



Produced by Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed
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[Illustration: INDUSTRIAL DESPOTISM, SHREWDLY CALLED FREEDOM.
/]

(Illustrating the Wage-Earner’s “Freedom of Contract.”)




                             WAR—WHAT FOR?


                                   BY

                         GEORGE R. KIRKPATRICK

“The cannon’s prey has begun to think, and, thinking twice, loses its
admiration for being made a target.”—_Victor Hugo._

“A nod from a lord is a breakfast—for a fool.”—_Proverb._

“The poor souls for whom this hungry war opens its vast jaws.”—_William
Shakespeare._

                      First Edition, August, 1910.
                     Second Edition, October, 1910.
                     Third Edition, December, 1910.
                      Fourth Edition, April, 1911.
             Fifth Edition, Thirtieth Thousand, May, 1911.

                        PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR,

                         WEST LA FAYETTE, OHIO




                           COPYRIGHTED, 1910,
                                   BY
                         GEORGE R. KIRKPATRICK.

                          All rights reserved,
          including that of translation into foreign languages


                   SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT ON PAGE 350.


                             WAR—WHAT FOR?

                           SINGLE COPY, $1.20

          Liberal discounts in clubs of 3, 10 and 25 or more.


                          By the same author:

                           THINK—OR SURRENDER

About 100 pages of elementary economics, politics and organization—for
the propaganda of Socialism. (Nearly ready.)

[Illustration]




This book is dedicated to the victims of the civil war in industry; that
is, to my brothers and sisters of the working class, the class who
furnish the blood and tears and <DW36>s and corpses in all wars—yet win
no victories for their own class.

------------------------------------------------------------------------




                               CONTENTS.


                                                                    PAGE

 Preface                                                               5

 Ready                                                                 9

 An Insult from the Commander-in-Chief                                10

 Chapter One: A Confidential Word with the Man of the
   Working Class                                                      11

 Chapter Two: What Is War?                                            21

 Chapter Three: The Situation—Also the Explanation                    29

 Chapter Four: The Cost of War—(1) In Blood, (2) In Cash              47

 Chapter Five: Hell                                                   77

 Chapter Six: Tricked to the Trenches—Then Snubbed                   107

 Chapter Seven: For Father and the Boys                              159

 Chapter Eight: For Mother and the Boys—and Girls                    207

 Chapter Nine: The Cross, the Cannon, and the Cash
   Register                                                          244

 Chapter Ten: Now What Shall We Do About It?                         273

 Chapter Eleven: A Short Lesson in the History of the
   Working Class                                                     317

 Chapter Twelve: Suggestions—and What to Read                        338


 Illustrations:

      Industrial Despotism, Craftily Called Freedom         Frontispiece

      Leading Citizens—“We Want Wars”                                 31

      Leading Citizens—“We Declare Wars”                              33

      Citizens Who Are Led—“We Fight the Wars”                        35

      Hired Hands                                           Facing p. 46

      Worn-Out Boxing Gloves of the Ruling Class                      51

      The History of Ignorance and Meekness                           53

      The War Is the Class War                                       169

      The Beneficiaries of Hell, Flirting with Heaven      Facing p. 206

      The Noble Rôle of Cossacks and Militiamen            Facing p. 207

      Preparing Boy-Scout Hired Hands                      Facing p. 220

      Four Victims of Cheap Patriotism                               241

      In My Name! After Nineteen Hundred Years!                      245




                                PREFACE.


Justice soothes.

Justice heals the wounds and sores in the social body.

Justice strikes down all robbery—illegal and legal.

Justice calms.

Injustice stings.

Injustice burns, irritates—kills sociability and creates conflict.

Injustice prevents brotherhood.

Injustice is unsocial—anti-social—and is thus a social sore.

Injustice, organized injustice, is the soul of all _class_-labor forms
of society.

The purpose of all class-labor forms of society is ROBBERY.

The robbed resist—sometimes.

The robbers are ready for resistance—always.

In all _class_-labor forms of society the ruling class always have:

FIRST, AN =ARMED= GUARD—READY:

    ready to serve as tusk and fist of the robber ruling class,

    ready to suppress protesting chattel-slaves,

    ready to suppress protesting serfs,

    ready to suppress protesting wage-earners,

    ready to defend the class-labor system,

    ready to extend the class-labor system,

    ready to defy and defeat and hold down and kick the robbed working
      class.

SECOND, AN =UNARMED= GUARD—composed of prideless purchasable
human things, social chameleons, moral eunuchs,