THE YOUNG SOCIALISTS" MAGAZINE•the people-instead of profits for service is anarchy or communismpart of the people.or atheism or free Jove.Fourth.-The new deal:Theself-employment of an who arewilling to work-by means of theoint ownership and joint controlof the th ~ngs the worRers mustuse collectively in productioD, eachto receive the product of his laborundimin:shed by rent, interest andprofits.This is the heart of the Socialistplatfoml. This is the core of theSocialist program of reconstruction.This part-the four propositionsabove-wiU never be "stolen"or "appropriated" by Bryans, LaFollettes, Roosev.e1ts, Progressives,PopUlists, Independents, Citizens'parties, or "Radicals." NothingJess than this would free the workingclass, and nothing less than thefreedom of the working class willsatisfy the <strong>Socialists</strong>. The AmenC!).D Revolution of the eighteenthcentury freed the American coloniesfrom the political control ofthe British Empire. And the quiet.peaceful revolution p ~oposed bythe <strong>Socialists</strong> is to set the workingclass free from the industrial cOntrolof the capitalist class. No otherpolitical party for a moment proposesthe freedom of the workingclass.This mutualism in industry willnot interfere with private affairs,such as religion and the family life,any morc than the mutual ownershipof tl-e public library now interfereswith such private affairs.This ' mutualism in industry willnot be a "dividing-up scheme" anyrnore than the rnutualism of thepublic park is a "deviding-upscheme."This mutualism in industry willDOt be anarchy or communism oratheism or free love any rnore thanthe mutualism of the postofficeThis mutualism in industry willleave an enonnous amount ofwealth in private hands as strictlyprivate property.Caution: Public ownership aloneis not Socialism. To illustrate:The railways in ru~ia are publiclyowned, but the capitalist class is inpossession and control of thepowers of government, and, naturally,the railways of Prussia aremanaged for the special benefit ofthe class in possession of thepowers of government The teachingof public ownership should alwaysbe accompanied by the teachingthat so long as there are twoclasses, the publicly owned propertycan be managed and naturally,inevitably, will be managed for thespecial benefit of the class that haspossession of the powers of government.Hence the necessity of the S0-cialist party. A party with whichto secure possession and control ofthe JX>wers of government for andby the working class. the classwhose interests would be served bythe overthrow of capitalist despot.ism and by fh~ new deal, by the reorganization,the reconstruction, ofindustrial society-to secure peace.plenty and justice for the workingclass, for all who are willing toto get what they want by employingthe peaceful and legal revolutionarymethods and means of aneducated, organized. class effort inindustry and politics.The Socialist party is the meanswith whic!l to educate the workingclass as to what capitalism is.With which to toditcate the workingclass Cl.$ to what the Socialist'spropose as a substitute for capitalism.With which to organize theworking class for the inaugurationof the program and policies ofSocialism.More About SeIf·ControlUnder a tree in India lies :lfilthy, aged, wrinkled man whomthe passersby regard with much respect.He holds up one ann ; heholds it steady ; and the day goesby, and still it is raised; day afterday it is held up. He has kept itin that position for years; the armis stiff and useless; it is like an armof wood or stone. The man is afakir (I.-keer), .nd the peoplegive, him money because they thinkhim a 1I0bie character. Do youthink so? No, indeed. The fakircan control his body in a remarkableway; but the control is of nouse to him or to anybody else in theworld.work.Think of the Swiss guides whoWe have industrial despotism. lead travellers . up and down the'We want industrial democracy. snowy Alps. They can commandRemember: if political despot • . their limbs SO skilfully that the footism is all wrong, then industrial never slips on the ice or on the nardespotismcannot be all right. row ledge. In 1894 an old guideThink it allover-what we have named Anderegg retired fromand what we ought to have. .work; he had met with no accident,George Washingtop. Alexander though he had climbed the loftyHamilton and their famous fltVo- mountains for forty years. Thislutionary friends did not like what self-control was useful to himself;they had, ~ they organized an and it was useful to ihe touristsanny to get what they wanted with whom he guided; they could trustsword. rifle and cannon.him amid the steep rocks and onThe <strong>Socialists</strong>, however, propose the rough ioe of the glaciers.To the Imperial Military Board:I am in receipt of your order ofSept. 6, commanding me to reportfor military service on Sept. 17.This is not the first order of thiskind I have received. Nor haveI more reason, to-day, to complywith it, than on previous occasions.On the contrary. The reasons thatlead me to refuse to render militaryservice for Gemlany haveincreased with the months thathave passed.But even if my determination,not to comply with your order. i,;unalterable, my ideas concerningmy attitude toward this order haveundergone a change.In the past years I ignored similarorders because I looked uponwar as something in which 1 hadno interest and, therefore, wasnone of my business. To-day Ilook upon this idc=a as one of brutalegotism. The terrible sufferingthese three years of war havebrought to all people and particularlyto the working class of allnations, the loss of millions ofyoung human beings, the senselessdestruction of glorious works ofart, the devastation of ancientforests and fruitful fields, andabove all, the terrible political effectsof the war, the unfetteringof blackest and most heartless reaction,the bloody persecution andoppression of freedom that alonecan become the basis of a last ingpeace; the increasing exploitationof my class-comrades in every nation,the growing employment ofwomen and children, throwing myclass back for a decade in itsstruggle for better conditions-allof these things have brought to methe conviction that it is not sufficientto