The American Empire Part 28

Between the years 1914 and 1918 the people of Europe busied themselves with a war that put their economic machine out of the running.

For a hundred years the European nations had been busy building a finely adjusted economic mechanism; population, finance, commerce--all were knit into the same system. This system the war demolished, and the years that have followed the Armistice have not seen it rebuilt in any essential particular, save in Great Britain and in some of the neutral countries.

Not only were the European nations unable to give commodities in exchange for the things they needed but the machinery of finance, by means of which these transactions were formerly facilitated, was crippled almost beyond repair. Under the old system buying and selling were carried on by the use of money, and money ceased to be a stable medium of exchange in Europe. It would be more correct to say that money was no longer taken seriously in many parts of Europe. During the war the European governments printed 75 billions of dollars' worth of paper money. This paper depreciated to a ridiculous extent. Before the war, the franc, the lira, the mark and the crown had about the same value--20 to 23 cents, or about five to a dollar. By 1920 the dollar bought 15 francs; 23 liras; 40 marks, and 250 Austrian crowns. In some of the ready-made countries, const.i.tuted under the Treaty or set up by the Allies as a cordon about Russia, hundreds and thousands of crowns could be had for a dollar. Even the pound sterling, which kept its value better than the money of any of the other European combatants, was thirty per cent. below par, when measured in terms of dollars. This situation made it impossible for the nations whose money was at such a heavy discount to purchase supplies from the more fortunate countries.

But to make matters even worse, the rate of exchange fluctuated from day to day and from hour to hour so that business transactions could only be negotiated on an immense margin of safety.

Add to this financial dissolution the mountains of debt, the huge interest charges and the oppressive taxes, and the picture of economic ruin is complete.

The old capitalist world, organized on the theory of compet.i.tion between the business men within each nation, and between the business men of one nation and those of another nation, reached a point where it would no longer work.

In Russia the old system had disappeared, and a new system had been set up in its place. In Germany, and throughout central Europe, the old system was shattered, and the new had not yet emerged. In France, Italy and Great Britain the old system was in process of disintegration--rapid in France and Italy; slower in Great Britain. But in all of these countries intelligent men and women were asking the only question that statesmanship could ask--the question, "What next?"

The capitalist system was stronger in Great Britain than in any of the other warring countries of Europe. Before the war, it rested on a surer foundation. During the war, it withstood better than any other the financial and industrial demands. Since the war, it has made the best recovery.

Great Britain is the most successful of the capitalist states. The other capitalist nations of Europe regard her as the inner citadel of European capitalism. The British Labor Movement is seeking to take this citadel from within.

The British Labor Movement is a formidable affair. There are not more than a hundred thousand members in all of the Socialist parties, in the Independent Labor Party and in the Communist Party combined. There are between six and seven millions of members in the trade unions.

Perhaps the best test of the strength of the British Labor Movement came in the summer of 1920, over the prospective war with Russia. Warsaw was threatened. Its fall seemed imminent, and both Millerand and Lloyd-George made it clear that the fall of Warsaw meant war. The situation developed with extraordinary rapidity. It was reported that the British Government had dispatched an ultimatum. The Labor Movement acted with a strength and precision that swept the Government off its feet and compelled an immediate reversal of policy.

Over night, the workers of Great Britain were united in the Council of Action. As originally const.i.tuted, the "Labor and Russia Council of Action" consisted of five representatives each from the Parliamentary Committee of the Trades Union Congress, the Executive Committee of the Labor Party and the Parliamentary Labor Party. To these fifteen were added eight others, among whom were representatives of every element in the British Labor Movement. This Council of Action did three things--it notified the Government that there must be no war with Russia; it organized meetings and demonstrations in every corner of the United Kingdom to formulate public opinion; it began the organization of local councils of action, of which there were three hundred within four weeks.

