MR. BOK AND PEACE
DAVIDSON, PAUL
MR. BOK AND PEACE By Paul Davidson ilHi fci r o t lit u o«r been made.' The world is richer by one more •crap of paper. Some one, still anno) mous, will be richer by $50.- ! 000. Europe has...
...I only hope that The New Leader will prove to be as good as The Call...
...Nothing short of an association of nations who put peace above profits •will ever make an earnest effort to realize peace...
...Of the progress made by the Socialist movement in Spain the author writes: "In brief, it may be affirmed that there has been progress of an economic nature...
...Some 22,000 plans were submitted...
...They wanted toiturn the minds jot men toward peace, they said, i t is .curious commentary on t h e comm i t t e e ' s imaginiation that it could think this plan would t u r n the trick...
...Last July the "North West States Organization District" of the Socialist Party was established, comprising the states of Montana, Oregon and Washington...
...The Socialist opposes Capitalism just because it is an invasion of personal liberty — reducing t he masses to a dead level of wage'-serfdom, dependent upon the world of the owners of rtic tools of production for even the poor privilege of earning one's daily bread...
...The "Nation" koints out that we are already cooperating in many of the humane unler...
...BOK AND PEACE By Paul Davidson ilHi fci r o t lit u o«r been made.' The world is richer by one more •crap of paper...
...Assuming, for the sake of'argument, that within the limits of capitalism, World Peace is a possibility, :h* intellectual bankruptcy of the luthor of the Bok Peace Plan, nnd >f the committee that made the (waul, is astonishing...
...Then why yaa the plan advanced...
...Root was sick in bed, and Mr...
...And the nations that compose the League of Nations to day cannot put peace above profit...
...Everything that the plan sontains has been put before the Amtrican people...
...If yon are Unable to g e t started before a month let me hear from you and will send more...
...The ballots are being circulated industriously...
...Miami Valley Socialist...
...But the struggle of rebuilding is a difficult one...
...I now send in an investment in Tho New Leader feeling fully assured by the personnel of the committee in chsrge of its affairs that it will give a good account of itself...
...These dates will be filled by Comrade Harry M. McKee of California beginning on J a n u a r y 27, 1924, commencing in Southern Oregon, from where he will travel north through Oregon and Washington, then east I through the western part of Mon- | tana, and then south and west to eastern Oregon...
...He has been heard from several times since, each time with additional subscriptions...
...During the war the Socialist Party was so completely smashed in the states of Washington and Oregon that noi a single local was left...
...SPAIN The November number of "Current History" carried an article by Primitivo K. Sanjurpo of Middlebury College on "Socialism in Spain...
...J. A. Cummlny, bai i t , V I » Find enclosed check far ray subscription and sorry that I can't do mors) Just now...
...When tha...
...We are grateful to the many comrades who are extending this encouragement We know that The New Leader, thanks to their i devoted aid, has an assured future of service to the Socialist movement in this country...
...George C. Woilman, Phiia., Pa...
...But Mr...
...We are not able to doubt this outcome...
...It is sufficient to say that these letters are still pouring in as this issue of The New Leader goes to press...
...Then came the Debs' lectures which brought full houses everywhere and overflow crowds in Everett, Tacoma and Portland...
...The League if Nations has been overwhelmingly (efeated at the polls...
...Count on ma to do ail I can to kelp make your weekly a t r e a t success...
...Now the Farmer-Labor Party of Washington has sealed its doom by having endorsed the Workers' (Communist) Party by officially going on record to co-operate with- the "Federated Farmer-Labor Party" in national politics...
...Among the 22,000 plans submitted, t h e r e must have been some quite visionary and some with the breath of hope in them...
...But the motives of those, who barked the ' Bok plan, and those who lent their name to the Jury that made the award are as devious and as eomplicated as the mind of Ah Sin...
...There is in tho jdan no suggestion for a "league of free peoples" instead of a league of capitalist governments such as now exists at Gen...
...our impulses and desires are repressed by a galling nnd artificial code...
...What the future holds in store for j the Socialist Party of the Northi west depends e n t i r e l y on what financial assistance we receive from the National Office anil those others who I may be interested in having the p a r - | ty gain s t r e n g t h in this part of the I country...
...Find money for two subs, am keeping the sub blanks for more subscribers to be sent soon...
...Julia Kldred, Ellenaburg, Wash...
...J. F. 8heehy, Newport, Ky...
...Of all the Utopias that have upeared to the minds of men, the jopr of World peace is the most ap«*, and the hardest to realize, lid the author of the plan, why ne committee that made the • I. not rei.ize that a shining inlan plan with no hope of imediate chance of realization, would eve furthered their avowed ends t a r inure m a n tin* nioih-eaum and dust-laden hoax that they h a v e given us...
