First World War Centennial

The United States has declared that she can not live in safety when there is stalking over the earth this thunderous machine of murder. The United States authoritatively has declared that peace is desirable and should be brought about, but that peace is impossible so long as life and liberty are challenged and menaced.

In accepting the presidency of the American Alliance for Labor and Democracy upon its organization as a national body at Minneapolis, Minn., September 7th, 1917.

There is a tide in the affairs of men

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to Fortune;

Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is bound in shallows and in miseries;

On such a full sea are we now afloat;

And we must take the current when it serves,

Or lose our ventures.

THE application of the present situation of the peoples of the democratic countries of the world was never better portrayed than in that admonition to one of Shakespeare's characters. Now is the time that tries men's souls equally as much as when that slogan was put forth.

I am not given to the course of condemnation of those who differ from me and even those who differ from our movement, but is this great Republic of ours worth preserving? Is the history of the struggles of the colonists of America of no importance? Is the Declaration of Independence meaningless? Are the Constitutional provisions and guarantees without un­derstanding or pertinence? Was the Revolution fought in vain? Was the Civil War a fruitless strug­gle and sacrifice? Was the war between the United States and Spain for the independence of Cuba worth­less and meaningless?

A moment's thought will decide that there never was in all the world a great country that was so altruistic in purpose and idealistic in its practices as is the Re­public of the United States of America. With think­ing men and women I count myself honored as one of the critics of the shortcomings of our Government and our country. I am not given to hide or to gloss over the wrongs which are committed against our people.

Under any and all circumstances, as far as the light and the ability have been given me, I have protested against a wrong committed against the meanest and humblest of our people in the United States and have tried so far as it was within my power to be helpful so that the wrong should be righted and the right conceded and guaranteed. Because I realize that we in the United States have not yet reached the acme of per­fection industrially, politically, judicially or socially, is that a reason why I should lack in appreciation of that which has been done and that which has been ac­complished?

Take country by country, those at war against each other, and see where liberty and conscience and free­dom prevail. Beyond question it will be admitted by those who are fair enough to see the right and to dare to utter the right, that the democracies of the world are now engaged in one great titanic struggle so that they may with one fell stroke free the world from autocracy, imperialism and militarism.

I have counted myself happy in the companionship of the men and the women who called themselves pacifists. As a trade unionist, I have been in happy accord with our movement for international peace.

At a great gathering in Faneuil Hall, Boston, some years ago, I gave utterance to my soul's conviction that the time had come when great international wars had been put to an end. I expressed the opinion that in the last analysis, if those who are the profit-mongers by war undertook to create a war, the working people of the countries of the world would stop work simul­taneously, if necessary, in order to prevent interna­tional war.

Incidentally, I may relate this: At one of the peace conferences James Bryce, Ambassador from Great Britain to the Government of the United States, after having heard all the other addresses upon peace, discussed the subject and then made this pithy remark: "I have tried to study history aright and I have been very much impressed with what has been said about peace to-night, but I have been able to discover only one war in the whole history of the world which was justified," and then turning to all the audience he said, "I prefer that each one of you would decide which war that was."

I beg you to believe me that he did not convert me from my international pacifism. Until 1914 I was in that fool's paradise. I doubt if there were many who were so thoroughly shocked to the innermost depths of their being as I was with the breaking out of the European War. But it had come! And as it went on, ruthlessly, we saw a terrific conflict in which the dominating spirit was that the people attacked must be subjugated to the will of the great autocrat of his time regardless of how our sympathies ran, and that men who had given the best years of their lives in the effort to find some means, some secret of science or of nature so that the slightest ill or pain of the most in­significant of the race might be assuaged, turned to purposes of destruction. At the call of this autocrat, His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of Germany, men were set at attack and we found that these very men were clutching at each other's throats and seeking each other's destruction.

