The Commonwealth. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1911-1914, 1913-08-21
ON SOBER, SECOND THOUGHT

riot from the Socialist, the common
sense point of view And right here is
the place TO congratulate the Seattle
comrades for their splendid exhibition
of courage and fortitude under exceed
ingly trying circumstances Had they
been sentimental fanatics, had they
been middle class opportunists, or re-
publican, democratic or bull moose in
dividualists, instead of revolutionary
| Socialists, they would now be nursing
plans of revenge instead of attempt
ing to mend their broken webs. But
there is no place in the Socialist phil
osophy for lamentation or vindictive-
ness We believe that a class struggle
exists. The class which we intend to
dethrone from the mastership of the
world is not going to be a passive
spectator to the dethronement. That
class holds all the trump cards at
present The sacred courts, the holy
church, the learned schools, the wise
| lawmakers and first and foremost the
capitalist press, all these great and
powerful institutions are for sale in
the open market Through it's eco
nomic power the capitalist class is
able to utilize these intellectual prosti-
tutes for the mental, moral and ply
steal enslavement of the worker Their
patriotic occupation is to make NUTS
out of the citizenship of the country
in order that the political power may
not slip away from "Our Betters." If
| it were not for the feeble efforts of
the Socialist movement perfect stupid
! ity would prevail in the working class
and the disagreeable though far
fetched possibility that the delicate
! hand that now holds the scepter will
some day be calloused in welding
pick and shovel, would no longer lie
like a nightmare on plutocracy's
BOSOM We want freedom. No sane
person blames plutocracy for wanting
to live at our expense. No sane capt.
talst blames the worker for wanting
to throw him off his back. 1t is war.
Both sides will employ any means to
the end, provided they pay. Intelli-
gence is the only virtue existant, stu
pidity the only crime. Commercial
ism, the law of the jungle, the right
of the strong holds sway. The wolf
must kill in order to live, so must the
plutocrat. Power alone is arbiter. We
must have the power. But we will not
get it by chanting battle hymns or
passing resolutions, by waving flags
and parading our Importance on the
battle field chosen by the wolf. We
will get it by making war on the stu
pidity of our class. And this can and
should be done noiselessly. 1t may
soothe your vanity to be known as a
great debater among your fellows but
he who points out suitable article to
a fellow wage-slave and induces him
to read it, accomplishes far more than
the one who loses his job for talking
too much. Once more, we are max
ing war on working class ignorance
and stupidity and not on any person,
be he master or slave. Socialists hate
no one. The soldiers that destroyed
our property in Seattle are not to be
blamed for their viciousness The sol
der has either inherited 1.-THE Black
Sheep" curse or has grown up in sur
) roundings that were bound to make
him a beast A chained dog while on
duty, saddened by unnatural restraint,
hydrophobia is bound to crop out when
, he is permitted to loaf. There is no
, patriotism in the hired soldier. Love
of murder and rapine is his sole in
) stinct He loves to be hoodlum. He
would rather sack the whole city than
the Socialist headquarters only, If
) granted the permission. This holds
, good with all hirelings. The editor OF
the Seattle Times as we'll as the judge
) who grants him absolution for crimes,
committed or to be committed, would
in all probability take as great pleas
} ure in assassinating the character of
a plutocrat as of a Socialist agitator,
if it were as safe. They are all prod
ucts of capitalism as much to be pitied
as they are despised.
After all, is anybody to be blamed
} for anything? Is the working class
to be blamed for its stupid docility
and contemplate patience? Is the
} middle class to be blamed for its petty
rascality and the capitalist for his ra'
pacity? Not any more than their
counterparts in the animal kingdom,
the sheep, the louise and the wolf can
be blamed for instincts that the law
of self-preservation forces them TO
cultivate. We are still veIv low in
our social development. Barely out
of the cave. Civilization is incompat
ible with individualism. Future his
torians will be puzzled over the prob
|, lem as to whether we should be con
sidered i'm a high stage Of savagery or
a low stage Of barbarism. As long as
, indiyidualism prevails we must endure
lewd newspapers, savage soldiers and