

Notes on the Front [2 October 1915]


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#### Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition


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Notes on the Front [2 October 1915]
===================================


Author: James Connolly
----------------------


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Aindrias Ó CathasaighElectronic edition compiled by Benjamin Hazard

proof corrections by Aisling Byrne

Funded by University College, Cork via The Writers of Ireland Project 2. Second draft.Extent of text: 2517 words#### Publication


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#### Sources


**Edition**2. Aindrias Ó Cathasaigh (ed.), James Connolly: The Lost Writings (London 1997).
**Selected further reading**2. James Connolly and William Walker, The Connolly-Walker controversy on socialist unity in Ireland (Dublin 1911, repr. Cork 1986).
3. Robert Lynd, James Connolly: an appreciation, to James Connolly, Collected works (2 vols, October 1916, repr. Dublin 1987) i, pp. 495-507.
4. Lambert McKenna, The social teachings of James Connolly (Dublin 1920).
5. Desmond Ryan, James Connolly: his life, work and writings (Dublin 1924).
6. G. Schüller, James Connolly and Irish freedom: a marxist analysis (Chicago 1926, repr. Cork 1974).
7. Noelle Davis, Connolly of Ireland: patriot and socialist (Carnarvon 1946).
8. Richard Michael Fox, James Connolly: the forerunner (Tralee 1946).
9. Desmond Ryan, Socialism and nationalism: a selection from the writings of James Connolly (Dublin 1948).
10. Desmond Ryan, 'James Connolly', in J. W. Boyle (ed.), Leaders and workers (Cork 1960, repr. 1978).
11. C. Desmond Greaves, The life and times of James Connolly (London 1961, repr. Berlin 1976).
12. François Bédarida, Le socialisme et la nation: James Connolly et l'Irlande (Paris 1965).
13. Joseph Deasy, James Connolly: his life and teachings (Dublin 1966).
14. James Connolly, Press poisoners in Ireland and other articles (Belfast 1968).
15. James Connolly, Yellow unions in Ireland and other articles (Belfast 1968).
16. Peter McKevitt, James Connolly (Dublin 1969).
17. Owen Dudley Edwards, The mind of an activist: James Connolly (Dublin 1981).
18. Derry Kelleher, Quotations from James Connolly: an anthology in three parts (2 vols Drogheda 1972).
19. Peter Berresford Ellis (ed.), James Connolly: selected writings edited with an introduction by P. Berresford Ellis (Harmondsworth 1973).
20. Samuel Levenson, James Connolly: a biography (London 1973).
21. James Connolly, Ireland upon the dissecting table: James Connolly on Ulster and Partition (Cork 1975).
22. Nora Connolly O'Brien, James Connolly: portrait of a rebel father (Dublin 1975).
23. E. Strauss, Irish nationalism and British democracy (Westport CT 1975).
24. Bernard Ransom, Connolly's Marxism (London 1980).
25. Communist Party of Ireland, Breaking the chains: selected writings of James Connolly on women (Belfast 1981).
26. Ruth Dudley Edwards, James Connolly (Dublin 1981).
27. Brian Kelly, James Connolly and the fight for an Irish Workers' Republic (Cleveland, OH 1982).
28. John F. Murphy, Implications of the Irish past: the socialist ideology of James Connolly from an historical perspective (unpubl. MA thesis, University of North Carolina at Charlotte 1983).
29. Anthony Lake, James Connolly: the development of his political ideology (unpubl. MA thesis, NUI Cork 1984).
30. Frederick Ryan, Socialism, democracy and the Church (Dublin 1984). With reviews of Connolly's 'Labour in Irish History' and Jaures' 'Studies in socialism'.
31. Connolly: the Polish aspects: a review of James Connolly's political and spiritual affinity with Józef Pilsudski, leader of the Polish Socialist Party, organiser of the Polish legions and founder of the Polish state (Belfast 1985).
32. X. T. Zagladina, James Connolly (Moscow 1985).
33. James Connolly and Daniel De Leon, The Connolly-De Leon Controversy: On wages, marriage and the Church (London 1986).
34. David Howell, A Lost Left: three studies in socialism and nationalism (Chicago 1986).
35. Priscilla Metscher, Republicanism and socialism in Ireland: a study of the relationship of politics and ideology from the United Irishmen to James Connolly, Bremer Beiträge zur Literatur- und Ideologiegeschichte 2 (Frankfurt-am-Main 1986).
36. Michael O'Riordan, General introduction, to James Connolly, Collected works (2 vols Dublin 1987) i, pp. ix-xvii.
37. Cathal O'Shannon, Introduction, to James Connolly, Collected works (2 vols Dublin 1987) i, 11-16
38. Austen Morgan, James Connolly: a political biography (Manchester 1988).
39. Helen Clark, Sing a rebel song: the story of James Connolly, born Edinburgh 1868, executed Dublin 1916 (Edinburgh 1989).
40. Kieran Allen, The politics of James Connolly (London 1990).
41. Andy Johnston, James Larraggy and Edward McWilliams, Connolly: a Marxist analysis (Dublin 1990).
42. Lambert McKenna, The social teachings of James Connolly, by Lambert McKenna, ed. Thomas J. Morrissey (Dublin 1991).
43. Donnacha Ní Gabhann, The reality of Connolly: 1868-1916 (Dublin 1993).
44. William K. Anderson, James Connolly and the Irish left (Dublin 1994).
45. Proinsias Mac Aonghusa, What Connolly said: James Connolly's writings (Dublin 1994).
46. James L. Hyland, James Connolly: life and times (Dundalk 1997).
47. William McMullen, With James Connolly in Belfast (Belfast 2001).
48. Donal Nevin, James Connolly: a full life (Dublin 2005).

