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BC Historical Newspapers
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-i,,^ ..a. , . , ...I.., ii win.uipwii i.j , ii iiiiiiiiamwmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmj mmmmmmmmmm Pin nt I < >/<���!(< ..^...1. .1 *^"-*saassaM NO. 4 VANCOUVER, B. C., THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1919 _____ in ���until. O������ By mall l., 8<nsl�� Rn 'ordars Ot. par luu�� ���V :nplc�� *JV. THE GREAT (PROM THE LONDON "HERALD" SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT AT FOLKESTONE.) IT BEGAN on Friday morning at Folkestone; it spread in a flash to Dover, Osterley Park, Shortlands, Sydenham, Grove Park, Shoreham, Kempton Park, Park Royal, Aldershot, Maidstone, Chatham, .Bristol, Pairlop, and even to a detachment in, London supposed to entrain for Salonika; and it is not ended yet-i-not by a long way. Two months ago the armistice was signed. For two months the armies��� And not alone at home���have been defending their release. For two months flfe press has been frying to whip up an agitation for a money war upon Russia. For two months the magnates have beeh shivering in their buttoned boots at the prospects of a.new spirit in the home-coming armies of war which are to become the armies of industry.. And two months the war office has been The mutineers visited the station in a body, after having posted their own harbor guards, and tore down a large label, "For officers only," which waa posted above a comfortable waiting room, 1 mention this as it typifies one of the many causes of the trouble���the bitter resentment felt at the easy conditions of the officers as compared with those of the men. Another cause of trouble, about which I heard on every hand Was the poorness of the food. The Cherry C- ar dens Camp was particularly mentioned in this regard. A Soldiers' Union On Saturday, a* great procession of the soldiers concerned, swelled by now to about 10,000, marched through the town. And everywhere the townsfolk showed their sympathy. At midday a ting decided to form a Soldiers' their last comrade go free before they went free themselves. Other incidents At Osterley Park, 1,500 A.S.C. men, mostly This drivers in civil life, broke campion January 6, and seized a��� m ber of army ^lorries. On these scores of them travelled to Lond voice their demands. A highly officer tried to browbeat the men out any success; and the same were "conceded" to them as ha< fiiven to their comrades at F< At Shoreham, 7,000 men demon.-... at Shortlands, 1,500 men; at Dovtr, about 4,000.* I understand that at Boulogne, Calais, and Etanies strange and ominous events on thitf sa����v.- Mnes hav�� happened. In London 4*V) men who were to be entrained for Salonika refused to go. Everywhere the feeling is the same:, grave sittiation, the live men in the labor party would be putting searching questions to the responsible heads of the government. .We cannot vipir until Mr. Moyd George bas finished bargaining with the Unionists as to who is to get the big-salaried jobs in his cabinet, and demand to have the official answers following questions: i ask the secretary of state for whether he will formally ack- irledge the Soldiers' Union and with the problem of demobilization through the men's committees and on the lines indicated above? To ask the prime minister whether he is aware of the disquieting rumors as to disturbances, followed by bloodshed, among the English and Dominion��� troops at Calais, Boulogne, and Etaples; and whether tell the public what truth reasons, discharge became demobilization ; demobilization became a maze of millions of miles of red tape and circulars. ��� After the official reveille had been sounded at Folkestone on January 3 there was no parade, for the sufficient reason that no one turned up. But on thtir own signal���three taps of a drum-��� two thousand men, unarmed and in per> feet order, demonstrated the fact that they were -"led up"���ab-so-lute-ly "fed up." Their plan of action had been agreed upon the night before; no military boat should be allowed to leave Folkestone for France that day or any day until they were guaranteed their freedom. It was sheer, flat, brazen, open and successful mutiny. They knew it, and they did it. Picketing the Harbor Pickets--were posted at the harbor. Only Canadian and Australian troops were to be allowed to sail���if they wanted to. As a matter of not very sur* prising fact, they didn't want to. One officer tried to interfere. He leaped across a gangway, and got a rough house. ('l am a relative of Sir Douglas Haig," one general pleaded, "We are all King's messengers." said another party. But nothing of that kind availed them. The Gathering Troops Meanwhile, troop trains were arrfcing at Folkestone with more men returning from leave and on the way to France. These were met by pickets, and no more than the mildest persuasion was needed to divert the meri to the rest camps. There, iff a mass, they joined the demonstrators. ��� , . On Saturday, an armed guard of Fusiliers was posted at the quays by the army authoritiesi They carried fixed bayonets and ball cartridge*. The pickets approached. One rifle "made a show of going up; foremost picket seized it, and forthwith the rest of the guard fell-back noted���a Trade Unionist. This agai wish to emphasize, because of the attempts in some organs of the press tb show. the whole movement as one of jealousy towards the organized workers at home. Recognition By. now the telephones and telegrams between London and Folkestone had done their work. And the Bhig Whigs from London, including Sir William Robertson, were arriving in Folkestone. True, their counterparts in France had refused to- meet the representatives of the German Soldiers' Council (with proper class consciousness they preferred the German Junker), but they had to meet the English soldiers' representatives. They just had to. There was no alternative. This, mind you, is. in ENGLAND. Mot in Bolshevist Russia. Here was "recognition" without a vengeance! The fact that there was a conference at 'all was the supreme victory for the mutineers; And indeed for democracy. To my mind it was an even greater victory than the result of the conference, though that was a total relief of every one Of the men's immediate grievances. All men witlv jobs open to them were promised immediate demobilization; men with prospects of jobs were given a week's kaye in which to make those prospects certainties; and finally, a complete indemnity was given to the mutineers, the generals explaining that they "would forget the incident." But they won't-wiot for a long time. Folkestone's Last That does not close the Folkestone siory. Workers' control gave the demobilization department another lesson. The men elected 140 of their number to act as clerki These clerks in one day issued all the necessary papers, ration books, and railway warrants for the w'SoIe camp. On Sunday the camp was clear, and the latest to leave were the leaders of fhe movement, who watched ing announced for Thursday in Trafal-| gar Square has been postponed. Butt watch the papers for further announcements. For three years the Herald has beet} demanding the following programme, realizing the inevitable chaos that would result from keeping men in the army against their will in peace time, Now the soldiers are beginning to make these demands their own, and we believe that a great national agreement in the fighting forces will very speedily bring the government to its knees and senses. f. Immediate discharge (not demobilization) of all men who have jobs awaiting them. Cut out the Dispersal Camps. 2. All men who desire to leave the fighting forces, but have no jobs actually waiting for them, to be demobilized and given extended furlough with full civilian rights and privileges, either at the rates' of pay for the jobs they left to go into the army or at such a rate of main- , tenance as shall keep themselves and their families in comfort until jobs at Trade Union rates and under Trade Union conditions are found for them. Absolute discharge to take placer immediately they are in work. 3. Discharge and demobilization not to be left to commanding officer* Labor and the Soldiers We have the evidence of the Daily Mail, not likely to be prejudiced in our favor, that the great mass of soldiers sympathized with labor at the recent election. What is labor going to do to show its sympathy with their comrade* ia the army? By every post the Herald is receiving resolutions demanding dras- lic action on the part of die workers in support Of the millions of Trade Unionists who are in the'fighting forces. "We Want to Knoti<���" If the House of Commons had been sitting, as it ought to be, to.meet this troops are to risk death by cold starvation in Russia; whether it is intended that they shall engage in a war against the Russian revolution;' and whether Russia shall not be left to evolve her own destiny, without the shedding of more British blood? To ask Mr. Lloyd George. What about it? If the workers���the majority���want a complete change in the form of prop- en^ ownership, what are they waiting fort . _*: -.. , .,-. THE VANITY OF GLORY The glories of our blood and State Are shadows, not substantial things; There is no armor against Fate, Death lays his icy hand on kings; Sceptre and Crown Must tumble down, And in the dust be equal made With the poor crooked scythe and spade. Some men with swords may reap the field And'plant fresh laurels where they kill; But their strong nerves at last must yield, v They tame but one another \till: Early or late Thgy stoop to fate, And must give up their murmuring breath When they, pale captives, creep to death. The garlands wither on your brow. Then boast no more your mighty deeds. Upon Death's purple altar now See where the victor victim bleeds. Your heads must come To the cold tomb; : |�� Only the actions of the just t Smell sweet and blossom in their dust ���James Shirley. 9- '��� PAGE TWO t,w iii'i'i-" tVttiVKtUU II ' 11��I)_����� --fill.',,' THE LA30B STAR THURSDAY... .February ��� \ A PSYCHOLOGICAL SURVEY OF "THE JOB" [By Nemesis] "I'm looking for a job." "He's got a steady joV "Has he,got a job yet?" "He's got a job at last." Every working man is-surely familiar ;with the foregoing and similar expressions.. 