The Oklahoma Leader (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Vol. 5, No. 43, Ed. 1 Saturday, April 19, 1919 Page: 4 of 4
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EDITORIAL
PAGE
The Oklahoma Leader
EDITORIAL
RAGE
No. 43— Vol 5.
OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA SATURDAY. APRIL 19. 1919.
Weekly.
THE OKLAHOMA LEADER
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THE SEW HOLY ALLIANCE
In an article published elsewhere, Frank Putnam rr.akea
fomc pungent comment* on the proposed league of nations. He
takes it up from the standpoint of destructive criticism and,
in it* present form, it certainly needs to be destroyed.
But let us put in a word of constructive criticism.
The Socialists are not opposed to world organization. On
the contrary, they were the pioneers in working for world
organization.
For example, August Bebel said, "When civilized nations
ere united in a great federation, the time will have come in
which 'the storms of war are hushed.' The eternal peace is no
dream, as the uniformed lords of the earth believe and pervade
others. The time will then have come in which the nations
recognize their real interests, which can not be attained by war
end strife, by armaments that ruin whole countries, but by the
very opposite of these things. Thus the last weapons will find
their way into the collection of antiquities, to tell future
Iterations how earlier peoples rent each other like wild animals
for many thousands of years, until at length man triumphed
over the beast within him."
But, while we earnestly desire world organization, it takes
nomething more than any old kind of world organization to
suit us.
We do not want a new Holy Alliance—a new conspiracy of
Imperialists, masked in the guise of a league of nations—to
dominate the world for the commercial and financial advantage
of one country or of a clique of countries.
And that is exactly what the proposed league is—a new
Holy Alliance.
The imperialists of the United States are divided on the
question. Some of them are heartily in favor of joining in with
Kngland in order to control the world. Others see that England
is given the advantage over America in the proposed draft, and
they balk at any surrender of national sovereignty.
It seems grotesque that we Socialists should find our-elves
on the same side of any question as these latter imperialists.
They and we are against the proposed league—but for
wholly different reasons.
Certainly we Socialists do not want our country to be again
made a vassal of England.
But, if a genuine world organization were proposed, we
would not balk in the least at the surrender of such measure of
rational sovereignty as might be neces-ary in order to co-ordinate
the affairs of the world.
The great trouble is that the proposed league is being
prepared by a bunch of capitalist imperialist diplomats for the
use of capitalist imperialist countries. They can not think in
any other terms than those of private capitalistic conquest of
markets, investments, spheres of influence, etc. Commercial
domination is the very air they breathe. They could not—unless
a miracle happened—unless they were "(fanned" like the capi-
talists in H. G. Wells' novel, "In the Days of the Comet'
formulate a league that would suit the Socialists—because their
fundamental principles and our fundamental principles are
'opposite and antagonistic. We might indeed acquiesce in a fairly
tolerable capitalistic league, for the time being, but we would
change it to suit our purposes as soon as we got the power. The
proposed league would have to be changed a lot before it would
bccome even a fairly tolerable capitalistic league.
What we want is a world federation of socialized nationK for
purposes of co-operation and co-ordination.
The work of a Socialist federation of the world will be posi-
tive and constructive—co-operating together for the promotion
of all good objects.
The purpose of even a fairly tolerable capitalistic league
would be to provide rules for the capitalistic international prize
fight for the markets of the world and to try to make the fighters
live up to the rules.
But the proposed league does not even have that low purpose
•—Its purpose is still lower. Its purpose is to tic the hands of
most of the fighters behind their backs while a few big bullies
pummel them.
PEACE HASEI) OS THE GOLDEN Rl LE
The situation in Europe h.* be-lernnient he reprints still secure
• ^ —not one.
come so portentous that no Amen-( ^ her<; w(. hgye th# porterous
can newspaper can afford, either in a[|() terrjb|e situation which The
| honor or in duty, to minimize the Herald and Examiner forecast and
1 truth or to take part in the utterly predicted, time after time, all
foolish and criminally dangerous j through the first year of this sui-
bluster and [ cldal 5,ruKK|e' ln case the govern-
propaganda of brag,
deception which is being employed
to quiet apprehension.
