The National Socialist from Girard, Kansas • 1

1 -V 1 .1, I 'I THIS paper is published for the rank and file of the Socialist party and the Appeal Army. Every SOOA Infill The MA ATIOI 'hed MsHED every month by Fred D. Warren. -iption price 25 cenU a year. Addres all ''ISCATltt'on nd make all remittance payable to I to Reason, Girard, Kansas 1 Entered at reader will have his or her views printed, but one rule will govern all: THE SHORTEST COMMU-N1CATIONS WILL HAVE THE RIGHT OF WAV.

A Forum for the Army of the Revolution I I ldmrada postoffice a second class mail Af'the 6rfj YearNo. 74 iuaj- th GIRARD, KANSAS, APRIL, 1914 Seartil0 Y0U want to read the greatest Socialist serial story ever written? Upton Sinclair has given the Socialist movement a novel that is a story of thrilling adventures and romance as well as a graphic picture of the helplessness of capitalists in a world without workers. This great story is called "The Millenium." It tells of the coern ludicrous, futile and frantic efforts of plutocrats trying to run this world without the Henry Dubbs. The author of The Jungle" has done himself proud in giving the $oe Jecialist movement this great novel. 'The Millenium" will appear only in the newsstand edition of the Appeal to Reason.

The first installment will be printed in the issue king1'' April 18th. Every Socialist and everv lover of good fiction should read this story. Go at once to your news dealer and make arrangements with him to supply you with i) heVwlpewsstand edition of the Appeal. He can get this edition from his regular wholesale dealer. If you prefer to $1.25 a year or to regular readers of the Appeal $1.00 a year.

Don't miss the opening chapters of this story. aV'ly per ulat cent witl clu' mi' diK very WHAT CONFISCATION IS. Seizing for Public Use Seizing for Private Use Is Robbery. While "confiscate" and "confiscation" are proper words to use, an examination of the dictionaries leads me to conclude that we have been in the habit of making a loose and in many instances a lore wrong use oi these words. They arc had 1 not at all synonmous with "restoration" acqu.

nd "restitution," because the latter A tesrms imply that the workers once had possession of the products of their labor vef)0 while as a matter of fact they never had Vsj 4 this possession under capitalism. In ceie, buying labor power the capitalist also regal ouys the right to control what that labor lower produces. The worker is deceived hiscreiy thinking that the capitalist buys only iijon labor power of the worker. 'fire-e If Socialists as well as everybody else 'Roosevill take the trouble to look up the defi-and editions of "confiscate" and "confisca-noistjtion," I think they will find they are the nd proper words to use and everybody pig iust what these wordsniean. Tl The definitions as given by Webster, i the Standard and Encyclopaedia diction-hflTi-ries are practically the same, viz: rioecortConfiscate.

to seize as forfeited to the treasury, to appropriate to the use." The Standard addu, I'nc -especially because of the wrong doing tk-u-rat the owner." There is the same agree- ment to the definitions of the word "confiscation," viz: "The act or process I "Wrt taking property or condemning 11, iu Vcreate tajsep as forfeited to the public treas- "mildere must be the two elements, the hoiM where and the appropriation to a pub-aw; ness 3e to constitute confiscation. To out'vemer, or take possession of property of she he ther for private use is theft or rob-tereat ir, seJre beha have been won't to say the chattel iWfd the of the south were confiscated caYs of tl their masters and turned out to mwerlv Viog or die, and the law by which ihwere held as chattels was annulled. ts thev were not appropriated to a lmbUc use they were not confiscated. The same course of reasoning applies to the seizure of the labor Argus, the lea Socialist and labor Star and other pampers and property that have been seized ls vnhoaf nf a certain class ot matter. not last one year; you would confiscate my farm by destroying its value to me, and the mail order house in, which I am interested does not serve the people in the manner they should be trer.vcd, being in it strictly for profit, consequently you would start one that would quickly absorb my stock, and also the railroad stocks by a gentle stroke of confiscatory depreciation, saying to me, "lou old capitalist skinflint, it serves you riht to lose all you have." On the other hand if I tender cheerfully what I possess, you will extend the right hand of fellowship and have some confidence in my sincerity.

Your doctrine is, I believe, to give each person a good living if able and willing to work, as long as strength permits then when unable to perform the function of wealth producing, it is supposed, and easily proved that each individual has earned a rest and pensioner's care for the balance of their days in return for what has been added on their part, to the great fund of the commonwealth. Our chief care in those good days, sure to come, will be attention paid to the aged, the women and children, the first two for what they have done, and the latter for what duties life is calling them to attend. This is all I want, and am ready to use my last days in promoting all this happiness to come, from much of which me and mine have been deprived. Duiango, Colo. JOHtt McGUlGAX.

