The Northwest worker. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1915-1917, 1917-02-15
Socialism and the War
By Ida Crouch lIazlctt

BY Ida Crouch Ha1lctt
When the great cataclysm burst
upon the world those who talk first
and do their thinking afterwards were
| loud in their acclaim that the founda-
tons of international Socialism had
| dismtegratcd, that the Socialists of
the warning nations were supporting
their governments, and that the ideals
of a universal brotherhood of labor
were shattered at the first shock.
Such conclusions showed very
superficial comprehension of the his
torical evolution, by which political
regimes change because of an essen
tial change in the mode of production,
the methods of industry, and peoples
are swept on by these changes indie
pendently of their own wishes.
The attachment for and dependence
on home ties supersedes every passion
except the grasping for food itself.
| Moreover in no country were the So
cialists the majority; they were
forced to submit to the majority rule
of capitalist governments; they were
precipitated into the war without time
to formulate am international policy,
and made the best they could of bad
matter under had circumstances.
The old Europe has been swept
away. Every war is a vast, cyclonic
broom that sweeps away ancient
things. 1t murders not only men but
institutions. Nothing is ever the same
again. Out of the Napoleonic wars
arose society, the phoenix of a new
world. From our Civil War swept out
the new American commercialism.
The armies of Europe have gather
ed the working class from the far
corners of their domains. Peasants
have come from the narrow circles of
their domestic interests, and those to
whom the outside world was only a
dim imagination have been hustled
from one side of the continent to an
other and back again, they have min
gled with other nations and other
ideals, agricultural workers have been
lencamped and industrial workers and
new conceptions of human life have
been acquired.
New Industrial Methods
The eXigencies of war have forced
the productive forces to employ every
possible means to expedite their pro-
cesses. New machinery, both military
and industrial, has been invented, and
soldiers have been forced to become
skilled mechanics who never knew
anything of machinery before.
There is, however, another feature
about this machinery. So tremendous
have been the inventions that great
numbers of highly skilled operatives
have been displaced by those without
preliminary training, so that the ole
aristocracy of labor in skilled trades
has been broken down by ordinary
workers taking their places, and as a
result there is a greater homogeneity
of labor.
Waste in production has been elm.
mated. Science has had to scour every
corner for new materials to take the
place Of those shut out from COM
merce.
The capitalist class has been driven
into greater solidarity by the neces-
slty of production on an enormous
scale. The business interests have
been forced to pool their activities fol-
the sake of efficiency, and small bust,
ness men have been forced out.
Even where in some lines there
seem to be new, small businesses
flourishing, these are of temporary
nature that will cease with the COM
ing of peace.
Food Specialization
Another immensely pregnant factor
is the control of the food and clothing
problems fer the general welfare.
The nations have entered into practi-
cal problems Of economics where be-
fore individualistic competition ran
riot. The men in the field are better
FED and cared for than they were be-
fore the war.
Such has been the demand for labor
that the unemployment problem has
been wiped off the slate, wages are
higher, work is more plentiful, and
even with the increased cost of living,
the standard of living is higher than
before the war.
Then there is a still more potent
element to be taken into account in
considering conditions of reconstruc-
ton, and that is the entrance of wom-
en- in vast numbesr into the industrial
world. Eight hundred thousand of
them are doing work previously done
by men in England. 1t is the same in
France, Germany, Austria-every-