IV
Norwood, having thrown the fat into the fire, sat down for a while
and let it blaze. When the Germans taunted him with being afraid to
say what he really meant--that the local should oppose the demand
for the eight hour day--he merely laughed at them. He had wanted to
make them show themselves up, and he had done it. Not merely were
they willing to do the work of the Kaiser--they were willing to take
the Kaiser's pay for doing it!
"Take his pay?" cried "Wild Bill". "I'd take the devil's pay to
carry on Socialist propaganda!"
Old Hermann Forster rose and spoke, in his gentle sentimental voice.
If it were true that the Kaiser was paying money for such ends, he
would surely find he had bought very little. There were Socialists
in Germany, one must remember--
And then came a shrill laugh. Those tame German Socialists! It was
Comrade Claudel, a Belgian jeweller, who spoke. Would any rabbit be
afraid of such revolutionists as them? Eating out of the Kaiser's
hand--having their papers distributed in the trenches for government
propaganda! Talk to a Belgian about German Socialists!
So you saw the European national lines splitting Local Leesville in
two: on the one side, the Germans and the Austrians, the Russian
Jews, the Irish and the religious pacifists; on the other side, two
English glass-blowers, a French waiter, and several Americans who,
because of college-education or other snobbish weakness, were
suspected of tenderness for John Bull. Between these extreme
factions stood the bulk of the membership, listening bewildered,
trying to grope their way through the labyrinth.
It was no easy job for these plain fellows, the Jimmie Higginses.
When they tried to think the matter out, they were almost brought to
despair. There were so many sides to the question--the last fellow
you met always had a better argument than anyone you had heard
before! You sympathized with Belgium and France, of course; but
could you help hating the British ruling classes? They were your
hereditary enemies--your school-book enemies, so to speak. And they
were the ones you knew most about; since every American jack-ass
that got rich quick and wanted to set himself up above his fellows
would proceed to get English clothes and English servants and
English bad manners. To the average plain American, the word English
stood for privilege, for ruling class culture, the things
established, the things against which he was in rebellion; Germany
was the I. W. W. among the nations--the fellow who had never got a
chance and was now hitting out for it. Moreover, the Germans were
efficient; they took the trouble to put their case before you, they
cared what you thought about them; whereas the Englishman, damn him,
turned up his snobbish nose, not caring a whoop what you or anybody
might think.
Moreover, in this controversy the force of inertia was on the German
side, and inertia is a powerful force in any organization. What the
Germans wanted of American Socialists was simply that they should go
on doing what they had been doing all their lives. And the Socialist
machine had been set up for the purpose of going on, regardless of
all the powers on earth, in the heavens above the earth, or in hell
beneath. Ask Jimmie Higgins to stop demanding higher wages and the
eight hour day! Wouldn't anybody in his senses know what Jimmie
would answer to that proposition? Go chase yourself!
