The Commonwealth. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1911-1914, 1913-10-16
YOUR DUTY
CBy w. H. Reynoldsl

abolition of the wages system. with
It's inevitable attendants want, ignor-
.ance, poverty, disease and crime. We
must establish in its place a socialized
system of production.
In order to do this we must have
education and organization. You are
not a finished product when you join
the party. You have not done your
duty to yourself and class If you mere
ly vote the ticket once in four years
There is much work to be done be-
sides a bit of individualistic agitation.
There is much to be learned. Our
papers necessarily must keep going
over and over the A, b, c of Social
ism, but are you going to spend your
life in the A, b, c class?
If you do not belong to the party,
join it now. You need it and it needs
you. If you do belong to the party
you are not doing your full duty, mere
ly attending a meeting occasionally.
1t is your duty to see that YOUR local
carries on a ceaseless agitation and
propaganda for new members. Then
when you get the new members il
is your duty to see that YOUR local
does not drop them, but begins to drill
and educate them. If your local has
not yet established a study club it is
your duty to see that one is estab-
lished at your next meeting. If your
local has no one competent to teach
a study club il is evidence that your
local has not been doing it's duty in
the past and it becomes your duty to
begin to rectify this condition to edu-
cate its membership so they can serve
as teachers, propagandists and organ
izers. II your local is not doing this
II is YOUR duty to see that they at
once begin to do so. Too many locals
put all their energy into individual
propaganda among grown-ups and al
low the children of Socialist parents
to grow up, with their minds full of
trash from the capitalistic text books
in the schools and the bourgeois bosh
in the form of story books from the
school library. 1t is far more import
ant to have a Socialist teacher to
teach your child than a Socialist sher
if to run him in as a vag if he can't
find work under capitalism.
1t is your duty to see that your local
carries on a ceaseless agitation for
the control of the schools. See that
Socialists who know are elected on the
school boards. See that Socialists are
hired as teachers. See that the school
libraries contain Socialist books. If
you do not know what books are APP
propriate for the libraries write the
state secretary or Commonwealth or
j. e. Sinclair, of the Socialist Educa-
tional bureau. They will gladly tell
you and you will be learning some
thing that you ought to know.
Forty thousand young men are
ruined annually by joining the army
and learning the art of wholesale as
assination. 1t is the duty of your local
to see that a ceaseless anti-war cam
paign is carried on in your locality
and your duty to see that your local
does it.
By so doing you can be sure that
none of these young men are en-
trapped from your district. An excel
lent plan would be for your local to
buy a half dozen or more copies of
"War, What For?" and you make it
your duty to see that they are loaned
to every family in the district.
1t is the duty of your local to see
that every member in it keeps posted
on the doings of your servants in your
national office. See to it that they
serve you, the working class, and not
a few place-hunting politicians as they
have too often in the past
1t is the duty of your local to know
and to teach that the workers are
robbed not as consumers, but on the
job as producers, and, logically, the
way to stop the robbery is by organ