JIMMIE HIGGINS HELPS THE KAISER
I
Jimmie Higgins regarded with the utmost resentment the determination
of the war to come to Leesville, in spite of all his labours to keep
it out. Take the most preposterous thing you could imagine--the most
idiotic thing on the face of the earth--take German spies! When
Jimmie heard people talking about German spies, he laughed in their
faces, he told them they were a bunch of fools, they belonged in the
nursery; for Jimmie classed German spies with goblins, witches and
sea-serpents. And here suddenly the bewildered little man found
himself in the midst of a German spy mania, the like of which he
could never have dreamed!
Everybody seemed to take it for granted that the Empire Machine
Shops had been burned by German agents; they just knew it, and by
the time the fire was out they had a hundred various stories to
support their conviction. The fire had leaped from place to place in
a series of explosions; the watchman, who had passed through the
building only two minutes before, had rushed back and seen blazing
gasolene, and had almost lost his life in the sweep of the flames.
And next morning the Leesville Herald was out with letters half a
foot high, telling these tales and insisting that the plant had been
full of German agents, disguised as working men.
Before the day was by the police had arrested a dozen perfectly
harmless German and Austrian labourers; at least that was the way it
seemed to Jimmie, because of the fact that two of the men were
members of the Socialist local. Somebody told Mrs. Meissner that all
the Germans in Leesville were to be arrested, and the poor woman was
trembling with terror. She wanted her husband to run away, but
Jimmie persuaded them that this would be the worst possible course;
so Meissner stayed in the house, and Jimmie kept his mouth shut for
three whole days--an extraordinary feat for him, and a trial more
severe than being in gaol.
He had lost his job--for ever, he thought. But in this again he
misjudged the forces which had taken his life in their grip--the
power of the gold which had come to Leesville by way of Russia. The
day after the fire he received word to report for work again; old
man Granitch was so anxious to keep his workers out of the clutches
of the Hubbard Engine Company that he put them all, skilled and
unskilled, at the job of clearing away the debris of the fire! And
five days later came the first carloads of new material, brought on
motor-trucks, and the rebuilding of the Empire Shops began. Would
you believe it--some of the machinery which had not been damaged too
much in the fire was fixed up, and at the end of a couple of weeks
was starting up again, covered by a temporary canvas shelter, and
with the walls of the new building rising round it!
That was the kind of thing which made America the marvel of the
world. It had made old man Granitch young again, people said; he
worked twenty hours a day in his shirt-sleeves, and the increase in
his profanity was appalling. Even Lacey Granitch, his dashing son,
quitted the bright lights of Broadway and came home to help the old
man keep his contracts. The enthusiasm for these contracts became as
it were the religion of Leesville; it spread even to the ranks of
labour, so that Jimmie found himself like a man in a surf,
struggling to keep his feet against an undertow.
II
The plans for the Worker were delayed, for the reason that when
Comrade Mary Allen, the Quaker, went to look for Jerry Coleman the
day after the fire, that dispenser of ten dollar bills had
mysteriously disappeared. It was a week before he showed up again;
and meantime fresh events had taken place, both in the local and
outside. To begin with the latter, as presumably the more important,
an English passenger liner, the pride of the Atlantic fleet, loaded
to the last cabin with American millionaires, was torpedoed without
warning by a German submarine. More than a thousand men, women and
children went down, and the deed sent a shudder of horror through
the civilized world. At the meeting of Local Leesville, which
happened to take place the evening afterward, it proved a difficult
matter to get business started.
The members stood about and argued. What could you say about a
government that ordered a crime like that? What could you say about
a naval officer who would carry out such an order? Thus Comrade
Norwood, the young lawyer; and Schneider, the brewer, answered that
the German government had done everything that any reasonable man
could ask. It had published a notice in the New York papers, to the
effect that the vessel was subject to attack, and that anyone who
travelled on her would do so at his peril. If women and children
would ride on munition-ships--
“Munition-ships?” cried Norwood; and then Schneider pointed to a
news-dispatch, to the effect that the Lusitania had had on board a
shipment of cartridge-cases.
