First World War Centennial

Do not for a moment imagine that, after this war, we are going back to the old conditions. New relations must be established and new understandings reached. Men and women who labor can no longer be disregarded by the powers that be.

For thousands of years the question has remained: Am I my brother's keeper? Yes, you are your brother's keeper, because, unless you bear his burdens, he will help tear you down.

Canadian Victory Loan Meeting at the Armories, To­ronto, November 28th, 1917.

SOMEHOW or other there is a destiny which shapes our ends, rough hew them as we will, and it is a pressing thought upon my mind that there is a destiny which is shaping all that we hold dear; that is crystallizing the thought and the activities of the peoples of the democracies of the world, so that the ideals for which we are striving shall find their ex­pression translated into the realities of life. There are some people who, touched with the enormity of the sacrifices which are being made and which may yet have to be made, are horror-stricken and terror-stricken at it all; and in a large part I share their feel­ings of horror and terror. It seems to be a fact of life that there is little worth while in the achievements of the human race unless it is sanctified by the blood of man. This utterance of mine, I venture to ask you to believe me, would not have passed my lips a little more than three years ago.

From my very earliest young manhood it was my proud boast and it was my intense belief that there would not again occur any large interruption of the international peace of the world. I was a pacifist "par excellence."

I am taking you into my confidence in telling you that I had been approached on many occasions to have my peace utterances done up in some sort of book form in order that they might be spread throughout Amer­ica and elsewhere. At last the Carnegie Peace As­sociation prevailed upon me to turn over all that which I had spoken and written upon the subject of inter­national peace and then I gave it over to the printer. I wanted to edit or revise it because there were some thoughts that might have been crudely expressed. Those who conferred with me told me that it was not necessary to revise it at all because what was there showed "growth and development" and I was again convinced that they were right.

Then, lo and behold, in August, 1914, I found my­self just howling in the wilderness. I had been be­fuddled and fooled by a schemer and deviser un­paralleled in the history of the world, and out of an almost clear sky came the declaration of war by the Imperial German Kaiser. At the command of this militarist, this imperialist, the peoples of the world were set at each others' throats. I immediately went to the printer and got hold of that damn-fool stuff and took it back.

I have sometimes a private opinion on certain mat­ters but the man who will not change his opinion when facts are presented to disprove that opinion, is very much like the man who said, "To argue with a man who has bidden good-by to his reason is like giving medicine to the dead."

These utterances of mine in regard to eternal peace and against international war will have to be revised after the close of the war when victory and triumph shall have been won. For I verily believe that when—mark you, I do not say if—when we shall have tri­umphed in this war, there will be no more great mili­tarist preparations in the great countries of the world.

His Imperial Majesty who broke all the laws of God and man in inaugurating this war perhaps did not know the host with which he would have to deal. He had been planning and scheming for nearly half a century. You will remember that the Em­peror of Germany had made the people believe that his preparation and his great army were for the pur­pose of maintaining the peace of the world. When he was called the War Lord, he would endeavor to explain and to make the people of the world under­stand or believe that his whole purpose was that of maintaining international peace. And now I ask you to consider for a moment whether it is not true that these false pretenses made by him and his underlings were really intended and planned to lull the people of the world into a fancied security, so that they would feel that it was not necessary to prepare themselves against any aggression on his part.

And I may say in passing, that the plan of the whole imperialist machine of Germany was intended to be conveyed in thought to the people of the whole world.

If there be any members of the Socialist Party in this city or in this audience, I ask that you and they consider this fact; if you read the philosophy of the German Socialist school, you will find that it is pat­terned after the autocratic power of the Imperial German Government; that it is at variance with and in opposition to the great labor movement as ex­pressed by the trade unions of the world. In our trade unions we represent in fact and in philosophy the fundamental principle of voluntarily and individually yielding a certain amount of our rights in order that all our other rights may be pro­tected and advanced. Under the scheme of the Ger­man school of Socialist philosophy, there is the thought that everything must be done by the government and the individual must lose himself.

