SOCIALISM IN PRACTICE
Now that considerable has been said about Socialism in theory, we shall
make the transition to Socialism in practice by quoting what may be
called George Herron's dream of Socialist perfection. On page 28 of his
booklet, "From Revolution to Revolution," we are told: "Perhaps we shall
learn in time, before accentuated capitalism has intensified the
universal misery of labor. Socialism is already on its way to the
conquest of Europe. And it may be that we shall yet behold that glorious
uprising of the universal peoples which is to begin man's real history,
and the world's real creation--that united affirmation of the world's
workers which Socialism foretells, knowing boundaries neither of nations
nor sects nor factions, speaking one voice and working together as one
man for one purpose, filling and cleansing the world with one glad
revolutionary cry. When the peoples thus come, divine and omnipotent
through co-operation, the raw materials of the world-life in their
creative hands, no longer begging favors or reforms, no longer awed by
the slave moralities or the slave religions that teach submission to
their masters, but risen and regnant in the consciousness of their
common inheritance and right in the earth and its fullness, of which
they are the makers and preservers, then will the antagonisms and
devastations of classes vanish forever, and the peace of good will
become the universal fact."
"Glorious," indeed, have been the uprisings of the Bolsheviki of Russia,
the Communists of Hungary and Bavaria, and the Spartacans of Germany,
all of whom are Socialists of the most pronounced type. These uprisings,
instead of being the "beginnings of the world's real creation," are
rather the beginnings of its destruction and ruination. The world's
workers have been "wonderfully united" in Russia, Hungary, Bavaria and
Germany since Socialism came into power--and no better proof need be
given than the way in which they have been shooting each other down and
trying to oust each other from office. Though the Socialists were not
supposed to know "the boundaries of nations, sects or factions," but
were to "speak one voice and work together as one man for one purpose,"
the Spartacans, it seems, would be better off if they had not only an
imaginary boundary to separate barbarians of their type from the rest of
civilization, but a barrier of mountains with heights towering in the
clouds to divide Germany into two parts, in one of which the Spartacans
could rest in peace, safe from the attacks of their beloved brethren of
the Ebert-Scheidemann group.
If the Communists of Bavaria had only built half a dozen Chinese walls
around Munich, they might still be holding out against the Socialist
army that besieged them and overcame them. Lenine's Government caused
such rivers of blood to flow in Russia that it could well dispense with
imaginary boundary lines to separate "Bolsheviki Land" from the domains
of Socialist Siberia. "One glad revolutionary cry" was to go up from
Socialists all over the world, but the cry is: "Workers in
anti-Socialist countries, save us from our false, hypocritical,
reactionary, murderous Marxian brethren!" Have the Socialist peoples the
world over become truly "divine" by their attacks on God and all
religions? Have they become "omnipotent" wherever they are in power--so
omnipotent that law, order and decency are no longer needed? The "raw
materials of the world were in their creative hands," and yet the
Russian people were starving by the millions, and the longer the period
since the world war, the worse things became in those vast domains once
so famous for their natural resources, wheat, cattle, wool, minerals,
oil and wood.
The Socialist dream was one of "no submission to masters;" but, strange
to say, the dictator, Lenine, rules "Bolsheviki-Land" just as he
pleases; Bela Kun so ruled Hungary; while the supposedly democratic
Soviets just issued decrees of murder or plunder, and no national
representative body of all the Russians or of all the Hungarians ever
seemed to meet. The Socialists of Russia, Hungary and Bavaria were
indeed "regnant in the consciousness of their common inheritance,"
provided, of course, that by inheritance, confiscated property is meant.
Yet although "antagonism and devastations of classes" were destined to
"vanish forever, and the peace of good will become the universal fact,"
somehow or other certain "scientific reformers" forgot that there were
such things as fools' paradises and overlooked the old saying that "all
that glitters is not gold."
In Chapters X and XI much more will be said about the Lenine-Trotzky
dictatorship of Socialist Russia, the Bela Kun administration of
Hungary, the criminal Socialist crew of Bavaria, and, of course, the
fiery Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxembourg group that at times in certain
localities replaced the Ebert-Scheidemann government of Germany.