ignore this war, that it isTHE YOUNG SOCIALISTS' MAGAZINEif LETTERrather the duty of every honest andhumane Socialist to fight with hiswhole strength and energy againstthis war, for peace. In the pastyear I have striven to act in accordancewith this realizati(ln.am using the opportunity that you rlatest order offers, to declare thisopenly before the world.The reasons that have led meto refuse to do military service inGermany are the outgrowth of mypolitical conceptions. I will refrainhere from defining the Socialistidea of fatherland. If youare even slightly familiar with S0-cialist literature, it mu st be familiarto you.I desire to emphasize particularlythat neither ethical nor pacifist argumentshave led me to refusemilitary service. I do not by anymeans roundly refuse participationin all wars. On the contrary. ,can conceive of wars in which rmost emphaticall y would do mypart: wars agai nst old, decayedforms of government that hamperthe progress of civilization, revolutionaryuprisings, which aim tobring about economic equalizationthrough a .Socialist social state.If I, therefore, refuse to renderservice of any kind in the presenlwar, it is because nowhere, noteven in Germany, it is be ing foughtfor greater freedom, for democracy,for higher culture; becauseit serves simply and only the defenseand the increase of capitalistintere~ts. In 1914 this opinion wasridiculed as an empty phrase of irresponsible<strong>Socialists</strong>. To-day it isopenly admitted by all seriousstatesmen and economists. Theworking-class is' as little interestedin the defense and increase of capitalistpower, as the sheep is interestedin the welfare of the wolf.The greater and the more gloriousGermany's victory in thi s war willbe the heavier will be the . weightof oppression that will crush theGerman working-class. This is afact that can ' be easily proven.1813 brought to the Gennan peoplenot freedom, but the terrors of :lblack reaction beforc whose onslaughtsmen like Jahn. Arndt andot hers fell. 1870 brought the Socialistexception laws to the Germanworking class. 1914 has pbcedthe whole nation under military·taw, and each new military victoryhas meant new reactionary measures.The recent conqucst of Rig.lhas resulk!d in the complf'tc suppressionof even the most modestdemocratic and parliamenta ryrigh ts. Perhaps Ihey may again berev ived if things at the front cometo a stand still. But it is certainthat the last breath of freedomwil l be stamped Ollt, if Petersburgfalls into the hands of the Germanarmy.You can find countless similarexamples. I desired only to proveto }'Oll with the few facts I havementioned, how diametrically opposedthe interests of the workingclass, of democracy, of progress~re to those of Imperialists, Generals,of war. And since I have ;1\,ways stood, with all my heart, onthe side of the former, you willunderstand that I will not fightagainst myself by accepting yourinvitation.Furthermore, it is not unimportantthat, in my opinion, the Germangovernment bears the heavyresponsibility for the outbreak ofthe war in 1914. I know that theeconomic and industrial causesr,CoIItilll.ed 00 p.ce 9)
• THE YOUNG SOCIALISTS' WAGAZINBnun .. SlCIIUs,s' llllZll_Or.... of the AmorIc:aa _.Slulday Schoo .. Ond YOIIlIC Poopl ...P-. .....Entered at Second·Ou. Mail MatterJune 2, 1911, at the po.t orfice at NewYork, N. Y .. under the Act of MarchJnI. 181lI.Publisbed Monthly at15 Spruce Street, New York,• by theSoci.llistic Co-operative Publ Ass'n.John Nagel. Pres. O. Knoll. Sec'yE. Ramm. 'Freas.Cbas. E~~ . Ru_1I and the<strong>Socialists</strong>13'y Eugene V. Deb.Charles Edward Russell made aspeech at Madison, 'Vis., somedays since, in which he is reportedas saying that the <strong>Socialists</strong> whoare opposed to the war are "dirtytraitors, and that they should bedriven out of the country," We as.sUme that :Mr. Russell is correctlyquoted as it is not probable that hewould be misrepresented by hisfriends, the capitalist newspapers,and for the further reason that thelanguage above Quoted is ~ nearlike that used by him on otheroccasions.Now, when 01arles EdwardRussell came out in favor of war,we did not denounce him as atraitor. A few <strong>Socialists</strong> were bit~r in their criticisms of his action,but they did not ew.n question hismotive. We are not going to de-10unce him as a traitor now. 'Weare simply going to leave him totime and to his own conscience.When Mr. Russell denounces hisfonner Socialist comrades, 9S percent. of whom did not agree withhim, a.s ';dirty traitors," and whenhe suggests that they should be"driven from the country," he isscarcely less severe than he was afew short months ago in denouncingthe crowd with which he is nowtrailing. It is only necessary tolook over the files of the ComingNation when Mr. Russell haddlarge of its editorial columns, andsome of his magazine and newspaperarticles, to see that he denouncedas crooks, grafters andthieves these very men.No one attacked Elihu Rootmore fiercely as a Wall Street tooland a public enemy than CharlesEdward Russel1, but now Mr.Russen receives him with openwhich furnished the motives forarms, and jointly and severallythese twin darlings denounce astraitors those who are for peace,and want them driven out of thecountry.Charles Edward Russell has thesatisfacHon of knowing that he isnow welcomed by those he once sofiercely assailed as pirates andplunderers as Elihu Root himself.His every word in slandering hisfonner comrades is heralded in theplutocratic press, and he is editor~ially eulogized by the "kept press"he was once so fond of castigating.Poor Russell I He will pay dearlyepough before he gets through.To-MorrowIn the land of To-morrow, nearthe entrance gate, two newlyemancipatedhuman soul s met faceto . face. They had just arrivedfrom a region called the Earth.For a moment they stared at eachother wonderingly, as though bothhad a vague remembrance of h av~ing met somewhere before.One was a strong and beautifulspirit, with shining garments and avisage that was radiant with light,peace, and contentment. The otherwas shabby and puny, her facewrinkled, pinched, and grey withgloom, and she cowered andtremble
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