There has never been a congress of labor to which a representative of the German Socialist party and the German Socialist philosophy has not endeavored to break in and break through. There has never been any assemblage of the organized labor movement in America, Canada, England, or any other country, France included, but that an endeavor has been made to foist upon this labor movement the German mili­tarist idea as modified and understood by German So­cialism. In all international and national conferences, their influences have operated and I freely admit to you that it was impossible for me to make myself proof against the influences they brought to bear—the sophistry they brought to bear, in so far as I be­lieved them to be sincere in their advocacy of interna­tional peace.

So far as their other "bunk" is concerned there is nothing in it for me. For there never was more sophistry contained in any pretended philosophy than there is in that which is embodied in German Social­ism. It is an effort to hypnotize and chloroform the world into a fancied security while they are playing their part splendidly in support of the militarism of their country in order that it may dominate the world. I ask you whether in the face of all that has been done—the flagrant violation of international law, the violation of every moral law, the violation of every treaty, the violation of every promise and pledge—is it not time for the manhood of our countries to rally in the defense of all that is left for manhood and womanhood to revere?

I have heard, as you have heard, of conscientious objectors. You have heard, as I have heard, of those who are now pacifists. I want to ask you whether you can transplant your mind—I cannot imagine you transplanting your bodies—to Berlin and then inquire of yourselves what you think his Imperial Majesty, the Kaiser, would say to any one who declared him­self a pacifist or a conscientious objector. There was one pacifist, one conscientious objector, in Germany, Dr. Karl Liebknecht, and the Kaiser and his Govern­ment immediately put him in prison.

Is it possible that we have so far forgotten the spirit of our race, have we so far been unable to ap­preciate the development of the human race, that we cannot or will not do our duty? The ordinary citizen goes home at night, locks the doors and goes restfully to sleep, but when there is a band of murderers who threaten and by physical force endanger the lives not only of himself but of his wife and little ones, when he knows that some of his neighbors have been robbed and ravished, who could be the conscientious objector or pacifist who would not rise with his fellows in the defense of his home and his family?

Perhaps I am making an excuse for myself for my change, transition or development from pacifist to fighting man. Whether I am or not I hold that facts, not theory, have demonstrated the view I maintained to be unsound, and confronted with the facts of my time, I hold that any man in France, England, Ameri­ca, Canada or any other democratic country which enjoys the freedom and privileges of free institutions, who would not fight in defense of them is a coward and a poltroon.

I have heard some men criticise me rather severely because I have counseled my fellow workers in the United States against participation at this time in in­ternational conferences in which representatives of the enemy country would participate. Whatever people have said about me, no one has accused me of being a fool. You can perhaps fool me personally quite easily but it is not easy, I think, to catch me napping on any big question. My belief is that when these invitations to international conferences were sent out from Petrograd, or Stockholm or Berne, they were already more or less tainted with German mili­tarist sympathies. You never have heard any German representative or any one with German sympathies urge an international conference of labor so long as it seemed likely that the Kaiser's forces were marching triumphantly on Calais or Paris. As soon as the Ger­man forces were checked it upset the whole plans of the Kaiser, because there was nothing in their whole plan of forty years' preparation but that looked toward the onward march of the militarist machine, over-rid­ing and crushing everything before it like a jugger­naut. After the halt that was the beginning of the end. The intrigues in the other countries began and international conferences were proposed.

There is not the slightest feeling of bitterness or hatred in my heart or soul against any human being on earth but for the Kaiser. I would like to see him somewhere so that he could do no more harm—prob­ably St. Helena or some such place. The mischief-maker must be guarded. Our fight is not alone for the existence of the democracies of the world. The German people must crush militarism and imperialism from within or the democracies of the world must crush Kaiserism from without and introduce democ­racy into that country.

Look to any of the countries of the whole world, make a mental survey of them and answer for your­self the question: are any of the countries of the world neutral? Look to Holland, Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries. Awed by the example of the ravishment of Belgium and with the great military machine of Germany yet to a considerable extent pow­erful, Holland, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark have become rich by serving the needs of Germany and have been paid in the promissory notes of Germany. If Germany wins, a plethora of wealth will flow into these countries. If Germany loses, then these countries are practically bankrupt. Neutral countries! Neutral minds! There "ain't no such ani­mal!" Either fish or cut bait; either fight or buy Vic­tory Bonds.