You people ought to know the
troth, and this paper will tell you
that truth as we see it.
Five months ago defeated Ger-
ments made no peace and waged
the bitter conflict to lengths that
were beyond the endurance of
their desperate and suffering peo-
ples.
Will not victory be as ruinous
as defeat if in the end the red flag
waves above the common wreck of
many would have signed any terms, njojt European governments and
of peace, accompanied with food the destruction of all established
and the resumption of imploy
ment.
Today Germany may not sign
institutions and concepts of soci-
ety in three-quarters of Europe?
We again say. with confidence,
that there is but one course of ac-
any terms of peace if they do not; tjon whereby the inrolling tide of
suit Germany. I revolution and anarchy can be
Within a few days Germany has I stayed—and that course is to stop
twice refused to accept the plans | short the waste of time at Paris,
and orders of the allied govern-j t0 en(j the squabbles over acade-
ments. and in each instance the al- mjc propositions and constitutions,
lied governments have had to back
down and Germany has had her
way.
In the first instance the allies
demanded the surrender of the
German merchant ships without
conditions, and the German gov-
ernment answered that it would
not turn over a merchant ship un-
til food to last until the next har-
vest had been guaranteed and the
supply actually begun.
The Germans won their point.
ln the second instance the allies
ordered the debarkation of Polish
reinforcements at Danzig.
The German government flatly
refused to permit the Polish bri-
gades to land at Danzig, but of-
fered the use of other routes. Foch
was sent to Spa to meet a German
commission. The Germans stood
firm and Foch accepted what the
German government first offered
permission to send the Polish re-
inforcements through German ter
ritory by other routes, but not
through Danzig. Read Foch's an
IS VEST! GATE IT
Jim Crow Cars
pitious for a good corn and feed
crop.
BY JOHN M. WORK. lives really worth living. They are Thanking you for the interest
All of the social evils by which .compelled to starve themselves y0U have always manifested in
are sur ounded-widespre.d mentally, morally and spiritually in these matters, , am,
are surrounded wmespreau Qrder {o ^ frQm survmg phys.
poverty in the midst of plenty, the j jca||y_ | j A. WH1TEHURST,
high cost of living, overwork, the gu( f-t js jUJt as easy t0 put your. President.
menace of unemployment, the fear fjnger on the remedy for this con-
of want, the degradation of char- dition as it is to put your finger
ity, the curse of crime, drunken-!011 the cause. j Delegates from negro civic, re-1 months ago?
ness, insanity, suicide and prosti- ^The cause is private ownership ijgj0Us, fraternal and social or- j
tution, the threat of war. the reign
of graft and corruption—these
and all the other social evils have (ju#trje#-' :8nd formed an association to se- United States have wasted crucial
one basic cause. Let the industries and buildings cure enforcement of the 14th and months in splitting hairs over a
t cause is the private own- n[) t g* -J --
ership
to put aside the now impossible
schemes of spoliation and to issue
to all Europe a general invitation,
to belligerents and neutrals alike,
to meet in a universal congress to
negotiate a universal peace that
shall be just enough and construc-
tice enough to recommend itself
to the common sense and the fa-
vorable judgment of mankind.
The world can yet be saved by
good sense, though it may be as a
man escapeth with the skin of his
teeth.
But the world is LOST, as sure
as suns rise and tides flow, if this
conference at Paris pursues the
paths of discredited diplomacy; if
it continues to dream that the red
flag can be waved away with idle
proclamations and still more idle
creations of parchment alliances
and parchment super-states; if it
continues to shut itself in secret
conclave to parcel out the lands
and the peoples of the earth; if it
continues to be blind and deaf to
the cries of agonized millions and
nouncement, printed Sunday, and; to the tempest of revolt and de
see how skillfully he conceals hisi struction that is thundering down
concession. ! from the vast white north and
Again Germany won. beating upon every frontier in Eu
Now. how does it come that Ger-1
many dictates to the allies instead
of the allies to Germany?
