Page:The Agitator Volume 2 Issue 01.djvu/4

THE AGITATOR NECIS357Y FOR THE MODERN SCHOOL II. It has been discovered that society consists of two classes — a ciass of wage s aves and a class of ex- ploiters. In order t'^at this condition shall cease it is the func;ion of revolutionists to effect an aggres- sive bU'ugg.e between these two classes — as classes. In creating this class struggle we have an educa- tional icleal in exact opposition to tiat cf a capital- istically managed school. livery aven le of sociological investigation reveals the close connection between economic conditions and the character of individuals, clashes and institu- tions. Tiie contemporary character of society is competitive, because competition is taught as an ideal. Competitive capitalism necessitates a com- petitive wage slavery. To inside this the entire subject, matter' of capitalist schools is interwoven with an insiduous association of competitive ideas. Not. one branch of public school educat'on (and what ether education do the children of wage slaves acquire?) escapes this cunning arrangement; whereby the untutored mind of the child is taught to accept competition as the natural order of life. In the light of modern research we find that his- tory is a lying record of ruling class individual and national competition. It is not a record of the ma- jority of the race, because the majority has always been the workers . and while the workers have al- ways played a great part in past society, this part i3 carefully excluded from capitalist text books. "Associated, as such records mostly are, with a des- potic or an aristocratic form of government, they certain little taat serves to illustrate the inner lives cf tuc people." — (Nelson's Encyclopedia). Through an association of sanctioning ideas, history perpetu- ates t'io competitive ideal. A child that learns only of universal competition in the past, will have no ideas o2 any kind of social structure than that which it is taught "has always been." Such teach- ing obscures to the child all concept of present-day economic class divisions. History creates a false an;l ualicious interpretation of the past, which, in turn, sustains the lies of the present. Geography is a fictitious division of the earth based upon lines of military and economic conquest or the priority of discovery or colonization. If such a study ever had any value for the working class except to point out tbe-.e mistakes, it has long sin e disappeared. The teaching of it is preserved by t e exploiting class because it keeps its wage slaves split into world factions. Even as the st udy of "history," it perpetuates mili'a ism, nationalism, race prejudice; in short, the whole network cf com- petitive ideology. This prevents the child mind from, that which it might otherwise discover fo: it- self, namely, the lie of geographical division. As long as children are taught difference, based on im- ?.?;::ery divisions, just so long will they, as 'grown- up: believe in those ficticious martial antagonisms so necessary to the perpetuation taf capita-ism. Geography is, therefore, destructive of the class ia- terests of wase slaves. Mathematics, the "immaculate science(!)," is an innocent and valuable department of knowledge, but the capitalistic teaching of it is so surrounded by sub-divisions of the competitive idea! — rent, interest and profit — that the child never learns (in school) to understand or q-iestion the disastrous result of this false ideal — that is, exploitation. No single study assists the formation of competitive ideas more than the present teaching of mathematics. The competitive associations interwoven w't-i methematics begin with simple numeration and con- tinue into the mere complex abstractions. The study is honey-combed in this fashion until it becomes al- most an impossibility to dis associate some phase of competition from ths simplest arithmetic concept. This is the greatest obstacle to that universal co- operation of some kind which the working class must establish to emancipate itself as a class. It is impossible in the public schools to learn to read or write without incorporating the compel! ive ideas of capitalist sociely. Here the same subtle methods are employed in fashioning the child mind upon competitive lines as can be seen in all other basic studies. Present-day text books of grammer, "readers," "copy books" are filled with capitalistic platitudes and appeals to competitive ambition. Lies are deliberately foisted upon children for "copy"' which no grown person believes, and wjiile it may be pointed out that the "Golden Rule" is taught, as well as a host cf other humanitarian ethics, these amount to little more than futile sophistries, when the child reaches the aje of productive activity; this activity being based upon competitive designs. Physiology is in a condition of innocuous emas- culation when it reaches the school desk. That hygienic knowledge so essential to the well bei .g of the child is filtered through the censorship of moralists whose chief aim i3 to exclude all knowl- edge of sex life. To survey the carefully pruned and lying charts or text books in physiology will convince the child of a lie somewhere; either in the actualities of its person or in the chart and book. It doesn't matter which, for in either case it is not to be mentioned. This is a means of fos- tering the mind habit of subterfuge . The social suffering caused by some form of sex ignorance i3 beyond measure, but it fits the capitalist system of competitive wage slavery with all the satanic precision of design. Because it is beneficial to capi- talism — if there were not many other reasons — such teaching of physiology is alien to the interests of wage slaves. This kind of education is wage slavery in the making. Ofttimes it is not direct teaching so much as indirect association of ideas. To present the facts of life as the revolutionist conceives them Is the task of the modern school educator. While it may be thought by some that it is rather their task to present facts "impersonally," trusting that such presentation would, sooner or later, abolish the uni- versal injustice of present-day society, this view is not strictly correct. The world's revolutionists have a distinct task before them. This task is, first, the destruction of wage slavery, whereupon the infinitely varied