The Northwest worker. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1915-1917, 1917-08-02
He Wants Socialists to Fight

be reVolutioniSts showing a mixture
of indifference ignorance and cow
ardice insist that the ocean is so big
and deep the issue does not concern
us till it gets into our door yards
because a man who lived when it
took months to get news from Eu-
rope and nineteen-twentieths of our
people were farmers said we should
not mix up in European affairs. Be
sides, God won't like us if we kill
folks and it hurts awfully too.
Our party shortsightedness in thus
playing into the hands of the worlds
greatest and most astute tyranny
has naturally brought it into disre-
pute. | have but a feeble kick at
the suppression of the papers that
have no more sense than to use their
constitutional rights in way that
aids power in it's efforts to over
throw the freest government on
earth If instead of shrieking like
frightened children at hurts to be
killed. Oh, Oh!' our leaders had
risen to the occasion and emphasized
the necessity of conscripting money
no less than men and driven home
the truth that naturalization of ag-
riculture manufacture commerce and
transportation must be accomplished
if we are to meet the exigences of
the war and continue our standing as
nation they would have secured a
respectful hearing they now have for
feited and made allies Of those
are protesting the extortionate gains
of the war profiteers. They need
not have abated a jot of the demand
that the workers. wages and work
ing conditions be kept up during
the war and afterwards when re-
sumption of the class struggle be-
comes possible they would have an
unassailable position.
lnasmuch as their "principles" in
cline to faith rather than discern
ment the present predicament of
our party is not surprising. The
outcome of it all is awaited with
| interest.
Yours truly,
o. j. GIBBONS.
Richmond, Cal, 521 Sixth Street.
July 81, 1917.
Editors Note Comrade GU Glib
bons has so little time left after
being sweated and exploited in this
'the freest" country on earth that
he hardly had time to pen the
above nonsense in reply to a note
of mine of recent date.
We do not know if our friend
Gibbons is old enough or too old
to fight but he is certainly foolish
enough to. He wants to know what
would have happened to the Dec
! low oti IF Tn hn
of that time had refused to fight ?
We will reply by asking how much
worse off would we be without the
Declaration of independence And
while answering that question make
note of Ludlow, Homestead, Law
renee, Pittsburg, Everett, Bisbee,
etc.
He says the Socialist dreamers be-
gin with IF. Our friend Gibbons
has not exactly been dreaming but
he has been imbiding so much of the
capitalist liquid fire that he ac-
tually sees the Kaiser bending over
him every night. Yes. We say
IF Gibbons can show us what we
have to fight for, whose property we
have to defend, how much we are
going to gain by fighting the Kaiser,
and what we have to lose by not
fighting him, we may be able to ar
rive at some definite plan of action?
But at present we are thick headed
enough to want to stay away from
the slaughter along with Morgan,
Rockefeller and Co. We are not
afraid of being killed. Rebels new
er are. We are simply using COM
mon sense in refusing to get mixed
up in squabble that no matter
how it is settled, will not be set
tied in favor of the working class.
And we have no reason to believe and
nothing to prove that we would be
any worse off with the German eagle
flying over us than the Stars and
Stripes.
/ The workers consent to the kind
of governing that goes on, and I'M
til such time as they wake up to
the necessity of taking matters into
their own hands, we will be govern
ed by a class who have absolutely
no respect for the workers, no mat
ter what kind of of an animal sits
on the throne or presides over the
White House.
+ POLICE BREAK UP PARADE
OF BERLIN SOCIALISTS