On the Working Class Using Clubs If Necessary 1908

“If Necessary Let Them Use Clubs”: Socialist Candidate Prophesies a Revolution within Eight Years—Kingsley’s View of British Law

“You have to conquer the reins of public legislation, by which the capitalist classes enslave you. Then proceed to strike down the capitalist power and become free men.”

Mr. E. T. Kingsley, candidate of the Socialist Party of Canada for federal parliament, thrust his head forward, licked his finger, and beat his right fist into the palm of his left hand, and then proceeded. “My friend Mr. McInnes used to say that he believed in a white democracy of happy homes. I wonder if he meant the homes we carry round with us. We have no homes. We rent them from the capitalists. How can we have homes when we have to trudge round all the time asking for jobs? Jobs from the capitalists. But there will be an end to this. There is the other class—the working class. I know that class will not remain slaves very much longer. It is getting rebellious. Look all the world over. Socialism is being discussed everywhere. Watch the red special.” Here he was interrupted by applause.

And then Mr. Kingsley prophesied: “Within the next eight years there will be the greatest upheaval on this western continent the world has ever seen. And if necessary the working classes will go forward with clubs in their hands to emphasize their needs. I hope not. But if it be necessary, then let them use clubs. The community as a whole must get control of the tools of production.”

Talks like a Ball-Player

The city hall was well filled last night when Mr. Kingsley got up to speak. Mr. P. Garvey was in the chair and wasted very few words in opening the meeting. He mentioned that there would be a collection, and that if there were any representative of the other political parties present, he would be given a fair hearing. Then Mr. Kingsley advanced to the front of the platform. He is a typical American, whose fifteen years’ residence in Canada has not spoilt his accent.1 He speaks in short sentences, and drives them at his audience with sharp forward jerks of his head. But the most curious of his mannerisms is the way, when wishing to make a point, he licks his first finger, for all the world like a baseball pitcher preparing the famous spit ball. Tall, and inclined to be stout, with keen small eyes, that seem to be continually raking his audience for possible hecklers, he is a good speaker with a forceful manner.

The Capitalist Politician

The whole of the first part of his speech at the city hall last night was devoted to the regular Socialist propaganda, to the power of capital, and the way in which the tools of production were entirely at its mercy. He mentioned the rich resources of Canada and asked how it was that with such resources and so small a population unemployment could be rife throughout the land. He was very pessimistic as to the coming winter, and even the winter after, saying that unemployment would increase and factories would be shut down. “Ask the capitalist politicians why this is. Ask McInnes, Cowan, Martin. I would not abuse an opponent for anything. I am too mild a mannered man for that. But I am positive of one thing, and that is that if there is one man who stands head and shoulders above all others in the ignorance of economics, it is the capitalist politician.

“As the tools of production become more powerful, as they are centred more and more in the hands of capital, so much the greater will be the unemployment. Capital will force labor to take lower wages. They say there is an agitation here to force Asiatic labor out. I say that there need be no fear of the Asiatic. For the wages of the white man will be forced down by competition to such a low point that Asiatic labor will not be able to live.”

His only direct reference to politics was when he distinguished between the parties as “One gang in and the other out. The Liberal party has been very good to its friends. One man buys timber limits, our resources mind you, for $500, and I said hurr-ah that is a good bit of business. Another man got all kinds of water and fishing rights for $10, and again I said hurr-ah that’s better business still. But when I heard that another had got a lot of grazing lands for nothing, well that put my pipe out, and I said that that was my ticket as I could not afford the others.”

Broad Socialism

He outlined the whole programme of the Socialist party in one sentence: “It is that the community as a whole shall assume control of the tools of production,” and the mission of Socialism he described as a movement whereby “the last slave and the last master would be sent into oblivion, and for the first time in history the workingman would stand up as a free man no longer controlled by the ruling class.

“Mr. Taft was recently asked what is a working man to do when he is out of employment and has no money, and he replied ‘God knows,’ well I don’t pretend to be cleverer than Mr. Taft but I will answer that question by saying obey the law. The British law is a great thing. It is unlawful to go into a restaurant and eat if you cannot pay for what you eat. Well then don’t eat. It is unlawful to go into a hotel and sleep if you can’t pay for your bed. You may not sleep on the street or in a box car. Very well, don’t sleep. It is unlawful to be a vagrant, then don’t be a vagrant,” and amid much laughter Mr. Kingsley sat down. As the collection began to be taken, so the hall began to become empty, and only one question was asked of the speaker, and that dealt with the race trouble. Mr. Kingsley adroitly turned it into a class trouble and again dwelt on the alleged tyrannical power of capital as a class.