VIOLENCE, BLOODSHED AND ARMED REBELLION
Every year on May Day the Socialists are in the habit of publishing
articles and making speeches of a more than usual revolutionary
character. They are also fond of parading on that day to incite riot,
and of holding meetings to stir up discontent and to foment rebellion
among the laboring classes. May Day, 1919, was an especially serious one
in several cities of the United States and will long be remembered,
because the Socialist riots occurred while the whole country was excited
over the unsuccessful mailing of bombs to a score or so of eminent
citizens. The most serious Marxian riots took place in Cleveland, Ohio,
and were described in part in the "Chicago Tribune" as follows:
"Cleveland, Ohio, May 1.--An unidentified man was killed by a
detective's bullet, eleven policemen were shot or badly beaten, and
about 100 persons wounded, many seriously, in general rioting which
brought a dramatic finale this afternoon to a Socialist May Day
demonstration here.
"About thirty persons, seriously injured, are in hospitals
to-night, while scores of others, including women, were trampled by
rioters or clubbed by police.
"Socialist headquarters was totally wrecked by angry civilians bent
on putting an end to the demonstration....
"A mob of several hundred threatened police headquarters when C. E.
Ruthenberg, Socialist leader and former Socialist candidate for
mayor, was arrested and for more than an hour the entire downtown
section of the city was a warring mass of Socialists, police,
civilians and soldiers, the latter riding down the rioters in army
trucks and tanks.
"Dozens of shots were fired in Public square, where more than
20,000 Socialists and sympathizers assembled for a May Day rally
and to protest against the convictions of Eugene V. Debs and Thomas
J. Mooney.
"The trouble started in Superior Avenue, near East Ninth Street,
when the head of one of the five Socialist parades, scheduled to
meet in a mass meeting at Public square, was stopped, and Liberty
Loan workers and an army lieutenant tore a red flag from a man at
the head of the marchers, practically every one of whom were
carrying red flags.
"In less than ten minutes riots had developed at several other
points, mounted and foot policemen being switched from one location
to another to quell the fighting.
"The trouble in the public square started when Lieut. H. S. Bergen,
who served with the 80th Division overseas, demanded that several
soldiers among the Socialists on the platform remove their uniforms
or the red flags they wore on their breasts.
"The soldiers refused, and C. E. Ruthenberg, scheduled as the
principal Socialist speaker, interceded for the Socialists.
"Lieut. Bergen, followed by Lieut. John Hardy of Detroit, thereupon
mounted the platform and tore the red insignia from the khaki
uniforms. The act was the signal for a grand rush by thousands of
Socialist sympathizers."
On Sunday, May 4, 1919, serious trouble with the Socialist-Bolshevist
element of Gary, Indiana, was narrowly averted. The account, as
published in the "Chicago Tribune" on the next day, reads in part as
follows:
"There was no 'Red' parade in Gary yesterday....
"Fifty policemen, wearing revolvers on their belts and reinforced
by a special shotgun squad of sixteen, a company of state militia,
thirty deputy sheriffs, a group of secret service men from Chicago
and hundreds of citizen volunteers, prevented the parade after the
Russian Socialists flouted an order of Mayor W.H. Hodges
prohibiting the march and declared they would proceed despite the
authorities....
"Yesterday's demonstration was the result of a carefully planned
plot matured for nearly a month by the foreign radical element of
Lake County, Indiana. Its stated purpose was to protest against the
conviction of Eugene V. Debs and Kate Richards O'Hare. An
undercurrent of rumor among the radicals gave it a more significant
meaning, however.
"On Thursday secret service men obtained copies of pamphlets
printed in Russian, containing a formula for the manufacture of
explosives. More literature calling for the overthrow of the
government was circulated. A third series of pamphlets contained
the Constitution of the Russian Soviet Republic.
"Friday Morris Lieberman, head of the Socialists, called on Mayor
Hodges for a permit to parade. It was refused with the explanation
that riots such as caused two deaths in Cleveland were feared....
"Early yesterday morning radicals began to arrive in Gary. Cars
from Indiana Harbor, Whiting, Hammond, Crown Point, and trains from
Chicago brought them by the dozens.
