Vol. I.

D

OWN with the radical press" was one of the first slogans of the patrioteers when they precipitated this nation into the international slaughter. They realized the menace of such a press to their nefarious plots and machinations and lost no time nor had any scruples about crushing the papers and magazines of the working class beneath the iron heel of their despotic system.

And so at the most crucial hour in all its history the voice of the working class was strangled while the workers themselves were swept into the red hell which disgraced and damned civilization and all but destroyed the world.

The war is now over. The hysteria has subsided. Sanity again has sway and after coming to realize just what the war has meant to the American people, how they were lied into it, betrayed by it, and must now reap the bitter harvest of their folly,

there has been a tremendous change of

sentiment toward those who were made to appear traitors by those who actually were traitors. Consequently, there is a widespread and rapidly increasing demand that

No. 1

the American workers be heard in the councils of the nations where plans and proposals are being made for the restoration of peace and the rebuilding of the world.

In this situation nothing is more important than that the radical press should be revived, that the public voice of the workers may again be heard in their own behalf in the tremendous struggle that is shaking the earth, and that is destined to overthrow every despotism and bring freedom to the people and peace to the world.

Without a press the workers are practically beaten in every battle before it begins. They fall an easy pray to the falsehoods and calumnies charged against them by the foul press of their exploiting masters; they have no means of pleading their cause or of placing the issue at stake before the people. As a result they are almost certainly foredoomed to defeat.

Now is the time to revive and rebuild the press of the working class and to make it stronger and more efficient than ever, for it certainly will be put to the severest test as the struggle grows more intense with the passing days.

"Up with the radical press!" should now be the battle-cry of the workers all over the land. Industrial and other organization along the lines of the class struggle is now more than ever the demand, and along with this work and as a necessary part of it, we are bound, as we value our loyalty to the cause, to rebuild our press, restore our papers and magazines, and spread over the

entire nation the revolutionary literature to awaken the people, stir them to life and vision, and set their feet in the path to Freedom.

Fo

tom of the Caucasian race to celebrate the coming of spring, when all animal and plant life is liberated from the chilly embrace of winter.

For a long time these celebrations had no other meaning than to express the feelings of joy felt by primitive man at being released from the hardships of winter, of winter, which had been imposed upon him by forces beyond his control.

The problem facing him was that of providing tools by the use of which to obtain food, clothing and shelter from the boundless stores of mother nature.

With the advent of the modern era we are confronted by other and entirely different problems.

The development and introduction of machinery has made it easy to supply tools for the extraction of life's necessities from the earth, but the ownership and control of these tools have been allowed to become centered in the hands of a few. Instead of the wonderful inventions by means of which man has conquered nature being a blessing to the whole of humanity, they are used by the capitalist class to exploit and enslave the working class, which constitutes the great majority of the people.

As society developed the old customs of primitive man were gradually supplanted by others more in accord with the spirit of the times.

Instinctively, the industrial worker of the new era has chosen a holiday in springtime in which to voice his feelings of resentment against the forces which oppress him. Hence May First has fittingly become a day of protest and demonstrations, and sometimes of revolt against the class which exploits and enslaves mankind.

To the American worker the First of May has an additional and more intimate meaning, for it was declared International

Labor Day as a direct result of the struggle of American labor for the eight-hour day in 1886.

In the days of long ago the contest was primarily between man and nature. Nowa days it is a struggle of class against class; of the class which owns everything against the class which produces everything, but in return for its labors is granted only a bare existence.

In the ownership of the means of production is to be found the secret of the power of capitalism. It likewise supplies the key to an explanation of the history of all previous epochs of society. Those who own and control the tools of production in any society own and control that society.

No new class has ever risen to power except through its ability to get control over the economic functions of society. It first has to entrench itself economically. Only after this will it be able to establish the new state in accordance with the changed conditions.

The function of the state is to keep another class in subjection. It can perform no other function and will not be needed in the workers' commonwealth.

The road to power for the workers lies. in developing their forces along the lines followed by other classes which have aspired to power.

Not until labor decides to use its economic might will the politicians in Washington liberate the class-war prisoners.

May First, 1923, should be the day when we start in earnest to compel the powers that be to free all those fellow workers who have fought so valiently for the cause of labor. This we can accomplish by using the most effective means at our disposal. namely, by stopping the wheels of production.

Four

A

TRAVELER once lost his way among the Ragian Hills, and wandered about for many days until he came to a new and beautiful country.

The fields of this country were glad with ripened grain. Fat cattle grazed in the pastures, and flocks of white sheep covered the hills. The winds were filled with the perfume of vineyards, and all the barns seemed bursting with plenty.

The traveller journeyed onward until he came to a village which was called Barbo. And he entered gladly, for he said in his heart: So much wealth was never seen before.

The village consisted of a great square, and four streets leading into it. And the square was filled with booths like the stalls of a market place. Gay ribbons of many colors waved in the breeze.

For it was the day of the Barbo Fair, when the masters brought forth their bags of gold to pay their laborers for the toil of

the four seasons, and the workingmen were given a holiday to make their purchases for the year.

Thus there was but one market day and one day for the payment of wages in Barbo during the whole year, in order that the workers might spend their remaining days in peace and toil.

And the traveller saw that the masters had gathered together in the booths of the square all the goods that the laborers had produced during the year.

Coats and boots were in the first booth, and fine linens and coarse, and silks and jewels, and cloth and garments of every kind, sufficient to clothe the people of two villages like Barbo.

And in the second booth there were bags of white meal and yellow meal, and flour and salt and corn; and there were loaves of bread, and money and cheese and red and golden wine; grain was there also of every kind.

INDUSTRIAL PIONEER

And in the third booth cattle and sheep, rabbits and hogs, and there were also fish and fowl for the feeding of an army.

The fourth booth was filled with fruit. Aloes there were, and bread fruit, and the sweet fig, and bananas, and other fruits in abundance; and spades and hoes and plows for the fields, also.

A crier stood at the gates of the square to make announcement to the people, of new houses to be sold upon the fourth

street.

And the coat-maker came with his children, and they were without coats; the hatmaker came without a hat; and the bootmaker and his wife, and his children came with bleeding feet for the way was rough and their feet were bare.

Then came the baker, with his children crying for bread; and the keeper of the vineyard also, and the tillers of the soil, and the garment-maker, in his raiment of rags. The carpenter, who had built the new houses which were to be sold, rose from his bed of straw, and came also.

And all the people gathered together outside the gates of the square to receive

their wages for the year. And after they were paid, they went into the Fair, and spent all the gold they had received, and bought many things.

But when they came forth the traveller saw that their faces were sad, and their burdens light; for the prices of those things of which they had need, were greater by three-fold than the wages they had received.

And there yet remained two-thirds of the goods that were gathered together at the Fair.

Then were the masters vexed, for they said: We must pay the banker for the money he has loaned us, and the landowner his rent, and we must take for our selves a large profit; therefore is our price just.

But after they had taken away sufficient for their needs, they wondered what should be done with those goods that remained at the Fair. And they refused any longer to hire the laborers, for they said until all those things were sold, there would be no more work for them to do.

Then there arose a disturbance and a panic in the village of Barbo the cause whereof no man knew, until at last there

came forth a doctor of law who said it was

the curse of the village that God had given the masters more than they could sell.

The workers were afraid, for they did not know where to turn when their pur chases should be consumed, and they went forth out of the fields weeping and curs

ing, because there was plenty in the village

of Barbo.

The masters cursed also, because, having no place wherein to sell the remainder of their goods, they could make no more profits.

And the traveller journeyed on his way with great speed, for he knew in his heart that he was come to the dwelling place of FOOLS.