I asked myself, as I would ask those other men who had not yet awakened from their delusion, is it not time to recognize your mistake when your country and your home are being ravaged and overridden? Is it not time to recognize that, when your wife and your daughter are outraged? Is it not time to recognize that the red blood in a man demands that he shall safe­guard himself and his fellow man, or he ought to perish in the struggle?

Now there are some people who have said that this question of the declaration of war should have gone to a referendum vote. I wonder, if a band of a dozen or more men would endeavor to surround the home in which you live and then demand your surrender of your property, and in the meantime, while you are considering the subject, discharge their revolvers, kill­ing your wife and your children—whether you would call a meeting for the deliberation of the subject and a vote as to whether you should defend yourself.

As one who has for nearly his whole life been an ad­vocate of the initiative and the referendum in legisla­tion as well as in the labor movement, I am free to say this—that if a situation occurred such as I have tried to outline to you, I would try to pull first before the other fellow got it on me.

Regardless of what the philosophy of men may be, I think no reasonable man or woman now believes that we can progress very long or very successfully with­out some law, without some authority being vested somewhere. The President of the United States has no such power as is in the hands of the Emperor of Germany. He cannot declare war. The only author­ity to declare war is the Congress of the United States.

Now, whether you like the Congress or you do not, for the sake of our consideration matters little. The fact is that the Congress of the United States is by common consent, by the law of our land, the Constitu­tion of our Republic, invested with sole authority to declare war and to make war. These Senators and Representatives were elected by the people of the United States and without regard to party affiliations, when the Congress of the United States was made officially acquainted with all the wrongs committed against our people, with the murder of our people, by a practically unanimous vote the Congress declared that war should be waged against the Im­perial German Government.

There is no other agency in the United States for declaring war against any other nation than the one provided by the Constitution. I am free to say that there may be better and safer means by which that authority may be held within its proper limitations, but I do not know them. In any event, we are at war and that is the consideration with which we must deal. The Republic of the United States has cast her lot with the allied countries fighting against the greatest military machine ever erected in the his­tory of the world.

To ask the Government of the United States now to state specifically the terms of peace is to play, con­sciously or unconsciously, into the hands of the enemy. At this time the military machine of Germany and Austria is upon soil foreign to them. The military machine is in Serbia, is in Belgium—outraged Bel­gium—and in gallant France. A peace at this time must necessarily be predicated in part at least upon Germany's conquest of these countries and territories.

I may say, in passing, that this afternoon I walked through the corridor of the hotel where I am stopping and saw a newspaper in the hands of a gentleman—saw at a glance a flaring headline stating that "Germans are retreating from Flanders," and the thought flashed through my mind, "Yes, that is the beginning of the end."

Back from Flanders, back from Serbia, back from France; and then perhaps we may determine the con­ditions of peace, but not until then.

I am made ill when I see or hear of any one suffer­ing the slightest pain or anguish, and yet I hold that it is essential that the sacrifice must be made so that hu­manity shall never again be cursed by a war such as the one which has been thrust upon us. May I say a word in regard to some labor men who are discon­tented or rather express themselves as if they were discontented with the condition in which we find our­selves in the United States by reason of our having been drawn into this war? They want to have the privilege of calling themselves conscientious objectors who are not participating in the fight.

I know that there are some religious, conscientious objectors. They are opposed to war under all cir­cumstances. They are non-resisters and believe that that is the way out. That may be, somewhere in Tim­buctoo, but not in Germany or France or Belgium or Serbia or the United States. But ask the men or women belonging to a labor organization what would be their attitude in the event of a conflict between their fellow workers on the one hand and the employers on the other?

And let me say this, that I hold that a man who is a traitor to his country is upon a par with the scab to his trade. I have a great appreciation and desire to see that the rights of the minority are protected. I believe that men have the right to express their dis­sent, but the expression of dissent is one thing and the organizing of a movement to destroy the will of the majority—that is not right and cannot be tolerated!

