144 THE CLASS STR JGGLE DOCUMENTS FOR FUTURE SOC. HISTORY 145 Our entrance into the European war was instigated by the predatory capitalists in the United States who boast of the enormous profit of seven billion dollars from the manufacture and sale of munitions and war supplies and from the exportation of American foodstuffs and other necessaries. They are also deeply interested in the continuance of war and the success of the allied arms through their huge loans to the governments of the allied powers and through their commercial ties. It is the same interests which strive for imperialistic domination of the Western Hemisphere.
The war of the United States against Germany cannot be justified even on the plea that it is a war in defense of American rights or American honor. Ruthless as the unrestricted submarine war policy of the German government was and is, it is not an invasion of the rights of the American people as such, but only an interference with the opportunity of certain groups of American capitalists to coin cold profits, out of the blood and sufferings of our fellow men in the warring countries of Europe.
It is not a war against the militarist regime of the Central Powers.
Militarism can never be abolished by militarism.
It is not a war to advance the cause of democracy in Europe. Democracy can never be imposed upon any country by a foreign power by force of arms.
It is cant and hypocricy to say that the war is not directed against the German people, but against the Imperial Government of Germany.
If we send an armed force to the battlefields of Europe, its cannon will TROW down the masses of the German people and not the Imperial German Government.
Our entrance into the European conflict at this time will serve only to multiply the horrors of the war, to increase the toll of death and destruction and to prolong the fiendish slaughter. It will bring death, suffering and destitution to the people of the United States and particularly to the working class. It will give the powers of reaction in this country the pretext for an attempt to throttle our rights and to crush our democratic institutions, and to fasten upon his country a permanent militarism.
The working class of the United States has no quarrel with the working class of Germany or of any other country. The people of the United States have no quarrel with the people of Germany or of any other country. The American people did not want and do not want this war.
They have not been consulted about the war and have had no part in declaring war. They have been plunged into this war by the trickery and treachery of the ruling class of the country through its representatives in the National Administration and National Congress, its demagogic agitators, its subsidized press, and other servile instruments of public expression.
We brand the declaration of war by our government as a crime against the people of the United States and against the nations of the world.
In all modern history there has been no war more unjustifiable than the war in which we are about to engage.
No greater dishonor has ever been forced upon a people than that which the capitalist class is forcing upon this nation against its will.
In harmony with these principles, the Socialist Party emphatically rejects the proposal that in time of war the workers should suspend their struggle for better conditions. On the contrary, the acute situation created by war calls for an even more vigorous prosecution of the class struggle, and we recommend to the workers and pledge ourselves to the following course of action. Continuous, active, and public opposition to the war, through demonstrations, mass petitions, and all other means within our power. Unyielding opposition to all proposed legislations for military or industrial conscription. Should such conscription be forced upon the people, we pledge ourselves to continuous efforts for the repeal of such laws and to the support of all inass movements in opposition to conscription. We pledge ourselves to oppose with all our strength any attempt fo raise money for payment of war expense by taxing the recessaries of life or issuing bonds which will put the burden upon future generations. We demand that the capitalist class, which is responsible for the war, pay its cost. Let those who kindled the fire furnish the fuel. Vigorous resistance to all reactionary measures, such as censorship of press and mails, restriction of the rights of free speech, assemblage, and organization, or compulsory arbitration and limitation of the right to strike. Consistent propaganda against military training and militaristic teaching in the public schools. Extension of the campaign of education among the workers to organize them into strong, class conscious, and closely unified political and industrial organizations, to enable them by concerted and harmonious mass action to shorten this war and to establish tasting peace. Widespread educational propaganda to enlighten the masses as to the true relation between capitalism and war and to rouse and organize them for action, not only against present war evils, but for the prevention of future wars and for the destruction of the causes of war. To protect the masses of the American people from the pressing danger of starvation which the war in Europe has brought upon them, and which the entry of the United States has already accentuated, we demand