In "The Call," New York, April 28, 1919, under the caption, "Socialist
Government of Yucatan Grapples With the Binder Trust," we read:
"We get vastly less news nowadays from our next-door neighbor,
Mexico, than from Europe and Asia, therefore a 'Call' reporter,
meeting a Comrade who has recently returned from the tropic
peninsula, fell upon him and demanded news of the Socialist, labor
and co-operative movements there.
"'We are facing a very much tangled-up situation down there,'
answered the man from Yucatan. He is W. Elkin Birch, a well-known
American Socialist and business man, who has lived in Mexico
several years. He came up to 'the States' on a business trip, and
is returning to Yucatan, where he is prominent in the Socialist and
co-operative movements.
"'The forces of capitalism in Mexico are so strong, and the
commercial system is so vicious,' he began, 'that I am not very
optimistic about the future of Socialism in Yucatan.'
"'But we thought that Alvarado had established almost a paradise
down there,' cried the reporter. 'A year ago we learned that you
had elected a complete Socialist administration in Yucatan; then, a
few months since, we heard that it had not put any part of the
Socialist program into effect. We wondered what was the reason, but
hardly any news comes through now.'
"'Alvarado did work a wonderful transformation, and much of the
good he did remains. It is true, we have an administration of
Socialists, but we find that that is a very different thing from a
Socialist administration. Yucatan is still in the grip of the
commercial interests, and the game is blocked at every move. As
fast as the radicals devise some means of stopping the robbery of
the people by special privilege, the privileged interests find a
way of circumventing the radicals by apparently yielding, but
really maintaining their domination.
"'Alvarado took over the Reguladora, through which the henequem,
Yucatan's principal product, is sold for export; he took over the
railroads, and the line of steamships running to the States....
"'The government still controls the Reguladora, but, as I said, it
is in a deadlock with the powers who control its market. We still
have government-owned railroads in Yucatan, but government
ownership merely takes the public utility out of the hands of
private capital and places it under the control of a political
organization. And private capital already has secured control of
that political organization, and graft and robbery are running
riot. Government ownership of railroads has increased the cost of
operation 100 per cent. The payrolls are packed with friends of
officials and friends of friends. If a man can control a few votes,
they reason, why shouldn't he have a job? What's the railroad for,
if not to provide jobs? The folks down there are very much like
people in other countries, you see.'....
"'But why doesn't the Socialist administration take control of
industry and commerce, and put the interests out of power?'
demanded the reporter, determined to uphold the faith in the face
of disappointing facts.
"'Well, of course, that sounds easy; but Socialists are just
people, after all, and when a Socialist gets into office he finds
it quite as hard as ordinary folks to resist the subtle influences
that surround officials. A man can't be sure that he is a real
Socialist until he is put to the test of being a part of the
government. The commercial interests offer him opportunities to
make money; they give him and his family social advantages. He
begins to see that capitalism has its good points, after all.' Mr.
Birch smiled half-satirically, half-tolerantly. 'Some members of
the Assembly have made fortunes during their year of office. One
member, who handles concessions, illegal and otherwise, has cleared
over a million pesos."
The February, 1918, issue of the "International Socialist Review,"
Chicago, was suppressed by the authorities of the United States
government, and, as a consequence, it is probable that not very many
copies are in circulation. The author of "The Red Conspiracy," however,
has in his possession a copy of this edition, in which there is a very
interesting article, beginning on page 414, entitled, "Your Dream Come
True."
"A Land of practical Socialism in active operation.
"Nearly 4,000,000 people without one cent of money in circulation;
and where no man owns a foot of land or the tools of
production--trades unionism, industrialism, single tax and
socialism all rolled into one.
"Ninety thousand square miles without a policeman; where gold rings
are placed in the public markets in large baskets, to be had for
the asking.
"A work day of two hours for the strong; of play for the young,
middle-aged and old. A land where there is plenty of candy for the
kiddies, playgrounds for all; and from which the spectre of want
has departed.
"Land of peon-slaves awakened from centuries of capitalist misrule
to the glories of co-operation, without master or landlord.
"This is no dream, but an actualized verity right here in
America--in southern Mexico. Shades of Thomas Moore, Edward Bellamy
and William Morris arise and rejoice, for your wildest visions have
become facts.