The time has gone by when we can view this war as a proposition academic in its character. It is removed from that realm and we are now in the arena of the world's fight for life and decent living. I hope I shall be able to avoid, and I shall try to avoid, any inter­ference in the internal affairs of the Dominion, but I hold it to be a first duty of every Canadian by birth or by citizenship to do everything within his power to unite the people in winning this war. I know some­thing of the differences of your political parties, both of the immediate past and the distant past. I cannot say that their choice has always been wisest. You make the same mistakes that we make in the United States, but that is not the question. You may differ on many things when conditions of peace prevail, and let me say here I am not going to discuss the wisdom or unwisdom of Canada joining in the war. Suffice it for me to express the opinion that your entrance into the war was wise, patriotic, and human, but whether that is true or not is not the question. The fact is that you are at war and the duly constituted authorities of the Dominion of Canada have in a law­ful way entered into this conflict. It is no longer, therefore, a matter for academic discussion. It is a matter of fact with which you have to deal; and hav­ing entered the war, the people of Canada, without regard to political opinions, without regard to religion or any other difference, ought to stand united in one solid phalanx to bring victory and glory to the Do­minion and every other nation in the fight for free­dom and democracy.

In addition to having been a pacifist I was a be­liever, and am still a staunch believer, in free institu­tions and the freedom of actions of men and women. I am opposed to force whenever and wherever it can be avoided, and when the question of conscription came up as a practical question in the United States, I opposed it. I hold that, at least, voluntary institu­tions should first be put to the final test before com­pulsion is employed. But the Congress of the United States in its lawful right ordained that there should be selective draft conscription. While I used every influence to prevent it, I failed in my object. The Congress of the United States, the duly constituted authority of my country, decreed otherwise. The de­cision was made and I held and shall hold it to be the duty of every American citizen in time of war to obey the decision rightfully and lawfully reached. It is all very good when we are at peace to battle with each other for the supremacy of our ideals, but when the duly constituted authority in time of war arrives at a conclusion it is no longer a subject to discuss.

A few weeks ago a Russian came to my office in Washington, and while we were discussing certain matters he was seriously asked the question whether he approved of the idea being proclaimed by some Rus­sian leaders that there should be a vote by the soldiers whether or not a particular advance should be made. He answered yes. He really believed it. Can you imagine a great army corps covering an area of two, three or four hundred miles, and each regiment and each company voting on the question of whether they should advance or retreat? And just imagine one regiment voting aye and another voting no! What wonderful discipline and effectiveness there would be in such an army! I wonder where General Haig would be if that system prevailed in the forces of the British, Canadian or Australian boys? This is war. This is not playing a game of war, and when the Con­gress of the United States or the Parliament of Can­ada has decreed lawfully a certain course, it is the duty of every man to stand by and see that that policy is put into successful operation. The same is equally true of the general staff of any army. When the Commander in Chief issues an order it is the duty of every soldier to obey.

I know some people have criticised my change from pacifism to the attitude I now hold in aiding my coun­try in the war and the cause for which we are united. The United States is not and never has been in a war of aggression. It has been altruistic. I think you will agree there is no public man in the world who has been more severely criticised for his actions than the honored head of the American republic, President Woodrow Wilson. Sometimes I have had occasion to be in Buffalo and have taken advantage of the op­portunity to see some old friends on the border. I know they were kindly disposed towards me and they were not hostile to the President but their criticism of Mr. Wilson was severe because he was writing notes and was not doing anything but sending notes. You know that the President declared some time ago that there were some people who felt themselves so justified and morally right that they were too proud to fight. He believed, and I am satisfied he believed sincerely, in the honesty of the pledges made by the Imperial German Government for reparation and the stoppage of the wholesale murder of innocent women and children. Do you know that Mr. Wilson is a pacifist? Secretary Lansing is a pacifist. Secretary of War Baker is a pacifist. Secretary Daniels of the Navy is a pacifist. The Secretary of Agriculture, Professor Houston, and Secretary of Labor Wilson are pacifists. I do not know for certain, but I believe Mr. Redfield, Secretary of Commerce, is also a paci­fist. Just imagine the President and a cabinet of paci­fists at last being driven by their conscience and their duty to take up arms and throw the whole strength of the man power and the wealth of the greatest re­public in the world into the arena to make this com­mon cause successful!