Realizing what was coming, I had firmly made up my mind that no matter what we did or left undone, the Republic of the United States would be dragged into this war by the Imperial German Government, and for good and sufficient reasons. Perhaps it might not be amiss if I just mention one or two. We have all declared that we are not engaged in this venture for profit, for aggrandizement. We are en­gaged in this war to make life and peace and freedom sure. As soon as the German armies were halted in France it upset the Kaiser's plans and meant his final undoing. As soon as that great Juggernaut had been stopped in its onward progress, that (as some labor men say) threw a monkey wrench in the machinery. From that time, without the ability to conquer, these statesmen and strategists of Germany, without ques­tion, undertook to entangle us or drag us into this war for some reason. One reason, that they supposed that we were a democracy and as a consequence we could not produce an efficient fighting machine in time to be of any injury to her.

And secondly, if we are in the war, the American Republic would be entitled to representatives around the table to determine conditions of peace; and that in­asmuch as the people of our Republic and the Republic itself are altruistic and generous and kind, we would not want anything for ourselves in the form of annexation, but as a matter of fact, by reason of that as well as the reason of so many of our people being Teutonic by birth or extraction, and some by sympathy, the needs of the times would be that the United States' representatives would, in part at least, be friends of Germany in her great distress.

But whether my surmise was right or wrong, I was perfectly satisfied that that would come. And now, a month or more before the United States declared war, I counseled with the Executive Council of the Ameri­can Federation of Labor as to the advisability of call­ing a national conference for the purpose of discussing with the responsible officers of the labor movement of America, what the attitude of Labor, organized labor, should be—whether in peace, should we be vouchsafed peace, or in the event of war, should war be thrust upon us.

The conference was held, and upon March 12, 1917, a declaration given to the world as to the attitude of Labor either in peace or in war. That declaration was made nearly one month before war was declared. I am willing that the thoughtful men and women of our country and time should read that document. It will bear the test of investigation and criticism. The dec­laration was made by unanimous vote and upon the basis of that declaration the Council of National De­fense in its Committee on Labor adopted a resolu­tion to maintain the industrial standards of the work­ing people of the United States during the war.

Perhaps through mistake, or from whatever reason or motive, the press of the country misinterpreted that declaration to mean that I had declared, in the name of the working people of the United States, that there would be no strikes during the war, and it was neces­sary for the Council of National Defense to adopt an­other declaration in the form of an amplification setting at rest any charge or insinuation that the Council had declared for the lowering of standards. But that did not stop the wagging of the vicious tongues. There is scarcely any one of those so-called organized pac­ifists against our movement and our country who would not repeat and emphasize the declaration that I had bound the working people of the country hand and foot to the capitalist class and to the Government of the country. No matter what explanations may be made, no matter how thoroughly their statements can be refuted, they repeat them, if possible, with greater emphasis.

The truth is, that as the result of the efforts made by the American Federation of Labor before war was declared the standards of American labor have been guaranteed to be maintained, and the rights to which the toilers and the masses of our people are rightly en­titled will be guaranteed by the Government of our country.

In the midst of war there can be no discussion among those who have the guns trained upon them. As a re­sult of the effort put forth by the organized labor move­ment, not only the declaration to which I have just re­ferred and its amplification were made, but more than a month later the same agreement was accepted by the Secretary of War, Mr. Baker, a man of brilliant mind and of fine heart and type of character, and the Presi­dent of the American Federation of Labor, by which the construction of cantonments all through the country should be carried on a basis of the union scale of wages, hours and conditions of labor.

