V
The Socialists held a National Convention at St. Louis, and drew up
their declaration concerning the war. They called it the most
unjustifiable war in history, "a crime against the people of the
United States"; they called on the workers of the country to oppose
it, and pledged themselves "to the support of all mass movements in
opposition to conscription". This was, of course, a serious step to
take at such a time; the comrades realized it, and there were solemn
gatherings to discuss the referendum, and not a little disagreement
as to the wisdom of the declaration. In the town of Hopeland, near
which Jimmie was working, there was a local, and he had got himself
transferred from Leesville, and paid up his back dues, and had his
precious red card stamped up-to-date. And now he would go in and
listen to debates, just as exciting and just as bewildering as those
he had heard at the outbreak of the war.
There were some who pointed out the precise meaning of those words,
"all mass-movements in opposition to conscription." The leading
dry-goods merchant of the town, he was a Socialist, declared that
the words meant insurrection and mob violence, and the resolution
would be adjudged a call to treason. At which there leaped to his
feet a Russian Jewish tailor, Rabin by name; his first name was
Scholem, which means Peace, and he cried in great excitement: "Vot
business have ve Socialists vit such vords? Ve might leaf dem to de
enemy, vot?"
You might have thought you were in Leesville, listening to Comrade
Stankewitz. The only difference was that there were not many Germans
in this town, and those few confined their discussions to Ireland
and India.
Jimmie would hear the arguments, back and forth and back again, and
his mind would be in greater confusion than ever. He hated war as
much as ever; but, on the other hand, he was learning to hate the
Germans, too. The American government, going to war, had been forced
to assert itself, and the stores and billboards were covered with
proclamations and picture-posters, and the newspapers were full of
recitals of the crimes which Germany had committed against humanity.
Jimmie might refuse to read this "Wall Street dope", as he called
it, but the working-men with whom he was associating read it, and
would fire it at him whenever they got into a controversy. Also the
daily events in the news dispatches--the sinking of hospital-ships
filled with wounded, the shelling of life-boats, the dragging away
into slavery in coal-mines of Belgian children thirteen and fourteen
years old! How could any man fail to hate and to fear a government
which committed such atrocities? How could he remain untroubled at
the thought that he might be assisting such a government to victory?
Jimmie was honest, he was trying to face the facts as he saw them;
and when he stopped to think, when he remembered the things he had
done in company with "Wild Bill" and "Strawberry" Curran and
"Flathead Joe" and "Chuck" Peterson, he could not deny that he had
been, however unintentionally, helping the Kaiser to win the war. In
his arguments with others, Jimmie dared not tell all he knew about
such matters; so, when he argued with himself, his conscience was
troubled, and doubt gnawed at his soul. Suppose it were true, as
Comrade Dr. Service had tried to prove to him, that a victory for
the Kaiser would mean that America would have to spend the next
twenty or thirty years getting ready for the next war? Might it not
then be better to forego revolutionary agitation for a while, until
the Kaiser had been put out of business?
There were not a few Socialists who argued this way--men who had
been active in the movement and had possessed Jimmie's regard before
the war. Now they denounced the St. Louis resolution--the "majority
report" as it was called. When this report was carried in referendum
by a vote of something like eight to one, these comrades withdrew
from the party, and some of them bitterly attacked their former
friends. Such utterances were taken up by the capitalist press; and
this made Jimmie Higgins indignant. A fine lot of Socialists, to
quit the ship in the hour of peril! Renegades, Jimmie called them,
and compared them with Judas Iscariot and Benedict Arnold and
such-like celebrities of past ages. They, being exactly the same
sort of folk as Jimmie, answered by calling Jimmie a pro-German and
a traitor; which did not make it easier to persuade Jimmie to listen
to their arguments. So both sides became blinded with anger,
forgetting about the facts in the case, and thinking only of
punishing a hated antagonist.
