IV
But as the weeks passed, the evidence of atrocities began to pile
in, and so Jimmie Higgins was driven to a second line of defence.
Well, maybe so, but then all the armies were alike. Somebody told
Jimmie the saying of a famous general, that war was hell; and Jimmie
took to this--it was exactly what he wanted to believe! War was a
return to savagery, and the worse it became, the better Jimmie's
argument went. He was not interested in men's efforts to improve
war, by agreeing that they would kill in this way but not in that
way, they would kill this kind of people but not that kind.
These ideas Jimmie got from his fellow members in the local, and
from the Socialist papers which came each week and from the many
speakers he heard. These speakers were men and women of burning
sincerity and with a definite and entirely logical point of view.
Whether they talked about war, crime, prostitution, political
corruption, or any other social evil, what they wanted was to tear
down the old ramshackle structure, and to put in its place something
new and intelligent. You might possibly bring them to admit slight
differences between capitalist governments but when it came to a
practical issue, to an action you found that to these people all
governments were alike--and never so much alike as in war-time!
Nor was there ever such need for Socialist protest! Very quickly it
became apparent that it was not going to be an easy matter for
America to keep out of this world-vortex. Because American working
men did not get a living wage, and could not buy what they produced,
there was a surplus product which had to be sold abroad; so the
business of American manufacturers depended upon foreign markets
--and here suddenly were all the principal trading nations of the
world plunging in to buy all the American products they could, and
to keep their enemies from buying any at all.
A woman speaker came to Leesville a shrewd little body with a sharp
tongue, who had these disputes figured out, and gave them in
dialogue, as in a play. Kaiser Bill says, "I want cotton" John Bull
says, "You shan't have it." Uncle Sam says, "But he has a right to
have it. Get out of the way, John Bull." But John Bull says, "I will
hold up your ships and take them into my ports." Uncle Sam says,
"No, no! Don't do that!" But John Bull does it. And then the Kaiser
says, "What sort of a fellow are you to let John Bull steal your
ships? Are you a coward, or are you secretly a friend of this old
villain? Uncle Sam says, "John Bull, give me my German mail and my
German newspapers, at least. But John Bull answers, "You've got a
lot of German spies in your country--that's why I can't let you have
your mail. You can't have German papers because the Kaiser fills
them full of lies about me." And the Kaiser says, "If John Bull
won't let me have my cotton and my meat and all the rest of it, why
don't you stop sending anything to him?" He waits a while, and then
he says, "If you won't stop sending things to that old villain, I'll
sink the ships, that's all." And Uncle Sam cries, "But that's
against the law!" "Whose law?" says the Kaiser. "What sort of a law
is it that works only one way?" "But there are Americans on those
ships!" cries Uncle Sam. "Well, keep them off the ships!" answers
the Kaiser. "Keep them off till John Bull obeys the law."
Put in this way the situation was easy for any Jimmie Higgins to
understand; and month by month, as the debate continued, Jimmie's
own point of view became clearer. He was not interested in sending
cotton to England, and still less in sending meat. He thought he was
lucky if he had a bit of meat twice a week himself, and it was plain
enough to him that if the fellows who owned the meat were not
allowed to ship it abroad, they might sell it in America at a price
that a working man could pay. Nor was that just greediness on
Jimmie's part; he was perfectly willing to go without meat where an
ideal was involved--look at the time and money and energy he gave to
Socialism! The point was that by sending goods to Europe, you helped
to keep up the fighting; whereas, if you quit, the fools must come
to their senses. So the Jimmie Higginses worked out their
campaign-slogan: "Starve the War and Feed America!"