I suppose it is not necessary to argue the justifica­tion of the United States in entering this war. You will remember that Bernstorff, the German Ambassa­dor to the United States, published an advertisement in the American papers warning the people of the United States against taking passage on the ill-fated Lusitania. You know that a few days after that warning a German submarine torpedoed that great ship and sent her to the bottom of the ocean with nearly 1500 men, women and children, not one of them a combatant.

Patience! There never was in the history of the world, so far as my knowledge goes, any country which has exhibited more patience than the govern­ment of the United States. You know it is not the braggart, it is not the bully who is dependable. It is the man, like the nation, patient and forbearing, who avoids the contest or conflict, but who takes the ad­vice of Shakespeare in one of his characters: "Beware of entrance to a quarrel; but being in, bear 't that the opposed may beware of thee." So we are in it

Mention has been made of Russia. No greater tragedy has ever been enacted than has been and is being enacted in Russia at the present time, and it ought to be a warning to some of our friends in the United States and Canada. See what has happened to the great Russian people. I will go with any man or woman to obtain for labor and for the people the largest measure of return for labor performed and for freedom to be secured but I will not join with any one in so far overrunning our goal that we lose our venture.

There are new thoughts, new concepts, and new duties as well as new responsibilities to be met. Do not for a moment imagine that after this war we are go­ing back to the old conditions. There is a responsi­bility on the part of the employer as well as on the part of the worker. There is a responsibility on the part of the government as well as on the part of the masses of the people. New relations must be established and new understandings reached. Men and women who labor can no longer be disregarded by the powers that be. There must come something out of this war that will compensate the people for the sacrifices that they are making.

I return to Russia because I want it to sink into your minds and your hearts that there is no limit to the extent to which I will give my support to secure the best sort of conditions of life and labor for the toiling masses of the world, but I will not permit my­self to occupy the position of a fool rushing in where angels fear to tread. Under the pretense of securing everything that the human mind can conceive, the Maximalists, or Bolsheviki, of Russia are betraying the people of Russia into the hands of that monster of modern times, the militaristic and Imperialistic Gov­ernment of Germany. Just think of it, the officers of the General Staff of the Germans being counselors and advisers of a pretended Government of Maximalists in Russia to secure a better life for the people of Rus­sia! I have been to Germany and I have seen condi­tions there, and to pretend that there is any hope for the people of Russia while the German militarist ma­chine remains, is preposterous, disgusting, a base fab­rication and an intrigue to befool and befog the peo­ple of Russia.

Imagine the great Russian people on their hands and knees crawling like vipers, beseeching his Imperial Majesty for protection and the alleviation of their miserable conditions! I congratulate Britain, Can­ada, Australia and the United States upon this one fact: I congratulate them on the strength and power of the labor movement. If Russia had a well regu­lated labor movement founded upon evolutionary progress and natural growth, you would not find, the Bolsheviki. And with all the intrigue of German di­plomacy and German money, if it had not been for the great trades union movement in Great Britain, Can­ada, Australia and the United States, you would have found some of the German intrigue in all those coun­tries as now represented by the Russian Maximalists.

This war is an indictment of the German Socialist philosophy. Where it has manifested itself at all it has broken down. It has broken down in Germany and it has proven treacherous to the people of the other countries. The Socialist party of America re­pudiated this war and condemned it just as if it had been made in America instead of in Germany. The German Socialists had neither the courage nor the understanding to take their stand in the beginning against the war. Had they then opposed it, their sacrifice of ten, twenty, thirty or fifty thousand lives would probably have prevented the dominant classes from entering an international conflict. The German Socialists failed there.

They have been treacherous elsewhere. Some have said, "Why not enter upon a conference for the pur­pose of ending this war and bring peace?" It is not everybody who understands this fact,—that to bring about peace now would instil in the minds of the whole world now and ever afterwards that the Ger­mans were the conquerors in this war. Germany has achieved some of the things which she started out to accomplish. She has crushed Serbia and Roumania; she has ravished and overrun Belgium; she has over­run a large part of France; and don't you know that if Germany were to conquer both France and England including Canada, she would take hold of the British and French navies as a prize for her conquest? Imag­ine, then, Germany in possession of two powerful na­vies in addition to her own! What hope could we have for the safety of Canadians and Americans then?

