First Year of the War – Emma Goldman (1915)

From ‘Mother Earth: Monthly Magazine Devoted to Social Science and Literature’, published and edited by Emma Goldman, September 1915, New York City

The past twelve months have been the saddest and maddest twelve months that the world has ever known. Half a dozen great nations have been engaged in killing and trying to kill each other as quickly as possible, and the resources of science have been utilized to the utmost in fashioning the most diabolical weapons of war that the human mind could imagine. Wonderful inventions like the aeroplane and the submarine have carried death through the air and under the sea, and gigantic guns and terrible explosives have wrought havoc and destruction on land. Smiling hills and valleys have been turned into vast cemeteries, prosperous towns and cities shattered into ruins, and millions of strong and healthy men either killed outright or maimed for life. The battles of the contending armies and navies have been fought in every clime and on every sea, and hundreds of vessels engaged in carrying the fruits of the earth from one land to another are now lying at the bottom of the ocean with their cargoes and crews.

As the months roll by, instead of the people being appalled at the awful slaughter and destruction, they are feverishly preparing munitions of war on a more gigantic scale than ever, so that the slaughter in the coming months bids fair to exceed that of the past. Other nations, also, which have hitherto kept clear of the carnage are gradually being drawn in, until it seems possible that, if the war lasts much longer, no country in Europe will remain outside the struggle. And even across the Atlantic some hot-headed Americans have urged their Government to join in. In fact, it seems as though the war has stripped from the nations the thin veneer of civilization that distinguishes them from their savage ancestors.

Many of us had hoped that after long years of socialist and antimilitarist agitation the workers would have fiercely resisted the call to arms last autumn; but when the summons came, they obeyed it at once, and marched off to the battlefields to protect the interests of their rulers, just as they had done for many centuries. In each country practically all the Socialist and Labor parties supported their Governments, some of their members joining the Cabinets thus showing the value of their previous speeches about the never-ending class war.

At the moment of writing there seems no probability of an early cessation of hostilities, the Governments have a free hand. But will the peoples of Europe allow them a free hand? Already there are signs of a revulsion of feeling in various parts of the Continent, and it would require very little agitation for it to spread quickly.

We know that the longer the war lasts, the greater the sacrifice of the workers. In this country, for instance, in spite of the fact that they have laid down their lives at the bidding of their rulers, the few liberties the workers possessed at the beginning of the war are being gradually taken away under the plea of “military necessity.” There is no gratitude in a ruling class. During the Napoleonic wars, when, we are told, England “saved Europe,” the aristocracy in this country took advantage of the occasion to steal the common lands from the people; and now they are taking advantage of the present situation to fasten legal shackles on the workers which it will be difficult to remove. Take a glance at the legislation which has been passed in the twelve months we have been at war, and it will be seen that in almost every case it restricts the liberties of the people. And now the cry for conscription becomes louder and more insistent, and he would be a bold man who would say it will not be introduced into this country before the war is over.

Thus we find that reaction has gained headway during the past twelve months, and the powers of the State have been enormously increased. In these circumstances, we must keep our ideals before the people, and point out to them that in every land their greatest enemies are their own rulers represented by the State, and until that vicious institution is shattered there will always be wars and rumours of wars.

Observations and Comments on Neutrality – Mother Earth (1915)

An excerpt from ‘Mother Earth’, published by Emma Goldman, edited by Alexander Berkman, February 1915, New York City

The self-righteous American indignation over German atrocities in Belgium has received a heavy blow from one of America’s own army men, Captain Edwin Emerson. In his address before the American Institute in Berlin, the Captain gave emphasis to the fact that all talk of neutrality, as far as warring states are concerned, is bunkum. Elaborating on a number of historic incidents both in American and English warfare, he pointed out that the American soldiers in the Philippines have acted exactly as the Germans in Belgium; equally so America cared little about the neutrality of Mexico “when she occupied Vera Cruz, or of Nicaragua and Colombia, when she took possession of the Panama Canal.” As to England’s indignation, Captain Emerson justly says that she has never done anything else, except invade, coerce and subdue neutral nations, and among numerous examples, he cited the bombardment “ of Alexandria, and the invasion of “neutral” Egypt, the raid of Dr. Jameson into the neutral Boer republic. “Truth is that England does not care a fig about any neutrality, wherever her own interest is concerned.” We of MOTHER EARTH are too deeply imbued with the spirit of Internationalism to be pro-German, or pro any of the warring countries. We are, as we have always been, pro the German, French, Belgian, Russian, and English people who are paying with their lives for the power and greed of their rulers. In quoting Captain Emerson, we merely wish our readers to learn direct from one of the sceneshifters of militarism itself how truly farcical all government pretension about neutrality is.

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Mainly this true of the American proclamation of neutrality. The very day the stupid public murmured compulsory prayers for peace, the Carnegie Schwab steel mills worked overtime to supply the warring countries with steel plates and guns. The other day two twelve-inch guns, fifty-three inches long, seventy-five tons in weight, were shipped to Germany on the Cunard liner Orduna. And while four million Americans are out of work, facing hunger and cold, neutral America is rushing tons of foodstuffs to keep the soldiers of Europe in good fighting trim. That is the hypocrisy of American neutrality.