"Across the miles I stretch my hand in fellowship with Mexico's
great democrat--Zapata. Don't forget that name. The capitalist
press has not told much about him--for obvious reasons. He is
putting into practice the basic principles of co-operation. The
golden rule is being translated into action.
"General Zapata now absolutely controls 90,000 square miles,
comprising parts of Morelo, Jalisco, Chapas, Quintana Roo and
Tabasco. This land is well under cultivation. The population (on a
rough estimate, without the advantages of a scientific census) is
from three to four millions. The inhabitants are nearly all peons,
who for centuries had existed in a degrading state of slavery. More
than ninety-five per cent. can neither read nor write.
"Zapata's control began in 1910, but only in the three years past
has the co-operative system been placed on its present basis. The
greatest development has been made during the past two years.
"Methods of propaganda have been simple and effective. Direct
action is the keynote. The people awoke to a knowledge of their
slavery and the realization of their heritage--and took what
belonged to them. The only message sent to the people was somewhat
similar to the I. W. W. preamble, but much shorter than that
classic document.
"Having aroused the slaves to realize their status by saying in
substance: the rich unjustly possess the land; we want all that is
ours and are not willing that any man should possess that which is
not his--Zapata would lead his army into some rich valley and
simply dispossess the wealthy 'owners.' Then the peons on the land
would be given the use of the land. Not one man in the ninety
thousand square miles holds a title to one foot of land. After
getting the new territory, the land was cultivated and the district
organized.
"When strong enough the army--the propaganda branch of the
revolution--held another convention in some other fertile valley
and benevolently assimilated some other opulent set of
slave-driving usurpers of the land....
"Every citizen of each community is given a little brass
citizenship tag. It is necessary to show this only in strange
towns. It is his passport for whatever he needs for food, clothing
and shelter. Each person goes into the stores and gets what he
needs for the simple asking.
"We have heard endless discussions as to the nature of the future
medium of exchange. Many volumes have been written on the subject.
Zapata isn't worrying over these problems. He is leaving them where
they belong--to the philosophers. There isn't any medium of
exchange in Zapata's land. Why should there be on a free earth? If
a man wanted ten pairs of sandals or shoes he could have them, but
why would he want them? He can always go--in Zapata's country--to
any store and get a pair when he needs one. So with all other
provisions. In practice, in the few years the plan has been in
operation, the peons have not abused the privilege. They are
producers, and realize it. Why rob themselves? There is not one
idea of profit in all that 90,000 square miles, and human nature is
just as it was when Adam delved and Eve spun.
"Travelers are not being admitted freely just now, in these
unsettled times, because of the lying reports carried away by
spying emissaries of capitalism. But when one is given permission
to visit the country, his route is marked out and listed on the
passport given him. He pays the government and then is provided
freely on all the travels over the designated route.
"No women or children are to be found in any line of manual labor
in mill, field or factory.
"The young and middle aged men alone work. They work from one and
one-half to three hours a day. Some will work more steadily for a
week and then go away to some town for two or three weeks to enjoy
their country. For the first time in history the workers have a
country that is really theirs. Workers? Yes, for all are workers.
There are no landlords or 'bosses' and overseers to prod them into
exhausting toil. And these people are simple enough to believe that
man should enjoy life--that all people should find pleasure in
living.
"Of course there are foremen and superintendents in the
administration of industry. But they receive no wages, just what
they need to live on, and every man, woman and child gets that. The
men will work two hours and then go out to play hand-ball and other
games in the plaza or courts.
"When the fields need attention, men go from ranch to ranch
wherever help is needed. In like manner all industry is carried on.
"One example will show something of how matters are managed. One
big sugar refinery formerly employed 2,500 men, working them
fourteen hours a day. Employees now work two hours a day. The
refinery still is in operation fourteen hours daily. There are
seven shifts of workers. All told, there are 25,000 employees of
that refinery. All are happy and have all of the food, clothing and
shelter the land affords. The children have big sticks of candy as
large as they can carry--and there is no talk of conservation of
supplies anywhere.
