The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1917-11-23
WE WANTED PEACE, BUT HONOR
FORCED Us INTO WAR FOR JUSTICE
Members of Organized Labor Are Real Pacfsts But The
Favor Fighting for Real, Lasting Peace


States in this titanic struggle, -
it is no longer a war--it is cru
sade for freedom and justice"
With these words Samuel Com
pers, President of the American Fed
Grafton of Labor and of the Amer
lean Alliance for Labor and De-
mocracy, and member of the Ad-
visory Committee of the Council for
Ma .onal Defense, brought 5000
persons to their feet in great
anti-disloyalty mass meeting in Car
negie Hall, New York.
"To remain a pacifist after the
invasion of Belgium, to remain pa
cifist after Serbia was outraged and
invaded. to remain a pacifist after
France had been in part invaded and
subjugated, was to write one down
as poltroon.
"May l venture this prophecy" he
went on, unmindful of applause,
"that the future historian will write
something after this fashion or con-
crete expression: that what the Dec
laration of Independence meant in
creating this new nation in the world
and giving a new meaning to the
rights of man, to the establishment
of a principle of justice and freedom
and democracy-whatt these meant to
the people of the United States of
America, the declaration of war by
the United States will mean to ev-'
cry people of all the nations of the
world.
"There are-those that want an i'm
mediate peace. ask you, my
friends, and l pray that you may
ask anyone who urges an immediate
peace, what the meaning of it all
would be?
"Supposing we could establish
peace this very night and wake up
tomorrow morning with this war
ending, what would it mean? What
could it mean? The plan of the mill
tarist machine of Germany was to
dominate the world. 1t has practi-
cally put Belgium, Serbia, and Rou-
mania out Of existence as nations.
Of course they will be revived, we
will revive them-WE MUST RE-
VIVE THEM. l could not allow my
self to finish the sentence without
Interpreting that thought, lest there
might be in the mind of anyone the
thought that l had any doubt as to
the final outcome of this struggle.
What Peace Means
with peace tomorrow morning,
the Kaiser's military machine has
won, the whole history of the world
for time immemorial must write
down that the militarist machine of
the Kaiser had been victorious. Part
of Russia overrun, part of Italy
overrun, part of France overrun,-
the only thing that stands between
the military machine and the naval
machine of Germany are the navies
of England and France.
"a peace tomorrow morning is
justification of the policy of Ger
man militarism and the mere post
ponement of the balance of the fight
to some other time. We are in this
war, men and women-we are in
this war! We may never again find
the civilized nations, the democracies
of the world, so united against au-
tocracy and militarism!
"The time was not of our choos-
ing. The psychology of it, however,
is here; whether we win it, or not,
it is writ in the stars that we
must fight and fight and fight on
until freedom has been achieved!
Russia betrayed by her Gar and
now by the influence of German dip
lomatic intrigue made weak, that no
one can tell what the immediate fu-
ture of that country will be.
"Here we are as a nation, re-
public, based more upon voluntary
service than in any other country
on the face of the globe. Is the con-
fidence which is placed in us to give
voluntary patriotic, humanitarian
service, is that to be regarded as a
misplaced confidence or are we going
to respond with spirit of the vol
unteer man who will give his all that
justice and right shall prevail? Or
shall we permit this spreading of
that same poison of German diplo-
matte intrigue to spread that poison
among our own people, that we too
shall be as impotent as Russia seems
to be today?
GAS the men of labor in our move
ment-having as deep if not the
deepest interest in the success of
democracy and the power of self
expression that democracy may be
shown not to be inefficient, but one
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