The Forces of World Revolution
The following outline picture of what may be called the forces of revolution existing in the world to-day, is drawn by Mr. Jack London, the novelist and a leading Socialist, who is no doubt well informed on the subject. Mr. London has been lecturing on the theme of the coming world revolution before large audiences in the cities and at the universities of New England:— I received a letter the other day from a man in Arizona. It began: “Dear comrade,” and ended, “Yours for the revolution.” My reply began and ended the same. In the United States there are over 400,000 men, and altogether 1,000,000 men and women, who begin and end their letters the same way. In Germany there are 3,000,000, in France 1,000,000, in Austria 300,000, in Belgium 300,000, in Italy 250,000, in Switzerland 100,000, in Denmark 55,000, in Sweden 50,000, in Holland 40,000, in Spain 30,000—comrades all and revolutionists. To-day the seven million revolutionists cast seven million votes in the civilized countries of the world. They are fighters. They love peace; they are unafraid of war. They intend fighting to die, to destroy existing conditions and to take possession of the whole world. If the law permits, they will fight for this peaceably at the ballot box. In the United States we are enabled to carry on this revolution peaceably. In Russia it is not so. If the law does not permit peaceable destruction of society, they will resort to force themselves. They will meet violence with violence. In Russia there is no civilization. The government executes the revolutionists. I am a revolutionist, yet I am a fairly sane and a normal individual. I speak and think of these assassins in Russia as my comrades. So do all the comrades in America and all the seven million comrades in the world. This is shown by the fact that we do back up all comrades in Russia. They are not disciples of Tolstoi, nor are we. We are revolutionists. The time has come for the revolution to demand compensation. It has fastened upon every country in the civilized world. With the introduction of the machine in Japan, socialism was introduced. Socialists marched into the Philippines shoulder to shoulder with the soldiers. Vastly more significant is the fact that in all the countries the revolution has fastened upon, in none has it relaxed its grip. On the contrary, its grip has closed by years. In 1867 its voting strength in the world was 30,000. In 1871 it had increased to 100,000. Not until 1884 did it pass the half-million point. In 1889 it had passed the million mark. It had then gained momentum. In 1902 it was 5,253,000, and in 1905 it had passed the seven-million mark. The first four years of the twentieth century in the United States were considered prosperous years, yet in that time more than 300,000 men added themselves to the ranks of the revolutionists. In California one man in ten is an avowed and respected socialist. One man in ten votes the straight socialist ticket. The reader will note that according to Mr. London, and the socialistic program for which he speaks, the coming revolution will be accomplished peaceably if possible, but forcibly and by bloodshed if necessary. To which alternative is the logic of events to lead?