8 THE REVOLUTIONARY AGE Saturday, January 25, 1919 The Background of Bolshevism OM January 15th, in the year of Our Lord 1919, By John Reed We are still beset and bedevilled by half official, and the 142nd year of American Independence, Dr. Zucker then went on to say that he would half private strike breaking and spying organizations two months after the end of the War, Dr. rather fight in the Revolutionary Armies of a So like the National Security League and the American Morris Zucker, American citizen, was convicted on cialist Republic than in the conscript armies of a Capi Defense Society, who, now that there is no longer any four counts under the Espionage Act, in the Federal talist state. What Socialist will not agree with him, pretext for pursuing German agents, turn their atCourt of Brooklyn.
no matter in which country of the world he lives? tention to checking the spread of Bolshevism.
According to The World, the speech for which he Many times our useless rich, our idle parasites who Might is what these agencies have. Might is the was convicted, which was a protest against the sol live on the labor of others for example, American sole weapon by which the capitalist class preserves its diers attacks on Socialist meetings, contained the fol heiresses who marry foreign nobles have said that hegemony the might of economic terrorism, the lowing treasonable sentences. they preferred to be citizens of another country, and might of controlling the price of living necessities. America is becoming today what Russia used to have expatriated themselves and the kept press ap the might of police and constabularies, expressed by be in the old, old days.
plauds.
the courts of criminal law. Here in America they may tear the red flag from This country of ours used to be the refuge for the It is usually the practice of Socialists and labor our hands, but they only implant it more firmly in our world oppressed. From Germany, Austria, Po leaders convicted under the Espionage Act to praise hearts.
land, Bohemia in 48, they came; from the Russia of the fairness of the court that tried them. am in While confess, my friends, claimed exemption the Czar, from landlord ridden Ireland; from south clined to believe that most stories of the sort are in America, if were in Germany or Russia would ern Italy groaning under the weight of superstition apocryphal. Any Socialist knows that under the diconly be too proud to fight in the first line trenches.
and poverty; from the Asia of the Turk. The influx tatorship of the capitalist class in which we live, the (i. e. in a Revolutionary Army. new blood into free America reached hundreds courts of law are administered in the interests of the Yes, it is might that we are after.
of thousands every year. And yet when the war broke ruling class, and the law is interpreted according to Next Thanksgiving Day we will celebrate the fact out we discovered to our astonishment that lately most those interests.
that the United States recognizes the red flag as the of these people had refused to become American citi But, it will be answered, there is the jury sysflag of democracy.
zens had deliberately rejected the manifold privi tem.
Assistant District Attorney Buchner, in demanding leges of American citizenship.
The jury system! Whoever heard of a Socialist a heavy sentence, gave as his pretext a desire to check Why? Is it, as the National Security League al knowingly drawn on a jury panel? And if he were, the spread of Bolshevism.
leges, because immigrants are ignorant of the ad how many times do you remember a Socialist being In his argument, Prosecutor Buchner is reported to vantages of American citizenship? Is it because they permitted to sit on a jury in a political case against have said: Native Americans never had occasion to do not understand our glorious institutions. No, a worker? If a juryman admits to being a Socialist, protest against the Espionage Act, insofar as the right it is because they have been exploited and starved he is challenged or excused for cause. This also of free speech is concerned.
and clubbed and brutalized generally by the Ameri applies to social workers, and indeed to anyone who That is a lic deliberate lie. Eugene Debs, can industrial system and its agents, the American displays either intelligence about economic questions, native American, had occasion to protest against the police and the American courts. It is for this reason or democratic leanings of a Jeffersonion nature, or Espionage Act; Bill Haywood, native American, had that foreigners come here to make money, to save for sympathy with the under dog.
such occasion; all Socialists, native born or foreign a few years and accumulate a little sum upon which Naturally, therefore, the jury is carefully weeded out born, all champions of the working class in this coun they could not live if they remained in America, but until all that remain are petty bourgeois who think try, of whatever origin, have had occasion to protest upon which they can have a decent life when they that Socialism means Free Love and a reign of thievagainst the Espionage Act, which has been used by return to their own backward lands. For some ery and class conscious members of the ruling the capitalist class, through the agencies of our Gov time the tide of really valuable immigration has been class.
ernment, to wage the class struggle and which even setting homeward and after the war, when in every What chance has a Socialist or labor leader before now, after the ending of the War, is so used. European country some form of People Government such a court?