1 wo_der how many realize what a sinister influence this same job busk ness has exercised upon them, physically, mentally and morally. Under our present delightful social system the first essential to the organism called Man, a being we are told made in the image of God, is a job; for without that job he is more helpless _$han the things which crawl in the slime beneath the waters. Without it he must live on the charity of his fellows or per- , ish: without it he cannot feed himself, nor clothe himself, nor ��� shelter himself, from the inclemencies of the seasons unless he beg or steal his way through We. The boy growing to adolescence has his mind fixed always on a job. Haying obtained one, as a man his mind is exercised continually on the question of retaining it or getting a better one. If times are good and he lose it, then must he up and hunt for another and suffer loss of time and experience inj convenience. If times are bad and he lose it, he fears for himself and family and is ���haunted by the spectre of famine and its twin sister pestilence. Sickness fiay fall suddenly upon him ant! his job \ may be seized permanently by another and to his bodily ^distress is added mental pain in which he is tormented by many terrifying visions. A job is a permission from a fellow man to wjork a certain number of hours a day for a certain remuneration in a .-���certain pkice owned by that fellow man- That place may be a field, a factory, a store or a shipyard. It may be underneath the ground or five thousand feet in the air or fathoms below the surface of the sea. The remuneration generally consists of the minimum amount of shelter, food and clothing which will keep alive the worker and his family. And as the job is a profit-making institution, after the remuneration has been grudgingly doled out the surplus profit accrues to the owner of the job, who does not produce any of the profit himself. Man is thus pre-eminently a job-seeking and job-holding animal. No other animal requires a job in order to exist, that is permission from another animal to work and so exist, and this distinguishes him from all the other animals. To all thevother animals the world is free and their life consists in working in their own way for a living and enjoying the sunshine and the air and 'the contraction and expansion of their muscles to the utmost degree. God made the sun, the. earth, the air and-gave them as a free gift to the inhabitants of the earth, man and the other animals. The other animals were satisfied and ate and drank and enjoyed the sunshine and the breezes according to their nature. But alas! .Man by his greed is also distinguishable from the other animals. He was not satisfied to eat and drink and enjoy the gifts of God in common with his fellows, and the strongest among them seized portions of the earth's surface and shouted "Lo! this is mine and woe to the weakling who .- denies,jnv right to it." And as man progressed he made laws which legalized and protected his original theft, and made it a punishable crime for another man to walk over his land or dig for the treasure which lay beneath the surface. beneath it, so that a square mile of surface* represents a huge square pyramid some four thousand miles in depth, the apex being at the very earth's centre. Having seized more than they could work with their own hands, they next seized the bodies of their fellow men and set them to till and labor on their land as slaves. % As the world progressed���as progress it must ever upwards or perish utterly ���this slave system died out and fmi great job system took its place. And today, my brothers, you and l are holding down one of these same jobs with great contentment, or looking and hoping for one with less contentment- working or looking forward to do so to produce a little for ourselves and much more for our dear masters, the descendants of the original earth thieves. * How often has every man asked himself the question: "Why am I here and what is the meaning of my life?" This is an echo from his subscon- scious mind; from his soul, if you like. His soul revolting from the emptiness of his life writhes within him and causes the discontent which he cannot understand or express. , Never will this uneasiness leave him till his soul feels that its development is not being retarded by the always increasing difficulty in obtaining a mere liviig a.id itt> whole energies absorbed tin getting and holding a mere job���in ^ther Words, in getting permission from a fellow being to be allowed to exist on .the earth to which God has sent him. Suppose for a moment that the human race instead of being greed-ridden and sjreed-swollen was honestly seeking for the meaning of life and earnestly endeavoring to further the development of the race and bring nearer the day of its great destiny, do you think it could tolerate for a single day the state of job slavery in which it now writhes in inarticulate agony? Job, slavery! Permission from an- A other man to live, and the fours Wf labor and its remuneration fixed by the job-holders themselves! The man who is contented���and always has it been instilled into him that conteptment is a virtue���to eat and sleep and attend to his job and attempt to buy some benefit for himself in the next world by an occasional donation to. his nearest church, is surely on a level with the dog and cat that snore contentedly on his hearthstone. Cat* you not imagine a "jobless" world with a sane and more righteous system under which man worked no longer for others' profit but for just enough of the necessities of life to sustain and comfort his body and the- bodies of his family. In such a world there could be no private Ownership of land, no individual rivalry, no insane greed that keeps man at the level of mud-crawlers, no insolent and overfed masters, no infamous sweating dens, no half-starved and disease- eaten children, no clammy dungeons filled with manufactured criminals, no asylums peopled with gibbering lunatics and no disease with its hundred and one revolting and terrifying manifestations. But let me tell.you what there would be. There would be true incentive, an unselfish altruistic incentive to seek the preat truth-underlying life and to raise man to the^Ievel of the angels. There is in man an instinct as old as the life of man and deep in him as life itself, which urges him to seek the approbation of his fellows, to stand well in their opinion, to be considered wise in their eyes. And this instinct would be developed to its utmost under this new > system." The desire to be rich and great and powerful would give place to the ambition to be a benefactor in_some way to the human race and this ambition would be a thousand times stronger and more sat- cal factory where all food is manufac tured���but also all that lay concealed Thus these strong marauders claimed not only the surface���the great chemi-1 isfying than the selfish'and ignoble am _**al fnAiAMr __asWa__aa_ , aw 11 a**_f_>�� IS a__ _nlt afm Ml ft_2a.__._ - - <- * _t_ JLj ___>��� _'_ it. ^ . * _ 8 8. bition which now rules the miserable job-ridden world of today. 1 " ' ��� is. mt The Liberator A Journal of Revolutionary Progress i Editors, Max Eastman / Crystal Eastman Associate Editor, Floyd Dell Business Manager, Margaret Lane Contributing Editors: Cornelia Barns, Howard Brubaker, K. R. Chamberlain, Eugene V. Debs, Hugo Gellert, Arturo Giovannitti, Charles T. Hallinan. Helen Keller, Robert Minqr, < Boardman Robinson, Maurice Sterne, Alexander Trachtenberg, Louis Unter- meyer, Cliye WeetL Art Young. Published monthly and copyright 1919, by the LIBERATOR PUBLISHING CO- N 34 Union Square, East NEW YORK Yearly subscription $2.00 (outside the U. S. $2.50). Single copies 20c. Rates on bundle orders and to newsdealers on application. Application for entry as second-class matter at the postoffice at New York City pending. > ���r _. * The Federated Labor Party is organized for the purpose of securing industrial legislation and the collective ownership and democratic operation of the means of wealth production. �� The Federated Labor Party APPLICATION FOB MEMBERSHIP The undersigned endorses and subscribes to the furtherance of the declared objects of the Party. ���'-,.' Name Occupation ������.... Address.... ., .....Phone No ��� # ���!������������������������ Together with Membership Fee of One Dollar, hand in, or mail to the Secretary, Room 510, Dominion Bldg., Vancouver, B. C, and obtain Membership Card and official receipt. A GOOD LIVE NEWSBOY an SELLING THE STAB��� and more than that on Sunday Evening ONE OB TWO MORE WANTED Apply at 3:30 pjn., Suite 510 Dominion Building (Star street sales are running over 2,000). mmmmm THUR8DAY February 20, lflf THE LABOfc STAB PAGE THREE T��� CHICKENS COME HOME, A big strike waa on in Seattle last veek. Thousands of shipyard workers, quit work in order to enforce, their demand for a wage increase. The employers not seeing fit to accede to the demands of the men, resulted in countless thousands of other ; worken of the eity laying down their tools and ceasing their employments, in sympathy with the shipyard workers. Almost the entire working force of the city waa idle. It looked for the moment to be the most complete tieup of a big city that has yet occurred in American history. As there seems to be nothing involved in this struggle outside of an attempt to gain a few more pennies v of wages; as there is no evidence of \ these striking workmen haying any vision beyond the narrow confines* of their daily allowance of grub at'the hands of their masters; as there appears to be no 'more compelling motive actuating their efforts than might lie behind the efforts of horses or mules who felt themselves aggrieved because their owners and masters had not, in their opinion, allowed them sufficient hay and oats and had balked in eon- sequence, it might be well to analyze the situation as it appears to one who might be classed as an impartial observer with no axe to grind. - * ��� * In the first instance there seems to be nothing in the condition of the labor market at the present moment that could by any stretch of the imagination be considered as Warranting an increase of wages. Wages, at the best, only express the market price of the commodity, labor power (may old Sam Gompers forgive us). When there is a scarcity of ,that particular commodity in the market, when the/ demand is greater than the supply, the tendency of wages is to rise. When the case is reversed and the supply is greater than the demand, % the ten--! dency of wages is to fall. It requires ne very keen vision to discern that the labor market is at present a falling market, The conditions are altogether unfavorable from the standpoint of the workers. They are eminently favorable from that of the employers. In the face of these conditions strikes for an increase of wages are foredoomed to failure. And what is still more to the point .is, that nothing permanent has ever yet been gained by the use of that weapon. At the most such gains as have been made have been but temporary and of very doubtful value at that, if the cost of winning them is taken into consideration. ' ��� * * Not long since, if we have not been misinformed, the very same shipyard and other workers engaged in this strike were buying "liberty bonds" v.