The Council of Action also called a special conference of the British Labor Movement which met in London on August 13. There were over a thousand delegates at this conference, which opened and closed with the singing of the "Internationale." When the princ.i.p.al resolution of endors.e.m.e.nt was pa.s.sed, approving the formation of the Council of Action, the delegates rose to their feet, cheered the move to the echo, and sang the "Internationale" and "The Red Flag." The closing resolution authorized the Council of Action to take "any steps that may be necessary to give effect to the decisions of the Conference and the declared policy of the Trade Union and Labor Movement."

Such was the position in the "Citadel of European Capitalism." The Government was forced to deal with a body that, for all practical purposes, was determining the foreign policy of the Empire. Behind that Council was an organized group of between six and seven millions of workers who were out to get the control of industry into their own hands, and to do it as speedily and as effectually as circ.u.mstances would permit.

Meanwhile, the mantle of revolutionary activity descended upon Italy, where the red flag was run up over some the largest factories and some of the finest estates.

Throughout the war, the revolutionary movement was strong in Italy. The Socialist Party remained consistently an anti-war party, with a radical and vigorous propaganda. The Armistice found the Socialist and Labor Movements strong in the North, with a growing movement in the South for the organization of Agricultural Leagues.

The Socialist propaganda in Italy was very consistent and telling. The paper "Avanti," circulating in all parts of the country, was an agency of immense importance. The war, the Treaty, the rising cost of living, the growing taxation--all had prepared the ground for the work that the propagandists were doing. Their message was: "Make ready for the taking over of the industries! Learn what you can, so that, when the day comes, each will play his part. When you get the word, take over the works!

There must be no violence--that only helps the other side. Do not linger on the streets, you will be shot. Remain at home or stay in the factories and work as you never worked before!"

That, in essence, was the Italian Socialist propaganda--simple, clear and direct, and that was, in effect, what the workers did.

The returned soldiers were a factor of large importance in the Italian Revolution. They were radicals throughout the war. The peace made them revolutionists. "The Proletarian League of the Great War" was affiliated with "The International of Former Soldiers," which comprised the radical elements among the ex-service men of Great Britain, Germany, France, Austria, Italy and a number of the smaller countries. There were over a million dues-paying members in this International, and their avowed object was propaganda against war and in favor of an economic system in which the workers control the industries. It was this group in Italy--particularly in the South--that carried through the project of occupying the estates.

The workers are in control of the whole social fabric in Russia where the revolution has gone the farthest. In Great Britain, where the labor movement is perhaps more conservative than in any of the other countries of Europe, the Government is compelled to deal with a labor movement that is strong enough to consider and to decide important matters of foreign policy. The workers of Italy have the upper hand. In Czecho-Slovakia, in Bulgaria, in Germany and in the smaller and neutral countries the workers are making their voices heard in opposition to any restoration of the capitalist system; while they busy themselves with the task of creating the framework of a new society.

4. _The Challenge_

This is the challenge of the workers of Europe to the capitalist system.

The workers are not satisfied; they are questioning. They mean to have the best that life has to give, and they are convinced that the capitalist system has denied it to them.

The world has had more than a century of capitalism. The workers have had ample opportunity to see the system at work. The people of all the great capitalist countries--the common people--have borne the burdens and felt the crushing weight of capitalism--in its enslavement of little children; in its underpaying of women; in long hours of unremitting, monotonous toil; in the dreadful housing; in the starvation wages; in unemployment; in misery. The capitalist system has had a trial and it is upon the workers that the system has been tried out.

During this experiment, the workers of the world have been compelled to accept poverty, unemployment and war.

These terrible scourges have afflicted the capitalist world, and it is the workers and their families that have borne them in their own persons. In those countries where the capitalist system is the oldest, the workers have suffered the longest. The essence of capitalism is the exploitation of one man by another man, and the longer this exploitation is practiced the more skillful and effective does the master cla.s.s become in its manipulation.

The workers look before them along the path of capitalist imperialism that is now being followed by the nations that are in the lead of the capitalist world. There they see no promise save the same exploitation, the same poverty, the same inequality and the same wars over the commercial rivalries of the imperial nations.

