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Class Warrior: On Conscription and Wiping Out Ruling-Class Laws. 1917

Class Warrior
On Conscription and Wiping Out Ruling-Class Laws. 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 Conscription and Wiping Out Ruling-Class Laws 1917

Report of a speech by Kingsley at an anti-conscription meeting held in Vancouver’s Avenue Theatre on 26 July 1917, where Kingsley shared a platform with Helena Gutteridge, an official in the garment workers’ union, and Jack Kavanagh, a Socialist Party member and president of the Vancouver Trades and Labor Council.

Very Good Meeting at Avenue Theatre

Live Issues Discussed from the Standpoint of the Working Class. Good-Sized Audience Gives Close Attention to the Several Speakers

Outdoor weather of the finest, and somewhat short notice of the meeting, caused the attendance at the anti-conscription gathering in the Avenue Theatre, last evening, to fall somewhat below the average, but the enthusiasm of the audience and its orderliness, made up for the lack of numbers.

The meeting, which was held under the auspices of the Vancouver Trades and Labor council, was unique inasmuch as it was the last at which the voice of Labor could be raised against the bill, by reason of the fact that the measure had already passed its third reading.

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.”

—“Very Good Meeting Held in Avenue Theatre,” British Columbia Federationist, 27 July 1917, 1, 6.

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On the 1917 Conscription Election. 1917
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