World War I: Extra Credit Part II

We most often hear talk of socialism to describe government involvement in business. Early socialists, though, had a wider view of themselves than just advocates of government involvment in business. Much of the socialist movement both in Europe and America was predicated on the beleif that all workers were brothers and that wars started by those wealthy and greedy men who ran government. Since all workers were brothers they oppossed all war as a tool of the rich and empowered.

When war broke out in the Europe socialists did a funny thing. They betrayed their principles and took up arms against their brethren in other countries.

In the United States, this was less the case. Many socialists stuck to their principles and refused to enlist or fight on behalf of the government. Eugene V. Debs, a well known socialist leader, would go to jail and later run for president from his cell.

But there was another notable socialist and she was quite well known too. She wrote this to Debs:

Of course, the Supreme Court has sustained the decision of the lower court in
your case. To my mind, the decision has added another laurel to your wreath of
victories. Once more you are going to prison for upholding the liberties of the
people.
I write because my heart cries out, and will not be still. I write because I want you to know that I should be proud if the Supreme Court convicted me of abhorring war, and doing all in my power to oppose it. When I think of the millions who have suffered in all the wicked wars of the past, I am shaken with the anguish of a great impatience. I want to fling myself against all bruite powers that destroy life and break the spirit of man.
In the persecution of our comrades there is one satisfaction. Every trial of men like you, every sentence against them, tears away the veil that hides the face of the enemy. The discussion and agitation that follows the trials define more sharply the positions that must be taken before all men can live together in peace, happiness and security.

She was blind and deaf and we most often her of her in connection with the play "The Miracle Worker". Her name, of course, is Helen Keller.

We often forget that historic personalities have more than one dimension. Woodrow Wilson, the great idealist, was a racist (and so was Abe Lincoln). Thomas Jefferson the man who wrote the Declaration of Independence and claimed that all me were created equal owned slaves.

And Helen Keller was a socialist.