-ith great gusto and much good money. They were so zealous in their patriotism that they not only, freely spent their own hard earned money in the purchase of these "bonds" but the vast majority of them were so completely drunk with ruling class patriotism that they compelled the less poor cr less patriotic among them to buy these precious "bonds" whether they wished to do so or nqt Many accounts leached us of individuals among them vho could not afford to purchase, or for other reasons did not wish to do so, being beaten up by the patriots and in some eases driven out of their employment. And now these patriots were on strike against their employers, or at least it is so alleged on their behalf, end found themselves confronted and threatened by soldiers i-.rmed with machine guns and other death-dealing devices supplied by the proceeds of the very "liberty bonds" that they so eagerly and patriotically purchased. It may be that before these words are off the prc-w those guns and other weapons will be used against strikers in drastic jmd convincing i i ' . ii fashion, and whv not, for are not ei; x.ich devices and the force that fields them, designed for the purpose of taming slaves and keeping them in subjection to the will of iheir owners and masters f For what other purpose were "liberty bonds" issued and so eagerly purchased by patriots f Vafhid there be any animal outside of a, slave and a very dull one at that, who could fail to grasp-r the grim irony that could denominate 'the shackles upon the limbs of slaves as "liberty bonds?" Well, the "liberty bonds" are now facing at least some of Hie purchasers, their grim muzzles pointed at their breasts. The mayor of Seattle, who appears to be a sort of municipal edition of the late lamented "Teddy the Terror," bombastically declared that he would use them even if "it takes 500,000 soldiers" to make it stick. All of which leads the impartial observer to the inevitable conclusion that ���slayery still* exists and the master, class still has the power requisite to hold the slaves in submission to its exploitation. Also in the armed forces and the machine #guns. and bayonets confronting the 'striking slaves he fancies he sees "liberty bond"-chickens coming home to roost, somewhat to the discomfiture mid possible mussing up of at least some Of the patriotic slaves who ao eagerly hatched them. And there is n-pre to follow, for the pathway of ignorance is a thorny one and exceed-, JEWS���INTERNATIONALISTS! [By J. S. WoOdworth] In the Empress theatre Vdebate, Mr. Makovsky evidently had a \high'' regard foe \ the. Christian churches and yet sought to discredit the Bolsheviki movement on the ground that many of 'its leaders were as he put it, "Jews���Internationalists." ' May we refer Mr. Makovski to the reputed, founders of Christianity? Sti Peter was a Jew. He explains in some detail "how his old nationalistic ideas /had to give way to a Conception of a world in which no man was common and unclean. When he went to Cornelius he was an internationalist. , St. John, or whoever wrote the Book of Revelation, was a Jew and an internationalist. In his picture of the ideal kingdom ���an approach to the dream of a co-operative commonwealth���he has the city surrounded by wide-open gates through which pass people of every nation and kindred and tongue, St. Paul���possibly, as Renan thought, an enemy rather than an exponent of simple Christianity", was nevertheless a Jew���a Hebrew of Hebrews and yet an internationalist of the internationalists. For him there was neither Jew nor Gentile, male nor female, bond,nor free. Jesus himself was a Jew'and an internationalist. He was, as the Bishop of Oxford has recently pointed out, denounced by the "patriots" of his time. .B_y.<���.w ,��� _ _���.���,, ��.,, w��� Mtw��� ^His teachings transcended narrow na? ingly rough for the feet of they who - tional boundaries and even in a perverted form laid the foundation of a world- insist upon travelling ^Jt. Hurrah for wages! Hurrah for the strike 1 And now altogether, let us boost for the next "liberty loan." and damned be he who flr/t cries "let up, for I've had enough." ~ ������ , , ���_-���* ~-��� "The strongest bond of human synv- pathy, outside of the family relation, should be one uniting" all working people of all nations and tongues and kindred."���-Abraham Lincoln. Wide religion. Marx may or may not be right in his economic theories. The leaders of the Bolsheviki may or may not be right in their domestic or foreign policy but we submit that it is not to their\ discredit that they are "Jews���Internationalists." Internationalism���not nationalism��� fiolds the key to the future. Possibly the wprld-mission of the Jewish race is not yet accomplished. A Weekly Chronicle and Interpretation of Local, National and IN BUNDLE ORDERS International Current^Bvents From the Workers' \ Viewpoint To Sell or Distribute for issued Every Thursday by The Star Publishing Company R. P. PETTIPIECE... .Manager E. T. KINGSLEY .Editor Office: Sutte 510 Dominion Bldg. ! . i: BY MAIL PER ISSUE t SINGLE COPIES 5c Telephone Seymour 4933 E. T. Kingsley, Editor Address all communications to THE LABOR STAR Suite 510 Dominion Building VANCOUVER, B. C. �����__��������� ������������I If I PAGE FOUR <*>.''' THK LABOR STAR ' .1 THURSDAY. ........February it, l��lt A Ca*���Icm sa��� latrrarrtatlea ��f Matiaaal aa4 latrraatleaal Carreat Kveata rram t_e Wss-srs* Vlewpalst. Issatd Ktrry TharaSar by Tfc�� Star PsMlaMsST ___L���_, ; , 1'i I. ., ��� ��� B. FARM. PETTI PIECE .... Manager E. T. KINCW-EY Editor Olthf: HuUo 510 Dominion Bulldlnft Telephone Seymour 4888 la bund la O., orders <W�� Br mat! par Uaue _ i> 4c SWasTls) K- copies Uv NO. 5 If this number la on your address label your subscription expires with next issue. Renew promptly. Vancouver, Thursday,, Feb. 20, 1919 :���_ . ' ���', ' '-"ra-Ji '���""r"; : r,��� POOLING THE ANIMALS. THERE are many working men who evidently think that the driving of the "enemy aliens" out of Canada will enable them to secure for themselves an immortal cinch upon the jobs thus left vacant by the departure of the aforesaid so-called aliens. There are a few facts in regard to jobs that these worthy persons have doubtless overlooked. The number of ''jobs" in Canada h by no means a fixed quantity. If it were and there happened to be more men within the country than there were jobs, it would logically follow that if the excess ** number of job seekers wej-e deported or exterminated those remaining would be secure in their employment But it is a notorious fact tthat each and every. person,in the land, whether he is employed in production or not, constitutes a portion of the market that consumes the goods and commodities that come forth as a result of the productive activities of labor. That a surplus of labor appears in the market is the inevitable result of the higher development of the implements and methods, of exploitation. As the machinery of exploitation becomes more and more gigantic and powerful, thereby multiplying the productive power of the wage slaves in bringing forth the things .requisite for the upbuilding and maintenance of the ruling class empire of plunder and magnificence, and as that which is commonly termed capital cannot exist without continually adding to its bulk, .that is continually becoming greater through profit accruing as a result of its operations, it becomesJncreasangly more difficult for the capitalists to keep in constant employment all of their working force. The army of unemployed becomes as fixed and certain a part of the capitalist industrial establishment and process as the secred profit itself. Whenever a country, and later om the whole earth, becomes well covered with capitalist investments, i.e., so well plastered with them that it becomes difficult to find room for any more that will promise to bring profitable returns, it becomes imperatively necessary for the capitalist to curtail production, for the very simple reason that it cannot be continued full tilt unless the opportunity is at hand for still further investment of capital, for that is the only Way that the "surplus value" mentioned by Karl Marx can be disposed of. If the opportunity cannot be found for the profitable investment of the accumulated profits of a given period, let us say one year, production will have to be curtailed until such opportunity can be found. The curtailment of production by the discharge of workmen immediately has a still further depressing effect upon the market in consequence of corresponding lessening of the power of consumption consequent upon the stoppage of wages due to the lessening of Hie working force. While it is true that even the unemployed workers'must eat, and may have to resort to the soup kitchens lof charity, it is stilt true that their ability to withdraw, commodities from the market has been greatly lessened by virtue Of their loss of employment. And that which has made it imperative that they be thrown into impecunious idleness will continue to augment their number by continual additions as long as wage slavery lasts. The army of un- empipyed has been constantly with us for now considerably more than a century. Its numbers have fluctuated in unison with the ups and downs of ruling class industry and the trade and commerce that follows in its wake. When industry lags because the plunder cannot be readily disposed of by being turned into new capital (means for further plunder) its numbers increase. When industry becomes active through the discovery of new markets and new opportunities, made glorious by the assurance of rich streams of the lucious profit that brings great joy unto the capitalist soul, as during the last four years or so, the army of the unemployed lessens in numbers, the erstwhile idle and lugubrious slavea__again being afforded the profound pleasure Of "greasing the ways" of capitalist rule and rapine with their slavish sweat. Such a period is usually termed a period of prosperity and high wages, but the prosperity of the slaves consists solely of work and their average wages are neither jot nor tittle greater than at any other time. The only thing that 4they do get any more of than during hard times, is work. * * * The driving of "alien enemies" from Canada or any other country in order to afford employment for returned soldiers or other persons will not accomplish the relief which is sought, for such deported Workers will not be eliminated from the world market by such process. They will still be either engaged in production somewhere else or will become added to the army of unemployed and still remain as a standing menace to the wages of all other workers no matter where they may be, the same as the unemployed we now have with us are a standing- menace ��� to ^present wages throughout the world. The ghost of unemployment and low wages cannot be exorcised by any such puerile mean?. It is inherent in the present system of ruling and robbing slaves and it wilt remain with the wage slaves of civilization so long as they are as a class sufficiently ignorant tand supine as to hug their chains by supporting