The agreement was extended by the Secretary of War to cover all those plants and those establishments in which aeroplanes are constructed. And a few days after, the same agreement was accepted by the Secre­tary of the Navy, Mr. Daniels, to apply to all land construction work coming under the jurisdiction of the navy. The Shipping Board and the Emergency Fleet Corporation accepted the terms in more ampli­fied form. These agreements provide for the es­tablishment of boards which shall be final boards of appeal, not only to maintain the standards, but to im­prove the standards as time and necessity may show. And upon the cantonment adjustment board is a repre­sentative of the War Department and a representative of the public, who, by the way, is no other person than that welfare worker, Walter Lippmann, and a repre­sentative of labor, appointed by the President of the American Federation of Labor. The President of the American Federation of Labor appointed John R. Alpine, the President of the Plumbers' and Steamfit­ters' Association and Vice-President of the American Federation of Labor. These boards are being ex­tended as representative of the type of men that I have mentioned and as they would represent the particular industries.

And this is just the beginning. We are only in the initial stages of the war. If we can but maintain unity of spirit and solidarity of action, depend upon it that the great benefits which will accrue to the democracy of America and the democracy of the world cannot and will not be taken from us when this cruel war is over.

The fact of the matter is, men and women, in regard to that movement inaugurated to obstruct the Govern­ment in this great enterprise, the movement to play into the hands, consciously or unconsciously, I don't know which, of the enemy of our country, was to a very large degree a continuation of the policy directed against the American trade union movement.

The American Federation of Labor had secured the conditions and agreements, part of which I have called to your attention. Instead of recognizing these achievements in the interests of the workers and the masses of our people, it was purposely and maliciously misinterpreted to be a surrender to the Government and a surrender to the employing class of the United States.

For more than twenty-five years there has gone on in the United States a movement to destroy the Ameri­can Federation of Labor, to organize dual bodies, to encourage secession, to discredit any achievement of the American labor movement, to throw odium and cast reflection upon the men and the women who dared to defend the fundamental principles and the high ideals of the American labor movement, to discredit them with their fellow-workers. Here was the op­portunity sought. They launched their attack upon the American Federation of Labor and over its head upon the Government.

Well, I would rather that they would have had the opportunity of running themselves into seed than be dismembered by any other means. I was as confident as I now am that had that conference of the so-called People's Council been held in the city of Minneapolis and completed its work and we had followed it, as I took opportunity to say a few days ago at Jamestown, N. Y., when addressing the New York State Federa­tion of Labor, we would have matched brains with brains, heart with heart, service with disservice, and loyalty against disloyalty and shown the world the stuff of which we are made.

I should also say, in passing, that it was because they had determined to have their meeting in Minneapolis that it appeared to my mind, and I prevailed upon my associates, that the psychological place for us to meet was in Minneapolis and not any other city in the country.

We are at war. Regardless of from which country we may have come or from which country our ancestors may have come, we are all here in this great melting pot of America. There is none of us who is going back to the old country to stay there. Our children are here. All our hope for the future is here. Our sacred dead are here. The people of these United States are confronted with the great problem of self-government—self-government, not a government which can be overturned in the night and created anew in the morning. We do not, and cannot, have progres­sive, humanitarian, liberty-protecting government when government can be overturned in the twinkling of an eye or the turning of a hand. We want a gov­ernment flexible, capable of improvement as our con­science and our intelligence quicken, as our under­standing broadens and our hearts are touched with humanitarian impulses, with the understanding and the desire to do the right, to help bear our brothers' burdens, to recognize that the meanest among us is entitled to the consideration and the protection of the strong, to do all that man can do for his fellows, to be willing to bear the burden and the responsibilities which are entailed in the doing of the right.

May I take your time in reading a few stanzas of the poem by John Neihardt, called "The Battle Cry"? I can imagine the soldiers fighting against the German Government expressing it.

God grant that we may soon have this tranquilizing peace of which philosophers have dreamed and poets have sung, but peace, when it comes, must mean the crushing of militarism for all time that the peoples of the world shall have the opportunity of living their own lives, of working out their own destinies.

This is the message I bring to you which I hope, with that message of our great President of the United States and of our great temporary chairman of this morning, may aid, with your voices in glad acclaim, in bringing courage and hope and triumph to the cause of justice, freedom and democracy.