148 THE CLASS STRUGGLE 149 DOCUMENTS FOR FUTURE SOC, HISTORY We demand that there shall be no conscription of men until the American people shall have been given the right to vote upon it. Under the British empire the people of Australia were permitted to decide by ballot whether they should be conscripted. We demand for the American people the same right. We demand that the government seize, and operate for the benefit of the whole people, the great industries concerned with production, transportation, storage and marketing of the food and other necessities of the people. We demand that the government seize all suitable vacant land, and have the same cultivated for the purpose of furnishing food supplies for the national use. We demand that the government take over and operate all land and water transportation facilities, all water powers and irrigation plants, mines, forests and oil fields, and all industrial monopolies, and that this be done at once, before the nation shall suffer calamity from the failure of their capitalist direction and management under war pressure. Emil Seidel, Garrett Thorn, Job Harriman, Mahlon Barnes, George Goebel, Anna Maley, Wassing, Elda Conley, Stewart, Young, Braun, Mary Raoul Millis, Bowman, Harold Metcalf, Collins, Frederick Krafft, Valentine Bausch, Murray King, Conley, Smith, Duke, John Spargo, Cameron King, Jones, Robert Buech, Cora Davenport, Gaylord, Florence Wattles, Walter Milliard, Cumbie, Porter, Atwood, Catton, Russell, Ingmar Iverson, Butler, Thompson, Neilson, Milo Jones, Moore, Sechrist, Leonard Johnson, Tuttle, Houchin, Stair, Semple, Lewis, Leo Krzkcki, Barnette, Clay Fulks, Fred Fairchild, Walter Thomas Mills, Ida Beloof, Loomis.
ostensible purpose.
We believe that the interests of the great toiling masses cannot possibly be served by any such war. And we particularly warn the workers against the snare and delusion of so called defensive wars and wars for the alleged furtherance oi democracy, Modern wars are not, except under very exceptional circumstances, waged for the purpose of subjugating free peoples who have achieved such a degree of civilization as to have a modern working class as one of its component elements, and none of the great civilized nations are in danger of being subjugated by any other nation. There can, therefore, be no question, at least in so far as the great civilized nations are concerned, of any nation needing defense against actual subjugation. The defense needed. even in the case of a genuine defensive war is almost always of some interest of the capitalist class, usually a trade interest or the right and privilege to subjugate or exploit some backward race or country.
In the few and exceptional cases where the danger of actual subjugation may exist the case of the few small civilized nations occupying a seacoast coveted by their stronger neighbors the right of self defense would be unavailing, and they would never dream of asserting it against one of the great powers but for the help which they may expect from small nations, mere pawns in the game of world politics played by the big, inodern nations, a game in which the working class has nothing to gain and considerable to lose whenever it attempts to play it in partnership with its ruling class.
This does not mean that we are indifferent to the independence of small nations, or to the right of all nations, great or small, to live their own lives in their own way, and to work out their own destinies. On the contrary, we feel very strongly on the subject. Socialism can only be brought about by the efforts of free men, and must be based on the fullest liberty of all races and nations.
But we believe and assert that the only security for the independence of small nations lies in the ethical concepts and economic interests of the revolutionary proletariat.
The same is true of the progress of democracy. We are not indifferent to the fate of democracy. On the contrary, we believe that the Socialist Movement is particularly charged with the duty of preserving and extending all democratic institutions. But we also know that the revolutionary working class is the only social force either willing or capable of doing it.
We deny that any of the nations engaged in this war fight for democracy, or that the ends of democracy in any way will be served by either side to the conflict winning a complete victory. This war is primarily the result of the economic forces which have brought about the imperialistic era in which we live, and of the general reactionary trend which is one of the most essential characteristics of this era.
Minority Report on War Not submitted to referendum vote.
Minority report of the committee on war and militarism, submitted by Louis Boudin, signed by Boudin, Kate Sadler and Walter Dillon.
In this grave hour in the history of this country, we, the representatives of the Socialist Party of the United States, in special convention assembled, deem it our duty to place before the membership of the Socialist Party and the working class of America a succinct statement of our position on the questions involved, and to outline a program of action which we believe to be in the interest of workers of this country to follow.
At the very outset we desire to declare our unalterable opposition to all wars declared and prosecuted by any ruling class, no matter what the