An Example in Confiscation. About the time I was born, in the fifties, E. H. Litchfield, a very benevolent financier who had the interests of the farming element at heart, came to Iowa from New York City and persuaded our state authorities that locks should be placed in the Des Moines river between Fort Dodge and the confluence of the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers, so as to give the farmers of the north a good outlet for their produce. Our slate authorities oi completion of these locks, which would render the Des Moines river navigable for boats, were to deed Mr.

Litchfield every alternative section of land a distance of 90 miles by 10 miles wide, or five miles on each side of the river. In the spring of 1875 a little launch boat ran from Des Moines to Fort Dodge, but on the return trip stuck on a sand bar. Why? Because this great financier, whose sympathies went out to the farmers of the north, had not put in a single lock according to his con tract. What did our state authorities do? Nothing, only carried out their part of the contract, deeded Mr. Litchfield every odd section of rich Iowa soil a distance of 90 mines and 10 miles wide.

Immediately the people of Iowa found they were swindled out of their land and began to settle on Mr. Litchfield's domain. Between the people and Mr. Litchfield war was fierce. The battle was carried to the courts and Mr.

Litchfield won his case. Then Senator Allison and Representative Dolliver put a bill through congress and our government paid the settlers on this land for their improvements and turned the land and all its appurtenances over to Litchfield. The best authority savs our officials were bribed for about $50,000. I cannot understand why those who favor confiscation can object to such little stunts as Mr. Litchfield pulled off.

Was he not providing for a rainy day? I am a farmer and keep cows. Now suppose some thief steals my cows at night. Are you foolish enough to think it right for me to confiscate my short horns? Certainly not! Colo. E. M.

on "Our Salvation." I read the articles under this heading in the National Socialist of February by Comrade Meek and also of March issue by Comrade Campbell. I congratulate Comrade Campbell for the way he handled the subject, but I want to say that I am a Methodist in my Christian profession first, then Socialist in politics second. Because I am a Methodist is no reason I should expect all Socialists to be Methodists. I was a Methodist when I was a democrat, but all democrats are not Methodists. Observe the point: There are a great many kinds of religions in the world today and always have been, but there is only one kind of Christianity; that is the religion taught by Christ and that kind of religion is not in politics.

As I understand Socialism it is a political organization for the betterment of all the people under the Co-operative Commonwealth and not a religious organization. The sooner Socialists abandon the idea that Socialism is a religious organization the better for the party's good. We as Socialists advocate free speech, free press and liberty of conscience to one and all. Then why should some of us try to force our own religious or non-religious ideas on the Socialist party? e. O.

ROBERTSON. As Three Cents Per Copy mail the subscription rates you in 'The Millenium." MAKING EXCHANGE COMPULSORY. How the Private Money System Led to Positive Robbery. The coinage of money makes exchange compulsory, and consequently the bearer is obligated to expend his money at once in the purchase of labor or commodities. He has not the right to expend his money when and how he pleases, or to hoard it.

The coinage of money converted exchange by barter into exchange by purchase and sale. It is wholly voluntary with the individual to agree or not to agree to effect exchange; but once having agreed to exchange, and performed part of the exchange, he is legally obligated to perform the balance and complete the exchange. Exchange by barter is performed by the transfer of the objects agreed upon. Exchange by purchase and sale performs the obligation of the purchaser who had previously been a seller, but imposes a legal obligation on the seller to purchase an equivalent value of any commodity or labor which he desires, without delay. If the seller does not wish to expend his money at once, ha can deposit it in a bank, receive a bank credit therefor payable in money at some future time, and transfer his obligation to the bank.

The bank assumes the obligation of the depositor, and its function, besides providing a convenient way for the transfer of money in private exchange, is to expend money in public work to employ all labor asking for employment. A private bank cannot perform the obligations it has assumed and remain solvent. Only a public banking system, owned and operated by the nation in co-operation with the states, can perform the obligations assumed when accepting deposits. All private banks have been permitted to ignore their obligations, thereby causing unemployed and underpaid labor, povert" insanity, suicide the-ainst woman suffrage eg Hi J.u-vi in nic I'i" pu- chase at once, all kinds of schemes, fair or foul, had to be devised to encourage expenditure of money. Stocks had to be watered wildcat stocks floated public expenditures had to be increased by graft; there had to be malicious destruction of wealth by arson, riot, insurrection, and war; the consumption of liquor, tobacco, drugs, commercial prostitution, gambling, and insane fashions had to be encouraged to put money in circulation, employ more labor and make business "good." Greed had to be permitted to make its exaf tions, or there would have been no terprises" to employ labor.

