The Tucumcari news and Tucumcari times. [volume] (Tucumcari, N.M.) 1907-1921, 1918-01-03
"A Rich Mans
War"
By HARVEY O'HICClNS

' ~ ~ VIZ
him. But he was not eager to fight
he had been reading The Masses,
"What we l got To fight for2" h.
argued. ITS a rich mans war."
II Is. But not In the sense that he
meant.
As long as this country. at peace,
was supplying Europe with food and
munitions the rich man gained. The
munition makers drew enormous divi-
dents. The steel trust, the coal
trust, the meat trust, the railroad
and the shipping magnates charged all
that tho wartime traffic would bear,
and had no war taxes To pay. II was
20 their interest 10 keep this milton
out of the conflict In order to preserve
their gains. With our entrance upon
hostlllties. the government obtained
the power 10 tax profits, TO fix prices,
10 control the food supply, to protect
h poor from exploitation and de-
prive the rich OF the fruits of ex-
ploitatlon. That power has been
sought, for how many decades, In
times of peace, by how many social
reformers. The war won It. IL It Is
n rich mans war. the rich have been
sineularly deludcd In procuring It.
And, In the matter of the draft,
they have been equally blind. The first
CONSUMPTION act of our Civil war al.
lowed the rich man To buy exemption
by paying $500 for It. There Is no
such clause In the preseLt law. In
tho lutpt. slny nf fha ftylt ,rn. a..
rich man couhi buy exemption by pay
ing a substitute To take his place. lie
cannot do so in this war. The only
exemptions allowed today are allowed
To the poor man who has dependents
or TO the workers in the industries and
professions that are necessary to the
life and efficiency Of Il modern nation
in war time.
II Is Il rich mans war, therefore, In
the sense that the sons of the rich are
the most liable to die in II. II Is a
rich mans war in the sense that the
rich are chiefly paying for it with
their lives, with their money, with
their time and service, aud with the
loss Of their special privileges, while
NV WV MILE lllul, INC Slll'lll llIIlltT, lItf
producer, the productive luborcr and
the poor are everywhere comparatively
exempt.
For the first time IN the history OF
he world n war Is being wagcd that
falls most heavily upon the classes
who, In times past, have most prol,cd
by war.
In this country, as yet, the results
Of that new aspect of the conflict are
not glarinEly evident. But In England
they ar" so striking that they amount
TO II revolution. There, 1t Is the poorer
classes that have gained In material
comfort, In political power, in control
OF their conditions Of life, in happiness
and in freedom. II Is not merely that
wages have been raised. that the cost
Of living has been controlled, that the
people have taken owe the direction
OF the railroads, and Of the coal mines,
and of the food supply, and of the
organized industries of the nation. 1t
Is not merely that the workingman has
been given Il larger place in the gov
crnmcnt councils and the idle rich
man a smaller place-hiS income taxed
TO the bone and his profits reduced TO
extinction. II Is, above all, that in
dustry + self has obtained a democratic
government Of its own, so hat the
workingman now sits with the en-
pioycr at the board Of business man
usement aud helps {, make the rule!
under which he works and to regulate
the conditions of his labor.
The reforms for which British
socialists have been struggling for 30
years have been obtained overnight.
\ revolution that could not have been
effected Ia n century of peace has been
forced by three years Of war;. The
conditions which forwarded that rcvo-
luton are the conditions that are so
rapidly advancing n similar revolution
here. Our socialists. who cry, "Thls
Is n rich mans war; let the working.
man oppose It," are as blind ms those
socialists ia Great Britain who orig.
inaily raised the same cry and similar.
ly opposed their own advantage.
We have already obtained, In this
country, measures of state socialism
that lookcd'as far away as the mlllcn'
ium TO our socialists three years ago.
We shall have to carry the still more
incredible reforms that have carried
IN England II we are TO defend our
selves as well as the English are de-
Tending themselves. We, too, shall
have 10 "democratizc industry" as the
phrase Is, IL we expect our working
man to reinforce our battle line as
the British workingman has rein
forced the British front. And not only
that. After the wal Is over, our In
d ,stry and our commerce will not be
able TO live In the same world as Brit
ish industry and commercial s-y
nothing OF the French and German
II our worklngmdn Is not as loyal ans
satisfied and happy and efficient al
theirs. Our revolution Will have Il
continue, because the life of the M
tlon In pence, as In war, will depenC
upon continuing II.
! A rich mans war! A war that hal
extermlnated half the evils OF oppres
sion of which the predatory rich hav,
knan acpuSab A Wnr that hna ra