The Northwest worker. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1915-1917, 1917-08-02
Editor Northwest Worker:

to breathlessness from a Knockout
blow, but to the little time left for
living by the strenuous task of get
ting living.
1t was many years ago that
was first told that as | did not work
for wages | could not be Socialist.
have met many since who failed to
grasp the fact that the farmer re-
taller and professional man are all
exploited by the plutocracy that ex-
ploits the wage Garner and that none
of them can be delivered by any
means that does not deliver the
rest. That is one of the basic truths
for the recognition of which the sue
cess of the Revolution is waiting.
The party as a whole is showing
its inability to grasp more than
one idea. Having learned the Glass
Struggle it imagines civilization
knows no other concern. Living in a
FOOLS paradise it is trying to build
Utopia in an isolated spot where
world issues cannot come.
1t does not know from the read
ing of history that all the advance
liberty has thus far made has been
by the success of the more favorable
tyranny. The partisans of the Ma
jority Report do not know that
government resting even in theory on
the consent of the governed is so
vastly better than one claiming the
divine right of kings as to be worth
any effort to maintain it. That was
the issue when our national Declara-
ton of Independence was made. Had
our forefathers stood on the eternal
principles of militarism and re-
fused to fight what would have been
the fate of the Declaration of In
dependence? The issue is the same
today except that it is world wide
Anti militarism is at a discount in
Germany now, the nation is hypno-
tized by its inherited dream of the
sacred fatherland into supporting
kaiserism's attempted conquest of the
world. To preach nti-militiarism
among Germany's enemies is to
play into the kaiser's hands. Until
you can preach it in Germany to
preach it else where is to lie down
before the military power that aims
to make itself supreme.
The class struggle cannot be
fought and won as long as military
power can command national sup
port. The Paris Commune illus
trated that To attempt if while
nations are fighting is to give vic
tory to the baser and more brutal
nation for the more refined and less
superstitious people has become the
more the aversion to war. The class
struggle must be fought information
ally or not at all. AS long as an
empire will fight for it's ruling class
that empire will dominate the world
unless stopped by force. Why can
not our party leaders see that an
injury to one is the concern of all
no less when Junkerism assails lib
erty in Germany and through that
the world, than when an employer
fires a worker unjustly? They are
paralelling the stupidity of the pi-
oneer farmer who refused to kill the
marauding bears saying he was de-
termined to do nothing but raise
corn. Poor Lilliputians! They think
because our devilish American ex-
ploiters are against the kaiser the
kaiser is therefore the representa-
tive of all that is good. They can
not understand that the situation
is like that in 1776, when men like
Alexander Hamilton who was one of
the most determined foes of democ-
racy we're nevertheless fighting King
George and that with their aid lib
erty won it's longest advance (till
them not by the establishment of a
pure democracy but by the defeat
Of King George. Had the rank and
file insisted on settling matter with
Hamilton and his ilk while the kings
troops were advancing it would have
simply made an easy victory for the
king.
1t is easy to say that the king
should have no troops and then all
would be well but unfortunately for
dreamers the king still has troops
and bullets out weigh dreams in
immediate effects. The trouble with
our Socialist dreamers is that they
begin with an IF. They are like
the would-be traveller who planned a
long journey which began on the 9TH
err side of river which he had no
means of crossing. IF the workers
were all united war would cease.
Very true. But as long as the work
ers in Germany, Socialist CD in
cluded will fight for their war lord
the workers elsewhere must choose
between fighting back or submitting
to the kaiser's claims. The Rus
Il, - - 4 I