"By noon several thousand had gathered in and near the Socialist
headquarters, a mile south of the business district of Gary. Under
portraits of Trotzky and Lenine they sang Russian songs and
gathered about in knots waiting for 'zero hour'--one o'clock.
"Lieberman, fearing bloodshed, decided to counsel his followers
against a parade. They howled him down, however, and hotter heads
took charge of the meeting. A dozen girls, with rolls of red
ribbon, pinned a scarlet strip on the lapel of each man's coat as
he entered the meeting hall. Red neckties were abundant. Red hat
bands made their appearance. Many wore scarlet carnations."
Judge Haas of the Municipal Court of Gary thus commented on those
arrested in the demonstration:
"All except Capolitto have failed to become citizens. All except
him and one other tried to evade war service in our army,
endeavoring to sneak out on the ground of not being citizens of
this country. All they seem to want is to come over here and make
trouble--out of twenty-one gun-toters who have been brought before
me, nineteen have been foreigners and not even citizens."
The leaders of the Marxian movement, both in the United States and
abroad, testify that to be a Socialist is to be a plotter against all
existing forms of government. Marx and Engels, for instance, confess the
truth of this in their celebrated "Communist Manifesto," which they
addressed to their followers over half a century ago, and which is
looked upon even today by the rank and file of the party as embodying
the fundamental principles of International Socialism. "The Communists,"
we are told, "everywhere support every revolutionary movement against
the existing social and political order of things" and "disdain to
conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be
obtained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social
conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a communistic
revolution."
We are indebted to the late August Bebel, the leader of the Socialists
of Germany, for the confession that "along with the state die out its
representatives--cabinet ministers, parliaments, standing armies, police
and constables, courts, attorneys, prison officials, tariff and tax
collectors, in short the whole political apparatus. Barracks and other
such military structures, palaces of law and of administration,
prisons--all will now await better use. Ten thousand laws, decrees and
regulations become so much rubbish; they have only historic value."
["Women Under Socialism," by Bebel, page 319, of the 1904 edition in
English.]
"The People," New York, May 13, 1900, in speaking of the relation of
Socialism to existing forms of government, including our own, affirms
that "while there is a very general idea that Socialism means an
extension of the powers and functions of government, still this is a
very natural and dangerous misconception, and one that ought to be
guarded against." "Socialism," it adds, "does not mean the extension of
government, but on the contrary it means the end, the elimination of
government."
The "International Socialist Review," Chicago, February, 1912, together
with many other magazines and papers current at the time, called
attention to the fact that William D. Haywood, who for a long time had
been before the eyes of the public on account of his revolutionary
utterances and writings, declared in a speech at Cooper Union, in New
York City, that the Socialists were conspirators against the United
States Government.
"The Call," April 1, 1919, in an editorial note says that "the whole
system of government in the United States, Federal, State and Municipal,
seems to be out of date."
Though the men who march behind the red flag, singing the Marseillaise
of the French Revolution, usually deny to the general public, for
reasons of political expediency, that the Socialist movement is a
violent and revolutionary one, it is evident to those who have read
their books, magazines, and papers, that the use of the ballot and
education are not the means on which they rely finally for the
establishment of their visionary commonwealth. Violence is advocated and
habitually practised by the Socialists who constitute the Industrial
Workers of the World, whose banner with the inscription, "No God, No
Master," has brought them into disrepute all over the country. Jack
London, a Socialist widely known in the United States and England as a
novelist, furnishes us with excellent reasons for believing that the
International Socialist Party approves of violence and assassination,
and thereby reaffirms its allegiance to the base principles of the
French Commune. Writing in the "International Socialist Review" of
August, 1909, Jack London made the following comment on the progress of
Socialism in Russia:
"Our comrades in Russia have formed what they call 'THE FIGHTING
ORGANIZATION.' This FIGHTING ORGANIZATION accused, tried, found
guilty and condemned to death one Sipiaguin, Minister of the
Interior. On April 2, he was shot and killed in the Maryinsky
Palace. Two years later the FIGHTING ORGANIZATION condemned to
death and executed another Minister of the Interior, Von Plehve.