“A fine lot of munitions!” jeered the lawyer.
Well, was the reply, what were cartridge-cases for, if not to kill
Germans? The Germans had been attacked by the whole world, and they
had to defend themselves. When you looked at Comrade Schneider, you
saw a man who felt himself attacked by the whole world; his face was
red up to the roots of his hair, and he was ready to defend himself
with any weapon he could get hold of.
Comrade Koeln, a big glass-blower, broke into the discussion. The
German government was authority for the statement that the Lusitania
had been armed with guns. And when Norwood hooted at this, every
German in the room was up in arms. What did he have to disprove it?
The word of the British government! Was not “perfidious Albion” a
byword!
“The thing that beats me,” declared the young lawyer, “is the way
you Germans stand up for the Kaiser now, when before the war you
couldn't find enough bad things to say about him.”
“What beats me,” countered Schneider, “is how you Americans stand up
for King George. Every newspaper in Wall Street howling for America
to go into the war--just because some millionaires got killed!”
“You don't seem to realize that the greater number of the men who
lost their lives on that ship were working men!”
“Ho! Ho!” hooted Comrade Stankewitz. “Vall Street loves so the
vorking men!”
Comrade Mary Allen, who loved all men, took up the argument. If
those working men had been killed in a mine disaster, caused by
criminal carelessness and greed for profits; if they had died of
some industrial disease which might easily have been prevented; if
they had been burned in a factory without fire-escapes--nobody in
Wall Street would have wanted to go to war. And, of course, every
Socialist considered this was true; every Socialist saw quite
clearly that the enormity of the Lusitania sinking lay in the fact
that it had reached and injured the privileged people, the people
who counted, who got their names in the papers and were not supposed
to be inconvenienced, even by war. So it was possible for Jimmie
Higgins, even though shocked by what the Germans had done, to be
irritated by the fuss which the Wall Street newspapers made.
Young Emil Forster spoke, and they listened to him, as they always
did. It was a quarrel, he said--and as usual in quarrels, both sides
had their rights and wrongs. You had to balance a few English and
American babies against the millions of German babies which the
British government intended to starve. It was British sea-power
maintaining itself--and of course controlling most of the channels
of publicity. It appealed to what it called “law”--that is to say,
the customs it had found convenient in the past. British cruisers
were able to visit and search vessels, and to take off their crews;
but submarines could not do that, so what the British clamour about
“law” amounted to was an attempt to keep Germany from using her only
weapon. After all, ask yourself honestly if it was any worse to
drown people quickly than to starve them slowly.
And then came “Wild Bill”. This wrangling over German and British
gave him a pain in the guts. Couldn't they see, the big stiffs, that
they were playing the masters' game? Quarrelling among themselves,
when they ought to be waking up the workers, getting ready for the
real fight. And wizened-up little Stankewitz broke in again--that
vas vy he hated var, it divided the vorkers. There was nothing you
could say for var. But “Wild Bill” smiled his crooked smile. There
were several things you could say. War gave the workers guns, and
taught them to use them; how would it be if some day they turned
these guns about and fought their own battles?
III
Comrade Gerrity now took the chair and made an effort to get things
started. The minutes of the last meeting were read, new members were
voted on, and then Comrade Mary Allen rose to report for the Worker
committee. The fund had been completed, the first number of the
paper was to appear next week, and it was now up to every member of
the local to get up on his toes and hustle as never in his life
before. Comrade Mary, with her thin, eager face of a religious
zealot, made everyone share her fervour.
All save Lawyer Norwood. Since the retirement of Dr. Service he was
the chief pro-ally trouble-maker, and he now made a little speech.
He had been agreeably surprised to learn that the money had been
raised so quickly; but then certain uncomfortable doubts having
occurred to him, he had made inquiries and found there was some
mystery about the matter. It was stated that the new paper was to
demand a general strike in the Empire; and of course everybody knew
there were powerful and sinister forces now interested in promoting
strikes in munition factories.
