The Northwest worker. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1915-1917, 1915-07-08
The Red Flag
BY J. A. WALLIS, I'D.

not a symbol of something done, not
monument, but a symbol of some
thing not done. A flag must symbol
lie something not done, for flags have
one use and no other; they can serve
as rallying signs in time of action.
The red flag has weakness common
to all flags-men may rally to 1t or
they may not. 1t presents danger
inherent in all symbols-men who raj.
ly to 1t may do the thing 1t symbolizes
or they may not,
Even symbolized idea must be
kept before the mind. That Is diff
cult. A symbol can be kept before
the eyes. That Is easy. Most sym
bols are followed away from the idea
they represent because most follow
ers have good eyes and weak minds.
Most symbols are used to gain single
ness of purpose and action among
followers, and that action the action
desired by few leaders. The idea
symbolized is usually the desire of
the many who follow. The purpose
achieved is usually the purpose OF the
few who lead.
AS for the red flag, those who fol-
low it without knowing what it stands
for, and those who lead it away from
the idea it symbolizes do so not only
at their own peril but at the peril of
mankind. AS flag it symboIzes pur-
pose. AS red it symboIizes the neces-
sty for the achievement of that pur-
pose and the nature of the purpose.
Red is the commonest symbol there
is, because it is the very symbol of
our common blood, equality-our
common need, liberty-the highest
possible achievement of our common
ability.
| Fraternity is the fact and has to
do with the achievement only as a
fact; we are brothers. None of us
can rise as others sink; none succeed
as others fail. Fraternity, then, is
not the thing to be achieved, but the
thing to be reckoned with.
No more is equality the thing to be
achieved. 1t is but the condition
necessary to achievement. 'If," said
Macaulay, 1--WE wait for liberty until
men become wise and good in slavery,
then we may indeed wait forever" He
meant to say, we must have liberty
before we can have equality. He did
say that we must have equality before
we can have liberty. He was right,
not in what he meant, but in what he
said. Only in equality can we achieve
| liberty.
Those who have equality must ach-
ieve liberty or equality is lost. AS lib
erty can come only from equality, so
equality can live only in liberty.
| A free man is a man without fear.
A man without fear can be moved
only by intelligence and love; he can
not be ruled. If none submit none
rule. If one submits against the die
tates of his own conscience or if all
but one submit, or if any majority or
any minority-however large or small
submits, then liberty has not been
achieved, equality is destroyed and
fraternity becomes once more the fra
ternity of social disease and death
Fraternity, equality and liberty have
been sneered at because they are
high sounding words. They are high
sounding words because they are
names of high things. In the dull
lexicon of the servile minds are no
such words as these. Centuries of
fear and servility have taught the
workers to express their noblest as
plratfons in the slang of pickpockets.
A bastard science has coined for us a.
set of scientifically meaningless trade
words, half-brothers to the trading
class bromide" a fair exchange is