Having done so it issued a document, dated July 29, 1904, setting
forth the counts of its indictment of Von Plehve and its
responsibility for the assassination. Now, and to the point, this
document was sent out to the Socialists of the world, and by them
was published everywhere in the magazines and newspapers. The point
is, not that the Socialists of the world were unafraid to do it,
but that they did it as a matter of routine, giving publication to
what might be called an official document of International
Revolutionary Movement."
August Bebel in "Unsere Ziele," page 44, expresses his sentiments on the
subject of violence quite as frankly as Jack London. "We must not
shudder," he tells us, "at the thought of the possible employment of
violence; we must not raise an alarm cry at the suppression of existing
rights, at violent expropriation, etc. History teaches that at all times
new ideas, as a rule, were realized by a violent conflict with the
defenders of the past, and that the combatants for new ideas struck
blows as deadly as possible at the defenders of antiquity. Not without
reason does Karl Marx, in his work on 'Capital' exclaim: 'Violence is
the obstetrician that waits on every ancient society which is about to
give birth to a new one; violence is in itself a social factor.'"
As reference has just been made to Karl Marx, it will be well to call
attention to the fact that the Father of modern Socialism, in "The Civil
War in France," page 78, claims that "the workingmen's Paris, with its
Commune, will forever be celebrated as the glorious harbinger of a new
society." The Commune, then, whose anniversary is celebrated on the 18th
of March, every year, by the Socialists all over the world, has been,
and still is considered the precursor of their contemplated state. The
reign of terror and rebellion in which tens of thousands of Frenchmen
met their death, while public buildings and priceless works of art were
being burned or destroyed and many beautiful churches pillaged, is the
boast of the Socialistic champions of universal peace. The Parisian mob
of criminals and revolutionists, which was finally subdued by 150,000
French troops, after men and women had run about the streets with
petroleum cans, firing public buildings and private houses and seizing
many victims whom they hurried off to death, is, therefore, considered
by the Socialists as one of the most illustrious gatherings of persons
recorded in history, and one worthy of special memory, honor and
respect.
Victor Berger of Wisconsin, speaking in the 1908 National Convention of
the Socialist Party in favor of an amendment to the party constitution,
proposed by Delegate Hazlett, to the effect that any person opposing
political action should be expelled from the party, shows how little
difference there is between the advocates of "political action," who are
supposed to favor the use of the ballot, and the "direct actionists,"
who admit their preference for violence.
"I have heard it pleaded," said Berger, "many a time right in our own
meetings by speakers that come to our meetings, that the only salvation
for the proletariat of America is direct action, that the ballot box is
simply a humbug. Now I don't know how this question is going to be
solved. I have no doubt that in the last analysis we must shoot, and
when it comes to shooting, Wisconsin will be there. We always make
good.... In order to be able to shoot even some day we must have the
powers of political government in our hands, at least to a great extent.
I want that understood. So everybody who is talking to you about direct
action and so on, and about political action being a humbug, is your
enemy today, because he keeps you from getting the powers of political
government." ["Proceedings of the 1908 National Convention of the
Socialist Party," page 241.]
On July 31, 1909, we find Victor Berger, who posed as the special
exponent of "political action," against the "anarchistic" element in his
party, writing as follows in the "Social Democratic Herald" of
Milwaukee:
"No one will claim that I am given to the reciting of revolutionary
phrases. On the contrary I am known to be a constructive Socialist.
However, in view of the plutocratic law making of the present day,
it is easy to predict that the safety and hope of this country will
finally lie in one direction only, that of a violent and bloody
revolution. Therefore, I say, each of the 500,000 Socialist voters
and of the 2,000,000 workingmen who instinctively incline our way,
should, besides doing much reading and still more thinking, also
have a good rifle and the necessary rounds of ammunition in his
home, and be prepared to back up his ballot with his bullets if
necessary. This may look like a startling statement. Yet I can see
nothing else for the American masses today."