The answer is in one word—
FEAR.
What is this fear which has re-
versed the attitudes of five short
rope.
And we say, anxious and with all^
possible earnestness, that unless
we Americans insist upon better
and more effective policies and
plans than those now being incu-
of the industries
The remedy is the
Ownership and control of the in- Zion A. M. E. church in New York France, England,
That cause is the private own- nQW used for the purpose 0f ex- i 15th amendments to the constitu-! league of nations and in selfish
ship of the industries. ploiting the people be collectively tion, the abolition of the "Jim squabbles over the partition of
Under the present capitalist sys- owned and controlled. Owned by Crow" system, granting the right conquered nations, the Bolshevist
tem of industry, nearly all of the;fhe pubiic Owned by the people of franchise for the negro in
manufacturing, transporting and jn sovereign capacity.
mercantile industries arc owned by Then {he peop|e wiu get the
private corporations benefit. The wage workers will re-
ce-ve earnings. The
are the rented
stores and office
WHY NOT CANCEL DEBTS?
If the peace conference has found itself in a blind alley
where it must use heroic measures to get through, why not try
the experiment of crying quits? Why not annul all demands for
indemnities and reparations, cancel all the war debts in Eu-
ropean countries, and begin with a clean slate?
Of course such a suggestion would not have been listened to
u few months ago, but if the peace makers are up against a des-
perate situation they might be ready to use unusual measures.
It is possible that a person who had delved deep Into the
underlying causes of the war, going away back before 1914, and
fiisregarding the precipitating causes, would say, "It is nonsense
to blame this thing on any nation. It is not only nonsense, it is
poppycock—for the fundamental causes lie deep in the system
which was upheld by all the nations and the continuance of
which made war inevitable sooner or later."
The main reason for haggling over indemnities is because of
the fierce national debts to be paid in Europe. By canceling
those debt -, that difficulty would be eliminated. It might re-
quire a referendum vote, but the obligations arc tolerably well
distributed among the people and, if they were to be relieved of
paying a big debt in the future, the chance are that they would
jump at the chance to call the whole thing off.
Anyhow, Messrs. Diplomats, here is the suggestion. Take it
or leave it.
dividuals. So
houses, flats,
buildings.
The private owners use all of
these industries and properties for
the purpose of enriching them-
selves. The wage workers are de-
pendent upon them for a chance
to earn a living Therefore, they
have the power to pay the wage
workers only a fraction of the val-
of their labor, and they un-
hesitatingly do so. They also have
the power to put the prices of their
goods and the rental of their build-
ings out of sight, and they un-
hesitatingly do that also.
For this reason, the incomes of
the masses of the people are so
small, and the prices and rents so
high, that the people live a mere
hand to mouth existence. They
work unremittingly for a bare liv-
ing They arc barred out of most
of the higher things of life, be-
cause they have neither the time
nor the money to take advantage
of them. They are deprived of
the opportunity to develop their
higher faculties and make their
prices will be f>ut down to the ac-
tual cost of production. Thus the
parasites will be thrown off and
th useful people will get the bene-
fit
Not only is this the remedy, but
it is the only remedy. You can
think the problem up one side and
down the other, but you will not be Have ever been to ( razy Uind'
states, equal educational opportun-
ities and to fight race prejudice
and discrimination. Delegates
were urged to see that black wom-
en secured equal rights with others
in the event of the granting of
women's suffrage, and that proper
representation be given in the re-
organization of the army.—Ex-
change.
On the Looney Pike
down on the Ix>oney Pike?
There are the queerest people there—
you never saw the like!
The onen that do the u«eful work are
poor at* poor can be,
And those who do no useful work all
live inluxury.
