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Class Warrior: On the 1917 Conscription Election. 1917

Class Warrior
On the 1917 Conscription Election. 1917

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table of contents
  1. Cover
  2. Foreword
  3. Introduction
  4. Part I: Selected Writings of E. T. Kingsley
    1. 1900   On Washington State’s Primary Law
    2. 1903   On Political Action
      1. On Reformism and Electoral “Fusion”
      2. On Trade Unions
    3. 1905   On the Single Tax
      1. On a Journey to Seattle
    4. 1906   On the Arrest of US Labour Leaders and State Power
    5. 1908   On the Socialist Movement and Travels across Canada
    6. 1909   On War
      1. On the Vancouver Free Speech Fight
    7. 1911   On Property
      1. On the Workers’ Awakening
      2. On Economic Organization
      3. On the Capitalist State
    8. 1914   On the Causes of the First World War
    9. 1916   On Carnage
    10. 1917   On Slavery and War
      1. On War Finance
      2. On the War Effort
    11. 1918   On the Bolshevik Revolution
      1. On Capitalism Getting Rich Quick
    12. 1919   On Control of the State by the Working Class
      1. On Reconstruction
      2. On Collaboration between Labour and Capital
      3. On Wealth
      4. On Gold
      5. On Class War
      6. On the Paris Peace Conference
      7. On Capitalist Civilization
    13. 1921   On the 1921 Canadian Parliamentary Election
  5. Part II: Selected Speeches of E. T. Kingsley
    1. 1895   On the Aims of Socialism
    2. 1896   On Socialism and the Economy
    3. 1899   On American Imperialism in Cuba and the Philippines
    4. 1903   On the Labour Problem
      1. On the Political Organization of Miners in Cumberland
      2. On Stirring the Emotions of His Audience
      3. On Wages, Profit, and Capital
      4. On the 1903 British Columbia Election
    5. 1905   On the 1905 Russian Revolution
      1. On Workers and Rockefeller
      2. On the Mission of the Working Class
    6. 1906   On the Paris Commune
    7. 1908   On Labour and Its Economies
      1. On the Working Class Using Clubs If Necessary
      2. On Working-Class Political Power
    8. 1912   On the Vancouver Free Speech Fight
    9. 1913   On the Vancouver Island Miners’ Strike
    10. 1914   On the Komagata Maru Incident
    11. 1917   On Conscription
      1. On Working-Class Opposition to Conscription
      2. On Conscription and Wiping Out Ruling-Class Laws
      3. On the 1917 Conscription Election
    12. 1918   On the Formation of the Federated Labor Party
      1. On Laws
      2. On Reconstruction
      3. On the Armistice and Postwar Moment
      4. On Allied Intervention in the Russian Civil War
    13. 1919   On Lenin and Trotsky
      1. On the Belfast General Strike, Unemployment, and the Postwar Challenge to Capitalism
      2. On the Bolshevik Revolution
      3. On the One Big Union
      4. On the Class Struggle
      5. On the Machine
      6. On Capitalism
      7. On the Defeat of the Winnipeg General Strike
      8. On the Machinery of Slavery
      9. On Civilization
    14. 1920   On Mechanization of Production
      1. On the Paris Commune
      2. On the Collapse of Civilization
      3. On the Bankruptcy of the Capitalist System
  6. Part III: The Genesis and Evolution of Slavery
    1. 1916   The Genesis and Evolution of Slavery: Showing How the Chattel Slaves of Pagan Times Have Been Transformed into the Capitalist Property of To-day
  7. Part IV: On the World Situation
    1. 1919   On the World Situation
  8. Appendix
  9. Kingsley’s Speeches
  10. Index

On the 1917 Conscription Election 1917

Excerpts of a speech by Kingsley in Victoria’s Knights of Pythias Hall on 10 November 1917, in support of Labor candidates Albert Wells and Joseph Taylor in the 1917 federal “conscription election.”