the political1 and economic rule of their masters. And .truth compels the admission that there is little upon this western continent to indicate that any appreciable number of them have yet any vision beyond wages and jobs. Where there are still millions of these work animals in profound ignorance of the fact that they are slaves, and as completely such as ever were the chattel slaves of the ancient empires/or the feudal serfs of the middle ages, there Ss little hope for any change for the bet- tear in their conditions. There is no animal in the whole category that is so simple and easily fooled as the human slave. Call him a subject and his breast swells with pride over his importance in the great scheme of things. Dub him a citizen and his chest measurement increases appreciably. Denominate him a 'sovereign, the equal of a king and he is lifted to the seventh heaven of beatitude, though he has not had a square meal for. a month and never had the second shirt to his back. Tell him to chase the "alien enemy" out of the country and he will henceforth inherit eternal life by way of the steady job he wilt thus secure, and nine decrepit fools out of ten among the, wage animals will devoutly believe tt. In fact they will believe anything that may be told them by the interests that live, thrive and wax fat at the expense of t'��eir enslavement and exploitation. But let he who would deceive these animals save himself the trouble of telling them the truth. They cannot be fooled by any such ridiculous means as that. Their mental'guts were never calculated to assimilate that sort of provender. They cannot digest it IT IS WORTHY OF NOTE THAT every effort or suggestion looking to the bringing of relief to returned soldiers and others who are unable to find employment in the ordinary industry of today, is purely along the line of in- ci easing the production of something that is in no manner essential to the comfort and well being of the producers themselves. About all that lias yet been suggested is in the way of the appropriation of money for the inauguration of public works of some kind or other. VVord comes from Ottawa that the federal government contemplates the expenditure of something like a quarter of a million for some such purpose, presumably road building. This will give employment to about 135,000 men for six months, at the rate of $4.00 per day. Of course such work would afford some relief to the idle men of the country, but at the best it could be nothing better than temporary relief. If labor is to be expended upon any work that is not to increase the production of the essential things of life and enable the producers thereof to appropriate those things to their own use and sustenance, we beg to suggest that all such labor be expended on building pyramids, such a$ the ancient slave masters compelled their slaves to erect upon the banks of the Nile. Or perhaps not to build pyramids, but to build a single one and if there 5till be need of further relief take it down and. rebuild it, and keep on doing so until the ordinary processes of capitalist slave skinning shall have absorbed the labor surplus. It may be suggested by some that it would be better to expend labor in the building of roads, or ether public undertakings of the usual order, but we would point out that as roads are principally used for the purpose of expeditiously taking away from (he slaves of industry and production that which they produce and so sequestering it as to make it impossible for the dispossessed slaves to ever get at it again without permission of their owners and masters, and as there are).-plenty of roads already prepared for such purpose, that the building of pyramids as suggested is fraught with less danger to the producers of wealth than road building. And besides that these stone piles would be- fully as useful and also as ornamental as the majority of the things that are regularly turned out by the ruling class industiy. There could be no more slaves killed or maimed in their construction than is the case in coal mining, skyscraper construction, tunnel and bridge building, railway construction and operation, shipbuilding and kindred deadly undertakings of peculiarly ruling class character, not forgetting that essentiah ruling class industry sometimes called war. It may in time dawn upon some careless thinker that approximately all the killing and maiming of slaves occur in those tines of industry that are purely requisite to the plory, aggrandizement and enrichment of the ruling class. In the production of the essential things of life, die things that are solely required by the useful portion of human society, the workers, accidents are few and far between and killing and maiming almost unknown. This is more especially the case where production is carried on by the use of the simple tools that were prevalent during former days. But if governments were realty sincere in providing ways and means whereby returned soldiers and other unemployed members of the community could be employed and in such manner as to remove the possibility of their again being thrown into unemployment, their powers should be used to place the unemployed men upon the land and so equip them as to enable them to feed, clothe, and shelter themselves in the future. Of course they should be put upon land that is fertile and under climatic conditions conducive to the production of the things required for human sustenance, and they should be so instructed and equipped as to make it possible for them to provide for themselves and families without turning their products into the channels 3 of the ruling class market. They should be instructed in the production of things for their own use instead of producing things for sale. We fancy, however, that we can see any government, outside of tho Soviet Republic of Russia, doing anything that would enable even a single slave to escape the Chains that have been forged for his limbs by those Very agencies of the ruling class itself. Governments Of .the roling class are not for the purpose of freeing slaves, but for holding them securely in their fetters. Therefore we apologize for the suggestions made. 1 ! *__ *___. Editorial Notes Spain is reported as seething with revolt. The same tyrannies that afflict the balance of the world are pressing upon the slaves of that country. High prices, low wages and hick of steady employment have resulted in open outbreaks anci rioting. The rulers of the country are greatly disturbed over the situation. The revolution may be expected to triumph in Spain at any moment. '. ���*'. * * It is said that no news is good news. There is nothing in the way of news and information coming out of Italy at present. We know enough of the revolutionary spirit of the Italian workers to feel sure that the reason that nothing is allowed to "filter out of that country is not because there is nothing going on there, but because what is happening is not to the liking of the rulers and masters either there or elsewhere. No doubt it is con-' sidered to be for our good to keep all such information from us. Even the pin- headed rulers of Canada may be trusted to watch over us and see that we are not corrupted by being made acquainted with the seditious conduct and speech of misguided Workers in other lands. In such hands we are eminently safe to be sure. * * * It has been discovered that it is now impossible for the great pirate nations composing the Peace Congress to launch a military enterprise against Russia upon a sufficently large scale to give reasonable promise of affecting that jpeculiarly soulful uplift so devoutly to be wished by the ruling autocrats of the* earth, owing to the hostile attitude of their own people towards such a worthy undertaking. The slaves of France,. Britain, Italy and even of the great democracies of this western continent are not in sympathy with such a pious crusade, therefore the rulers are compelled to forego it. They are each and. all going to have their work cut out for them in order to cope with the rising tide of revolution in all lands. When the slaves refuse to longer kilt and maim themselves in order to boost the brutal and thieving schemes of their rulers and masters there is at least hope for the world. In fact everything looks good these days. * * * Hundreds of thousands are out of work in the various countries recently at war. It is said that there are at least i.OOQ.OOQ idle in Great Britain atone, and the number is increasing. The best that Canada has been able to do so far for her returned heroes is to open employment offices for the purpose of trying to find jobs for them as a fitting reward for thei rheroic services for king and country. In the United States the labor situation is daily becoming worse. Thousands of unemployed are in evidence and the number is swelling rapidly. Thousands of discharged soldiers ere among the number. Canada gets Urge orders for raw materials, foodstuffs and manufactured goods froth Prance and other European countries,, but it is all on tick. The European countries are bankrupt and can purchase in no other manner man on credit lids means that countries that are not yet completely bankrupt wilt soon become so and join the universal procession to the financial boneyard. It is a glorious prospect that lies just ahead of us; a prospect that involves the hut days of a ruling class tyranny an hundred centuries old. ���W-J-BP-PI IWlTRSDAY. ..February *��. Ill* THE WAR IS NOW OVER, THE armies are being demobilized, except such forces as are to be retained '' ___> -jj . ��� . . # 'a armies of occupation of enemy ter- ufotll thfe ^j,-^ -j^ ^ ,��.���*���, ntory. The armies of occupation hold actionary filth in obedience to the sin the honorable post of bill collectors. i<t��r ��__.-_>. ���_-�� -~~ ���*��� THE LABOR STAB ��_��_^___��� ���*..* other, until that demand is complied to an understandimr of what a ��������__��� with. And then let the electorate of Can- and easv proce�� wahs toeni to _S�� ada see that not one of that delectable r.ff their' Jr-^,* *W___ ___?