No vice am crime need be tolerated and fostered to circulate money, and no exactions in the form of interest need be paid if government enforced the legal obligations inherent in money. By neglecting and refusing to enforce the exchange contract, government impairs the obligation of contract. The sacred performance of the obligation of contract is at the very foundation of peace and order in society, and government bv its act invites revolution. Pueblo Colo. MOSES FRANKLIN.

Would Take the Easiest Way. It seems to me that the Socialists should profit by the experience of the republican party. When this party came upon the ctage action, slavery was just as fully entrenched within the constitution as capitalism is today. The republicans sought only to prevent the further extension of slavery on the found that a free state was better for the white people than a slave state. The unreasonable, not to say foolish, conduct of the slave owners did all the rest, that is to say, it forced the republicans to eventually abolish slavery, a thing they did not originally contemplate.

The object of the Socialist party is to abolish wage slavery, so-called. Granted that this is desirable, it leaves it open determine the method. The question how can this result be reached the easiest, the quickest and the surest way. There are millions of voters who support a movement to secure an increased vote of wages, coupled with a declaration that it is the duty of government to guarantee every man a job, who are not willing now to go any further. With these two policies fully established, what more need the Socialist ask that would not necessarily follow? With all heretofore idie men sure of work where could the capitalists recruit their "strike-breakers?" Without strikebreakers capitalism would surely fall its own weight.

This fact ought to obvious to any one who will give the matter a moment's thought I favor moving along the lines of least resistance, and I fail to see the need of a long program covering everything that scientific Socialism might suggest. nr. with-N. A. UI WVHVUV isisT i rtf nr another of late get the newsstand edition by There is a treat waiting for class, by virtue of the legal ownership, must and does necessarily assume more responsibility of providing employment to the laboring class, since life is dependent on labor and labor is dependent on means with which to work, if for any reason the owning class shall fail to provide said labor, it shall forfeit interest in such ownership equal to the laws sustained by labor by reason of enforced idleness resulting therefrom.

Every laboring man shall render a faithful acount of the number of days lost, also name and address, and pledge to support such action as may be necessary to carry such program into effect to continue until a complete transfer of all the machinery of production is effectually transferred to the people. Kansas City, Mo. N. B. SHORT.

Do all the members of your local take the National Socialist? Every member of the party and every man and woman who works for Socialism should read the National Socialist regularly and take part in the discussion. It is an open forum for the army of the revolution. I suggest that you see the comrades and get up a club of four. The rates are 25 cents a year or in clubs of four or more 25 cents for two years. Let's hear from you.

Would Put It Up to the State. I believe the question of confiscation ought to be put up to the people in concrete form, as we have a 'strong organization in several states that' have the initiative and referendum, why should not the Socialists in these state draft and circulate a petition for the following amendment to the constitution of their state: Art. Section 1. Alt parts of the constitution granting: or permitting special privileges are hereby repealed. See.

2. Every person over the age of 21 years, desiring to retain, or obtain, citize ship in this state, must register with the county cl the county whrc reside, their residence and occupation. Sec. 3. No citizen shall be evicted from a registered home' till the state has offered him a better one.

The question now is: Shall the petition be circulated and the amendment adopted? If it is adopted, then the question of remuneration will naturally come before the next legislature or the people of how the present owners are to be remunerated. There are three classes of citizens who are interested and will support such an amendment: Tenants, for they have a home to gain and nothing to lose; those living in mortgaged homes, for they have nothing to lose and a home to train: and every person who owns lit tle but the home they live in, for then they can't lose their home by failing to pay taxes. Do you want to secure a home for every citizen of your state? Then here is your chance. Do you want to put your state in the front of the Socialist movement in 1914? Then here is your chance. Bokoshe, Okla.

A. H. BROKING. Suggestion as to Employment. The Kaibab forest in northern Arizona, owned by the nation, is said to contain two billion feet of timber, more than half of which is ready for the axe.

To get the timber out it is necessary to build about two hundred miles of railroad, besides saw mills and other appurtenances. It is estimated that it would reouire an investment of about three million dollars. Here is an opportunity for the government to do something worth while. While the president is patting "big biz" on the back, and congress is handing currency out of the treasury with both hands, let them fork over the three millions needed to finance the enterprise, put an army of the unemployed to work and put the lumber on the market as soon as possible. At the lowest estimation the one billion feet of lumber would be worth twentv-five million dollars.