“Wild Bill” was on his feet in an instant. Had the comrade any
objection to munition workers demanding the eight hour day?
“No,” said Norwood, “of course not; but if we are going into a fight
with other people, we surely ought to know who they are and what
their purpose is. I have been informed--there seems to be a little
hesitation in talking about it--that a lot of money has been put up
by one man, and nobody knows who that man is.”
“He's an organizer for the A. F. of L.!” The voice was Jimmie's. In
his excitement the solemn pledge of secrecy was entirely forgotten!
“Indeed!” said Norwood. “What is his name?”
Nobody answered.
“Has he shown his credentials?” Again silence.
“Of course, I don't need to tell men as familiar with union affairs
as the comrades here that every bona-fide organizer for a union
carries credentials. If he does not produce them, it is at least
occasion for writing to the organization and finding out about him.
Has anybody done that?”
Again there was silence.
“I don't want to make charges,” said Norwood--
“Oh, no!” put in “Wild Bill”. “You only want to make insinuations!”
“What I want to do is merely to make sure that the local knows what
it is doing. It is no secret anywhere in Leesville that money is
being spent to cause trouble in the Empire. No doubt this money has
passed through a great many hands since it left the Kaiser's, but we
may be sure that his hands are guiding it to its final end.”
And then what an uproar! “Shame! Shame!” cried some; and others
cried, “Bring your proofs!” The “wild” members shouted, “Put him
out!” They had long wanted to get rid of Norwood, and this looked to
be their chance.
But the young lawyer stood his ground and gave them shot for shot.
They wanted proofs, did they? Suppose they had learned of a
capitalist conspiracy to wreck the unions in the city; and suppose
that the Leesville Herald had been clamouring for “proofs”--what
would they have thought?
“In other words,” shouted Schneider, “you know it's true, yust
because it's Yermany!”
“I know it's true,” said Norwood, “because it would help Germany to
win the war. One doesn't have to have any other evidence--if a
certain thing will help Germany to win the war, one knows that thing
is being done. All you Germans know that, and what's more, you're
proud of it; it's your efficiency that you boast.”
Again there was a cry of “Shame! Shame!” But the cry came from
Comrade Mary, the Quaker lady, and it was evident that she had
expected a chorus, and was disconcerted at being alone.
Young Norwood, who knew his Germans, laughed scornfully. “Just now
your government is selling bonds in America, supposed to be for the
benefit of the families of the dead and wounded. Some of those bonds
have been taken in this city, as I happen to know. Does anybody
really believe the money will reach the families of the dead and
wounded?”
This time the Germans answered. “I belief it!” roared Comrade Koeln.
“And I! And I!” shouted others.
“That money is staying right here in Leesville!” proclaimed the
lawyer. “It is preparing a strike in the Empire!”
A dozen men wanted the floor at once. Schneider, the brewer, got it,
for the reason that he could outbellow anyone else. “What does the
comrade want?” he demanded. “Is he not for the eight hour day?”
“Has he got any of the old man Granitch's money?” shrilled “Wild
Bill”. “Or maybe he doesn't know that Granitch is spending money to
get smart young lawyers to help keep his munition slaves at work?”
IV
Norwood, having thrown the fat into the fire, sat down for a while
and let it blaze. When the Germans taunted him with being afraid to
say what he really meant--that the local should oppose the demand
for the eight hour day--he merely laughed at them. He had wanted to
make them show themselves up, and he had done it. Not merely were
they willing to do the work of the Kaiser--they were willing to take
the Kaiser's pay for doing it!
“Take his pay?” cried “Wild Bill”. “I'd take the devil's pay to
carry on Socialist propaganda!”
Old Hermann Forster rose and spoke, in his gentle sentimental voice.