���* Uw'" . ...... _,�� ...v vitvu/iaic ui _an- ada see that not one of that delectable gnng ever returns to Ottawa to again befoul the 'political stables with his re- ._ w�� uwapKiw] iiuiu actionary filth in obedience to the sin? the honorable post of hill collectors, \<teT interests that now poison and pollute which might lead captious critics to as- the national iH�� which might lead captious critics to assume that the late scrap was fought for no more lofty purpose thin of material gain. The especially loud mournings of the French members of that great joke. the peace congress, in regard to indemnities both,of cash and territory, might afford, basis' for a lusty suspicion, that although the entente allies really fought for "liberty, democracy and the rights of small nations," their most noble aspirations and spiritual longings have not been allowed to completely smother their business acumen and material touch. Even the all but meaningless rhetoric of the high priest of safety first for "democracy," has not been sufficient in noisy volume to drown the raucous racket that has emanated from the grossly material throats of the assembled "statesmen" whose souls are evidently attuned to the delightful task of apportioning the plunder, rattier than to that of philosophizing and platitudinizing over abstract and impossible conceptions of peace. But although the war is over and ���"democracy" has been made safe 'throughout the world, Canada is still ruthlessly governed by "orders-in-coun- cil." Not an arbitrary edict issued by usurped authority during the war has yet been annulled Every infamous order promulgated under the specious pretext of being necessary in order to win the war. is still in force. Free speech is still forbidden. Radical and progressive literature is still under the ban, and he who is found in possession of it is liable to the severest penalties. No more complete denial of democracy and crucifixion of liberty ever prevailed in Germany under the brutal and deadly rule of the Hohen- zollern dynasty than is evidenced in Canada at the present time. The 'Canadian parliament is a greater joke than th*Reicft*tag was under the reign Of the late .kaiser. And orders-in-council are still beng promulgated as befits the whim of the autocrats who now rule Canada, flout its democracy and spit in the face of its electorate. If that electorate were worthy to be free, if we were not a supine and spineless people, there would be such a revulsion against the brutal and impudent destruction of democracy and usurpation of power by tbat unprincipled aggregation of ruling class political talent at Ottawa, that a halt would be called to their infamous practices. Let tbe demand go up from every quarter that every war act be at once annulled; that every obstruction to free speech and a free press be at once removed; that all persecutions against so-called "enemy aliens" cease; that the prosecution of, so-called draft evaders be stopped and {bat an amnesty 'be immediately granted to all political prisoners now confined In the infamous faols and hastOes of this Dominion, uese demands should be made and forwarded to Ottawa by every public gathering, no matter for what other purpose it may be held. Special protest meetings should be called and continued at frequent succeeding dates, until the demands are heard and complied with. No more unscrupulous and conscienceless a band of political brigands ever wormed their way into power by low and vulgar intrigue, nor more recklessly carried out the mandates of the interests that shaped their acts and dictated their reactionary policy, than the gang now in - tbe saddle at Ottawa. And it will require something beyond the compass of the "still small voice" to bring a warning to their criminal ears that they will be tempted to hear and obey. Let that warning resound from one end of Canada to the other; let the demand for the wiping out of all the autocratic infamies of the last five years, including that capsheaf of aU political infamy antT iniquity known as the "War Time Election Act," be heard in no uncertain voice sv__ _-- '-�� -* -��-!- ����� - ��� * -* off their oppressors and regain the ancient freedom of the human race, they will a make short work of it and give snort shrift to their present masters. Let us hope that in the present work of "reconstruction" the workers of Great Britain will take a hand and know how to reconstruct so that it will be worth while. ��� ���-���; *-���__ _.' ������ Crowder, the chief conscription expert of the U. S. government, is quoted as saying that the Civil War cost of "selective draft" was $217 per capita, while tinder the recent "draft" it Was only 96.52. It would appear from this that ctiher the suckers aire easier to catch now than in 1861-5. or the press gang methods have been greatly J improved the national life. * ,__���. IT APPEARS THAT EVEN THE stupid ruling class of Great Britain has learned at least one lesson from the great war. The very simple fact that a country that is dependant' upon other lands for its daily food supply is constantly in a very precarious position, bas at last percolated through the reinforced concrete craniurm of some of the brighter ruling class minds of that dull country. Prior to the war it seems that only food enough to supply the people of the United Kingdom for 10 weeks of the year was raised within the country. The balance had to be imported. No wonder that a people thus situated felt the pressing need of a huge navy. and still smaller wonder that the work of the submarine came within an ace of defeating Britain in the recent conflict, Under the stress of the war situation, however, the production of food was increased sufficient to supply the actual requirements of the population for 40 weeks of the year as against the previous 10 vveeks. Now if die British workers win learn the balance of the lesson all may yet be well. While their masters are talking ruling .class stuff about "reconstruction" let these workers learn this, that no people are justified in being in any country or part of the e: rth unless they can feed and otherwise provide for themselves there. If the people ofBritain or any otherbnd |OI ^cunty, at least not to the finan- wuT turn their attention to the^produc-1 ciaU unlettered common plug, he who tion of the essential things of life within . is h ^ a $t r ^^ inner their own borders and kick over all rul-1 s��4a+B Lj ����--�� *��� " ' ing class production for a world market, world.trade and the profit oLslave masters and drivers, they will have solved ..��� �����!��� Kic-iiy ' improved upon. Possibly both, with the former distinctly in the lead. "Selective draft" is good, but a "rose by other name would smell as sweet." Same with a skunk. It is only slaves that are subject to conscription no matter how you may spell it. * * * According to Boston News Bureau, a leading financial journal, "mere cannot be any early liquidation of the European debts owed us ("us" meaning U.S.). . . The prospective buying of commodities by corporations and individuals in i'urope will, to considerable degree, have to be arranged on credit basis, with the eventual solution an undoubtfully much larger American participation in ownership of European securities."; Yes,* yes, that is all very nice and quite clear1, but why call promises to pay, "securities." A standoff, the holding up of the big finger, a "mark it down on the slate,' does not appear to possess any earmarks of "security," at least not to the finan- PAQBFTVH' Irborers $5 a day because he got the test labor possible. We are going to fellow htm. Labor Will drive itself if* ��� jou know how to get out and have it ' co-operate with you. We must work out some plan whereby labor will share in the profits of the business." John N. evidently knows the animals, their characteristics and their peculiar tdosyn- cracies. He knows how to get them to "drive" themselves. Just dangle a nfeS ; little bunch of possible profit carrots before their noses and they will pull like the very devil without being whipped. from behind. A custom that has long been practiced in order to induce impecunious equines to "drive" themselves into the fertilizer factories, is to fasten a pole to the equine neck and dangle a bunch of carrots from the end of it just I sufficiently near to the equine snout to be smellahh* Km ����* -___-t- -_, _..*, ��� *u n_��c SU1VCU the problem of the ages mat have elapsed since the first slave was shackled and the first master wielded the lash. And there is good reason to believe that there are ample agricultural possibilities in the British Isles to provide for the requirements of all tha population therein, if those possibilities be properly utilized. But it can only be done by tbe working class and at the expense of the dismantling of the huge ruling class mechanism of industrial exploitation, commerce and trade. And it might almost be imagined that every slave in Britain and elsewhere should by this time realize that exploitation, trade and commerce never fed anybody ���except_ihel masters and owners of the slaves who were exploited. All the trade, commerce and financing of the world never produced even a single crumb of food, or a particle of any other thing essential to human comfort and well being. All of that trade and commerce, along with the para- phrenalia that belongs with it and of which it is a part, lives and thrives solely upon the plunder taken from the slaves that are exploited in the industrial mills of the master class. It is all incidental to the disposal of the proceeds of the robbery of enslaved labor. The "reconstruction" needed in all countries under the capitalist flage of piracy, is that which will scrap the ruling class mechanism of exploitation and transfer the workers to the land, from which all men derive their sustenance. And there is land enough for all, many, many times Infer, even in Britain. Outside of meats, a couple of acres or so will grow the entire foodstuffs of an ordinary family. In fact no family can consume what can be easily raised from that small area. Ten acres of reasonably good land will provide practically aU of the essential things of life for the average family, and that too without anything in die shape of work as we know that misery today. When the workers of the various countries once realise just what1 has been done to them in the past and is still ....