and class hatred among our fellow citizens, it will surely fall,
for no nation that is divided against itself can stand.

From the very fact that "The Call" of February 10, 1912, dared to
publish the following article, showing the intense hatred of its author
for the Stars and Stripes, our national emblem, the reader can judge for
himself whether the thousands of unoffended subscribers have the
faintest spark of patriotism in their hearts:

"'At least honor the flag!' they cry in desperation. 'Honor the
flag which stands for freedom, equality and fraternity!'

"What flag? The American flag? The Stars and Stripes? The flag
which floats over every hellhole of mine and mill and prison? The
flag which floats over station house and barracks whence issue
police and soldiers to batter down and murder workers exercising
their constitutional rights of free speech and free assemblage?
Honor the flag which you, our masters, have changed from a flag of
liberty into a symbol of the cruelest exploitation and vilest
oppression of the new civilization?

"If I had been Samuel Gompers when he was reproached by the
capitalists for placing his foot on the American flag, I should
have answered: 'Yes, I trampled on it, and, more than that, I spit
upon your flag, not mine; I loathe the Stars and Stripes, once the
symbol of liberty for all, but now the stripes represent the bloody
stripes left by your lash on the back of the worker, and the stars,
the bullet and bayonet wounds in his breast. To hell with your
flag!...

"Down with the Stars and Stripes! Run up the red flag of humanity."

Not alone do the members of the rank and file of the Socialist Party
attack the Star Spangled Banner, but even its foremost leaders are
guilty of the same offense. "The Comrade," July, 1904, furnishes us
with an attack made upon our country's flag by no less a personage than
Eugene V. Debs:

"Have you a drop of blood in your veins? Has your manhood rotted into
cowardice? Wake up and take your place in the class struggle. For the
desecration of the flag your leader is in jail. What flag? The flag of
the capitalist class--the flag that floats over the bull pens of
Colorado. The wholesome truths he stamped upon its stripes are your
shame and your masters' crime. Rally to the red flag of international
Socialism, the symbol of the proletarian revolt."

CHAPT