After all expenses were paid the three million dollars could be returned to the treasury, the balance going to develop other industries on the same principle. The government would lose nothing and it would establish an endless chain for the benefit of those who are most in need of it. Havwood, Mo. I. M.

MCCARTHY. Must Be All-Socialist. If we gain Socialism in a half measure we cannot call it Socialism, but will have to keep up the battle until it is won. Stamp it out if you can in any one place or any one nation. You will find that the seed has been sown and when the time comes it will bud and bloom again, growing hardier than ever! Consequently there can be no half Socialism, no socialistic amalgamation with other parties.

Socialists must be all Socialist or nothing. Hutton, Cal. C. J. FRY.

of to of of be osc I loci pel nuun a vv in these free United States. There are instances of a wanton exercise of usurped power. Tn reneat. the seizure of property lists private use is theft or robbery Giving to the Unions We Give to Ourselves. Comrade Blumenberg's article entitled, "Costly Vote Getting" seems to me very ill advised.

I do not for one moment think that a very large per cent of the Socialists agree with him. First, because the Socialist party is the only political party of the working class even if the Henry Dubbs of organized crafts do not recognize the fact. Second, a large per centage of the workers craft unions are Socialists and more are to follow. Third, our donations have always been freely given, not to buy their votes or attract their attention to our movement, but because we. are of and with them in this mighty class conflict.

I know the present form of craft unionism is merely an auxilliary to the civic federation and that Sam Gompers and his satellites are fakirs pure and simple, and that the only thing for labor is to organize industrially and politically, one big union, one big political party, and until then let us do our duty to our class without expectation of reward. Omaha, Neb. JESSE F. BRILLHART. Endorsed by the Local.

The Socialist party has given abundant proof of its anxiety to aid striking workers. is entitled to some con sideration in return. Many years ago the workers of Colorado secured adoption of an eight hour constitutional amendment by 46,000 majority; but they have never ceased to vote the. machinery- for the administration of that law and of all other laws and for the making of laws into the hands of their capitalistic masters to be used against them whenever they strike for better working conditions. All other centers of severe industrial strife bear a striking resemblance.

Schenectady, New York, gave a striking illustration of the ease with a strike is won when proper political action has prepared the way for it. It is quite time the Socialist party serves notice that it will render all possible assistance in the election of candidates who are committed to the principle that the rights of labor, as Lincoln said, are prior to those of capital and demand the greater consideration, but will ino case waste its resources in abetting strikes unless the workers involved have made proper and diligent efforts to prepare for the strike by electing officials who adhere to the doctrine that labor's claims are first. No criticism is intended of the past but it is evident that the amount of money spent, for instance, on the strike in Michigan, if spent in political propaganda would have gone far in so changing the aspects of government that feeding strikers' children would be unnecessary. The above was indorsed by Local Richmond, 76 members, and ordered sent to the National Socialist. o.

J. GIBBONS. What if this should happen. One Way to Unscramble Eggs. Even though it be conceded that confiscation is right, there would still remain the question how best to do it.

The stocks, bonds, of our great corporations are largely held by life insurance companies, avinga banks, by widows and orphans, the aged and infirm, and have been bought by dollars honestly earned. I favor the acquisition of the industries of the country at the present inflated values. Then enact graduated income and inheritance taxes, taxing the large fortunes fifty to seventy-five per cent. In this manner nobody will be seriously hurt and socialization will soon be an accomplished fact. St.

Paul, Minn. HUBERT A. WALLRAFF. Suggestion for "Acquiring." Proclamation by Socialist president: Capitalism, being as it were a state of society wherein the owning or. master zjflsvjr' vt ftftt al'- 0 Coic oh TS'v Confiscation in History I see nothing in history but confiscation and murder.

The much vaunted liberty-promoting United States government, and all its branches have been in the business of confiscation every minute of their existence, and a number of so-called citizens have by the same means got all that was created, by all the balance of the people. The small factory confiscated the means of the hand tool worker, then the larger manufacturer adopted the same method in displacing them, followed by the mammoth trusts who have gobbled up in the same manner all who refused to abide by terms they chose to make. We find the railroads confiscating by this manner the stage coaches, ox carts and mule teams, with no thought whatever in providing a living for those forced to begin new ways of obtaining bread. The mortgage confiscates the farm and town home, and its blight is witnessed in every corner of our fair land. A careful diagnosis of the situation fails to enlighten me as to how the people will ever own the means of production and distribution, as now possessed by a few, unless by general confiscation.