Let us examine the statements of Dr. Zucker one will rule, mayhe who knows? even American work But worse. There are, as everyone knows, persons by one. What is the difference between the pogroms ers will want to find a country where they have some who remain on the jury panel year after year pro.
against Socialist meetings, instituted by our money voice in the Government.
fessional jurors. Their business is to convictor patriots, with the aid of returning soldiers, and the Yes, said Dr. Zucker, it is might we are after. else they are liable to lose their chance to earn two pogroms instituted by similar elements in Czarist Rus This is true. The workers of the United States are dollars a day. This applies even to the Federal juries sia against the Jews? The suppression of political now confronted with brute force, the naked force of in New York. In San Francisco the jury which conmeetings, the censorship of political opinions in the the capitalist class, which does not even deign, itself, to victed Tom Mooney was drawn from a list notorious press, the arbitrary arrests, the irresponsible menaces obey the law. It has been proven that Mooney was for its professional character.
When the official organs of justice themselves disreof the police, these do resemble conditions in Czarist convicted on porjured evidence, deliberately manufac gard the law, what is there left but might. When Russia. And why should such a comparison be contured by an official of the law who shamelessly did the political ballot is cancelled by the money power sidered seditious, when the Allied armies are sup the will of corrupt financial interests and Mooney is which corrupts or nullifies the men we elect to repreporting in Russia those forces which desire to restore in prison for life. It is proven that the mine owners sent and govern us, what is there left but to oppose it the Czar?
of Bisbee and other Arizona towns deportd into the with some other kind of power? When, in this land of the free, men are sent to prison for ten and twenty Here in America they tear the red nag from our desert, without any warrant of law, several thousand hands That is also true, and should be a cause striking miners and their sympathizers, and even their in the Empire of the Russian Czar when conscienyears for political offenses punishm :nts unparalleled for self congratulation to those who are attempting to legal representatives, and attempted to starve them tious objectors are tortured more fiendishly, and mili check the spread of Bolshevism. That they only there and yet these bandits are freed from prosecu tary offenders broken more brutally, than ever under plant it more firmly in our hearts is also inevitably tion by officers of the Government. It is proven that the autocracy of the German Kaiser, what are we to true, as the authorities would realize if they knew any the great corporations, such as the Bethlehem Steel do but to resist? When the whole ruling class of this Company, who took advantage of the war to makė make the world safe for Democracy, turns with the country, thing of the psychology of loyalty to symbols.
the end of a war supposedly waged to But they do not. They think, when with curses and huge profits out of the Government, now cynically reutmost cynicism to strengthening its own brutal power the threat of punishment they force an American to fuse to perform the agreement they made with an at the expense of the workers, and all the answer to stand up when the Sar Spangled Banner is played, agency of the United States Government, the War our protests is a speech by Mr. Wilson that sounds that they have planted it firmly in our hearts. And Labor Poaril, concerning treatment of their workers. like an editorial in the Nero Republic, what in God they also think that when they tear the red flag from It is plain to everyone who reads the papers that the name are we to do except abolish it? do not believe, with Dr. Zucker, that next Thanksour hands. they are checking the spread of Bolshe capitalist class of this country is dumping on the lavism. No, they are spreading Bolshevism. bor market, with absolute indifference to the wide riving Day we will celebrate the fact that the United States recognizes the red flag of democracy. But Are men to be imprisoned for speaking the truth spread human misery which follows, hundreds of is certain that if the present state of affairs continues.
openly? Well, then, they will speak it privately, with thousands of workers who surrendered their defensive the red fag must soon begin to assume that signififar more effect because of that very fact.
power at the call of patriotism.
cance.