...The plan loes not advance us a single step oward any solution of the present leadlock...
...1 am very happy to find The Call coming to life again even under the form of a weekly...
...Owing t o the large amount of advertising received for this issue, we are running ten pages instead of the 1 promised eight...
...All power to The New Leader and best wishes...
...whether or not enough others will assist to reach the desired goal remains to be seen...
...Here is my yearly subscription to I The New Leader...
...These lectures did much to batter down the wall of prejudice which had been built up by the lying press of capitalism and the still more despicable press of the Workers' Phrty, all of which lies had circulated practically unchallenged prior t o the establishment of the district organization...
...W. S. Wheeler, Johnson City, Tenn...
...Whttloek was in Eu-j rope...
...It is impossible to report the names of all those who have sent greetings, subscriptions or contributions...
...Europe has one more laugh on America—and wars, rumors of war, and competitive armaments will I go on as before...
...At that time there were three locals in Montana, one, of twelve members—and inactive—in Seattle, Washington, and no members of the party in Oregon...
...After the passing through of Debs, organization meetings were held at every place where he had spoken and locals organized at all of them except Butte, Montana...
...This was done by Government persecution, the government then as now' consisting of Republican-Democratic lawyer politicians under the domination of Wall Street, and by treachery from within our own ranks...
...And who shall say that he has i'ailedT Certainly historians will have to notice, his grandiose effort to coax the world into peace...
...Bok will have his name in the history books...
...When in need Vail on me...
...III...
...This will be the I tryout in the campaign of 1924 ami j j if successful will be followed up with j | active organization work which will i result in placing full Socialist P a r ty tickets in the field in Oregon and Washington for the first time since 1918...
...The salaries of the worsmen have increased fivefold...
...I had great hopes for The Call and made frequent small contributions to help it pull through and now that it has pulled out, I still hope I that it has done enough good to reimburse all the unselfish contributors...
...I have been a steady supporter of The Call and will do all I can to get | the former readers here to subIscribe j t i the weekly...
...As a result a route of 51) lecture dotes has been laid out...
...All this is commonplace...
...Accept my donation also one year subscription to The New Leader I with my best wishes for its success and my heartiest endorsement of its editor...
...And, in the same way, their [ teachers niny teach only that half I of the truth which finds no place in ' bourgeois teachings...
...I send all I have, if only a trifle, but I am nearly eighty and unable to hunt much for subs, but you will hear from me often...
...Nora McNally, Lorain, Ohio...
...However, the workers have built Socialist clubs where they play cards and engage in political controversy...
...L W. Robertson, Mercer, Pa...
...That is evident on the , face of the plan...
...Find money for 14 sube one year each and more to come...
...With a feW dozen such hustlers the success of The New Leader will be more than assured...
...John Latimer, Utica, N. Y. I am pleased t o hear of The New Leader and herewith find my contribution...
...W. Doyle, Downsvillc, N. Y. Find check for four subs and am I very much gratified to have a new I Socialist paper once more and will do all in my power to help the good 'cause along...
...I A. O. Grigsley, Tolesboro, Ky...
...But last year a good Republican Senator,, Miles Poindexter, who was first elected in 1912 as a Progressive, met defeat St the polls by a Democrat while the vote that usually went to the Socialist Party was cast for the Farmer-Labor Partyi-the Socialist Party not having sufficient organization to place even one candidate in the field, to say nothing of an entire ticket...
...One of tho very first to be heard from, even before we had a chance to print our subscription blanks, was Comrade Frank J. Lavanier of Covington, Ky., with over twenty subscriptions...
...The Socialist movement has faced the usual obstacles in the Latin countries presented by clerical reaction and lack of any great proletariat...
...I appreciate your efforts as I have been in tins great movement some 33 ; years, spending hundreds of dollars, regretting nothing, only wish I had I done more...
...Onr recollection is that this attempt to "create" .1 revolution was really a great striae against the intolerable exploitation which Prof^ss;;r Sanjurjo admits still prevails in Spain...
...It is one of the minor miracles of history...
...We have selected a few samples from the bulk, which indicate the extensive territory from which these letter* come...
...that he advocates drastic inva*ion>t>f personal liberty in business enterprise, by government, but fights for personal liberty in such matters as free speech, assembly, press, and rights of conscience...
...His conquest of the inviolable eight hours of work has brought him .misfortunes...
...While this is a farming community, will do my best to get more sobs for you...
...Our friends will also "be glad to know that our success in another field is just as gratifying...
...But Mr...
...Winfleld Scott...
