Three articles from ‘Industrial Worker’, May 25, 1911, Spokane, Washington
Spreading the Gospel
Capitalist Press Helping To Propagate Anti-Military Doctrine
Thousands of circulars are being distributed in Denver designed to induce soldiers to leave the state militia and the federal army as well. They have been pushed under the doors of leading state and government military authorities, while the armories in the city and barracks at Fort Logan have been flooded with them.
Just as soon as it is learned that one batch has been destroyed the headquarters of the soldiers are filled with others of the same kind.
The circulars have been turned over to the government officers for investigation and serious charges will be preferred against the senders if they can be found. The armories and post buildings are being watched closely at nights, as the distribution of the circulars has been done quietly for fear of arrest for a conspiracy to aid in causing men to leave the army. These are a few excerpts from the circular:
“Keep the boys out of the army. It is hell.
“No man can fall lower than a soldier — it is a depth beneath which we cannot go.
“A good soldier is a blind, heartless, soulless, murderous machine. He is not a man. He is not even a brute, for brutes only kill in self-defense. All that is human in him, all that is divine in him, all that constitutes the man, has been sworn away when he took the enlistment roll. His mind, his conscience, aye, his very soul are in the keeping of the officer.”
Then follows the “pledge” which the deserter is supposed to take:
“I refuse to kill your father. I refuse to slay your mother’s son. I refuse to plunge a bayonet into the breast of your sister’s brother. I refuse to slaughter your sweetheart’s lover. I refuse to murder your wife’s husband. I refuse to butcher your little child’s father. I refuse to wet the earth with blood and blind eyes with tears. I refuse to assassinate you and then hide my stained fists in the folds of any flag.”
The whole concludes by advising the soldiers and the “working classes” as well to go to the public library and read a certain book dealing with war and its objects. Under a strict construction of the law the persons distributing these circulars could be punished for treason.
— Denver Post, May 12, 1911.
The only mistake this capitalist editor has made is in not mentioning the name of the book, which all should read. It is “War — What For?” by Geo. R. Kirkpatrick. Costs $1.20 postpaid. Address Box 206, West La Fayette, Ohio. Pardon us, Mr. Subservient Tool, for helping you out.
— Editor.
They Enlist To Eat
A Rebel Soldier — How Men Are Forced Into the Army — Soldiers are Waking Up
Editor Industrial Worker.
Fellow Workers: A friend of mine sent me a copy of the “Industrial Worker” for April 27th and I have been much interested in it. It is full of truth.
As nearly as I can determine the most of the boys are on the “inside” because it is a comparatively easy job to hold down, and one that they can get without buying. The number of recruits coming in varies in direct ratio with the ease with which they can get work on the “outside.” The capitalists (who control the army really) are wise enough to know that if they make conditions more bearable on the “inside” than on the “outside” the unawakened wage slave will naturally drift in.
Now since the capitalists control labor conditions on the “outside” and also the conditions in the army it becomes an easy matter for them to practically force the slaves to enlist, although at the same time it is done in such a sly way that they think they did it entirely of their own free will and accord. But the Industrial Workers are educating the men of America until they see the folly of enlisting.
In turn the capitalists are becoming alarmed enough to try and refute the arguments of Industrialism. Such an attempt they made in their organ “Army and Navy Register” for April. Any one who will take the trouble to compare the arguments of the two sides will be struck with the force of the I.W.W. arguments and with the marked weakness of those of the capitalists.
Having worked in various camps and outfits in different parts of the states, I have no hesitation in saying that conditions “inside,” in time of peace, are superior to the general run of camp life in the woods and on the railroads. The grub is plain, but plentiful, quarters and beds clean and comfortable, and the clothing sufficient and good. Besides this, the hours are shorter and you are not “speeded” as you are “outside.”
But all this simply bears out my contention that they who control both the “outside” and the “inside” are wise — yes, devilishly wise! They recognize the fact that a large number of people will take a comparatively easy present in preference to a golden future; hence without making conditions ideal in the army they make them far worse on the outside, thus getting the physical flower of America for their hirelings.
At the same time, although really tricked into enlistment, a man believes that he enlisted of his own free will, and usually feels honor bound to live up to his contract with his masters. Besides his honor, his life, or liberty are threatened if he breaks it. Not realizing the emptyness of the claims of those in authority to mastery over him, nor his own power to brush aside these claims when united with his fellow slaves he remains an abject serf.
There is no hope for him unless he can be awakened. But he is beginning to stir uneasily in his sleep, and the education along class lines now being carried on by the Industrial Workers of the World is the prod that is stirring him.
Go ahead! Give them hell! Once awake the trained soldier will be a double power for freedom. Asleep he is a drag on the wheels of its progress. You will understand that I hardly care for my name to appear should you care to mention any part of this letter. If you think that it may aid the cause of Industrialism make any use of it you can.
Yours for freedom.
A Soldier
Fort McDowell, California
“Insurrection Rather Than War”
Let us revolutionists in America adopt that stirring slogan of the European proletariat; “Insurrection rather than war.”
When we show the great capitalist, the exploiter of humanity, that we will stop fighting his battles, and when we show these parasites that we are not patriotic sentimentalists, who are only revolutionary on paper, then and then only will the power of the capitalist class be weakened.
The power of the exploiter lies in his great armies who do not hesitate to shoot down their brothers, and if we push the anti-militarist propaganda, and get among these soldiers, there will soon be red spots in the army. The beginning has already been made, many soldiers already understand their economic position, and these are doing their utmost to convince their fellow soldiers.
On with the anti-military movement; down with “The Iron Heel.”
“S. G.”
Resource links:
About Face: Veterans Against The War
Palestine Children’s Relief Fund
Also:
If We Must Fight, Let’s Fight for the Most Glorious Nation, Insubordination (2024)
The Deadly Parallel, by the Industrial Workers of the World (1917)
Collected Texts by Joe Hill (1910-1915)
Should I Ever Be a Soldier, by Joe Hill (1913)
War and the Workers, by the Industrial Workers of the World (1911)
Hell Here, No Hereafter, from Industrial Worker (1911)
War — What For?, by George R. Kirkpatrick (1910)
Military Power, from Industrial Worker (1909)
Against the Destruction of Gaza, For the Liberation of Palestine (2023)