They raise so much In Crazy Land,
of food and clothes and such,
That those who work don't have
enough, because they raise too
much.
able to arrive at any other remedy,
because this one—collective own-
ership and control—Socialism—is
the only remedy there is. Regula-
tion and all sorts of other hum-
bugs have been tried and have
failed. You ought now to be ready
to try the real thing.
We invite you to make the most
searching investigation of Social- The children slave In Crazy Land to
ism You will find it exactly as, 0f X'^^ha'k^who only live «o
represented. And you will then loa( around and feed.
join forces with US to bring it j They work younir girls In Crazy Ijuid
about ! upon starvation pay,
. j And then they brand them when.
To you and yours this is entirely j through want, the victims go as-
too important a matter to brush! tray
aside. It means all the difference j They outrage worklmr women and
between success and failure in life. An^C™.«r:^brf.d
Investigate it.
campaign on of a 34 1-3 per cent
reduction.
I wish you would give this mat-
ter all the publicity that you can
and carry it before your county
farm council and community or-
ganizations, so that we may reduce
the crop sufficiently and get a rea-
sonable price for it. There arc
between 8.000,000 and 10,000,000
bales of visible cotton in the world
at this time, possibly larger than
we have ever had. The speculators
and spinners are using every effort
they can to reduce the price of cot-
ton, cotton having fallen in the last
60 days from 35c to 22c per pound
We believe that with a 16,000,000
bale crop we may see 10c or 12c
cotton. It wili not pay for the pro
duction, and we will be in about
the sarne condition we were in in
1914. when cotton dropped from
10c to 5c per pound.
I would be glad to have any re-
port you may get as to the reduc-
tion of cotton in your couitv. The
LETTERS TO LEADER
Oklahoma City, March 0, 1919.
The Oklahoma Leader-Gentlemen .
I am inclosing you some statis-
tics that may be of interest to the
cotton farmers, who arc readers of
your paper.
We are putting on a strenuous
campaign to reduce the acreage of
cotton in Oklahoma This same
campaign is being put on through-
out the cotton states. You can
clearly see from the statistics 1 am
inclosing that a 11,000,000 bale
crop of cotton has always brought
the farmer more money and less
toil and labor than the 15,000,000
or 16,000,000 bale crop has brought
him. And while we stand for a
reasonable production, we are op-
posed to an overproduction that
will not give the farmer a just com-
pensation for his labor.
It was the opinion of the dele-
gates at Oklahoma City that the
crop should be reduced 25%. The
larger cotlon states, like Texas,
Mississippi and Georgia, have a sub-soil is full of moisture, pro-
bated in Paris every government^
| in Europe will be shaken by this
_ It is the fear of the red flag, of j tempest of revolution and despair
ganizations of nine states and thejthe red revolution. j—and then comes our time to fight
collective District of Columbia met at the [ While the representatives of I a terrible war for our own safety
Italy and the or to have our own republic im-
periled.
Peace—quick peacfr—food for
the starving—help without stint
for all Europe, for present friend
and former foe alike—our troops
out of Europe and at home—mo-
ney and aid and magnanimous
speech and deed—and a universal
congress, in which peoples instead
of governments shall be represent-
ed and in which every people, great
or small, shall have a fair hearing
and a square deal—good friends, is
not that a program infinitely more
sensible, infinitely more calculated
to make the world safe and free,
than this program of outworn
diplomacy, greed, hate, spoliation
and proposed tyranny of the
strong over the weak, which is at
the best what the conference at
Paris proposes to a world rocking
in the throes of rebellion against
diplomacy and all its works?
The mighty forces which are
shaking the earth can not be put
down by force.
You can not shoot ideas to
death with bullets nor stop their
forward march with trenches.
Jails and penitentiaries and can-
non are useless against the invis-
ible powers.
There is only one way to arrest
the march of revolution, and that
is to make conditions so much bet-
ter that no considerable number
will want to revolt.