Nothing Good but Reign of Socialism

“First Grand Rally and Organization” Meeting Hears Three “Grouchy” Speakers; Collects $34; Closes; Nothing Else Done.

Three speakers, each with a determined “grouch” against things in general and everything in particular, addressed the “First Grand Rally and Organization” meeting held on Saturday night at the K. of P. Hall. These were A. S. Wells, a candidate for Victoria City; J. Taylor, a candidate for Nanaimo; and E. T. Kingsley, editor of the B. C. Federationist, Vancouver. At the commencement, E. J. Herron, chairman, said they would be open to answer questions after the speakers had finished.

But when, at 10.30, that time arrived, and he inquired for questions, none were asked, the chairman considering this a sign of satisfaction. Another interpretation was that the audience was glad to get a chance to get away. after the very long remarks, lasting one and a half hours, Mr. Kingsley had seen fit to make in his indignation at the ruling classes. A collection of $34.10 was made at half-time, but there was no mention of any organization work.

Both Are “Pious”

E. T. Kingsley’s very lengthy speech was an uncompromising and bitter attack, not even as comparatively moderate as those which had previously been heard, in which he hit all and sundry. He said it was an appeal to “the men and women who did the world’s work, and were ready to do all and dare all for the cause of democracy and human liberty.” Mr. Kingsley’s home is in Vancouver, and, in connection with one of the Tribunal Board’s there, he alluded to Judge Grant and Prof. Odium as “two most insufferable hypocrites, although both pious,” adding that if any two worse could be found he would give thirty cents for the Federation campaign “right then.”

The following are some of Mr. Kingsley’s remarks:

  • “No war for liberty has ever been fought. They have all arisen out of quarrels over shares of products.”
  • “This war has been paid for by the men, women and children who were living in 1914—and some of whom are living yet. Wealth never did pay for war, and never could. Neither can any people who live after us pay for it. The accumulated wealth of the world consists only of figures in bank balances.”
  • “The loss of the spawn of the upper classes is not so great as that of the workers, which is a fact in which I console myself.”
  • “I do not want to discourage anyone else as to contributing to the Victory Loan, but wherever there is a government on the top of the earth financially sound it is not necessary for that government to go out and negotiate loans, for if its bonds are good its treasury notes are good. In the last analysis, of course, they will all go bankrupt.”

“Band of Political Rogues”

“If you elect the bunch at Ottawa, stick to them, and you will have them to the end of time.”

“The War-time Election Act has been placed on the Statute Book by the greatest band of political rogues unhung. They are not a ‘Win the War’ party, but a ‘Win the Election’ party.”

“The enumerators may make out any old list they like.”

“I would not advise anyone to go contrary to the law, but I would consider it a joke if anyone—say down at Halifax—asked for his name to be put on at the last minute, and then, if it wasn’t put on, got vexed and went out and smashed some windows.”

“Forgot” to Register

“Thousands have ‘forgotten’ to register, and in the United States 50 per cent of drafters are still running wild in the bush. I do not want to encourage them, for if there is anything in which I am a sticker it is in upholding the law, and the law is the edict of the master to determine the conduct of the slaves.”

“There is only one place for progressive men and women, and that is to seize the reins of political power. All should register their kick against this iniquitous thing. I freely admit there are thousands of men among the Liberals and Conservatives just as honest and sincere as the workers, but they have been led away by Borden, Sifton and others.”

“Always the term ‘Government’ abnegates the term ‘democracy.’ This war is lost to the ruling classes of all the world, now, and there is nothing on earth that can bring the war to a conclusion except the class of the great producers of wealth. The fundamental crime is universal slavery.”

—“Nothing Good but Reign of Socialism,” Victoria Daily Times, 12 Nov. 1917, 17. See also “Labor Federation Candidates Speak,” Victoria Daily Times, 24 Nov. 1917, 13; “Federation Nominee Is Not to Withdraw,” Victoria Daily Times, 26 Nov. 1917, 11.

Annotate

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On the Formation of the Federated Labor Party. 1918
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