The Washington socialist. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1914-1915, 1914-06-18
THE ARMED CITIZEN.


Police" which Is very pertinent ant
- very timely | ask every reader tC
!. hunt up the paper and read Inter
a until such a time as we can win ma
There is no disputng the fact that
4 the master class is trying to force Il
crisis before we are ready for It.
Moreover, THEY WILL SUCCEED,
It is all wen enough to council calm
ness and deliberation, but we should
not let our calmness go to the extent
of stagnation. 1t is easily possible for
us to deliberate SO much that we will
lose the faculty of doing anything else,
: After all these years of deliberation
we have arrived at the point where
the first call for real decisive action
finds us all up in the air.
= If we can put off the final conflict
utnil such n time as we can win ma
tional election, it is very probable that
the moral effect of such action would
be strong enough to greatly reduce the
opposition to our program IL II did not
remove II entirely If we can get all
workers properly educated in class
solidarity, AND SCIENTIFIC SOCIAL
ISM, we can without doubt accomplish
our object by PEACEFUL general
strike. But the masters know this
just as we'll as we do; and they do
not intend to give us time.
This chronic panic which we are
existing in, is making the uneducated
workers desperate. In their blind and
cropping way the workers are seeking
redress of their wrongs.
| Persecution Swels Our Numbers.
! Socialists will have to become some
thing more-OR LESS-than human
before they cease to agitate, and work
for the advancement of their philos-
ophy. This unceasing and ever in
creasing activity on our part naturally
most violent opposition of the masters.
Ridicule and SANDER could not stop
us. A Conspiracy of Silence" could
not stop us. Starvation, imposed by
means of the lockout and the black
| list, only made us grow the stronger.
Jailings, by wholesale, made our cause
all the more popular. Individual and
isolated beating and torturing of our
more militant members has been tried
for some time, but with the result of
strengthening our ranks rather than
weakening them. Individual and iso-
lated killing of our comrades has
proved futile. NOW they are resort
ing to MURDER EN- MASS.
| Cause for Alarm.
! Yesterday it was Ludlow; the day
/ before it was Calumet; further back
! it was Paint Creek. TOMORROW it
will be Seattle, or Everett, or AR.
| LINGTON. Next week it may easily
! become general. America may easily
develop BLACK Hundreds" as well as
Russia. Socialists may very soon be
hunted in the U. S. as were the Jews
in Russia.
! 1t is asking too much to ask people
to sit calmly celebrating and allow
themselves to be murdered even if
they are Socialists, and working men.
| 1t is the law of life, ITO continue
! living" The person who allows him
self to be murdered without making
the greatest possible effort at resist
ance has never really been alive He
is merely a semi-animate lump of
matter, and should be put out of the
way.
Should Take Rerser's Advice.
Wherefore, after several weeks of
the calmest consideration of which |
am capable, have decided that the
law of self-preservaton demands that
we now ACT upon the advice of Victor
l.. Berger, when he said in his famous
speech, Therefore, say, each of the
100000 Socialist voters, and the two
million working men who instinctively
/ incline our way, should, besides doing
much reading, and still more thinking,
also have a good rifle and the neces-
sary ammunition in his home and be
prepared to back up his ballot with his
bullets if necessary" The U. S. con-
stitution provides that the right of the
people to keep and to bear arms shall
not be infringed, and, until this right
is infringed there is no need Of sec
recy. The only reason why the or
ganization should be used for the pur-
pose of supplying ARMS is because
by cooperating, and getting them in
quantities they can be purchased
cheaper. Also it is important that
they should be of uniform pattern, and
calibre, so that ammunition can be
interchangeable. Equally important
with the ownership of arms is the
proper knowledge Of how to use Them
and at least a good working Imowl-
edge of guerrilla warfare. For this
latter reason I hone tn 400 avarU 60