THE REVOLUTIONARY AGE Saturday, May 3, 1919 Welcome. Soldiers and Sailors. HEN the United States entered the war the By Eadmonn MacAlpine have his culogizers. In almost every case he has reW probleme or withdrawing te ved millionay milu fused to scab. case point is furnished in Holyoke, from industry was one of the vital topics of man, does not want men who have developed the Massachusetts: In one of the shops 200 boiler makers the day. Many suggestions of more or less value independence and self reliance that comes to those were offered whereby this huge depletion of industry who have stared death in the face.
went on strike against a cut in wages. About thirty could be effected without throwing the whole indussoldiers were sent to the plant from Springfield, a The master dearly loves a willing slave, and the distance of about ten miles. When they arrived the trial machinery out of gear. The army of unemployed, employe whose slave training is unbroken by adventure strikers pickets informed them that the shop was on which is one of the concomitants of Capitalism, and the influx of women into industry, however, solved The man who has daily brushed shoulders with death strike, whereupon the soldiers unanimously refused to th problem without the aid of the experts. Never is not likely to cower before a foreman glance. And back to Springfield because they were unable to afford theless much ink was spilled and great anxiety the so the returned soldier welcome ceases when he re the carfare. Incidents of this kind are numerous and But now that we are faced with the much greater labor market. He has been welcomed and feted and not only is the soldier unwilling to become a striketurns to civilian life and offers himself for sale in the the evidence obtainable overwhelmingly proves that problem of turning two million men back into industry he must step down to make room for the next batch breaker but he actively sympathizes with the strikers.
tlre experts, for the most part, are silent and the newswho will be welcomed and feted in its turn.
papers and magazines are apparently ignorant of the going out on the picket lines with his foriner fellow entire subject. The soldier, who during the war was But the returned soldier nust live, he inust find workers, as in Butte, Seattle, Lawrence, Paterson, and a hero, the idol of the crowd, the darling of the nation, employment, and what better occupation could he get Newark. In fact, the presence of soldiers in uniform has now become a disagreeable problem. He is no than assisting in the welcome to his brothers in arnis? on the picket lines las caused an order to be issued longer mentioned in polite society. After he has been new industry is created by the spirit of welcome, which amounts to prohibiting the soldier from striking brought back, paraded through the streets and flags and buttons proclaiming the welcome are manu or taking part in a strike in his capacity as a returned showered with the verbal laurels, he is expected to factured and offered for sale. And who can refuse soldier.
return to the obscurity from which he sprang and to to buy from a soldier, especially if he has been wound So long, however, as the soldier acts as an individual.
take his place in the ranks of the jobless, not as a ed in the country service? Here is the solution of so long he will be subjected to these indignities; no returned soldier, wearing a uniform with service the problem! Let the soldier sell the welcome buttons matter how much he sympathizes with his brother in chevrons and would stripes on the sleeves, but as the soldier is kept busy, the public is ashamed to the shop he will be powerless to help him, no matter an ordinary member of the proletariat, who through refuse the salesman, and the manufacturer makes how pitiful is his own plight he will be powerless to hard luck is out of a job, to whom society owes notn. money.
help himself. The only solution is organization. But ing and who must expect nothing from society.
Thus the streets of our cities are swarming with the organization must be along industrial lines, along When he insists on looking for work in his uniform soldiers in uniform, offering gaudy buttons and bunt the lines of his class. Societies similar to those formed he is covertly reproached for his lack of taste, and ings for sale. Fine up standing fellows are reduced by the veterans of other wars are worse than useless when he very naturally replies that he is in uniform to street hawking, and street hawking is a hard job. as they use the soldier against himself. Mutual admirbecause he has no civilian clothes, society assumes an The returns are sinali, the hours of work are long and ation societies, however much they may pander to air of injured dignity and says something must be the experience is humiliating. After a spell of this the vanity of the individual soldier, are a danger to his done. The something usually takes the form of a work the spirit is broken and the slave psychology interests and invariably degenerate into a machine for charity bazaar or concert, and when it is found that again gains the ascendency. Any job, where the utilizing his vote in the interests of a particular group the soldier cannot be comfortably disposed of in the begging element is absent, is welcome and the fore of politicians.
same way as our industrial cripples by relegation to man glance regains its old power.
The soldier and sailor must organize, not as heroes an institution society becomes very annoyed indeed It is only fair to give honor where honor is due, but as men. They must unite with the workers in and leaves him to his own resources, It must not be assurred, however, that the returned the returned soldiers. New York is a notable and some cities have attempted to make provision for industry. They inust organize without any letters they mu themselves control the organizsoldier is not welcomed. On the contrary, he is very The city fathers have decided that soldiers shall have ation. They must recognize their citizenship, their blazon forth the fact to the world by night, while welcome. All the newspapers say so, electric sigas precedence in the matter of licences for newstands, basic unity of interest with their brothers in industry Every railroad in the country announces the fack; for a living is depended upon to render the soklier the workers through Soldiers. Sailors and Workers Councils.
blind to the fact that in this manner old men and aldermanic resolutions inscribe on city records women will be deprived of their livelihood and the The bourgeois statesmen of the world have provedl triumphal arches, monuments of the contractors art city fathers know that it is easier to deal with starving their inability to face the real problems arising out of ation. establish it beyond dispute. There is no lack hawkers than with out of work soldiers.
of the external symbols of welcome. And every sucThe provisions made by a grateful country for its alike in power and ability. If the world is to be saved ceeding troopship that reaches port is a signal for returned soldiers have not yet been exhausted. The froin future misery and chaos the proletariat must new parades. But after being welcomed the soldier sweep of revolution across the world has not left decide, and the soldiers and sailors are by no means is supposed to gracefully disappear.