Suppose you undertook to purchase these at their capitalized value, you would confiscate the peopb, body, soul and their products for all time; it would be impossible to liquidate in centuries such a burden hf financial obligation; and if you should buy at actual value, you will confiscate 80 per cent of the stocks and bonds that many people have paid good money for. If you build new enterprises competing with those existing, you confiscate the whole by destroying their value, and their business as well. Duiango, Colo. JOHN McGUXCAN. After Confiscation.

After you have confiscated the railroads and all the machinery of production, yo.u still have capitalism. You have not pulled up the root from which alone capitalism sprouts and grows. What is this root? Society, today, is inevitably without an exchange medium. Yet society complacently confers this great monopoly on its individual members and pays them an enormous sum for its use. From this parent monopoly all others are offsprings.

It is a simple proposition in philoso phy that no effect can survive the removal of cause. Capitalism is an effect. If undesirable, why not go to the root cause in its overthrow? Why confiscate some of the product of capitalism, when the pulling up of its root brings the whole thing to earth? Capitalism is a logical sequence for which there is a corresponding logical cause. This cause lies in the private monopoly of the vitally necessary commercial instrument called money' Let us simplyfy our propaganda. Capitalism will not reform itself; it can't.

It is to say the least irrelevant to waste our breath and temper in in-victives on the doing-s of capitalists. What is more natural than to ask the cause of this or that condition or effect? Then it is a fact that capitalism owes its existence to a private medium of exchange, what is more rational in a remedial undertaking than the overthrow of such a medium of exchange? Littleton, 111. C. A. ZANDER.

Direct Action Again. John Nipp, in the National Socialist for registers an objection to what is merely a phase of direct action and one which the direct actionists would recommend only as a last resort. Comrade Nipp, like a great many other comrades, has or seems to have a very narrow and often a mistaken view of direct action. Direct action, as the term plainly indicates, is the action of the workers directly in gaining thtr ends, instead of appointing officials pass laws for the same purpose. The religionist, especially the Roman Catholic, thinks he has to obtain his religious ends through the medium of a priest; so in like manner the political actionist thinks in order to obtain justice for the worker his ends must be sought through the medium of offu holders.

Where direct action fails it is because of spineless characters who fail to take advantage of it and not because of the inefficiency of the method. Political action is a "red tape" method and like all "red tape" there is woven within it a whole lot of wasted energ-. Too many workers have a sort reverence for "law and order" and so of course any method not permitted by, "law," which would drain the bosses money bag is too "utterably utter" for them to consider. Oilfields, Cal. V.

nfKnd tism of class consciousness will put If workers in the right frame of mind sav we wiU swap accounts an ca work lD- 4uo" C. Q. NELSON, M. 1. Thn Four VVavs and One.

1 Roiu-iv rn thp discussion in the Nat- tlf ull i 1 o. 'tonal Socialist for February on War-Ven's views of Confiscation, I think I jpJstfan sum up the opinions of all those nir havho took part in the discussion as fol- se hif Var to is. nahe government (meaning the people) ciarint acquire possession of the nation's viz: Purchase, pension, arft-qipetition, and confiscation. We be- winj" 111 all Ol ineni. nt iiijiii-m; hi jjui- intn becauso thai, has already heen many times fiver.

We l)elieve in the because we will provide tnc vt talist with a job and the full social 'On. sr ol nis nrciuui nimn win uc mear 1 ticallv iriP ain' ncnric ii nm 'Vuu. because we hrcause we know by firm al experience that the capitalists tf noe legallx forced out of business in i- i i s-i rrty'a cause an mo roreMng pianr uv j-msclvfls confiscation let f3ut- HS to what we lit-ly vocate, 1 would say to use that nonsi -jnH i mnnp' ihich there is reason to believe will be I maoI 1 1 i rrl- (inn I supported by those people- who not now Socialists, but upon whom ton must tiePend to become Socialists in Miiw future in order to bring about the 'voperative Commonwealth. That ethod 1 believe to be competition as in the parcel post. What.

Th' icant if results; the mean is of lit-omely moment. Harold R. John. A State secretary of Wyoming. Willing to Be Confiscated.

I have some real estate in Connecti-eit, and a little on Long Island 20 miles ot.n Greater New York, and some mail house stocks and bonds, also stocks, all of which I desire to arn over to the Socialist organization they elect a majority to congress, ome of you may say, well he is a good ocialist. but you have one more guess loming, for I think this the best plan or me. Suppose that capitalism ana Vor ocialism should attempt to harmonize J-igethsr for a time, and I should side capitalism, and ret use to give up ything, then co-operative farming A pris in cmpetition against me, I could VI pl 1 1.