Page:Essays on the Social Problem.pdf/7

 Everywhere this spirit of domination, of aggression, of rule or ruin, or "do as I say or I'll kill you," has warped the minds of men and turned energies to murder that otherwise would have been turned to a better purpose. It has been the mainstay of all forms of authority, and an ever ready safety-valve to draw off the unrest of the people when the privileges of the parasites have been threatened.

In looking back over the history of the past we find all its pages stained with human blood. Everywhere the people have been taught to fight as a duty, and everywhere the ruling classes have caused the poor, deluded, honest, wealth-producing people to slaughter each other on the field of battle. Rivers of blood have flown; millions of widows and orphans have mourned; the tenderest ties have been broken and the most endearing conditions of life destroyed because the war-spirit dominated the minds of men; and they, poor fools, flung themselves into the heat of battle at the command of some potentate—some pompous parasite. All this blood has been wasted: this loss of life was of no good to those who bled or to their dear ones.

In our own day the war spirit is inculcated as much as possible, at school and in church, by the press and from the rostrum. War scares are numerous, and military organizations are spread from one end of christendom to the other. Not only the school children, but also the attendants at some of the Sunday schools are drilled in military tactics, and squads of boys, too young to realize the awful gravity of what they are doing, go marching down the streets of our great cities, dressed in military uniforms, bearing guns, and stepping to the time of a snare drum. Long articles are written by eminent men to prove that the war spirit should be cultivated in the young. The ruling class begins to fear that the poor will quit fighting their battles for them. The idea is gaining ground that if kings and congresses want war they may do the fighting.

Workingmen begin to see that the militia is used against them in their struggles with their employers, and much has been written and said concerning what can be done to correct this evil. Some have proposed that the working men join the militia, but in New York City members of Trades Unions are debarred from joining by officers of the militia. In some places entire companies of militia, composed entirely of trades unionists, have been proposed. But oh, how few have seen that no matter how many trades unionists are members of the militia, they will be flung against their fellow unionists in case of strike or lockout. Pretty sight! Beautiful sight! Men who have met in the union and called each other brother, brought out, gun in hand, at the command of a braggart bully, liable at any moment to be given the order "fire" at their brothers, perhaps of the same local. When will the Trades Unions and all their members refuse to belong to any military organization? When will working men see that military organizations are to keep them in subjection, and secure their robbery for the benefit of the parasites? When will people learn that war only brings anguish, destruction and death, and that all the desirable things of life come as a consequence of industry, never as a consequence of war?

When we have grown wise enough to banish the war spirit from amongst us: when all persons will refuse to use force against their fellows, then the power of the oppressor will be gone. No more could proud wealth rob patient industry and laugh in its face. Never again could the efforts of strikers be crushed by the militia. The power of the State would be gone, and the producers be able to maintain possession of their products. Then those who toil and create the wealth of the world could assert their power, and by combining their efforts raise themselves beyond all danger of want or privation, and forever place themselves in position to enjoy all the comforts, the luxuries, the arts and sciences. But as long as the war-spirit sways men as it does today; as long as men will take up arms against their fellow-men; will march and drill, and obey the command of a "superior," just so