The Northwest worker. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1915-1917, 1917-03-08
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OPEN FORUM
JACKASS METHODS or
FIGHTING CAPITALISM

l
Com,adc; After ten hours Of hard
labor six days in the week | have
little time FOR anything else. This
Sunday evening, however, | feel that
should forero an hour of recreation
to commend certain editorials and
comments that have recently appeared
in the Worker. For about six years
in this state we have been subjected
to a propaganda that, to say the least,
has at times been utopian, frequently
anarchistic in tendency and sometimes
altogether So 1t is like seeing "A star
in a stormy night to read those articles
entitled "To the Slaughter" "Thc
Rapid Growth of Revolutionary
Parties,' and "A Grand Finish" And
Just as good, and even better. are the
comments ON various communications
in the "Open Forum
hope you'll excuse me for saying
50, but | was tickled beyond express
sion when | read your comment on
the communication supplied by my
dear old friend Frank Bickford. This
afternoon | met Frank in pool hall.
and hailed him. "Wcll, sec you
have put your foot in the tray at last,
and you've got to confess now that
| was right when I've been telling YOU
all alcng that you don't know the
primer lessons Of Socialism; for here's
Watts, who does know, and he SAYS
if you've ever read the Communist
Manifesto you DONE remember what
is in it," Frank was awfully con
fused and | began to feel sorry for
him, offering to loan him a copy of
the Manifesto; also ! expressed my
earnest desire to improve his under
standing Of the labor movement by
leaning him that classic little volume
by George Pieehanoff on Anarchism,
urging my dear friend to make deep
and thorough study of the two
chapters devoted to Bakounine assur-
~ i''IIh li'lL inc Al!loICC or la
kounine and the present |. w. w. are
as much alike as the two halves of 4
split hair. But what's the use? You'll
not change Franks IDEAS now. as he
Is over forty and he'll probably carry
his dear old muddled head Just as it
Is to the grave. He is a typical work
mgman, common laborer as the term
applies, just an average person, honest
and altogether too Industrious for his
own good, which he doesn't fully real
lze because Of his ignorance. All the
same, If you proceed in your critism
of persons who cut spectacular figures
IN the revolutionary movement of this
state, you are certain to find many a
leading" Socialists who is no better
informed than is Frank Bickford. You
have already declared, for Mrs Stones
benefit, chat the average person has
not an analytical mind" You could
well have added, with absolute ac
cuiacy that to mind incapable of
analysing capitalist institutions and
he political state from which they
derive their power, then to such mind
The revolutionary character of the So
clallst movement is only an abstrac-
ton and cannot be anything more.
Since the organization Of the state.
every class struggle has been a pol
itlcal struggle, and until consider
able portion of the working class learn
hat important fact, they will continue
as they are, the oppressed and ex-
plotted slaves Of masters. My think
ing apparatus is not always in order
But | believe | am a close reader, as
can usually tell when Forum scrib-
blers fail to catch the signifance of a
problem as analysed by Marx, Plech-
anoff, SlmOns or anyone else. Most
persons merely glimpse over book.
II they read it at all, picking up only
what their brains can carry, leaving
all the rest as if it were not there.
" N-N"IiI PFC, IIlScl y socialism ::
Utopian and Scientific" contains for
a reader capable Of grasping it, the
complete story of Socialism with all
its details, including the class struggle
and economic determinism, yet the
average person reads the book and
gets but two or three phrases, which
he repeats like clacking Poll until
he becomes a bore.
The average person can understand
the class struggle; even the capitalist
knows something about it, though he
denies it. But how many persons
know what is meant by economic de-
terminism Isn't it what Marx calls
"the economic Interpretation of his
tory?" | think 50. What does it all
mean? This, according to Frederick
Engels: "The final causes Of all social
changes and political revolutions are
to be sought, not in mems brains, not
in mans better insight into eternal
truth and justice, but in changes in
the modes Of production and distribu-
ton; they are to be sought, not in
the PHILOSOPHY, but in the ECON
/ IN