The Washington socialist. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1914-1915, 1915-04-01
THE QUESTION THAT WILL
NOT REST UNSETTLED
Socialism and Nationalism
CAN A SOCIALIST BE A pATRIoT7
BY Fl. w. WATTS

The time is drawing near whel
| American Socialism" will be give
the acid test as has the German
French, English, Russian and Belgian
and we are of the opinion that unles
we throw overheard the peddlers o
adulterated Socialism we will receiv,
the same thrashing at the hands 0
the capitalist henchmen as is now be
ing served out to the European So
cialists %
We have bunch of Socialist e.,
politicians in our midst that corrup
the movement with the 81 varietie,
Of Socialism and at the same time
tell the wage slaves that their Social
ism is the pure brand. yet almost ev
cry speech they make or article they
write Is Of the sloppy, sentimental
reform CUFF that simply gets the
hearers or readers into a mass of en-
tanglements.
II some OF them attempted to teach
revolutionary Socialism they would
break a blood vessel and II they hear
of anyone teaching it they do their
best to throttle them.
Yet today European Socialists CD
are being used as pawns at the be-
hest of the capitalist class and the
time is not far off when our same So
cialists will be used as the pawns OF
the John DIS, J. p. Morgan's ct al
and we fully agree with the writer
of the following, that, had the revo
lutionary Socialism Of Marx and En-
gels been taught in Germany the
present war could hardly have hap.
pened, and we will go further and
say that, if MARKHAM Socialism is not
taught on greater scale in this coun.
try our movement will be used by the
capitalist class to back them up in a
similar slaughter.
Austin Harrison, editor of the
English Review" a monthly maya
zine, who has had sound German
education and is well equipped to
write upon matters Teutonic, pointed
out in an article in the November is
sue that Socialism had collapsed, re-
ferring to the German s. d. P.
Messrs. Hyndman and Bax, two
have-been Socialists CO who are now
working hand and glove with the Brit.
ish government for the crushing of
Germany" replied to him in the De.
cember issue, wherein the MARKHAM
theory was "remolded" to suit the
Linguistic spirit of both these gentle.
men. They made just as good a de.
Tense of Socialism as would Cath.
ollie priest or some of our Chicago Of
ficials, and naturally gave the editor
all the show that he needed for a
comeback which he did in the Janu
airy issue in an interesting article on
MARX and Materialism."
He says that his object in writing
Of the collapse of German Socialism
was to show:
l. THAT the rigid doctrinaire
theory of Marx, with it's laws of class
warfare and automatic necessity, had
in Germany, degenerated into a mere
parliamentary party of opposition ane
opportunism characterized by the very
national and imperialistic tendencies
that Marx sought to destroy in his
philosophy of revolution which was tc
bring about Collectivist State. (Em
phasis mine.)
2. THAT the moment social demo
cracy had so broken away, Socialism
as the impIacabIe antagonist of bour
geois civilization in whatever form
military, capitaIstie, liberal CONNER
cial or Observation-Disclosures it's in
herent truth and purpose, the sol,
concern of which lay in the freedom
of the wage earning classes"
He then expresses quite a refresh
ing sentence. He refers to what h,
did write and says Mr.. Hyndman die
not answer it. Our Chicago politi
clans would do the same. This is tn,
quotation:
THE words l wrote were: German
Socialism has drifted away from
Marx into slough of German I'm
perialism, as far from the ideal it hal
set itself to win as Ecclesiasticisn
has drifted away from Christianity