be
compelled to produce surplus wealth--wealth which they can never
consume; wealth the control of which passes into the hands of the
imperial ruling class, to be invested by them in the organization of the
Empire and the exploitation of the resources and other economic
opportunities of the dependent territory.

4. The American workers must be prepared to create and maintain an
imperial class, whose function it is to determine the policies and
direct the activities of the Empire. This class owes its existence to
the existence of empire, without which such a ruling class would be
wholly unnecessary.

5. The American workers must be prepared, in peace time as well as in
war time, to provide the "sinews of war": the fortifications, the battle
fleet, the standing army and the vast naval and military equipment that
invariably accompany empire.

6. The American workers must furthermore be ready, at a moment's call,
to turn from their occupations, drop their useful pursuits, accept
service in the army or in the navy and fight for the preservation of the
Empire--against those who attack from without, against those who seek
the right of self-determination within.

7. The American workers, in return for these sacrifices, must be
prepared to accept the poverty of a subsistence wage; to give the best
of their energies in war and in peace, and to stand aside while the
imperial class enjoys the fat of the land.

7. _A Way Out_

If the United States follows the course of empire, the workers of the
United States have no choice but to pay the price of Empire--pay it in
wealth, in misery, and in blood. But there is an alternative. Instead of
going on with the old system of the masters, the workers may establish a
new economic system--a system belonging to the workers, and managed by
them for their benefit.

The workers of Europe have tried out imperialism and they have come to
the conclusion that the cost is too high. Now they are seeking, through
their own movement--the labor movement--to control and direct the
economic life of Europe in the interest of those who produce the wealth
and thus make the economic life of Europe possible.

The American workers have the same opportunity. Will they avail
themselves of it? The choice is in their hands.

Thus far the workers of the United States have been, for the most part,
content to live under the old system, so long as it paid them a living
wage and offered them a job. The Europ