“On Conscription. 1917” in “Class Warrior”
On Conscription 1917
Report of Kingsley’s speech during a mass meeting organized by the Vancouver Trades and Labor Council and the Socialist Party of Canada to protest the introduction of conscription in Canada, held in Vancouver’s Empress Theatre on 13 June 1917. Demonstrating a détente on the BC left in the face of the threat facing workers with the enactment of the Military Service Act, 1917, Kingsley shared a platform with former Socialist Party comrades William A. Pritchard and Wallace Lefeaux. Richard Parmater “Parm” Pettipiece, who worked with Kingsley as editor of the British Columbia Federationist newspaper, also spoke at the meeting.
Empress Theatre Meeting of June 13
Held under Auspices of Trades and Labor Council and Socialist Party. Good Audience Listens to Reasons Why Conscription Should Be Turned Down.
Unmarked by hysterical enthusiasm, such as is conspicuous at meetings held by the patriotic adherents to the cause of slavery, otherwise known as conscription, but noticeable because of the careful hearing given the speakers, and the desire evidenced by all present to profit by every word spoken by those who have made a study of economic conditions and applied that study to delving into and ferreting out the innermost reason for the present attempt on the part of the powers that be to shackle the worker with the conscription measure, the meeting held in the Empress theatre was a success in the true sense of the word.
Under Joint Auspices
The gathering had been called, under the joint auspices of the Vancouver Trades and Labor Council and the Socialist Party of Canada, for the purpose of hearing speakers in opposition to conscription, and those speakers would be heard quietly and without interruption.
How the Slave Is Shackled
Mr. Kingsley’s address bristled with points, and all were well made, the audience showing its appreciation of the facts as presented in no uncertain manner. He opened by referring to the matter of the Winchester short range gun, remarking that a long range one might possibly reach out and kill one of the fattened capitalists. As to the war, he said: “There never was a war but which had sprung from economic sources, and never a slave was shackled save under force of the bayonet, club or gun. There is no such a thing as property, save only the human animal, which toils and sweats to produce the wealth and is then robbed of it. All the military is for is to protect the master, who rules and robs that slave.”
Why Conscription?
“One argument,” he said, “used by the capitalists to justify conscription, was that we had to win or get off the earth, but in view of the fact that the population of the Entente Allies was about one billion as against 165,000,000 for the Central European powers, there was no possibility of losing. It was not necessary to conscript the men of Canada.
“Again,” he said, “I have it on good authority, that there are at present in Great Britain four million soldiers, who have never yet been to France. Now, what is the meaning of that? And what does this conscription measure signify? There is some reason which the politicians dare not give, for they know that if they did, they would not get a man to favor it.”
Prussianising America
The president of the United States next came in for some handling by the speaker, who pointed out that by bringing in a conscription measure through congress, the president had become equally autocratic with the kaiser, also proving to his hearers that Mr. Wilson had no power or authority to take such action.
“The countries which went to Germany for their Workmen’s Compensation bill did not forget to take a pattern from the greatest form of autocracy the world has ever seen,” he said, “and if the citizens of the United States stand for it, they deserve all they get.”
In Canada, the speaker pointed out, conditions were much the same. The government was legally dead, and was not authorized to impose upon the public a military regime.
“We have militarism in its incipient stage now,” said he, “as witness the island trouble and the Fraser fishermen’s trouble of some time ago, but wait till an army of many thousands has been built up, drilled by their officers and the workers will have something on their backs they will not be able to throw off. Little enough has been gained by the workers in their past struggle, but it is far too much to be surrendered in any war, for if once lost, it will never be got back. What we have we should hold.”
Some Slave History
He then traced the history of chattel slaves of the past to the workers of the present age, whom the powers were trying to force back to their original state, and remarked that it was against this movement that the workers were fighting.
“When the masters declare their deep solicitude for democracy, I know they lie, and do it deliberately,” he declared. “President Wilson is an adept at the greasy methods, but when a man will usurp power and authority, as he has done, the truth is not in him, or within a million miles of him. Conscription is an excuse for militarism, and the men would eventually be ranged up around the manufacturing plants with their short range guns.
“Listen,” he said, “you men who admire the soldiers as they march down the streets. Remember always that those guns will be pointed at your breast, and at the breasts of your wives and children. While no military system arose from the army of the civil war, which was probably the nearest approach to a democratic army, the Spanish war had produced a soldier of the hoodlum class, which existed today. This type would nearly push pedestrians off the sidewalk, something which the speaker said he had witnessed in Vancouver within recent times.”
U.S. Military Type
“There exists today in the United States officers of the same type of military ruffian and bloodthirsty scoundrel as in Germany, all they need being the ‘von’ in front of their names.”
“Any country dominated by militarism will slide into despotism,” he said. “The soldiers trained under the banner of Britain will go to do just what their masters tell them, because they are not yet as far advanced as the workingman of Russia. If sent to Russia, in case of rebellion of workers, I should be greatly surprised if they did not fire on their kind at the word of command.”
The Decent Part
Continuing, Mr. Kingsley said there was only one decent portion of society today, and that was the working class, the goose which did the golden egg trick. All these were not decent, however, some of the eggs being sadly addled, which accounted for the fact that nine-tenths of the strike-breakers and soldiers were recruited from the ranks of the workers.
In his closing remarks, the speaker said: “Unless this bill is submitted to the electorate, and they decide to have it, we say right here and now, that we will ‘lay down our tools, and we will not take them up until you take this thing off our backs.’ I offer you this prophecy,” he said in conclusion, “that out of the turmoil and strife and tempest of this war will rise in every country a revolutionary movement of the proletariat which will sweep the master class and like robbers off the face of the earth within the next two decades, for whatever else the war has done, it has at least cleared the stage of a lot of rubbish and pointed the way to the possibility of a world without masters and without slaves.”
—“Empress Theatre Meeting of June 13,” British Columbia Federationist, 15 June 1917, 7. See also “Conscriptionists Plan Monster Mass Meeting Next Week,” Vancouver Daily Sun, 14 June 1917, 4.
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