"Access to the land and co-operation did it. There isn't any
regular freight and passenger service. The trains operate as
required. Production for profit has ceased on 90,000 square miles
of this planet and the mills and mines are run to manufacture
products for use only. When goods are needed anywhere, the trains
haul them. Occasionally a few hundred men, women and children will
be taken into the mountains by the trainload for a few days'
outing. It is all a part of living--no fares to pay....
"The churches are being used as schools, for lecture centers, as
play houses and for similar useful purposes. There is no liquor
sold. This is not the result of any decree or election. The people
had so little desire for booze that they quit its manufacture....
"It is not to be inferred that Zapata has solved all of the
problems of society. Everything can't be done at once, even by the
magic wand of his propaganda. Still, his achievements make the
genii of Alladin's lamp look pretty small and cheap. In three years
every worker has been united into one industrial union; all titles
to land and ownership of the tools of production swept away;
labor's hours shortened to the minimum; the entire population fed,
clothed and sheltered--all through cooperation on a free earth."
This is the kind of "stuff" that is served up to the "learned,"
"scientific Socialists," who place so much confidence in the leaders who
are supposed to be honest and worthy of leading them into the Marxian
Paradise. This is the way they spoke of "Socialism" in Mexico some years
ago, and today they are speaking of it in Russia in much the same way.
Act the Second
Scene--A large photo of Zapata--4 by 6 inches, in "The Call," the
Socialist paper of New York City, April 24, 1919.
Under the photo there is the following inscription:
"General Emiliano Zapata, Mexico's apostle of terrorism, and
recently officially reported to have been killed by Carranza's
troops, was a former plantation stirrup-boy, who, at the zenith of
his rebel power, gained temporary control of Mexico City. Twice
since 1910, when he began his revolt in Morelos, he and his Indian
followers took brief possession of the capital. For nine years he
ravaged southern Mexico, co-operating for a time in 1914 with
Villa. He was the most implacable enemy of peaceful reconstruction
through several regimes. Poor, uneducated, primitive but magnetic,
Zapata was the leader of Mexico's half-savage Indians, in whose
power he planned to place control of the country. Toward the last
he was little more than a hunted renegade, and is reported to have
been killed by strategy of troops operating under General Pablo
Gonzales in Morelos."
The wood-cut of Zapata appears in connection with an article by Jack
Neville, part of which is hereby quoted:
"Cuautla, Mexico, April 23.--The death of Emiliano Zapata removes
Mexico's most ruthless destructionist and implacable enemy of
peaceful regeneration.
"Now, on the wreckage of his empire, where the rebel chief laughed
at civilization and played his huge joke on 100,000 confiding
workers, General Pablo Gonzalez is placing firm underpinning for
freedom and progress.
"Here in the world's richest garden spot, where exploited humanity
has been kept poorest, and where Zapata 'gave' his half-savage
followers the land only to commandeer all crops--here the peon is
for the first time in centuries enjoying the fruits of his toil and
supporting instead of hating government."
The next day, April 25th, 1919. "The Call" published another article of
Neville's under the title, "Mexican Peons Rejoice in First Taste of
Freedom." Only a small part of the article will be quoted:
"I stepped into a pulque-reeking cantina. A group of former
Zapatistas invited me to join them--to have a glass. It was the
open sesame. They chattered like children. Presented me with
cornhusk cigarettes; told me tales of Zapata; his perfidy, his
ruthlessness.
"'Not more than 800 rebels were yet in arms when Zapata was
killed,' they said. These, they explained, had ousted Zapata from
leadership because he had refused to divide the loot with them.
They told me of Zapata's former army of 30,000, blood-letting
surianos and ayetes (unarmed men carrying ropes) who formed the
rear guard to carry away the loot....
"Alongside the old church, where the patriot Morelos had more than
a century ago made a successful stand against the Spaniards, a
train was disgorging families returning to their homes, now that
Zapata was gone.
"A little man stepped out--the bishop of Cuernavaca, coming back to
his diocese under the conciliatory program of Don Pablo after eight
years' exile.
"I rode into the country with Colonel Sanchez Neira and talked with
the workmen in the field. They crowded round to pose for pictures.
"They laughed and sang while they worked.