__������� ��v mic .inner secrets of fiscal lore. If promises to pay are really "securities*" however, we know. a very large number of merchants in Vancouver who can do an enormous business in the accumulation of such "securities" if they will but follow our advee. Should they wish to be..let into the secret and will kindly call at this office they will be put wise, free of charge. First come, first served. ' ��� * * ,*.; 7'.. Disillusionment is the order of the day. The fog is being swiftly swept from the m-nds of men. Tbe alleged Peace Congress has done and is still doing heroic work along this line. It already has few friends left and soon it will have none. This is not particularly due to the innate cussedness of those who constitute its ruling personnel, so much as it is due to their complete lack of understanding of the world situation and its problems. Xot realizing that an old order is passing and a new order rising, these incompetents are like a ship upon the ocean without either chart, compass or rudder. They are going nowhere and the prospect is that they will reach their destination. Though France may make frantic efforts to stave off bankruptcy by crying loudly for huge indemnities from another nation equally bankrupt; though perhaps unconsciously hypocritical professors with ther souls attuned to high- flown rhetoric, peddle profoundly noisy piffle to an impatiently waiting world; though apostles of financial humbug shout confidence where confidence is impossible, nothing can save this civilization from the abyss of bankruptcy and complete ruin into which it so recklessly plunged in 1914. All illusions to the contrary are being rapidly brushed aside and dispelled by the swift procession of events that march across the stage of current history The death-knell of human slavery has sounded. Its obsequies are in order. ��� * a , . "7 ������" ������ ���-' P������* ���hw �� S��" ���w��. LTJ ^"^r^^Lfoy ***; ������ which makes of their from one end of this Dominion to the I lives a continual misery, and they awaken John N. Willys of automobile fame expounded his "labor theories" before the convention of automobile dealers at Chicago recently. They were very interesting indeed. Among other things he said, that "Henry Ford never lost a c'oHar when be started to pay ordinary be smellable but not getable, then by heading the subject of the experiment in the right direction the "drive" is*on. Four-legged labor ''drives itself", to its own undoing, but to the great profit of the aforesaid fertilizer factory lords. John N. has apparently studied animals, and they, are all alike. They can all be trained to "drive themselves" in the same way. John N.'s "laoor theories" ire sound. * �� * Few people realize the tremendous {economy that has been effected through 1 the introduction and development of the power driven machine into the product ttve and distributive processes of human society. For instance, modern transportation affords a most striking illustration of the progress that has been nude. j The railway and internal water tonnage I of the U. S. hut year amounted to the equivalent of 23,500 tons moved one mile for every family within that famous "land of the free." Reduced to still' simpler form this means that 65 tons were moved one mile each day for each family within the republic or two and ' two-thirds tons for each hour of the day, or again, 90 pounds of freight moved one mile for every minute in the day, for each family in the country. Now the economy in transportation that has been brought to us upon the beneficent wings of ruling class industrialism, can be readily figured Up. Our forefathers way back in the days of primitive things, before shivery and its mighty tools of. production came into vogtie for our especial salvation, had no transportation expense. They were not robbed, therefore, there was nothing to be hauled up and down the earth until it was worn out, eaten up or otherwise destroyed. No 90 pounds of freight per mile, per minute; no 2 and two-thirds tons per mile, per hour: no 65 tons per mile, per day; no 23.500 tons per mile, per year, was ever dragged athwart the landscape for them, and for which they had to pay . through the nose, Poor devils, they had to worry along as best they could without either transportation or the .proud privilege of paying for it. Not being robbed there was nothing that they were ��� forced to haul away from themselves. Now being robbed of all they produce they are* forced to maintain and operate tbe most powerful and economical system of transportation that the world ever knew. And candor compels the admission that it is certainly some slavery that ran produce wealth so rapidly that the slaves are compelled to haul it away from themselves at the rate of 90 pounds per mile, per minute, two and two-thirds tons per mile, per hour, 65 tons per mile, t.er dav or 23,500 tons par mile, per year. Nothing short of a very powerful and efficient transportation system could enable diem to avoid being smothered beneath such an avalanche of wealth, for what else in the world could happen to them in case they could not haul ft awav from ritern*#lm���� away from themselves. >w< ��� ��� ��� ��� The business office, sad editorial sanctum of Editor Kihjrsley, It now located at Suite 510 Dominion Building, corner Hastings and Oarabie streets. Seymour 4*33. - m/tawm , PAGE*SIX THE LABOR STAR THURSDAY. r February tt, ISIS iUPMliiliMii ���! ������', '��*���' A Review of THE Alberta Federation of Labor Convention held in Medicine Hat was the mostasuccessful conference of labor ever held in tbe Province of Alberta. To the student who has a desire to understand the somewhat complex pioblem of economics or the development of a nation by the blending of nationalities the week at the convention was invaluable. I cannot imagine a more cosmopolitan gathering endeavoring to give expression to national ideals���ideals which were imported from all parts of the world; brought here by men who were invited to come to this country by capital in order that cheap labor would be available for the development of the natural resources, or in many cases forced to leave their native soil in search of employment. Since these men.left sunny Italy, Ser- via, Austria ot toe colder regions of Russia, Scandinavia, war has devastated Europe. Empires have crumbled, and in all probabilty when the peace conference determines the territorial boundary lines some of them will find the land of their nativity under new alignment. None Of \them seem to worry; one nation is as good as another, tile struggle for life has been as bitter in Canada as in Europe; they were welcomed here and then sent to the mining and lumber camps to be bullied by their English speaking friends, and to live in camp bunkhouses in many cases unfit for human beings to live in. The handicap of being unable to speak the English language, the sordid surroundings, the uncertainty of employment, their early training and environment have developed a type of men who are ready to rebel, at any moment against a state of society that tolerates these conditions. I often wondered when listening to the passionate denouncement of things as they are din Alberta Labor Convention By ALEX. ROSS, M.L.A. what would have, been the fate of the Anglo-Saxon if be had been planted in the eastern states of Europe under similar conditions. Since the outbreak of the war, the non-English speaking immigrant in the camps, after the ordeal of learning our language, understanding our customs and something about our national life, made possible only by the trades unions, are confronted now with a condition that did not exist on their arrival in Canada. The war has developed racial hatred; in Canada those who cannot speak it with a foreign accent are Germans or despised foreigner no longer welcome-- unwelcome chiefly because, they insist on being on die same level as the English speaking wage earner. Stories have been written and widely circulated about the enormous wages these men have made since the war began. The operators see to it that these stories get the proper setting; politicians bubbling over with patriotism who have dene little but talk for the last font* years compared with the hazards these raflk have assumed in order to keep 'the wheels of industry going, thraten to have them deported. Racial hatred is being engendered1 for political reasons. Fortunately, with the exception of a few returned soldiers and those who would profit by enslaving these' men still further, the public do not take the press agents seriously. The foreigner was not the only militant delegate, the English speaking delegates were also rebels. The effects of the isolation and environment of camp life could be seen everywhere, expressed a great deal differently however by various nationalities. The tempermental Englishman with his passion for reform; the Irishman with his wit and satire; the phlegmatic Canadian, Scot and Swede; the romantic Slav, each made his con tribution to the cosmopolitan group." The "visitor after analyzing, ticketing, and labelling the group would first of all be impressed by the breadth of vision, the wide knowledge of international affairs, possessed by the delegates. Such a knowledge of the world by men equipped with out meagre education was striking, but why should it be? Thc��c men knew the history and development of* the Old world and are deeply interested in the new. When the war came the map of Europe was visualized in our daily press. The English speaking population began to learn something about other nations and lacking the historical background necessary to understand the drama of war, our foreign citizens supplied it. Then another reason, we have been preaching internationalism for years���a strange' crude internationalism not too well defined, and which was rudely upset by the war, as against the imperialism of the fallen and tottering empires. I could almost imagine that Siberia was a neighboring state, and that France and Italy were much nearer than* New Brims-' wick. The essence of internationalism is that the working class the world over have something in common, and that wars would be impossible were we to understand one another better. Racial hatred exists in Canada but it was not in evidence at Medicine Hat. The only barrier to permanent peace was not race or creed, but the lack of a common language. It was well that no one in authority to enforce the numerous order s-in- council was present during the.discussion of our national affairs. The repressive legislation which has emanated from Ottav% during the last few years was heartily condemned; and many a story told of the brutal enforcement of the Anti-Loaf ing law. On men^, whose knowledge of English was limited.. Mouses have been searched for literature wider the ban of our despots in Ottawa; a reign of terror prevailed in some of the camps; newspapers were seized not for what they contained, but because ��� they were not primed in English ot in the language of an allied natypaJR is still a criminal offence to have some progressive newspapers in your possession. Many are taking a chance, some have been caught and fined, others are languishing in jail. Since the armistice- has been declared, freedom Of speech has *>een restored in other countries; not so in Canada. We must still be told what we must say%nd what we must read The police have not attempted to enforce the orders-in-council in the cities to the some extent as in the mining camps. If they had Canada would have been in a turmoil; as it is we are drifting rapidly that way. The general impression was that between the repressive legislation, the anticipated industrial depresson, the readjustment of the prices of commodities, rcluding labor, that if in the next twelve months those in power make no effort to change conditions, the industrial organizations would have to make an. effort to do it themselves. Financial journals are making a big fuss over the fact of the U. S. government having guaranteed the farmers ���* $2.20 per bushel for their 1920 crop of wheat. The prospect now is that this will be fully, a dollar over the price of wheat in the free market of the world . and there is a great howl because this will force a loss of a billion dollars or t more upon the government But still it k nothing to make a fuss about, for the 'very simple reason that the government can float another '* liberty loan" to cover the loss and eveiything will beT lovely as before. Whenever there is any prospect of loss all that is necessary is to shake down the slaves and get the dough. That is what they are for. , \ Every F.LP Local in ��������� Columbia Should Make EfforttoSend i a Delegate the Membership of Comrades: The first convention of the Federated' Labor Party will be held at headquarters, S10 Dominion Bunding, Vancouver, beginning at 10 a. m. Thursday, March 21. . It is now twelve months since the Party was launched at an informal gathering following the 1918 convention of the British Columbia Federation of Labor. During tile past year the success which bas attended the organization of the Party throughout the province now warrants the holding of a provincial convention to determine immediate and future policies in accordance with the general desire of the membership of the various branches. , Representatives will be on a basis of two delegates for the first two hundred members of a branch and* one for each ���ii additional hundred or a majority fraction thereof. Branches will make ar- ��� * ' - - rangements for transportation of their delegates. As the B. C. Federation of Labor convenes at Calgary on March 10, to be followed by a Western Conference in the same city, the holding of the F. L. P. convention March 21 may assist some branches to secure representation. Forward to the Provincial Secretary the names of delegates as early as possible. E.