_Appeal to Reason_
A vast amount of ignorant prejudice prevails against the red flag. It is
easily accounted for. The ruling class the wide world over hates it, and
its sycophants, therefore, must decry it.
Strange that the red flag should produce the same effect upon a tyrant
that it does upon a bull.
The bull is enraged at the very sight of the red flag, his huge frame
quivers, his eyes become balls of fire, and he paws the dirt and snorts
with fury.
The reason of this peculiar effect of a bit of red coloring upon the
bovine species we are not particularly interested in at this moment, but
why does it happen to excite the same rage in the czar, the emperor and
the king; the autocrat, the aristocrat and the plutocrat?
Ah, that is simple enough.
The red flag, since time immemorial, has symbolized the discontent of
the downtrodden, the revolt of the rabble.
That is its sinister significance to the tyrant and the reason of his
mingled fear and frenzy when the “red rag,” as he characterizes it,
insults his vision.
It is not that he is opposed to red as a color, or even as an emblem,
for he has it in his own flags and banners, and it never inflames his
passion when it is blended with other colors; but red alone, unmixed and
unadulterated, the pure red that symbolizes the common blood of the
human family, the equality of mankind, the brotherhood of the race, is
repulsive and abhorrent to him because it is at once an impeachment of
his title, a denial of his superiority and a menace to his power.
Precisely for the reason that the plutocrat raves at the red flag the
proletaire should revere it.
To the plutocrat it is a peril; to the proletaire a promise.
The red flag is an omen of ill, a sign of terror to every tyrant, every
robber and every vampire that sucks the life of labor and mocks at its
misery.
It is an emblem of hope, a bow of promise to all the oppressed and
downtrodden of the earth.
The red flag is the only race flag; it is the flag of revolt against
robbery; the flag of the working class, the flag of hope and high
resolve—the flag of Universal Freedom.