That Sucker, the Patriot – Industrial Worker (1916)

From ‘Industrial Worker’, September 2, 1916, Seattle

We have been reading a great deal about “preparedness.” Who are the ones that are clamoring loudest for “preparedness”? They are the ones in possession of the wealth of the world, and their henchmen who are that low in the scale of humanity there is nothing too degrading for them to do. For instance: there are those that are ever ready to instill in the minds of the youth that devil-inspired thing known as “patriotism.” These patriotic teachers are also engaged in preaching contentment along with “patriotism.” Why not? One is the counterpart of the other. The reason these people have prostituted themselves is because they get better pay or hope to receive greater favors from their masters than does the producing class. For though they are not engaged in making profits for their masters, they are of “incalculable value” in aiding the capitalists in wringing profits from those engaged in the industries.

I have noticed and possibly many radicals have, that the more “patriotic” a “patriot,” the more contented he is with economic servitude. Why, he will fight at the drop of the hat for his master no matter how unscrupulous that master may be. The “patriot” doesn’t stop to question whether he is doing right or whether he is doing wrong, but will go forth and kill somebody of some other nation even if he knows he is in the wrong. So the “patriot” salves his conscience with the thought that he is doing God’s service in invading another one’s country and at the same time insists that those who are seeking to invade “his” country, are doing the work of the Devil himself. Thus proving beyond the shadow of a reasonable doubt that the “patriot” is a moral pervert.

What argument have the “patriots” (workingmen) against invasion? The strongest I have heard is the following: “If a burglar were to break into your home wouldn’t you resist him?” For the life of me I cannot see any similarity in a burglar breaking into a workingman’s home and a country in the act of being invaded, for the burglar is after some of the wealth which the worker has been successful in exacting from his employer, while the invader is after the wealth of the employer. The wealth of any nation is in the hands of the few, and the invader knows it. They don’t care a rap for the hovels you live in, save for the purpose of housing the slaves. You fellows wouldn’t even have to move out of your “homes”: you could get jobs of your new masters.

I verily believe the invader would prefer you “cattle” above every other, for you have been more successfully exploited than any other working people on earth. And you seem to like it. If I were content with economic bondage, I wouldn’t care a tinker’s damn whether my master was an American, an Englishman or Dutchman or yet a Frenchman. All these and many others are masters of the working class — even in this country. So you would have nothing to gain by resisting an invasion.