FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44  
45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   >>   >|  
bly decrease or, worse still, cease, these educated members of the liberal professions will desert the army of Capital and bring a much-needed reinforcement to the Army of Labor. Some of the more far-seeing upholders of the present system are keenly conscious of this danger. And this danger (even though most of the expansionists may not realize it), is one of the most potent causes of the Imperialism, Militarism, and Jingoism which are at present disgracing the civilized world. England in Africa, and America in the Philippines are pursuing their present criminal policies, not solely to open new markets for English and American goods, but also to secure new fields for the investment of English and American capital, and thus to stop the continuous dropping of the rate of interest and profits, for if this cannot be stopped, the intellectual proletariat will join the sweating proletariat, and the Co-operative Commonwealth will be established and then the poor capitalists will have to work for their livings like other people. This was clearly pointed out by a capitalist writer in an essay in a recent number of the Atlantic Monthly, who warned the capitalist opponents of McKinley, Destiny & Co.'s policy of expansion that they were attempting to close the only safety-valve which under present conditions could, not avert, but postpone the Social Revolution.[3] But, friends, nothing can postpone it long, for the industrial crises and financial panics are recurring at shorter and shorter intervals, and the process of recovery from them is slower and slower, and every panic and crisis forces thousands of educated, intelligent members of the middle class off their narrow and precarious foothold down into the ranks of the proletariat, where the hard logic of the facts will convert them to class-conscious Socialism. Workingmen, I congratulate you upon the approaching victory of the workers and the advent of the Co-operative Commonwealth, for I tell you, in the language of an English comrade: "Failure on failure may seem to defeat us; ultimate failure is impossible. Seeing what is to be done then, seeing what the reward is, Seeing what the terms are,--are you willing to join us? Will you lend us the aid of your voice, your money, your sympathy? May we take you by the hand and call you 'Comrade'?" FOOTNOTE: [3] The expansion policy also acts as a safety-valve by promoting the emi
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44  
45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

present

 

English

 
proletariat
 

failure

 

American

 

postpone

 

policy

 
expansion
 

safety

 

capitalist


shorter

 

operative

 

Commonwealth

 
slower
 
danger
 

Seeing

 

educated

 
members
 

conscious

 

intervals


process
 

recovery

 
panics
 

crises

 

financial

 

recurring

 

sympathy

 

industrial

 

Social

 
Revolution

FOOTNOTE

 

conditions

 

Comrade

 
promoting
 

friends

 
thousands
 
congratulate
 

approaching

 

impossible

 
Workingmen

convert

 
Socialism
 
victory
 

workers

 

Failure

 

comrade

 

language

 
advent
 
ultimate
 

reward