The working man who turns soldier today becomes the hired assassin of his capitalist master.
He goes on the murderers' pay roll at fifty cents a day, under orders
to kill anybody, anywhere, at any time.
-Eugene V. Debs
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Monday September 13, 1915
From the Appeal to Reason: Eugene Debs on War and the Working Class
The August 28th edition of the
Appeal, No. 1030, was advertised as the "Jingo Edition:"
The foremost writers and humanitarians of the present generation are contributors to this issue. You will find a variety of views presented in this paper, but all of them are written from the standpoint of the people...
Look over this paper-you will find it a powerful broadside against militarism and capitalism. If you approve of our stand on this war help circulate this edition.
On the front page of the Jingo edition, was a message from Eugene Debs, "Never Be Soldier," which said in part:
Working men and working women of America! Let us swear by all that is dear to us and all that is sacred to our cause, never to become a soldier and never to go to war!
If the pot-bellied masters insist upon the Crimson Carnival, the Devil's Bloody Debauch, they will henceforth rip out their own loins and livers, riot in their own blood and entrails and offer up their own mangled and putrescent carcasses on the blood-drenched altar of Mars and Mammon.
On the front page of this week's
Appeal, Debs, in a statement entitled "When I Shall Fight," answers a question raised by his previous statement for the Jingo Edition:
Since my characterization of the soldier in the Jingo edition I have been asked if I was opposed to all war and if I would refuse to be a soldier and to fight under any circumstances, and to make my answer through the Appeal to Reason....
I have no country to fight for; my country is the earth; I am a citizen of the world.
I would not violate my principles for God, much less for a crazy kaiser, a savage czar, a degenerate king, or a gang of pot-bellied parasites.
But while I have not a drop of blood to shed for the oppressors of the working class and the robbers of the poor, the thieves and looters, the brigands and murderers whose debauched misrule is the crime of the ages, I have a heart-full to shed for their victims when it shall be needed in the war for their liberation.
I am not a capitalist soldier; I am a proletarian revolutionist...
Both statements, as published in the
Appeal to Reason, can be found below the fold.
From the Appeal to Reason of August 28, 1915:
From the Appeal to Reason of September 11, 1915:
~~~~~~~~~~
SOURCE
Appeal to Reason
(Girard, Kansas)
(Also source for images of text.)
-Aug 28, 1915
http://www.newspapers.com/...
-Sept 11, 1915
http://www.newspapers.com/...
IMAGE
Eugene Debs
http://books.google.com/...
See Also:
Democracy's Prisoner: Eugene V. Debs,
the Great War, and the Right to Dissent
-by Ernest Freeberg
Harvard University Press, 2008
https://books.google.com/...
Chapter 2: "Never Be A Soldier"
https://books.google.com/...
In 1920, socialist leader Eugene V. Debs ran for president while serving a ten-year jail term for speaking against [America's] role in World War I. ...
The Debs case illuminates our own struggle to define the boundaries of permissible dissent as we continue to balance the right of free speech with the demands of national security. In this memorable story of democracy on trial, Freeberg excavates an extraordinary episode in the history of one of [America's] most prized ideals.
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Tune: Colleen Bawn by the Wolfe Tones
SHOULD I EVER BE A SOLDIER.
By Joe Hill.
(Tune: "Colleen Bawn.")
We're spending billions every year
For guns and ammunition,
"Our Army" and "our Navy" dear,
To keep in good condition;
While millions live in misery
And millions died before us,
Don't sing "My Country 'tis of thee,"
But sing this little chorus.
CHORUS:
Should I ever be a soldier,
'Neath the Red Flag I would fight;
Should the gun I ever shoulder,
It's to crush the tyrant's might.
Join the army of the toilers,
Men and women fall in line,
Wage slaves of the world! Arouse!
Do your duty for the cause,
For Land and Liberty.
And many a maiden, pure and fair,
Her love and pride must offer
On Mammon's altar in despair,
To fill the master's coffer,
The gold that pays the mighty fleet,
From tender youth he squeezes,
While brawny men must walk the street
And face the wintry breezes.
Why do they mount their gatling gun
A thousand miles from ocean,
Where hostile fleet could never run—
Ain't that a funny notion?
If you don't know the reason why
Just strike for better wages,
And then, my friends—if you don't die—
You'll sing this song for ages.
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