If it were true that the Kaiser was paying money for such ends, he
would surely find he had bought very little. There were Socialists
in Germany, one must remember--
And then came a shrill laugh. Those tame German Socialists! It was
Comrade Claudel, a Belgian jeweller, who spoke. Would any rabbit be
afraid of such revolutionists as them? Eating out of the Kaiser's
hand--having their papers distributed in the trenches for government
propaganda! Talk to a Belgian about German Socialists!
So you saw the European national lines splitting Local Leesville in
two: on the one side, the Germans and the Austrians, the Russian
Jews, the Irish and the religious pacifists; on the other side, two
English glass-blowers, a French waiter, and several Americans who,
because of college-education or other snobbish weakness, were
suspected of tenderness for John Bull. Between these extreme
factions stood the bulk of the membership, listening bewildered,
trying to grope their way through the labyrinth.
It was no easy job for these plain fellows, the Jimmie Higginses.
When they tried to think the matter out, they were almost brought to
despair. There were so many sides to the question--the last fellow
you met always had a better argument than anyone you had heard
before! You sympathized with Belgium and France, of course; but
could you help hating the British ruling classes? They were your
hereditary enemies--your school-book enemies, so to speak. And they
were the ones you knew most about; since every American jack-ass
that got rich quick and wanted to set himself up above his fellows
would proceed to get English clothes and English servants and
English bad manners. To the average plain American, the word English
stood for privilege, for ruling class culture, the things
established, the things against which he was in rebellion; Germany
was the I. W. W. among the nations--the fellow who had never got a
chance and was now hitting out for it. Moreover, the Germans were
efficient; they took the trouble to put their case before you, they
cared what you thought about them; whereas the Englishman, damn him,
turned up his snobbish nose, not caring a whoop what you or anybody
might think.
Moreover, in this controversy the force of inertia was on the German
side, and inertia is a powerful force in any organization. What the
Germans wanted of American Socialists was simply that they should go
on doing what they had been doing all their lives. And the Socialist
machine had been set up for the purpose of going on, regardless of
all the powers on earth, in the heavens above the earth, or in hell
beneath. Ask Jimmie Higgins to stop demanding higher wages and the
eight hour day! Wouldn't anybody in his senses know what Jimmie
would answer to that proposition? Go chase yourself!
V
But, on the other hand, it must be admitted that Jimmie was
staggered by the idea that he might be getting into the pay of the
Kaiser. It was true that the traditions of the Socialist movement
were German traditions, but they were German anti-Government
traditions: Jimmie regarded the Kaiser as the devil incarnate, and
the bare idea of doing anything the Kaiser wanted done was enough to
make him stop short. He could see also what a bad thing it would be
for the movement to have any person believe that it was taking the
Kaiser's money. Suppose, for example, that a report of this
evening's discussion should reach the Herald! And with the public
inflamed to madness over the Lusitania affair!
After the discussion had proceeded for an hour or so, Norwood made a
motion to the effect that the Worker committee should be instructed
to investigate thoroughly the sources of all funds contributed, and
to reject any that did not come from Socialists, or those in
sympathy with Socialism. The common sense of the meeting asserted
itself, and even the Germans voted for this motion. Sure, let them
go ahead and investigate! The Socialist movement was clean, it had
always been clean, it had nothing to conceal from anyone.
But then came another controversy. Claudel moved that Norwood should
be made a member of the committee; and this, of course, was bitterly
opposed by the radicals. It was an insult to the integrity of the
committee. Then, too, suggested Baggs, an Englishman, perhaps
Norwood might really find out something! The Jimmie Higginses voted
down the motion--not because they feared any disclosures, but
because they felt that a quiet, sensible fellow like Gerrity, their
organizer, might be trusted to protect the good faith of the
movement, and without antagonizing anybody or making a fuss.
