Monthly Magazine Devoted to Social Science and Literature Published Every 15th of the Month

EMMA GOLDMAN, Publisher and Editor, 20 East 125th Street. New York, N. Y.

Entered as second-class matter April 9, 1906, at the post office at New York, N. Y., under the Act of Congress of March 3, 1879.

Vol. X

MAY, 1915

No. 3

A PRAYER*

BY DR. BEN L. REITMAN.

Oh, Mr. God, the God of Billy Sunday, the German Emperor, Moody and Sankey, King George, Jonathan Edwards and the Russian Czar, if you are really on the square and live way up there in the skies; if you are not a bluffer and if you have a little power, won't you please, sir, for the love of brother Jesus and the deacons in the churches do something to help the poor working people. of Paterson?

Oh, dear Mr. God, if Billy Sunday is right and you know everything and you do care a little, please make the bosses in the silk mills kinder to the workingmen; touch their hearts so that they will shorten the hours and raise the pay of the workers; fix it so that the owners of the mills will send the old women and the young children out of the factories and replace them with some of the ablebodied men who are looking for work.

Oh, dear Mr. God, please, dear Mr. God! Won't you do something to stop this war and prevent the workingmen from getting shot to pieces? Ain't you got enough sense and power to show all the amunition manufacturers that it's wicked to sell bullets and cannon to European

* Read at an anti-religious meeting in Paterson,

nations which will result in breaking your commandments?

Please, Mr. God, if you don't mind and if it ain't too much trouble, would you just as soon strike dead all the kings and diplomats and capitalists who are prolonging this war for the benefit of their own power and gain?

Dear, Mr. God, you sent your very lovely son into the world to save it, but he didn't do very well. Men and women have been fourflushing and saying they believed in him, but everything in their lives has shown that they didn't care any more about him than they did about Mohammed, Socrates, or Proudhon.

Now, Mr. God, I don't want to make you tired by asking too much. Some of us who do not want to meet you face to face and walk on the golden streets want to get the full product of our labor. We want to build a world where we can live in beauty, harmony and freedom. If you can help us, Mr. God, we will be much obliged and if you don't we will help ourselves and you can devote more of your time to Billy Sunday. Amen!

愛

OBSERVATIONS AND COMMENTS

T HIS year May Day is a shame and irony. Hailed with enthusiasm at its birth-26 years ago-as the day of the international proletariat, of universal brotherhood and solidarity, May Day, 1915, witnesses international carnage. There is no brotherhood. Over the border-lines blind hatred and monstrous stupidity spit forth their venom. The tumult of the battle fronts, hundreds of miles long, the hellish whizzing of the cannon make the feeble protests of humanity inaudible, and the solidarity of nations and peoples is expressed in the feverish manufacture of ammunition. The making of instruments to cripple and to kill and the speculation in human necessities are the only industries that enjoy prosperity.

What becomes of the international movement of workingmen's solidarity all over the world, that it now wallows in shame, corruption and blood? Was it only a dream of dope fiends? Or a living programme of sneaky politicians to further their own ends?

These questions arise on May Day, 1915. They must

be answered in the near future, lest such universal slaughter may take humanity again and again by surprise; may find it ignorant, weak, confused, relying on rulers, cabinets, politicians, parties, who count only the gains that will result from the bloodshed and ignorance of the masses.

THE trial of our friends, Matt A. Schmidt and David Caplan has been set for September 1st. Four months more of waiting for the day when Judas service rendered the Merchants and Manufacturers and their tools shall be brought to a final close. Whether Matt and David will be added to the list of victims of the enemies of labor, or whether they shall go free depends not so much on the M. & M. as on the workers throughout the land. We have already reported the splendid stand of Organized Labor in California. But what about the rest of the country and what about the revolutionary factions everywhere?

A legal defense is all well and good, but the thing that counts is the solid front of all rebels in and out of the labor movement, especially the propaganda and publicity such a concerted support would mean. Let us not wait too long. Now is the time to rally to the support of the two bravest rebels American labor has produced in a decade.

Matt. A. Schmidt and David Caplan were in court at Los Angeles Tuesday while testimony was taken and arguments heard on the validity of the indictments. Former District Attorney John D. Fredericks was present as one of the witnesses for the State.

The rather sensational incident which took place between the former district attorney and Schmidt is related in this manner by a Los Angeles morning paper:

"Perhaps you want to shake hands with Capt. Fredericks," suggested Attorney Davis, who was in an amiable mood.

Schmidt, however, resented the suggestion. A flush flashed across his temples and his fists clenched.

Schmidt stepped back.

"I shake hands only with men-not scoundrels," Schmidt said.

THE

HE European conflagration has shattered more than one hope in the progress and advancement of our century. Men and women, who have for years espoused modern and revolutionary ideas, are now obsessed by the

superstitions of patriotism, culture, national integrity and what not. Even the old Jew, as Schopenhauer called Jehovah, is back on his throne, wielding his bloodstained scepter in the same relentless and cruel spirit as of yore.

With all that was gained for progress for the past fifty years buried in the trenches of the warring countries, no one need be surprised at the reaction that is swaying America. From one end of the country to another, moral cant and religious hypocrisy are at work, undermining whatever personal liberty and intellectual clarity we could ever boast of, until one feels taken back to the days of the Puritan Fathers, and their famous Blue laws. Especially is this true, if one listens to the coarse, ignorant ravings of one Billy Sunday, who is so utterly bereft even of ordinary emotions and sincerity as to make the very Gods whose cause he pleads weep with shame.

Religious hysteria is very old. Zola gives a wonderful description of it in "Lourdes." And Andreyev in "Savva" shows to what crimes religious obsession can lead, once the emotions of the mob have been aroused. But the revivalist prize fighter, Billy Sunday, is not guilty of sufficient religious passion to create hysteria. His revival methods are of the kind the bullies use who are employed by clothiers to beguile and pull customers into the store and then stick them with some motheaten article for double the ordinary price.

Here are some choice bits of Billy Sunday's arguments in behalf of religion. "Medicine is poison, yet you will take it, if you wish to get well. Why do you do it? Because you have faith in your Doctor. The same is true of religion. You can not question or analyse or prove it. You must take it on faith. It is the only way to get saved." Billy's limited mind could not see the truth in his own comparison, that religion like medicine is a poison, indeed a more insidious poison, which creates mental atrophy.

But even this does not account for Billy Sunday's success. There are other reasons, perhaps more disastrous to the masses than the religious poison. Billy Sunday is the mouthpiece of the Church, the Press and the money interests of every city he visits. His job is to make the workers content and satisfied with their misery, as that is the only safety valve against rebellion, which