The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1920-05-07
TOO PER CENT
AMER|CAN|SM'
(By Allen McCurdy, of the Com
mittee of Forty-eight.)

An Amerlcanlzation committee
was recently thrown into confusion
and debate by the simple question,
What is 1907 Americanism ?" No
phrase is more universally used. All
politicians are strong for 100 %
Americanism." 1t is a curious
phrase. When James Otis, Patrick
Henry, Daniel Webster, Thomas
jefferson and Abraham Lincoln
spoke of Americanism, it was al
ways in terms Of liberty, equal OPP
portunity for all, special privileges
for none, the fear OF injustice and
despotism, the hatred of monopoly
and the aspiration for freedom. 1t
Is significant that the modern poll
tician describes Americanism, not
in terms. of the aspirations of the
human soul, but in the terms of the
banking house, the ledger and
profit.
This givs us a clue to what
I"100% Americanism" really is.
Senate Document No. 259 shows us
the practical side of 1907 Amer
icanism" by revealing to us some
1909 Americans" One steel COM
pany, according to this document
which is based upon returns to the
Treasury Department, in the year
I1917, after paying its excess profit
tax, made 212.5S4% profits, it's net
Income being $14,549,952 on a cap
ital stock of $4,000. Senate Docu-
ment No. 259 also reveals that dur
ing 1917 net profits were reported
by
Dry goods stores as high as 9,826%
Coal companies as high as. 1860
Meat packers as high as. :. 4,244%
Furniture makers as high as 3,295%
Flour mills as high as. 20, $3.50
Gamers (fruit and vege-
table, as high as 2,032%
Wooden mills as high as. ,770%
Building contractors, as
high as. ..............1,39 5000
This is concrete "10O% Ameri-
canism." From the men who made
1000 or more in the year of SUI
preme sacrifice (191O, when econ
omy was urged upon the mass of the
people and when our soldiers were
risking and giving their lives for
$50 a month, has probably come the
money to finance the political cam
paigns and pay for the enormous
publicity whose chief end seems to
be to call all who object to this kind
of Americanism TRAITORS" Dol
shevists" and "revolutionists.'
It is highly significant that al
though Senate Document No. $50
has been within easy reach of the
Attorney-General of the United
States, not one of these 400 %
Americans" has been prosecuted
| for profiteering. Instead, the act
| ivities of the Department of JUS
tice have been directed toward the
Revolutionary efforts" of the work
ers to secure enough wages to keep
pace with the increased cost of liv-
ing, the cause of which is suggested
in the above figures.
These "100% Americans" are ev-
identity determined to perpetuate,
through the control of the Govern
ment, conditions which allowed
them to capitalize the World War
for their own personal profit. They
believe that the Government is
something for them to live on,
while all others live under it.
At a public meeting recently,
such men Kissed the statement of
one speaker that this country,
with it's institutions, belongs to the
people who inhabit it. Whenever
they shall grow weary of the exist
ing government, they can exercise
their constitutional right of amend
ing it, or their revolutionary right
of Remembering and overthrowing
it," being ignorant, until they were
informed, that they had Kissed Alb
raham Lincoln's first inaugural adj
dress. Lincoln would have called
such men today what he called
them 81 years ago "They are the
vanguard, the miners and sappers
of returning despotism. We must
repulse them or they will subjugate
u.s."
Americanism. in terms Of the dol
lar, is that patriotism which Ben
Jonson defined as being 1.-The last
refuge of scoundrels." 1t must be
destroyed and replaced by the
Americanism of jefferson and of
Lincoln, which is marked by "its
superior devotion to the personal