America unnioved. Labor is everywhere manifesting the least important sections of the proletariat. OrganWhen he sailed away to France, service flags were the spirit of unrest and strikes are a daily occurrence, ization along the proper lines is the solution of the flung to the breeze. Every employer hung out a 60 the soldier is offered the job of strike breaking immediate problems facing the soldiers and sailors.
banner, the number of whose stars told the immensity Himself suffering under the rule of the industrial of the sacrifice made by the firm in allowing its em barons the soldier is expected to jump at the offer of If those who have already returned will form and to march off to war, hired new employes and earning a few dollars by scabbing on his brother in perfect such organization they can assure their brothforgot about the matter until the casualty list caused industry who is in revolt against intolerable conditions. ers in arms, who are yet across the seas, a real Welthe substitution of a gold star for one of the blue ones.
nes. Being hardened in the fire of war the soldier is come Home, a welcome in which the men and women Now the service flags have disappeared, and the sug thought to be impervious to the plea of the women in the workshops, factories, fields and mines the men gestion that it should be replaced by a Aag showing and children out of whose mouths he is to snatch the the number of returned soldiers reinstated in their bread! This is the final insult heaped on the soldier and women who want to welcome Jack and Bill and old jobs is quietly ignord. The truth of the matter by the professional patriots.
Tom can join without the reservation caused by fear is that the employe first and last a business But the soklier has a better opinion of himself than of unemployment in their hearts.
example. patent ployes Lenin or Wilson. the Bourgeoisie Scents Danger geois IF one could, for a moment, take himself to the skies By Nicholas Hourwich France and Italy and in England, too, are eagerly and secure a bird eye view of the starmy, bloody waiting to strike great blows for the International, struggle, the sufferings and tears that are agonizing particularly, if you are capable of reading between and that the signal for these blows would be the Red our world, it wold appear clearly as a struggle between the linės the real situation which evokes this spirit Flag waving over Berlin and the message that the Bolshevism and Capitalism a deadly clash between of resignation is that the fate of the world is being Red Armies of Russia, Prussia, Bavaria, Austria and the new, glorious proletarian communist society to decided, not in Berlin, but in Moscow. Berlin Hungary were marching to the help of their comrades wards which humanity is advancing, and the old rott in this case, plays the part of a dam which holds in Paris and in Rome.
ing capitalist system which is desperately trying to back the Bolshevik revolutionary stream that threat Red Flag and the Hymn of the International are save itself from destruction.
eus to flood the whole of Europe.
neither one new to France or to Itaaly And there The ultimate result of this clash which the bour It is not surprising that the thought of the writer of are millions of Frenchmen and Italians ready to be press, accustomed to think in terins of great the editorial runs ahead of events, and paints a lurid led to march under the blood colored bånner, singing men, calls a struggle between Lenin and Wilson picture, full of horrors, of what may happen when the schemot at this picture painted by his imagination, is foretold.
At this moment, the forces of this last defense of Europe against anarchy will be the two opponents are almost cqual: but the forces destroyed and Prussia fall into the hands of the the writer of the American editorial turns to the of one, the revolutionary proletariat, grow and multi Reds.
ply, while the forces of the other, Capitalism, are rap And the picture, indeed, is a terrible one. The with the appeal to lessen their bellicose spirit and idly on the wanc. It governments of Europe will tumble in swift spare deinocratic Germany, and not to throw it is quite natural, accordingly, that a view of this ruins. It is impossible that either the French or into the embrace of the reds by too exacting and great spectacle of struggle and revolution provokes Italian Governments can retain power over their pro humiliatinger the American cautions severely, but a feeling of sadness in the bourgeois press.
letariats if the resources and population of Germany Remember, Precisely this spirit is wafted from an editorial re and Austria are added to the vast territory and the at the same time softly remember, if Berlin falls cently appearing in the big bourgeois paper, the New millions of people over which the Red Flag now beneath the blows of Bolslicvisin, the Peace ConferYork American. ence will be lucky if it can find ships to carry its mem The fate of the world is being decided not in Paris. And, for the information of those who doubt that bers away from Europe.
hat in Berlin. This is the tragic announcement, at France and Italy might become victims of Bolshe Have not these words of caution something to the very beginning of the clitorial. But as you may vism, the 4mcrican says: do with events at Murmansk among the American gan from a further reading of the editorial, and Every well informed man knows that the Reds in troops, and our own situation in this country?
other demands.
waves.