dual interests and each is striving to care for
himself alone without reference to his fellow men. Human brotherhood is
yet to be realized in this world. It never can be under the
capitalist-competitive system in which we live.

"Yes; I was opposed to the war. I am perfectly willing, on that count,
to be branded as a disloyalist, and if it is a crime under the American
law punishable by imprisonment for being opposed to human bloodshed, I
am perfectly willing to be clothed in the stripes of a convict and to
end my days in a prison cell.

"The War of the Revolution was opposed. The Tory press denounced its
leaders as criminals and outlaws. And that is what they were, under the
divine right of a king to rule men.

"The War of 1812 was opposed and condemned; the Mexican War was
bitterly condemned by Abraham Lincoln, by Charles Sumner, by Daniel
Webster and by Henry Clay. That war took place under the Polk
administration. These men denounced the President; they condemned his
administration; and they said that the war was a crime against humanity.
They were not indicted; they were not tried for crime. They are honored
today by all of their countrymen. The War of the Rebellion was opposed
and condemned. In 1864 the Democratic Party met in convention at Chicago
and passed a resolution condemning the war as a failure. What would you
say if the Socialist Party were to meet in convention today and condemn
the present war as a failure? You charge us with being disloyalists and
traitors. Were the Democrats of 1864 disloyalists and traitors because
they condemned the war as a failure?

"I believe in the Constitution of the United States. Isn't it strange
that we Socialists stand almost alone today in defending the
Constitution of the United States? The revolutionary fathers who had
been oppressed under king rule understood that free speech and the right
of free assemblage by the people were the fundamental principles of
democratic government. The very first amendment to the Constitution
reads: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the
freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably
to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of
grievances." That is perfectly plain English. It can be understood by a
child. I believe that the revolutionary fathers meant just what is here
stated--that Congress shall make no la