...K. M, Rich, Huntington, Mass Find M. 0. for a subscription and donation Our family has missed The Call very much and we are glad of the coming weekly, as we can't get Socialist news in the capitalist papers...
...Some spectacular 'stunt that' would create, not a nine days' won-1 der, but that might hope to attract the attention of historians, would give him the tawdry and spurious immortality that be hoped to have...
...In addition there followed an organization tour of thirty-four days, through Montana, by the district secretary, so that we now have seven locals in Montana, three in Washington and one in Oregon...
...Nothing to boast of, certainly—nevertheless an improvement over five months ago...
...Between us and the boneheaded bigot who would explode a ,bomb and burn a fiery cross on the premises of the University of Dayton t h e r e is an impassable gulf fixed...
...We are hampered by lack of funds, and willing, workers are still very scarce, so that much sacrifice on the part of a few will be necessary to lay the foundation on which the Socialist Party will grow to the power and achievement which the logic of events dictate...
...D. Kelson Smith, Santa Anna, Cal...
...The Harvard Alumni Association sent a request to its members to vote for the plan as early as January 4, while the award was not made public until January 7. How anyone, or any responsible committee could have read 22,000 plans, compare them critically, and come to a decision within 33 days, remains unexplained...
...In comparison with the other socialists of Europe, they never can, for example, create a revolution . as in Germany...
...If they do this, I do not say that they, will be as bad as the bourgeois, but they will be lighting the bourgeois with the weapons of the bourgeois, and with vastly inferior resources...
...Wagman, Detroit, Mich...
...I am 75 years old and my grandfather was on Lincoln's bond for Postmaster at New Salem, III...
...Servile Imitation...
...D. H. I Cole, in , "Lnbor in the Commonj wealth...
...Following are a f ew of the many letters that have' I reached us: | Oscar Qates, Phillipsburg, N. J. F i n d | | S for a year's subscription...
...takingfl of the League...
...that is to j say, if they play a t t h a t game the bourgeois will beat thein.—G...
...I enclose eash for three subscriptions and I am sure that there 'will be many more, soon as I can spread the good news here...
...And when the shouting dies away, we will go on making munitions of war, spending huge .-urns on armaments, coercing small nations, and bleating about pear,', while the world rushes headlong into the next war...
...The movement developed out of academic and intellectual circles into the hands of organized workmen of the cities, led by the veteran Socialist, Pablo Iglesias...
...Those who a r e opposed will not be able effectively to mobilize their adherents because they are disorganized...
...I hope that your paper will be-a "hummer," and I wish you the greatest kind of success...
...It would be sad indeed to be without a paper...
...2) That the United States cooperate with the League of Nations under conditions that would substitute moral force for the economic and military force provided in Articles X and XVI of the League of Nations Covenant, that would safeguard the Monroe Doctrine, that would not involve acceptance of the Treaty of Versailles, and that would open membership in the League of Nations to all nations...
...In the meantime best wishes for your success...
...Am sending y o u money for three subs, also names of sympathizers wh# might subscribe...
...This again leaves the field open to the Socialist Party as the only party which presents a program that truly represents the immediate interests of the working-class (whether in industry or on the farm) and holds out the promise of revolutionary change in phe ownership of industry by which alone the workers can achieve their emancipation...
...One attempt was made in August, 1917, and failed...
...Bok's motives are as limpid and clear as quartz crystal...
...This is a farming community whose background is old bourbon Republicanism and while it is hard to get subs will always keep you in mind and do all I can...
...to live a sordid, squalid, povertystricken life: to live a solfiih, mean, ambitious life Is not worth doing.— Kelr Hardie...
...day comes, plans for peace will be made without taking them or their plans into account...
...Chicago City, Mich...
...our minds nre dwarfed and stunted by the checks and limitations to which we a r e perpetually subjected.—Henry Thomas Buckle in . . h i s . essay on Mill's " L i b e r t y ." SOCIALIST PARTY PROSPECTS By EMIL HERMAN, Seattle Out here, where the West ends so far as the jurisdiction of the United States (with the exception, of course, of our colony, the Philippine Islands) is concerned, confusion still reigns supreme in the minds of masses of the people—that is, speaking politically...
...R. B. Toupet...
...So long as other people do not agree with us that their children would be better educated without ecclesiastical auspices, any attempt by us, either by private violence or legislative invasion, to prevent them from sending their children to snch schools, is tyranny...
...The plan contains not a word of recognition of the failure of the League of Nations to discipline its own members...
...It has been said a thousand times, and will be said again and again, until one fine day the self-appointed geniuses who propose highfalutin plans for World Peace on the outworn prem ises of the capitalist system will wake up to find that their system itself has gone to pot...