In the "Social Democratic Herald," August 14, 1909, Victor Berger drops
a few more words on the same subject in an article entitled: "IF THIS BE
TREASON, MAKE THE BEST OF IT." "There are two ways," says he, "of
effecting great social changes in a republic--the ballot and the bullet.
If our people are not wise--if they are otherwise--then we may have use
for both of them."
Now, if Berger is a specimen of the extreme "political actionist," a
conservative, the enemy of "direct action," who can imagine the
treasonable intentions and bloody thoughts of the immense number of
"direct actionists" who throng the ranks of these national conspirators?
It is not flattering to the State of Wisconsin to realize that Berger
has several times been chosen to represent one of its Congressional
districts in the United States House of Representatives. Yet Berger has
apt pupils. On January 12, 1919, Mayor Hoan of Milwaukee presided at a
Milwaukee meeting of 8,000 "Reds" to protest against the conviction,
under the Espionage Law, of Victor L. Berger and four co-conspirators,
and prolonged cheering and waving of "Red" insignia answered the
following words spoken by William Bross Lloyd (_Testimony, Socialist
Trial, Albany, page 1623_):
"What we want is revolutionary preparedness. We want to
organize.... We want a mobilization plan and an organization for
the revolution. We want to get rifles, machine guns, field
artillery, and the ammunition for it. You want to get dynamite. You
want to tell off the men for the revolution when it starts here.
You want to tell off the men who are to take the dynamite to the
armory doors and blow them in and capture the guns and ammunition
there so that the capitalists won't have any. You want to tell off
the men to dynamite the doors of the banks to get the money to
finance the revolution."
William D. Haywood and Frank Bohn are the joint authors of a pamphlet
entitled, "Industrial Socialism," the revolutionary tenor of which may
be gathered from the following lines:
"When the worker, either through experience or a study of
Socialism, comes to know this truth [i.e., economic determinism],
he acts accordingly. He retains absolutely no respect for the
property rights of the profit takers. He will use any weapon which
will win his fight. He knows that the present laws of property are
made by and for the capitalists. Therefore he does not hesitate to
break them."
Since Haywood and Bohn evidently had no intention of using paper-cap
pistols and pop-guns as their weapons, and since they certainly did not
mean to shoot at stone walls and forest trees, it seems strange that the
Socialist Party, if it does not advocate such doctrines of violence,
should sell these pamphlets at $6 per 100, according to a price list of
its national office in Chicago.
To make matters still worse for the apologists of the Socialist Party of
America, no less a personage than Eugene V. Debs commented as follows,
in the "International Socialist Review," February, 1912, on the
doctrines of Haywood and Bohn just referred to:
"We have here a matter of tactics upon which a number of comrades
of ability and prominence have sharply disagreed. For my part, I
believe the paragraph to be entirely sound. Certainly all
Socialists knowing how and to what end capitalist property rights
are established, must hold such rights in contempt.... As a
revolutionist I can have no respect for capitalist property laws,
nor the least scruple about violating them. I hold all such laws to
have been enacted through chicanery, fraud and corruption, with the
sole end in view of dispossessing, robbing and enslaving the
working class. But this does not imply that I propose making an
individual law breaker of myself, and butting my head against the
stone wall of existing property laws. That might be called force,
but it would not be that. It would be mere weakness and folly. If I
had the force to overthrow these despotic laws, I would use it
without an instant's hesitation or delay, but I haven't got it, so
I am law abiding under protest--not from scruple--and bide my
time."
In the "Appeal to Reason," Girard, Kansas, September 2, 1911, there is
an excellent specimen of one of Debs' revolutionary articles, which
reads in part as follows:
"Let us arouse the working class and invoke their power to smite
the conspirators and set our brothers [the McNamaras] free. They
can be saved in no other way. The lawyers will plead for them to
deaf ears; organized labor will protest against their taking off in
vain. We are confronted by a heartless, soulless plutocracy. Let us
buckle on our armor and fight!... Let us marshal our forces and
develop our power for the revolt! Let us develop without delay all
the power we have, and prepare to strike in every way we know how.