in- dividual and collective potentialities have for the first time an opportunity for experimentation and development, unhampered by the presence of capi- talist material economies and the constrictions in- cident thereto. This kind of an education is anything but 'im- personal"— it is positive. The simple presentation of facts is not enough. Capitalists and the multi- tude of forces that restrict the development of the individual today, are powerful enough and Ingenious enough to mould any "impersonal" knowledge to their own ends. Modern school educators must pre- sent facts so that their revolutionary significance become known. FRANK CHESTER PEASE. GREATEST FIGURE IN HISTORY According to the numerous reports from across the border it is plainly evident that Madero has not succeeded in pacifying the Mexican people with his unfulfilled promises. The cry of "Land and Liberty" will not down. The "ignorant" Peons will not trade their guns for socialist tracts. They will not give up their hope of freedom now for the promise of a social demo- cratic heaven hereafter. Education is good, but there is no greater learn- ing than the knowledge that the land belongs only to them who actually use it, and that liberty is the birthright of all. When this knowledge is coupled with the courage and determination to fight for it, the acme of Social Revolutionary education is reached. After following Marx through all the tiresome detail of his ponderous work, "Capital," I am re- warded with the knowledge that the land belongs to me, likewise the tools, which to the Mexican are of no importance since they are not made in his country. I did not learn about the importance of Liberty. I did not learn how to attain my land and tools, nor was I inspired with the courage to pursue them over a very s"trenuous course were it put up to me. Who is the better educated, the Mexican peon, with "Land and Liberty" on his lips and a rifle on his shoulder, or I, armed only with phrases? I pur- sue economic abstraction. The Mexican is going after the real thing. And for that he is the most important figure in history, not excepting the French Revolutionists. His doctrine is clear and well pro- nounced in his acts. The first thing he does upon the capture of a town is to throw open the prison doors, and next to destroy all records of property titles. Then he ex- propriates the big land owner, and turns the land over to the people who, in many cases, work it in common. Can history produce a revolution so revo- lutionary? True, the French took the land from the church and barons, but their tactics and ideas were not nearly so clear cut as the Mexicans', While we are roaring about "the great striae oil the Southern Pacific" and "the great victory fur Socialism at Los Angeles," the "illiterate" Mexita* across the line is engaged in the first battles of the world-wide revolution which will sweep capitalism from its base and establish industrial and political freedom. The crack of Freedom's guns is drowned in the noise of our petty middle clas3 reforms. I have no patience for the party that will prate of being "revolutionary" and repudiate the Revolu- tion, calling it a Banditte. I repudiate such a party and denounce it as an imposter on the Revolution- ary Movement; an arrant fake that perverts the use of the magnetic word, Revolution, in order to retain the sympathy of the Revolutionists. All hail to you, my gallant Mexican fellow work- ers ! I bow before your superiority. You «know, you do; I merely talk. JAY FOX. THE FUNERAL OF A MARTYR. " T will tell you something, brothers, which you will say impossible to a civilized country that is like America situated,' said an earnest speaker address- ing a large group of Bohemians," writes Mary Field, in "On Strike," a collection of true stories of the Chicago garment-workers' strike, in the October American Magazine. " 'You must excuse my hollering, but Jn regard for this big hall I must holler. One of our sisters is dead. She died on account of her lungs when she was out selling papers for the strikers. Tomorrow her funeral is, and we should all turn ourselves out to show her how great our sympathy is.' "And they, and hundreds of others, turned out by the thousands. As the endless stream filed slowly by the coffin, shriveled Italian women crossed them- selves and cried aloud. Big, unsentimental men had tears in their eyes, a girl fainted, and flippant young men were grave. Then eight strong men, Pole* and Lithuanians, Jews and Gentiles, Catholics and Protes- tants, bore on their shoulders through the streets the white casket of the little Jewish garment worker. Buried in that white casket with their martyr were the prejudices, the hatreds, the intolerances of a thousand years. In the Valley of the Shadow of Death man learns that all people are one." AUTHORITY. Authority intoxicates, And makes mere sots of magistrates . The fumes of it invade the brain, And make men giddy, proud, and vain; By this the fool commands the wise, The noble with the base complies, The sot assumes the rule of wit, And cowards make the brave submit. — Samuel Butler. "SOLIDARITY." A weekly revolutionary working class paper. Published by P. 0. Box 622, I. W. W. Newcastle, Pa. "MOTHER EARTH" Monthly Magazine Devoted to Social Science and liter- ature. 10c a copy. $1 a year Emma Goujman, Publisher 210 E. 13th. St., New Yorjc, N. Y. "FREEDOM" A Monthly Journal of Anarchist Communism. 36c per year. 127 Ossulton Street, London, N. W., England "INDUSTRIAL WORKER" A Weekly Agitator For Revolutionary In- dustrial Union. Published by I. W. W., 236 Main st. Spokane, Wn $1 a year, Foreign, $1.50 HENDERSON BAY ROUTE— Steamer TycomU leaves Commercial Dock, Tacoma, for all points on Hender- son Bay, including Home, week days at 2:30 p. m., returning next morning. Sunday at 8 a. m., return- ing same day. ooooooo NORTH BAY ROUTE— Steamer Tyrus leaves Com- mercial Dock, Tacoma, for all points on North Bay every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 10 a. m., re- turnig next morning. kORENZ BROS. , Owners Agents for The Agitator. Seattle: I^avroff's stand, 617 3rd Ave.; Raymer s^old book store, 1522 First Ave. Ivynn, Mass. : S. Yaffee, 233 Union Street. New York City B. Vaselevshy, 212 Henry Street; M Maisel, 422 Grand Street Winnipeg, Manitoba: Elkins' news stand, 796 Maitn St; Subscribe for The Agitator