On Conscription and Wiping Out Ruling-Class Laws 1917

Very Good Meeting at Avenue Theatre

The Chairman’s Remarks

V. R. Midgley, who acted as chairman, explained the object for which the meeting had been called, and said the attitude of Labor towards the Borden government on the subject of conscription had not altered in the slightest, despite the fact that the bill was through the house.

It was labor’s last chance to protest, in this manner, and the meeting was being held in order that members of the working class might be better able to tell what action to take on election day.

The speakers of the evening were Miss Helena Gutteridge, President Kavanagh, of the Vancouver Trades and Labor council, and the veteran speaker, E. T. Kingsley, each of whom delivered speeches replete with truths, all of which found their mark, and impressed those who were in front.

Especially was this the case when Mr. Kingsley spoke, for he handed the proposition out to the audience in language which was terse and pointed, for he explained to the workers that they were responsible for the whole kettle of fish.

Mr. Kingsley’s Speech

“I do not intend to put up any pitiful plea of protest against conscription of man power,” he said, “for I will tell you straight to your faces that you have asked for it, and I hope you will get it. For years a few zealots have been telling you, and trying to show you [that] you are only slaves, and that if you wanted to get anywhere, you must combine against the masters in order to throw the shackles of slavery from your limbs. You’ve listened to them in the past, but you have got right up from your seats and have gone and exercised your little prerogative of voting for the class which is today still further riveting the fetters upon your limbs. Now, take your medicine, and for heaven’s sake, don’t squeal.

“Why worry about conscription,” asked he. “You are already conscripted in industry and cannot got away without starving to death. Why talk about the loss of the blessed right to strike? Why even God Almighty could not take that from a mule, because even that animal can balk, but do you get anywhere with your striking?”

Slavery and Its Result

“Slavery, which consists of serving masters for the master’s profit, exists just as truly today as it did in the old times of the chattel slaves, and every war from the earliest to the present, has arisen from quarrels between masters over the plunder accruing from the skinning of slaves,” said the speaker. “It is folly to say that the end of this war will see the end of all wars, unless there is to be an end of this slavery, for just so long as the master exists on the one hand, and the slave on the other, so long will war follow war. Talk of liberty,” said he. “The very act of enforcing service gives the lie to such babble, and renders those who are the subjects of the proposed measure slaves, who toil and sweat and die, but cannot touch a copper of the wealth of their own producing, save enough to keep them alive to work, and that only by permission of the masters.”

Speaking of the proposed conscription of wealth, Mr. Kingsley said it was the greatest joke ever perpetrated on the credulity of the masses, and proceeded to explain the meaning of the term wealth, which he said consisted of mere promises to pay, which alone constitutes the boasted money of the world. The total supply of the necessities of the world is practically produced and consumed each year, therefore there was no such thing as accumulated wealth to conscript. No accumulation is possible.

The Great Hoax

“The workers [sic] went to work to make bombs to blow the Germans to pieces, and he was paid in the form of pieces of paper on which were written these promises to pay, which he swapped with the fellow who had a store, for clothes to wear and food to eat as far as his promises would go, the pieces of paper forming an endless chain through the medium of the banks, and being absolutely valueless, except as a means of continuing the hoax. As all of this so-called money with which payment is alleged to be made returns to the same capitalist hands, the entire process including conscription of wealth is simply equivalent to taking nothing out of one pocket and putting the whole thing into the other pocket,” he said amid laughter.

Labor the Creator

“Labor alone produces the necessaries of life, and on the enslavement of that class is the whole world system of capital and finance based. There is no property on the earth and nothing owned, save the workers, for nothing else will pay a revenue to the owner, and it is only through the exploiting of the slaves of any age that the wealth of the world is produced. When you have conscripted the slave, you have conscripted all the wealth on the top of God’s footstool,” said he, “and you don’t better his position or condition by conscripting these promises to pay, which allow the master to sit snug at home, safe from bombs and high explosives, and eat, drink and enjoy himself, while the slave is torn to pieces, maimed and crippled.”

Continuing, the speaker said: “We demand justice and human rights, but let me tell you that the slave can never be a man. The only time a slave shows he has anything in him which might eventually develop into manliness, is when he starts to fight for his liberty and against the shackles of the master. That servile thing that is ever ready to bend the neck to the yoke, and do the behest of the master, can never be a man, and I wouldn’t dare to call it a dog, for fear the meanest cur in Vancouver would bite me for thus libelling the canine race.”

The Workers Do the Trick

Mr. Kingsley pointed out that the votes of the workers put the representatives in their places in the legislative halls, because the slaves outnumbered the masters by many to one. “Government,” said he, “do you realize the meaning of the word? It means some person or persons who govern or rule, who make laws, laws, laws, and enforce them for the specific purpose of enabling those who make them to pick the pockets of those they govern, for to govern is to rob. These laws they are now going to add to by making a law calling for compulsory service.”

“Believe me, my friends,” continued he, “if ever the workers got into those houses of parliament, their business will not be to make more laws, but to wipe out the whole infamous mess of ruling class law and wash its iniquities into the sewer of oblivion. The master’s law to govern the slave, that is government, and every time you working plugs go to the polls and vote for ruling class legislators to make more laws, you are simply perpetuating your own misery by empowering them to concoct more schemes for your subjugation.”

In conclusion the speaker pointed out the paradox of the slave’s existence, the latter receiving but enough to keep him strong enough to return to work each day, while the master battened and fattened on the goods produced by him.

“Until the workers become sufficiently class conscious to refuse to take up arms against the workers of another country, there will be no war upon war, but when that day does come, then will come the end of all war and the dawning of the real day of democracy.”