TO THE YOUTH OF AMERICA
By Alexander Berkman
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Tyranny must be opposed at the start.
Autocracy, once secured in the saddle, is diffucult to dislodge.
If you believe that America is entering the war "to make democracy
safe," then be a man and volunteer.
But if you know anything at all, then you should know that the cry
of democracy is a lie and a snare for the unthinking. You should know
that a republic is not synonymous with democracy, and that America has
never been a real democracy, but that it is the vilest plutocracy on the
face of the globe.
If you can see, hear, feel, and think, you should know that King
Dollar rules the United States, and that the workers are robbed and
exploited in this country to the heart's content of the masters.
If you are not deaf, dumb, and blind, then you know that the
American bourgeois democracy and capitalistic civilization are the worst
enemies of labor and progress, and that instead of protecting them, you
should help to fight to destroy them.
If you know this, you must also know that the workers of America
have no enemy in the toilers of other countries. Indeed, the workers of
Germany suffer as much from their exploiters and rulers as do the masses
of America.
You should know that the interests of Labor are identical in all
countries. Their cause is international.
Then why should they slaughter each other?
The workers of Germany have been misled by their rulers into
donning the uniform and turning murders.
So have the workers of France, of Italy, and England been misled.
But why should *you*, men of America, allow yourselves to be
misled into murder or into being murdered?
If your blood must be shed, let it be in defense of your own
interests, in the war of the workers against their despoilers, in the
cause of real liberty and independence.
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REGISTRATION
By Alexander Berkman
_____________________
Registration is the first step of conscription.
The war shouters and their prostitute press, bet on snaring you
into the army, tell you that registration has nothing to do with conscription.
They lie.
Without registration, conscription is impossible.
Conscription is the abdication of your rights as a citizen.
Conscription is the cemetary where every vestige of your liberty is to be
buried. Registration is its undertaker.
No man with red blood in his veins can be forced to fight against
his will.
But you cannot successfully oppose conscription if you approve of,
or submit to, registration.
Every beginning is hard. But if the government can induce you to
register, it will have little difficulty in putting over conscription.
By registering, you wilfully supply the government with the
information it needs to make conscription effective.
Registration means placing in the hands of the authorities the
despotic power of the machinery of passports which made darkest Russia
what it was before the Revolution.
There are thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of young men in
this country who have never voted and who have never paid taxes, and who,
legally speaking, have no official existence. Their registration means
nothing short of suicide, in a majority of cases.
Failure to register is punishable by imprisonment. Refusal to be
conscripted may be punishable by death.
To register is to acknowledge the right of the government to conscript.
The consistent conscientious objector to human slaughter will
neither register nor be conscripted.
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WAR DICTIONARY
By Alexander Berkman
_____________________
ALLIES- The fairies of Democracy.
BARBARIANS- The other fellows.
CONGRESS- The valet of Woodrow the First.
CENSORSHIP- The rape of Free Speech.
CONSCRIPTION- Free men fighting against their will.
CIVILIZATION- In God We Trust.
DEMOCRACY- The voice of the Gallery Gods.
FREE SPEECH- Say what you please, but keep your mouth shut.
HUNS- Loyal patriots from Central Europe.
HUMANITY- Treason to government.
JUSTICE- Successful target shooting.
KAISER- A President's ambition.
LIBERTY BOND- A bone from a bonehead.
LIBERTY LOAN- The bread line of the Unborn.
LOYAL CITIZEN- Deaf, dumb, and blind.
MILITARISM- Christianity in action.
PATRIOTISM- Hating your neighbor.
REGISTRATION- Funeral march of Liberty.
SEDITION- The proof of Tyranny.
SLACKER- Jesus Christ.
TRENCHES- Digging your own grave.
UN-AMERICAN- Independent opinion.
UN-DEMOCRATIC- Ideals.
UNIFORM- Government strait-jacket.
VICTORY- Ten million dead.
WAR- The propaganda of Democracy.
***
Which is the braver? The man who falls in line with the great
majority or he that faces the wrath of millions for conscience sake?
Do not confound us with the pacifists. We believe in fighting.
Aye, we have been fighting all our lives-- fighting injustice, oppression,
and tyranny. Almost single handed at that.
We are not pacifists. But we want to know what we are fighting
for, and we refuse to fight for the enemies and the exploiters of humanity.
-Alexander Berkman
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