...The an'sid is League of Nations propaganda...
...The workmen on the streets of the cities fought with the army...
...Bullheaded Bigotry RECENT local incidents a r c as foreboding as that tumult amid which "Kubla heard from far ancestral voices prophesying w a r . " To cite just one, a number of bombs have been exploded on the premises of the University of Dayton, and fiery crosses burned...
...There is grave danger that, in j building up a "working class culI t u r c , 1 ' the workers will merely rc| peat the errors of the bourgeoisie, i f i n d i n g h a l f - t r u t h s in the bourgeois historians snd economists, they may all too easily put into their own works only that other half of the t r u t h which these w r i t e r s have left out...
...The plan, a s outlined on the ballot submitted to the public, contains the following proposals: (1) That the United States enter the World Court...
...Did the Vmerican mania for something practicable," something thnt will fork "now," so completely hold the uthor and the committee in its grip hat they were compelled to go into he dusty past for their plans...
...I am sick over the loss of my beloved Call and rejoice over the prospects of its revival under the new weekly...
...1 can only send you my own subscription now, but will be glsd to contribute more if it is necessary, to the beat of my ability...
...For the author of the Bole plan the war was fought ill vain, and the events after the war had no meaning, He does not see that the continued sword clashing, the continued search for a "place in the sun" the continued aggression of Japan on China, of England on Persia, of Spain on Morocco, of Italy on the Mediterranean basin, will go on as long as the premises of the commercial world remain what they are: Within the limits of Capitalist society there can be no peace, but only truce of greater or less duration, and of greater or less inviolability...
...The World Court has ivoked no enthusiasm...
...The criticism is unjust...
...We have not yet forgotten the invasion of the Ruhr by the French, or the insolence of Mussolini toward Greece in the Corfu incident...
...The very principle of liberty for which we contend is violated by such an outrage...
...I was certainly glad to get the i news of the coming out of The New Leader as we have all missed The 'Call...
...The result will be an overwhelming endorsement of the1 hope of peace, which will however, be interpreted by the Bok group as an endorsement of the World Court, and by indirection, the League of Nations...
...Those who want the plan to be adopted will work indefatigably to gather votes for it...
...In tpite of this, th» poverty of the worliingman is very great because he suffers exploitation...
...I Bok's news sense told him that at lra.-i a text-book immortality might be his...
...eva...
...Working Class Culture...
...E. K. Sheldon, Greenfield, Mas...
...An unfortunate phase of its development was the attraction of a number of adventurers, one of whom proved to be a grafter who, for a time, appears to have negotiated with the capitalist classes on terms satisfactory to himself...
...The plan will be adopted by the popular vote...
...How anyone could take the Ruk I plan seriously is for the future path-j ological psychologist to determine...
...A few of us are pledged to give our all...
...A brilliant young acquaintance of ours, a corporation lawyer, remarked to U B recently that the Socialist is inconsistent...
...t o live an empty, meaningless life...
...I Originality is dying away, und is being replaced by a spirit of servile and apeish imitation., We a r e deg e n e r a t i n g into machines who do the will of society...
...He claims that the increased leisure' has increased drunkenness...
...He is for Socialism and the collective ownership of those tools of production j u s t because that will give personal liberty to all men: the freedom to pursue the objects of legitimate desire in all fields of activity when ' s u c h pursuit will not mean the subjection and enslavement of others...
...Sorry that I am too old I now, only 83 years old, yet I will I do my little mite while I live...
...I, FROM OUR DEVOTED NEW LEADER ARMY From California to Vermont and from Minnesota to Tennessee have cojne hundreds of letters enclosing subscriptions and extending greetings to The New Leader...
...Surely this dusty r a g of thought is not the summit of American power to visualize a world at peace...
...Washington is normally a Repub lican state, with a strong Socialist Party opposition—so it was for several years and up before the war...
...That there is a healthy sentiment i for the Socialist P a r t y is evidenced by the fact that in response to two hundred l e t t e r s mailed out, fifty applications for u speaker were received...
...At that time all Spain was the battlefield of a Socialist war...
...To live without an object, an aim...
...These are only .some of the factors that make the' award sus-1 picious...
...Glad to help you aud only wish I could do H o n . I mm poor, 85 year* old and nearly blind, but will do ail I can to get subscribers...
...It was an episode disastror i for the Socialist'Party and for the nation...
...No hint is given that the author recognizes that armaments' are in themselves fruitful causes of war, and that all plans for world peace must begin with concerted disarmament...
...The selection of the winning plan was made thirtysix days after the close of the com petition...
...Money could buy many things, but it could not buy immortality—at least not immediately and directly...
Vol. 1 • January 1924 • No. 1