The investigation took place, and the result of it was that the
money which Jerry Coleman had contributed for the Worker was quietly
returned to him. But the difference was at once made up by the
Germans in the local, who regarded the whole thing as a put-up job,
an effort to block the agitation for a strike. These comrades took
no stock whatever in the talk about “German gold”; but on the other
hand they were keenly on the alert for the influence of Russian
gold, which they knew was being openly distributed by old Abel
Granitch. And so they put their hands down into their pockets and
dug out their scanty wages, so that the demand for social justice
might be kept alive in Leesville.
The upshot of the whole episode was that the local rejected the
Kaiser's pay, but went on doing what the Kaiser wanted without pay.
This could hardly be considered a satisfactory solution, but it was
the best that Jimmie Higgins was able to work out at this time.
VI
The first issue of the Worker appeared, with Jack Smith's editorial
spread over the front page, calling upon the workers of the Empire
to take this occasion to organize and demand their rights. “Eight
hours for work, eight hours for sleep, eight hours for play!”
proclaimed Comrade Jack; and the Herald and the Courier, stung to a
frenzy by the appearance of a poacher on their journalistic
preserves, answered with broadsides about “German propaganda”. The
Herald got the story of what had happened in the local; also it
printed a picture of “Wild Bill”, and an interview with that terror
of the West, who declared that he was for war on the capitalist
class with the aid of any and every ally that came along--even to
the extent of emery powder in ball-bearings and copper nails driven
into fruit trees.
The Herald charged that the attitude of the Socialists toward
“tainted wealth” was all a sham. What had happened was simply that
the German members of the local were getting German money, and
making it “Socialist money” by the simple device of passing it
through their consecrated hands. As this had been hinted by Norwood
in the local, the German comrades now charged that Norwood had
betrayed the movement to the capitalist press. And so came another
bitter controversy in the local. The young lawyer laughed at the
charge. Did they really believe they could take German money in
Leesville, and not have the fact become known?
“Then you think we are taking German money?” roared Schneider; and
he clamoured furiously for an answer. The other would not answer
directly, but he told them a little parable. He saw a tree, sending
down its roots into the ground, spreading everywhere, each tiny
rootlet constructed for the purpose of absorbing water. And on the
top of the ground was a man with a supply of water, which he poured
out; he poured and poured without stint, and the water seeped down
toward the rootlets, and every rootlet was reaching for water,
pushing toward the places where water was likely to be. “And now,”
said Norwood, “you ask me, do I believe that tree has been getting
any of that water?”
And here, of course, was the basis of a bitter quarrel. The
hot-heads would not listen to subtle distinctions; they declared
that Norwood was accusing the movement of corruption, he was making
out his anti-war opponents to be villains! He was providing the
capitalist press with ammunition. For shame! for shame! “He's a
stool-pigeon!” shrieked “Wild Bill”. “Put him out, the Judas!”
The average member of the local, the perfectly sincere fellow like
Jimmie Higgins, who was wearing himself out, half-starving himself
in the effort to bring enlightenment to his class, listened to these
controversies with bewildered distress. He saw them as echoes of the
terrible national hatreds which were rending Europe, and he resented
having these old world disputes thrust into American industrial
life. Why could he not go on with his duty of leading the American
workers into the co-operative commonwealth?
Because, answered the Germans, old man Granitch wanted to keep the
American workers as munition-slaves; and to this idea the
overwhelming percentage of the membership agreed. They were not
pacifists, non-resistants; they were perfectly willing to fight the
battles of the working-class; what they objected to was having to
fight the battles of the master-class. They wanted to go on, as they
had always gone, opposing the master-class and paying no heed to
talk about German agents. Jimmie Higgins believed--and in this
belief he was perfectly correct--that even had there been no German
agents, the capitalist papers of Leesville would have invented them,
as a means of discrediting the agitators in this crisis. Jimmie
Higgins had lived all his life in a country in which his masters
starved and oppressed him, and when he tried to help himself, met
him with every weapon of treachery and slander. So Jimmie had made
up his mind that one capitalist country was the same as another
capitalist country, and that he would not be frightened into
submission by tales about goblins and witches and sea-serpents and
German spies.