The workers of Europe have come to the conclusion that the world should belong to those who build it; that the good things of life should be the property of those who produce them. They see only one course open before them--to declare that those who will not work, shall not eat.

The right of self-determination is the international expression of this challenge. The ownership of the job is its industrial equivalent.

Together, the two ideas comprise the program of the more advanced workers in all of the great imperial countries of the world. These ideas did not originate in Russia, and they are not confined to Russia any more than capitalism is confined to Great Britain. They are the doctrines of the new order that is coming rapidly into its own.

Capitalism has been summed up, heretofore, in the one word "profit." The capitalist cannot abandon that standard. The world has lived beyond it, however, and without it, capitalism, as a system, is meaningless. If the capitalists abandon profit, they abandon capitalism.

Without profit the capitalist system falls to pieces, because it is the profit incentive that has always been considered as the binder that holds the capitalist world together. Hence the abandonment of the profit incentive is the surrender of the citadel of capitalism. While profit remains, exploitation persists, and while there is exploitation of one man by another, no human being can call himself free.

The capitalists are caught in a beleaguered fortress in which they are defending their economic lives. Profit is the key to this fortress, and if they surrender the key, they are lost.

5. _The Real Struggle_

This is the real struggle for the possession of the earth. Shall the few own and the many labor for the few, or the many own, and labor upon jobs that they themselves possess? The struggle between the capitalist nations is incidental. The struggle between the owners of the world and the workers of the world is fundamental.

If Great Britain wins in her conflict with the United States, her capitalists will continue to exploit the workers of Lancashire and Delhi. Her imperialists will continue their policy of world domination, subjugating peoples and utilizing their resources and their labor for the enrichment.

If the United States wins in her struggle with Great of the bankers and traders of London. Britain, her capitalists will continue to exploit the workers of Pittsburg and San Juan. Her imperialists will continue their policy of world domination, subjugating the peoples of Latin American first, and then reaching out for the control over other parts of the earth.

No matter what imperial nation may triumph in this struggle between the great nations for the right to exploit the weaker peoples and the choice resources, the struggle between capitalism and Socialism must be fought to a finish. If the capitalists win, the world will see the introduction of a new form of serfdom, more complete and more effective than the serfdom of Feudal Europe. If the Socialists win, the world enters upon a new cycle of development.

XIX. THE AMERICAN WORKER AND WORLD EMPIRE

1. _Gains and Losses_

The American worker is a citizen of the richest country of the world.

Resources are abundant. There is ample machinery to convert these gifts of nature into the things that men need for their food and clothing, their shelter, their education and their recreation. There is enough for all, and to spare, in the United States.

But the American worker is not master of his own destinies. He must go to the owners of American capital--to the plutocrats--and from them he must secure the permission to earn a living; he must get a job.

Therefore it is the capitalists and not the workers of the United States that are deciding its public policy at the present moment.

The American capitalist is a member of one of the most powerful exploiting groups in the world. Behind him are the resources, productive machinery and surplus of the American Empire. Before him are the undeveloped resources of the backward countries. He has gained wealth and power by exploitation at home. He is destined to grow still richer and more powerful as he extends his organization for the purposes of exploitation abroad.

The prospects of world empire are as alluring to the American capitalist as have been similar prospects to other exploiting cla.s.ses throughout history. Empire has always been meat and drink to the rulers.

The master cla.s.s has much to gain through imperialism. The workers have even more to lose.

The workers make up the great bulk of the American people. Fully seven-eighths (perhaps nine-tenths) of the adult inhabitants of the United States are wage earners, clerks and working farmers. All of the proprietors, officials, managers, directors, merchants (big and little), lawyers, doctors, preachers, teachers, and the remainder of the business and professional cla.s.ses const.i.tute not over 10 or 12 percent of the total adult population. The workers are the "plain people" who do not build empires any more than they make wars. If they were left to themselves, they would continue the pursuit of their daily affairs which takes most of their thought and energy--and be content to let their neighbors alone.

2. _The Workers' Business_