With a general strike we can paralyze the plutocracy from coast to
coast. Hundreds of thousands will join eagerly and serve loyally in
the fight. We can stop the wheels, cut off the food supply, and
compel the plutocrats in sheer terror to sue for peace.... A few
men may be needed who are not afraid to die. Be ye also ready....
Let us swear that we will fight to the last ditch, that we will
strike blow for blow, that we will use every weapon at our command,
and that we will never surrender! Roll up a united Socialist vote
in California that will shake the Pacific Coast like an earthquake,
and back it up with a general strike that will paralyze the
continent.... Let the sturdy toilers of the Pacific Coast raise the
Red standard of revolt."
It was no other than this same Eugene V. Debs, the advocate of violence
and revolution, who on May 17, 1912, was nominated as the presidential
standard bearer of the Socialist Party. If ever elected, what a fine
president he would make, this "poor," "persecuted," self-styled
"flaming-revolutionist," now in jail! What an honorable party it must be
that nominated such a man for the fourth successive time to fill the
office of the presidency of our country! Indeed it was on the very same
day that the followers of Karl Marx chose Debs as their candidate to
rule the United States that they also declared, in the constitution of
their party, that any member who should advocate crime, sabotage or
other methods of violence, as a weapon of the working class to aid it in
its emancipation, should be expelled from membership in the party!
Never can political Socialists convince the American people of their
sincerity and honesty while they nominate for office men like Debs, send
to Congress representatives like Victor Berger, and choose as members of
their national executive committee persons of the stamp of William D.
Haywood. There was no better way for Socialists to convict themselves of
hypocrisy than by retaining in their constitution the clause against
sabotage, referred to above, while at the same time selling at their
National Office books like "Industrial Socialism" and publishing in
their papers and magazines articles advocating and approving "direct
action." By their deeds we judge them, and not by their hypocritical
words.
"The Call," on April 28, 1919, introduces with the following headlines
the long comment that it makes on the Hart-Nearing debate of April 27th
in New York City: "Revolution Is Only Solution of World-Wide Unrest,
Says Nearing." In the course of the article Scott Nearing's suggestion
of revolt is mentioned: "As against Professor Hart's proposal of a
League of Nations, I suggest revolution." The "New York Times," April
28, 1919, commented in part on the debate as follows:
"'Who wants war?' asked Professor Hart. 'Scott Nearing wants war
and the people who think as he does, want war. Revolution is
nothing but civil war and we see its result in the Russian
revolution. Russia passed through three revolutions and is that the
kind of result we want in order to overthrow what he calls this
robber nation?'
"A whirlwind of applause marked this and through the applause was
heard a chorus of voices shouting 'yes.' The meeting cheered
Nearing's frequent references to 'revolution,' to the Russian
Soviet Republic and applauded his radical utterances, although he
had requested that he be permitted to speak without interruption.
The theatre contained about 3,000 persons who filled all the seats,
the stage and stood in the aisles, after paying from 25 cents to
$1.50 admission.
"Judging from the manifestations of approval of Nearing's remarks,
the large audience appeared to be overwhelmingly composed of
revolutionary Socialists, and when the speaker declared he believed
in a League of Socialist Nations the crowd vigorously applauded in
a way that left no doubt of its sentiment."
"The Call" in its May Day issue, 1919, published an article on
present-day revolutionary tactics of the Socialists:
"The world revolution, dreamed of as a thing of the distant future,
has become a live reality, rising from the graves of the murdered
millions and the misery and suffering of the surviving millions. It
has taken form, it strikes forward, borne on by the despair of the
masses and the shining example of the martyrs. Its spread is
irrepressible. The bridges are burnt behind the old capitalist
society and its path is forever cut off. Capitalist society is
bankrupt and the only salvation of humanity lies in the uprising of
the masses, in the victory of the Socialist revolution, in the
renovating forces of Socialism.
"The world war which is now about to be officially closed has slid
into a condition neither war nor peace. However, the war of the
nations has been followed by the war of the classes. The class
struggle is no longer fought by resolutions and demonstrations.
Threateningly it marches through the streets of the great cities
for life or death."