisfied with the result. l am
a red-card member and hope if l am
ever thrown out of the party it will be
because I am too radical rather than
too conservative. This is not an
apology for the stupidity of lawyers,
but a suggestion for a change in the
basis of valuing present and future
members of the socialist party.
Yours for the revolution,
ELMER EDWIN HOOVER,
Member-at-Large from King County.
919 Northern Bank Bldg, Seattle,
Washington.
The capitalist class only have pa
per title to the land and machinery
"a L !. L. .4.Tf