'Do you remember, not so long ago, when our regular army was only fifty thousand? Year by year it has been increased until to-day it is three hundred thousand.'
Again he struck.
'Nor is that all. While you diligently pursued that favorite phantom of yours, called profits, and moralized about that favorite fetich of yours, called competition, even greater and more direful things have been accomplished by combination. There is the militia.'
'It is our strength!' cried Mr. Kowalt. 'With it we would repel the invasion of the regular army.'
'You would go into the militia yourself,' was Ernest's retort, 'and be sent to Maine, or Florida, or the Philippines, or anywhere else, to drown in blood your own comrades civil-warring for their liberties. While from Kansas, or Wisconsin, or any other state, your own comrades would go into the militia and come here to California to drown in blood your own civil-warring.'
Now they were really shocked, and they sat wordless, until Mr. Owen murmured:
'We would not go into the militia. That would settle it. We would not be so foolish.'
Ernest laughed outright.
'You do not understand the combination that has been effected. You could not help yourself. You would be drafted into the militia.'
'There is such a thing as civil law,' Mr. Owen insisted.
'Not when the government suspends civil law. In that day when you speak of rising in your strength, your strength would be turned against yourself. Into the militia you would go, willy-nilly. Habeas corpus, I heard some one mutter just now. Instead of habeas corpus you would get post mortems. If you refused to go into the militia, or to obey after you were in, you would be tried by drumhead court martial and shot down like dogs. It is the law.'
'It is not the law!' Mr. Calvin asserted positively. 'There is no such law. Young man, you have dreamed all this. Why, you spoke of sending the militia to the Philippines. That is unconstitutional. The Constitution especially states that the militia cannot be sent out of the country.'
'What's the Constitution got to do with it?' Ernest demanded. 'The courts interpret the Constitution, and the courts, as Mr. Asmunsen agreed, are the creatures of the trusts. Besides, it is as I have said, the law. It has been the law for years, for nine years, gentlemen.'
'That we can be drafted into the militia?' Mr. Calvin asked incredulously. 'That they can shoot us by drumhead court martial if we refuse?'
'Yes,' Ernest answered, 'precisely that.'
'How is it that we have never heard of this law?' my father asked, and I could see that it was likewise new to him.
'For two reasons,' Ernest said. 'First, there has been no need to enforce it. If there had, you'd have heard of it soon enough. And secondly, the law was rushed through Congress and the Senate secretly, with practically no discussion. Of course, the newspapers made no mention of it. But we socialists knew about it. We published it in our papers. But you never read our papers.'
'I still insist you are dreaming,' Mr. Calvin said stubbornly. 'The country would never have permitted it.'
'But the country did permit it,' Ernest replied. 'And as for my dreaming-' he put his hand in his pocket and drew out a small pamphlet-'tell me if this looks like dream-stuff.'
He opened it and began to read:
''Section One, be it enacted, and so forth and so forth, that the militia shall consist of every able-bodied male citizen of the respective states, territories, and District of Columbia, who is more than eighteen and less than forty- five years of age.'
''Section Seven, that any officer or enlisted man'-remember Section One, gentlemen, you are all enlisted men-'that any enlisted man of the militia who shall refuse or neglect to present himself to such mustering officer upon being called forth as herein prescribed, shall be subject to trial by court martial, and shall be punished as such court martial shall direct.'
''Section Eight, that courts martial, for the trial of officers or men of the militia, shall be composed of militia officers only.'
''Section Nine, that the militia, when called into the actual service of the United States, shall be subject to the same rules and articles of war as the regular troops of the United States.'
'There you are gentlemen, American citizens, and fellow-militiamen. Nine years ago we socialists thought that law was aimed against labor. But it would seem that it was aimed against you, too. Congressman Wiley, in the brief discussion that was permitted, said that the bill 'provided for a reserve force to take the mob by the throat'- you're the mob, gentlemen-'and protect at all hazards life, liberty, and property.' And in the time to come, when you rise in your strength, remember that you will be rising against the property of the trusts, and the liberty of the trusts, according to the law, to squeeze you. Your teeth are pulled, gentlemen. Your claws are trimmed. In the day you rise in your strength, toothless and clawless, you will be as harmless as any army of clams.'
'I don't believe it!' Kowalt cried. 'There is no such law. It is a canard got up by you socialists.'
'This bill was introduced in the House of Representatives on July 30, 1902,' was the reply. 'It was introduced by Representative Dick of Ohio. It was rushed through. It was passed unanimously by the Senate on January 14, 1903. And just seven days afterward was approved by the President of the United States.' [54]
CHAPTER IX
In the midst of the consternation his revelation had produced, Ernest began again to speak.
'You have said, a dozen of you to-night, that socialism is impossible. You have asserted the impossible, now let me demonstrate the inevitable. Not only is it inevitable that you small capitalists shall pass away, but it is inevitable that the large capitalists, and the trusts also, shall pass away. Remember, the tide of evolution never flows backward. It flows on and on, and it flows from competition to combination, and from little combination to large combination, and from large combination to colossal combination, and it flows on to socialism, which is the most colossal combination of all.
'You tell me that I dream. Very good. I'll give you the mathematics of my dream; and here, in advance, I challenge you to show that my mathematics are wrong. I shall develop the inevitability of the breakdown of the capitalist system, and I shall demonstrate mathematically why it must break down. Here goes, and bear with me if at first I seem irrelevant.
'Let us, first of all, investigate a particular industrial process, and whenever I state something with which you disagree, please interrupt me. Here is a shoe factory. This factory takes leather and makes it into shoes. Here is one hundred dollars' worth of leather. It goes through the factory and comes out in the form of shoes, worth, let us say, two hundred dollars. What has happened? One hundred dollars has been added to the value of the leather. How was it added? Let us see.
'Capital and labor added this value of one hundred dollars. Capital furnished the factory, the machines, and paid all the expenses. Labor furnished labor. By the joint effort of capital and labor one hundred dollars of value was added. Are you all agreed so far?'
Heads nodded around the table in affirmation.
'Labor and capital having produced this one hundred dollars, now proceed to divide it. The statistics of this division are fractional; so let us, for the sake of convenience, make them roughly approximate. Capital takes fifty dollars as its share, and labor gets in wages fifty dollars as its share. We will not enter into the squabbling over the division. No matter how much squabbling takes place, in one percentage or another the division is arranged. [55] And take notice here, that what is true of this particular industrial process is true of all industrial processes. Am I right?'
Again the whole table agreed with Ernest.