There can be no peace; not now. They have gone too far. Before we can think of peace, much less espouse it, the Germans must go back from Serbia, they must go back from Roumania, back from France and back from Belgium, back to their own territory, and then we can talk of peace.

This meeting was called primarily as a gathering to impress upon the minds of those here and elsewhere the necessity for and the duty of winning this war by each of us doing either one or the other of two things or both, if possible. The men who can fight should give themselves voluntarily, if they can. Do not wait for the draft. Volunteer! I have five nephews and seven cousins in the American army. One nephew some months ago was shot and killed in Haiti in the service of the United States Government. My grand­son, nineteen years of age, volunteered in the aviation service of the United States army. They will not let me fight; there are many men and women who would not be permitted to fight, but they can help with money. It is our duty to make it safe for our boys at the front.

At to-day's magnificent parade thousands and thou­sands of people stood on the sidewalks. I was elated when I looked upon the faces of women and children who were there. Some one by my side said, "Is it not sad to see them?" I said "No." There was no sadness in their faces. There was simply an acceptance of the situation as they found it and a determination to see this thing through, no matter what the cost. Those of you who cannot fight can at least help in the fight by buying Victory Bonds. You are not giving the Government one cent and your investment gives you the best security that any in­vestment in Canada or elsewhere can give you. The whole wealth and all the assets of this rich Dominion safeguard your investment. In addition you will have saved $50 or $100 or $500 which you would perhaps not have saved if you had not purchased Victory Bonds. If we should fail in this conflict, your fifty dollars or anything else you might have would not be worth a snap of your fingers. If we should fail, the lights of freedom would go out for the whole world. After all, what good would your fifty or one hundred dollars be if we lost? Coming over the border at Niagara Falls we learned that men soliciting money for Victory Bonds were near and to show where my heart is I subscribed for a $50 bond. It was not much, but I wanted to show where my sympathies lie. If that fifty goes to help on Victory, it is yours with my compliments. And because of the fact that the Cana­dian labor movement and the American labor movement are one, we decided it was our duty to see to it that we show where our feelings lie, and so with pride and satisfaction we have invested $10,000 in Victory Bonds. I have the pleasure of exhibiting to you now the documents and receipts of the transaction which was made to-day through Mr. H. H. Williams. I know there has been an effort made, a very nar­row and restricted effort, to divide the American and Canadian labor movement. It would be the gravest error, the biggest mistake in the world, to un­dertake to bring about such a separation. A few weeks ago as a member of the Council of National Defense in the United States, we were holding a meet­ing for the purpose of considering the subject of in­dustrial vocation and trade training. Among others a well known Canadian, Sir Charles Ross, appeared be­fore our Board. He was the owner of a large plant for the manufacture of arms, as you know, and I be­lieve the Canadian government has taken that factory over. He stated this to the Council: "I believe that it is to the best interests of Canadian workers and Canadian employers as well as those in the United States, that there should be maintained the best pos­sible international relations between the labor move­ments of both the Dominion and the Republic."

He said further, "I am going upon a tour through­out the United States and Canada and wherever I go I intend to impress upon the minds of employers that it is the best thing for them as well as for the work­ers to have collective bargaining with union labor. My experience has demonstrated this one fact, that I never got such good service from my employees, I never felt more reliance in their conduct and in their work, than when I dealt with them as an entity in an organized capacity."

I came here after a year of hard work culminating in the convention of the American Federation of La­bor which lasted two weeks with practically every mo­ment taken up with responsibilities, hard work and great problems. I was asked to come to Toronto and say a word and I accepted the invitation with satisfac­tion. I came to bring a message from the workers and the people of the United States to you, the people of Canada, all her people, with her wonderful past and her great future, and my message to all the people of the world is this: Men and women, let us be true to our­selves and true to one another. Let us do our whole duty to make it possible that the torch of freedom, which has been kept alight for all these centuries, may not be extinguished in an hour of shame, but be kept burning up and up, a flame illuminating the whole world, now and for evermore.