�� T. rtfNC^W, President. R. H. NEELANDS, * Vice-President. MISS H. GUTTERIDGE, Treasurer. W.R, TROTTER, Secretary. mm*. V 8 ^Wf ft THURHDAT February 20, lflt THE LABOR STAB PAGE SEVEN The Latest Events in Russia When Allied troops first landed on the Russian coasts, without any demands upon the Soviet Government, without a formal declaration of war, Trotsky asked the governments of England, France and the United States to state their demands upon the Russian, government; promising that these demands would be complied with as far as possible. None of the governments answered; the answer would have been cynical. Meanwhile more and more troops were sent to Siberia and to Archangel. Against these forces, supported by tbe Tcheko-Slovaks under the terms of the most shameful bargain by which any nation fver purchased its independence, a large and well-equipped Soviet army has ,been slowly growing. The Allied forces are now supporting three governments of definitely monarchist tendencies in Russia; one at Archangel, one at Vladivostok, and a third at Omsk. At first the Tcheko-Slovaks and the Allied armies put down the Soviets in the places under their control, thus violating the ''solemn and public" promise of the American and Japanese governments not to interfere in the internal affairs of Russia, politically or otherwise. Then they set up governments composed largely of members of the Constituent Assembly, coalition ministries* representing "moderate" socialists, Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries, and the bourgeoisie. Again and again* these, governments fell, Monarchist dictators taking their place. This happened in Archangel, when the government/ of Tchaikovsky was overthrown, and in Vladivostok, when General Horvath executed his coup d' etat. The Allies were compelled to suppress the Monarchists and restore tl�� "democratic?governments. Finally they gave way. The last of the "constitutional" governments was upset the other day at Omsk. ' Admiral Kolchak, a reactionary of the Worst type, seized the supreme power of the "Provisional Government" of the Russian "Republic," as it was called, and threw into prison the "liberal" ministers lately so weir advertised by the capitalist press^~Zen_inov and Avksen- tiev. A Washington despatch of Nov- eimber 22 said: "News of the coup at Omsk, by which Admiral Kolchak virtually has become dictator of the All-Russian forces,, is regarded at the State Department as another sign pointing to stabilization of the movement felied upon to regenerate Russia. "The great weakness in the situation in Siberia it has been believed for some time, is the lack of a powerful head of the Government who cannot be swayed by popular demonstrations and who will work toward the reconstruction of the government with a firm hand. Admiral Kolchak is thought to be the man who will not misuse his authority, and whose hostility toward the Bolshevik elements which have led to the disruption of the country is strong. "The jurisdiction of the Omsk Government extends to a large section of Russians to the west who have been affected by the Bolshevik doctrines that spread from the German intrigues with Lenin, Trotsky and their followers. The very fact that the members of the Omsk Government which now has been overturned were duly elected members of the Constituent Assembly*. Is said to nave worked against the firm establishment of a stable government The officials were dependent upon the workmen of the cities and employees of the railroad largely, for their positions, and the spread of Bolshevism has been most pronounced among those very people. Accordingly it was difficult for the Authorities to enforce their regulations to check Bolshevism. ��� v." So. The State Department repudiates the Russian Constituent Assembly, ��as the Bollsheviki did. But with a difference ; the Bolsheviki oppose the Constituent because it did not represent the people, the State Department because it does. A paraphrase of the above; Russia must have a government strong enough to disregard the popular will. The Provisional Government was not strong enough, because in a limited way it was responsible to the people, and the people were turning Bolsheviki I What does this'mean? It means, as I have often pointed out, that there are only two parties in Russia���pro-Soviet and" ^Iflnarchist The "moderate" So- Sfs, the Mensheviki and Socialist utionaries. lost most of their fol- g a year ago, and it has been dwindling ever since they championed foreign intervention in Russia. A government- composed" of "moderate" Social- i.-ts . could only be supported by foreign fcayonets. and then with difficulty. The Soviet parties were sup? pi essed: that left only the Monarchists. That is why the Allies are supporting the party of the Tsar in Russia. Worse than that . . It is all very FREE SPEECH Right down the ages the ruling class has. opposed freedom of discussion among the workers. "Down with discussion" has been the number one plank in the platform of every autocrat and despot since humans have been able to talk and write. . The plutes of Egypt, Babylon, Greece and Rome prevented discussion among the slaves, without respect to either creed or color. Early Christianity saw men crucified or stoned to death because, in the opinion of the rufing class of that time, they talked overmuch with their fellow men. The barons and overlords of the feudal age knew the danger of free speech, and made bonfires with the bodies of their victims as a method of enjoining silence. And the ruling class of today seeks- to prevent the mass of the people from enjoying the full freedom of speech, of press, and assemblage. Why? Why does fhe ruling class object to freedom of speech among the workers? Why does a free press bring the cold sweat of terror to the brows of the autocrats? Why does free assemblage strike fear into the hearts of the despots? WJiat have they to fear? -Is it that by. free discussion the workers may discuss wrongs and seek to right them? Is it that freedom of discussion will clear the air of doubts, lies, humbug, cant and hypocrisy, and explode the false teachings of the cunning few? Is it that with freedom of discussion well to support the party of the Tsafv J��^pots Scent disaster waiting for led bv a frhmd like Admiral TColchak^ th?m*roun? the,J*ont*} A If the ruling class���the despots and autocrats and those who safeguard their vested interests���have a righteous and holy cause to pursue in life what have they to fear? For is it not the simplest of logic that those who are in the right have all to gain and nothing to lose by freedom ��f discussion ? -But by the same inexorable logics those who are in the wrong have everything to lose and nothing to win by freedom of discussion. The cunning few know the danger of free speech, a free press and free assemblage only too well. They know that, possessing these rights, the leaders of the proletariat can dry up the swamps of ignorance in the minds of the workers, and force, despotism, capitalism and false patriotism to stand naked for the damnable and rotten trinity it is���to be destroyed as soon as it has been distinctly visualized by the unfortunate class it has so pitilessly bled and mined. The master class, and the political sycophants who do its work, know that with freedom of discussion the brains of the- workers are no longer fogged, allowing them to see clearly what stands between them and complete freedom. ��� It is not without reason,, indeed, that the iron fist of despotism is ever ready to bruise the lips and stultify the mind of democracy.���The Australian World. . ��� ���. �� '.. Some people are a little particular about who robs them. Oth#r* .corn but what are you going to do wheif. there suddenly arise two Tsarist governments in the same territory, both led by friends? This is what appears to have happened in Siberia. Just when a delegation arrived in Washington to urge the recognition of Kokhak's government, General Semionov. the well- known Cossack renegade who has been supported by part of our State Department, declared that he would not recognize Kolchak. and set up his own government at Chita. There was a long account in an Associated Press despatch the other day of a correspondent's visit to the General, who seemed to be livingthe life p.f���a president in a Central American Republic, shut up in his house in his capital city, guarded by hundreds of Cossacks, and recovering from a bomb somebody had tossed at him in a local theater���on behalf of what party we do not know. A week ago from the time of this writing, January 7th. things looked black indeed for Soviet Russia. The forces of the Siberian Government (whatever that is) had taken Perm: the French had landed at Odessa: the British fleet was operating along the Es- thonian coast, shelling the Soviet trooos. and British soldiers had landed at Riga; the ^British Government had taken under its protection the German- erected Governments of the Baltic Provinces, and according to the newspapers, was ordering the German troops to oppose the Russians; the French,troops at Odessa were killing Rusafat* m the streets; in the North. thejBtlies jrere; pushing forward down the Onega River, according to persons connected with the State Department, we were getting ready to ship an army to Siberia. The Ebert - Scheideman government was threatening war against Soviet Russia. Since then things have happened. The same day that Perm fell, Soviet troops captured Ufa and moved upon Tcheliabinsk. threatening . General G Ji- da's flank. The Tcheko-Slovaks passed a resolution refusing to fight any more against Soviet Russia. The British fleet sailed south to. Danzig, presumably to help the Poles to force a little self-determination on Northern Germany; the British troops got out of Riga in a nurry, and the Russians came in. Japan, after a tow with the Allies over who should get what in Siberia, withdrew ate a robs them, plain of the nationality of the robbers. STRIKE WORKERS MAY CAST VOTE* CHICAGO, Feb. 12.