"We rode to the headquarters of one of the 2,000,000 acre
haciendas. The gigantic sugar mill, formerly worth more than
$1,000,000, was a shell filled with debris. We rode to another
mill. The same! Thirty-seven of them. All ruined, wrecked wantonly
under Zapata's rule.
"In the village of Youtopec I drank lemonade with Gen. Pilar
Sanchez, while Zapata's captured band serenaded us. We rode down
the Inter-Oceanic railway and viewed the right of way, strewn with
wrecked rolling stock. We saw utterly demolished villages, the work
of Zapata and communism.
"I saw a bridge where train after train was dynamited, where
Zapatistas had ruthlessly executed more than three thousand
peaceful men, women and children passengers."
From these articles published in "The Call," the great Socialist paper
of New York City, it seems that the poverty-stricken, perpetually
begging staff of Hillquit's paper does not relish the Chicago brand of
Socialism described so beautifully in the "International Socialist
Review." The more "talented" and "progressive" "evolutionists" near the
shore of Lake Michigan have many a year's hard work to perform before
they can sufficiently develop the brains of their backward chums and
brethren on the lower east side of New York City. It takes editors like
Kerr, Haywood, the Marcys and all the Bohns on the staff of the
"Review" to reveal the true glories of Socialism.
As recently as February, 1920, it could safely be said that the
principles of Socialism had never been put into full operation in any
country. The nearest approach to a truly Socialist state is Bolshevist
Russia, that strife-ridden land of crime and bloodshed. The penalty paid
for the foolish attempt has already been a dreadful one. How much
greater it will be, as time goes on, nobody knows. The Socialists of
America have hailed Russian Bolshevism as true Socialism; but, no doubt,
as the evil consequences of Lenine's Red rule become more widely known
and more universally feared, or if, even on the low ground of
materialistic economics, the attempt fails, the slippery Marxians will
try to prove that Bolshevism was not Socialism after all, since the
Russian government was a dictatorship, with the principles of Socialism
never fully applied.
We should add that even if the Russian dictatorship succeeds in
realizing the mere economic success which seems to be the height of its
ambition, this will not prove to be an argument in favor of Socialism,
but a terrible indictment of it. For the road the dictatorship is now
taking, which indeed offers it the only possible hope of even a passable
economic success, is the barren, heartless, unspiritual, materialistic
tyranny of machine-like "industrialism" which the I. W. W. represents.
In the two chapters immediately following, VIII and IX, the reader will
learn something of the loss of all moral standards and the cruel,
lawless violence to which the atheistic, anarchistic materialism of
I. W. W.'ism leads; and will also find that Bolshevism is already
committed to this system as the only economic solution of its bloody
experiment.
Is it worth while? In Chapters X and XI the reader will face some of the
appalling details of the blood, violence and despair which have been
tyrannically imposed upon Russia's groaning millions for the sake of an
experiment which leads to nothing but the pagan barbarism of I. W.
W.'ism. Is it worth while? Even if at last they are able to produce and
distribute enough to clothe and feed themselves, can human beings be
happy in such a state? Is this the dream of the dreamer come true?
Again, the hope of a bare economic solution of the question of bread and
butter is possible in Russia only through such an absolute and tyrannous
dictatorship as has been established, under which the reluctant and
disorganized proletariat can be forced back to work, whether they wish
or no, at the point of the bayonets of the Red Guard. Would the American
working-man think this worth while in America?
It has been said that the Lenine desperadoes are determined to win an
economic success even at the cost of forcing Russian labor to toil under
literal military conscription. If they do this, they may
succeed--economically merely. But does American labor think such an
experiment _here_ would be worth what it costs?
Furthermore, in the Russian land of Socialistic experiment the people,
left to themselves by the other nations, cannot find peace among
themselves. Why should there be peace as long as any manhood is left in
Russia to lift up its hand out of its despair against its Bolshevist
oppressors? Is civil war worth while--for such a barren result?
Finally, if the proletarian tyrants wear all Russia down until a spirit
of resistance is left in no breast, still will there be no peace; for,
as will be found quoted elsewhere in this book, Lenine declares that
Socialism cannot endure in a world half Socialistic and half
Capitalistic, so that his wretched Russian slaves seem likely to be
dragged into a war against the rest of the world to help out the crazy
experiment of domination by the proletariat. Is it worth while?