The one impregnable, invincible,
sure defense against the wrath and
despair of revolution is the Golden
Rule. ]
The .conference at Paris would
have lived in history for 1,000
years as the noblest assembly that
ever met in all the world's life had
the leaders there gathered together
possessed the courage, the wisdom
and the long foresight to have said
to one another, as they looked
upon the weary and expectant peo-
ples:
"Let us do unto each of these
a* we would that, they do unto us."
—Chicago Heraid and Examiner.
they land thf-m In the pen.
They breed disease In Crazy l«and—
there's microbes everywhere,
In poison food, polluted earth, e
foul and fetid air.
Half the babies die there filled with
germs from filth and swill—
And the preachers down ln Crazy
Land proclaim It Is "God's will."
For everything In Crazy I .and that
ought to be abhorred—
The crimes that men <x>mmit them
selves -are laid upon the "Lord"
And the only "God" In Crazy Land
is the crazy "God" of Gold—
The crazy way they worship this is
crazy to behold!
The prophets, down In Crazy Land.
they crucify and stone;
They put humbugs In the pulpits and
seat tyrants on a throne.
The robber class. In Crazy Land, make
every crazy law.
And run the crazy circumstance with
club and fang and claw;
And if a sane man cries against their
crazy ways and deeds.
The crazy priests nnd rulers yell.
"HE'S BU8TIN* CP OUR
CREEDS!"
Just take a trip to Crazy l^nd. down
on the Looney Pike—
There are the queerest people there—
you never khw the like!
They're wrong-side-to in Crazy Land.
they're upside down with care—
They walk around upon their head
and feet up In the air!
—HENRY M. TICHENOR.
leaders have acted with decision,
with force, and apparently with
success. They have conquered and
annexed to Bolshevism the
Ukraine, Bessarabia, the kingdom
of Hungary, the kingdom of Ba-
varia, a great part of Poland and
'jalicia and are dominating Aus-
tria. They will soon have Rou-
mania, Bohemia, Slovakia, Serbia
Croatia and the Adriatic littoral
cut off and at their mercy.
These latter conquests are not
>ssured, but they are threatened,
«nd they may come soon.
In the meantime, the Bolshevist
regime, which came into power in
Petrograd and Moscow only 18
months ago, has overrun all of old
Russia, all of little Russia, and has
extended its conquests over popu-
lations more than twice the com-
bined populations of Great Britain,
France and Italy and over territory
nearly twice the size of the United
States and eight times the size of
Great Britain, France and Italy
combined.
While the Bolshevist leaders
have thus carried their arms and
their more effective propaganda
over peoples so numerous and ter
ritories so vast, what have the
leaders assembled at Paris accom-
plished
They have spent months in for-
mulating a constitution of
league of nations, and before the
signatures are affixed to this docu-
ment the only intact nations left in
Europe to sign are France, Italy,
Belgium, the small Swiss and
Dutch nations, the three small
Scandinavian kingdoms. Spain,
Portugal and Greece—130,000,000
people all told, occupying about
900,000 square miles of territory-
only one-third of the population
and one-fourth of the area of Eu-
rope.
Nor is this the worst, because
every one of these remaining king-
doms and republics which are
scheduled to join the league of na-
tions is honeycombed with revolu-
tionary discontent, revolutionary
agents, revolutionary propaganda
and revolutionary sympathies.
Not one of the European states-
men who have been fiddling at
Paris while Europe burned in the
fire of Bolshevism can lie down to
sleep at night with any certainty
that the morning will find the gov-
Universal
All that is best in the great
poets of all countries is not what
is national in them, but what is
universal.—Longfellow.
Do you want Socialism NOW?
Invest $50 in Leader Bonds and
the day of Socialism in Okla-
homa will be that much nearer.
Do that, if you are in earnest
about your faith.
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The Oklahoma Leader (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Vol. 5, No. 43, Ed. 1 Saturday, April 19, 1919, newspaper, April 19, 1919; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc148752/m1/4/: accessed April 19, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.