���A call for a one-day general strike on April 1, the date of the municipal elections, has be;., issued by labor leaders who would thus afford the workers *a '��� , opportunity to vote at their leisure \ and to assist in electing their own candidates. Twenty-Ct^h; thousand union workers will be affected if" the call is obeyed ������'��� . ��� , The above from the press dispatches comes to us as a startling innovation. It breaks the dull monotony of the everlasting strike for an increase in the amount of the slaves' fodder, the strike for more wages. It brings the strike up to the level of an act of men determined to assert their manhood instead of that of animals balking in harness with no intention of raising themselves out of their animalhood, but to merely obtain an extra pinch of hay and oats. Should the example of the Chicago workers be followed by the workers elsewhere and the habit of downing tools for working class political purposes become fixed, it would be the beginning of die end of ciass rule and class brutality. There would be greater evidence in such action of that class consciousness and class solidarity that is requisite to the triumph of the enslaved workers over their age-long enemy the ruling and master class of all lands, than can be found in all the strikes for hay and oats that were pulled off in all the history of human annuals. A general strike of that sort upon any federal election day, and participated in by anything like all the workers, would legally spell for the ruling class of these alleged democracies what the Russian workers and peasants were compelled to violently spell for their brutal rulers not long since. All hail the advent of the use of the strike for political purposes! May the efforts of the Chicago workers prove to be no April fool jofcel And may the rest of the slaves of the earth go and do likewise. a �� i ���_ "DESTRUCTION- And now the Roumanian government "will annul all banknotes given out by the German army of occupation which amount to about $886,000,000." This enormous destruction of "wealth" meets with no protest at the hands of the virtuous "entente allies,* presumably because it is at the expense of the dupes or the Germans. But what a row there was not long since, and stilt is for that matter, because the Soviet government of Russia proposed to destroy "wealth" of a similar character, that had been foisted upon, the Russian people- by a government now dead and damned, and others that ought to be both and then some. When it comes down to howling raucously about the destruction of "wealth," it does make somewhat of a difference as to whose ox is being gored. Put his destruction of "wealth" is terrible. -*- * -7- The "Ubor" problem can only be solved, by labor. ���r ^i.000 men: England annotirf^d that no more troops would be sent to Russia. My friend in the State Department says that the American Government is pledged to the same action. Only the French still seem to be hollering for war on a large scale, and there are things which make me believe that perhaps before long the French Government will get magnanimous rather suddenly. And last of all, but most important! the German Revolution seems at last to have broken out. . . . The Liberals are raising once more their drooping voices in praise of President Wilson. It is to him, they say, that all this is due. In thia, we Socialists must beg to differ. In the first place, it would be premature to say that any change in the Allies' attitude toward Russia has taken place. In the . , : .--. I ��� second place, if it has", it is due to troubles, of which we have been getting a hint in the papers, at home in England and France. In the third place, if President Wilson has had anything to do with this reputed change of front, it is because he has a Machiavellian scheme ���like tbe Mexico one���to get us out by getting us in, or to "check Bolshevism by making concessions," or some such childishness. In the fourth place, we call to the attention of the public the fact that Soviet Russia has now a volunteer Revolutionary Army of somewhat over a million men, which is doing very well on aU fronts. ... If Soviet Russia is winning, it is because Soviet Russia has the strength to win. not only in Russia, but m the ranks of the working class of Europe.���-J. R��� in The Liberator, Feb. -���>mipaaps Page bight THE LABOR STAB MODERATION GIVES CONTENTMENT OF BJIND IS OUR BIRTHRIGHT! ���.. These great proofs are the foundation of AIMS and OBJECTS pamwrnmii.. in.. ���nam ���!������ ��� ���!��� .,������������ Mann i- [..ii ��������� in ma,, ^ ., :-*��� _op- ^"�����^r" The Moderation League . >��� i' ��� i .' i in. . inn *? i*F ������ 1 ' "*' which will be sent on request to all MEN and WQMEN who desire to remedy the existing evils. ���- THURSDAY.........February f��, lflf -i1"" , 'r:,,1. ri,,'i """ "��'.'w':,::,'".,'��� ',',.'��� v._- The Moderation General Offices for British Columbia: 1312 STANDARD BANK BLDG. SEY. 3080 VANCOUVER, B. C. OUT THIS OUT AND MAIL WITH ENCLOSURE ����-��<**-* _��e*��aaa��ae^��eaa*e'"a^aeaaaaaea_s^��a>a J-IE Jag The Labor Star 510 Dominion Building Vancouver, B. C. Enclosed find $ for which send me.. ...issues of The Star at the rate of 4 cents per issue. Nam* ��� I ���'��� llll "/ Address ���_ " ���' i JOSEPH A CLARKE Mayor-elect of Edmonton, AI berta, who was elected as an independent candidate, with Labor's support, in spite of bitter* opposition. ' "O T_? T? T) ';Jp<J^'sll_l..K ONE OF THE FINEST TONICS Good for Health Improves the Appetite CHEAP PRODUCTION Everyone knows that cheap goods can only be produced by using cheap materials and employing cheap labor. CASCADE BEER is produced from the highest grade materials procurable��� Cascade is a UNION product from start to finish. VANCOUVER BREWERIES LIMITED 4 KLV KLUX KLAN i lias an innovation in the law been introduced to Vancouver? Has the time honored old "order in-cbuncir sO popular at Ottawa been outdone in efficiency way out here in the wild west? Vancouver medical men report three recent instances in which they have been called in to attend to the victims of jrery crude surgical operations, performed apparently bysomewhat unskilled workmen, and' under circumstances in regard to which the victims are singularly reticent. This form Of law (sometimes called "justice," by way of a joke) is alleged to have originated in one of the southwestern states when a group of wounded soldiers returned to find tint gay Lotharios had taken advantage of their absence to defile their homes. From there it spread very rapidly to England, it is claimed. Its first appearance here synchronized very closely With the return of the Asia, and gives rise to the surmise that it reached here by that route. '__���_.* . Farm's Pertinent Paragraphs Even before the peace terms are 'signed we have the glorious spectacle of occasionally seeing returned soldiers, stilt in uniform, begging for a four-b-�� piece. n tV it # "The only thing that counts with me is dollars and cents." This the enobling sentiment and ideal of a Vancouver school trustee! Who .said something of the crudities of the west? * * * Who paid Peter to puff and pave the way for what? it it it ' The Seattle strikers at least discovered what the U. S. government bad done with the proceeds, of the Liberty Bond sale campaign. Supplied their own machine-guns. And the boobs W man them too! it * it ***Order *4*tndle of Stars-- 3 cents per copy���for sale, or distribution in your locality. ���ft it' * ���������Address all communications to The Labor Star, 510 Dominion Building. Vancouver. A it it When enough of* the workers have decided upon a complete change in our social and economic system, in a constitutional manner, it wdh't matter much whether the present * rulers issue i prohibitory orders in-council or, not. ! X 10 ftf Cent. Off toAllSoldieYs and Their Families Accurate adjustment in dental work ���a point on which I lay especial stress���to obtain which I operate my own dental laboratory-���thus obtaining the accurate and precise results I desire. The natural teeth ore adjusted* differently in every person. In doing my work I follow the individual adjustment as given you by nature���by precise measurements and accurate placing, making the work I do tit in per-r fectly with your remaining teeth. I will be glad to explain my "individual" adjustment methods-���to shotv yom by examples the importance of accuracy in*this Une. DR. BRETT ANDERSON ! PHONE SEYMOUR 3331 Victory Bonds taken In exchange for dental work. X-Ray Films taken ��� 10-year guarantee given. CROWN AND BRIDGE > & SPECIALIST 602 Hastings Street Wist COR. SEYMOUR STREET Office Open Tuesday and FrWay Evening, Until 8:00 �����Clock Union Blue Label ars EIDoro-EISidelo McLEOD, NOLAN * 00. Makers LONDON, ONT. These Cigars are made from the highest grades of Imported Tobacco grown, and are made under the most sanitary conditions in a strictly union factory. Any honest connoisseur of tobacco will tell you that they are the Cigar of Cigar*. For "Sale Everywhere If your dealer hasn't got them, write D. J. ELMER, J118 Alberts St.. Vancouver There is no sane season why a bunch of corporate pirates should be permitted to keep the foodstuffs of the earth under lock and key so that profiteering prices may be realized by the speculators. H it it The fishing industry of British Columbia is organized and ready for collective ownership and control. Here is a chance for the Reconstructionists! Perry (B* Dolkl TAILOKS- FOR THE BEST IN CLOTHE- The Actino Optical Institute, Ltd. IS NOW SITUATED AT 602-13 0RPHEUM BLDO., Granville Street HAVING REMOVED FROM B1RK8* BUILDING f In order to allow Dr. Jordan more time to devote to literary- aad scientific work, the direction of the Institute"Is now In the hands of Dr. Arthur Plercy, F.8.M.C., London, Sag* who has for some time been studying Dr. aJordan'a method*. f Patients desiring the personal attention of- Dr. Jordan mast make special appointment. 1 The following works, by A. McKay Jordan, can be obtained at tbe above address: Actino-Ocular Therapeutics ........Price f .50 The Book of The One Law Price' *.*0 <Po��tpald)' Others In process of preparation. I I """*
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