James Connolly Notes on the Front [2 October 1915] in , Ed. Aindrias Ó Cathasaigh James Connolly: The Lost Writings. Pluto, London, (1997) page 174–178### Encoding


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Created: by James Connolly

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* (2010-04-26) Beatrix Färber (ed.)

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#### Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition: E900002-053


### Notes on the Front [2 October 1915]: Author: James Connolly




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p.174


Notes on the Front
------------------


### *2 October 1915*


Now, everyone has a chance to be happy! All we have to do to support the Government in its prosecution of the war for Civilisation and Small Nationalities is to continue eating, drinking and smoking as usual.


*The Budget does it.*


The poor old mother, worn out by a lifetime of toil amid misery and wretchedness, need no longer weep bitter tears over her inability to help the war against the Huns. The kind British Government comes to her aid, and enables her to contribute to the successful prosecution of the war without moving





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p.175






from her seat in the corner at the fire. Every time her son or grandson, daughter or granddaughter, wish to give her a cup of tea the kind British Government steps in and forbids the Christian act until they have first paid over to that Government a tax to enable it to buy something to kill Germans.


*The Budget does it.*


Your mother may be dying for want of a cup of tea to cheer her old age, your child may be in the last agonies of fever or ague, and fainting for a warm drink, your wife may long for a cheering cup to soothe her nerves after a day of trouble and sickness – no matter. The Government will forbid you doing your duty to these sufferers until you first enable it to push on the work of killing Germans – and pay the extra duty on the tea.


*The Budget does it.*


Your old father may be passing away and longing for a smoke to ease his last days, but he cannot get a smoke of tobacco until you pay the Government the extra tax to enable it to carry on the war. You may hate the war, and believe it to be a product of hell — conceived in sin, and begotten in iniquity — but pay for it you must before you can get a smoke, or the old father 'get a blast of the pipe'.


*The Budget does it.*


The food of the poor is taxed to pay for the wars of the rich. The tax that will be put upon the working man and woman will be equal to an increase of at least 6/8 in the £ in prices, and on many articles equal to 10/- in the £. This means that the wages of the working class will be reduced one third at least, and in some cases one half.


*The Budget does it.*


How can we pay it? Already the working class is staggering under the heavy prices put on all the necessaries of life since the beginning of the war; already the war has meant less food on our tables; less clothes on our backs; less coal on our fires; less boots on our own or our children's feet. More taxes on food means more starvation, more nakedness, more wretchedness and general misery. The working class has seen its best blood driven into the army by the compulsion of hunger and the threat of hunger, now it is to see the miserable relatives of those recruits and reservists, and those defiant ones who refused to be either driven or fooled, alike compelled to pay for the war in hunger and suffering by a tax upon its necessaries of life.


*The Budget does it.*




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p.176


Up and down Ireland on every Monday morning there is to be seen outside the Post Office the spectacle of Irish wives and mothers and children standing patiently in line like criminals, waiting for the receipt of the blood money which the British Government allows them in return for the limbs and lives of their husbands, sons or fathers. Some have given the limbs and lives of their nearest and dearest with sorrow and reluctance, some with bitter protests and unavailing tears, a few with willingness and drunken joy, but the Government now reaches out its hand and takes back from all alike half of its blood money by a tax upon the food these poor people must buy in order to live.


The tax upon the food of the poor is equal to an increased tax of fifty per cent. Yet what a howl would go up if it were proposed to tax the rich with a fifty per cent tax. As it is the increased income tax will still not represent one tenth part of the income of a rich man, whilst the increased prices which will follow the tax on food will undoubtedly mean the loss to the worker of at least one half of his weekly income. In other words, it will soon take One Pound to buy the same necessaries of life as could have been bought for ten shillings before the war.


The purchasing power of your wages will be cut in half.


*The Budget does it.*


Hurrah for the Budget. I don't think.


From the Huddersfield Worker we take the following parable written during the American Civil War by America's famous humorist, Artemus Ward. It reads as if it were written yesterday:




> 
> *William, a Patriot*
> 
> 
> *Re-dedicated to War Exploiters*
> 
> 
> I.
> 
> 
> ‘No, William Barker, you cannot have my daughter's hand in marriage until you are her equal in wealth and social position.’
> 
> 
> The speaker was a haughty old man of some sixty years, and the person whom he addressed was a fine looking young man of twenty-five.
> 
> 
> With a sad aspect the young man withdrew from the stately mansion. (Huddersfield Worker)
> 
> 
> 




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p.177



> 
> II.
> 
> 
> Six months later the young man stood in the presence of the haughty old man.
> 
> 
> ‘What! *You* here again,’ angrily cried the old man.
> 
> 
> ‘Aye, old man,’ proudly exclaimed William Barker, ‘I am here, your daughter's equal and yours!’
> 
> 
> The old man's lips curled with scorn. A derisive smile lit up his cold features; when, casting upon the marble centre table an enormous roll of dollar greenbacks, William Barker cried:
> 
> 
> ‘See! Look on this wealth. And I've tenfold more! Listen, old man! You spurned me from your door. But I did not despair. I secured a contract for furnishing the Army of the – with beef –’
> 
> 
> ‘Yes, yes!’ eagerly exclaimed the old man.
> 
> 
> ‘– and I bought up all the disabled cavalry horses I could find –’
> 
> 
> ‘I see, I see!’ cried the old man. ‘And good beef they make, too.’
> 
> 
> ‘They do! they do! and the profits are immense.’
> 
> 
> ‘I should say so!’
> 
> 
> ‘And now, sir, I claim your daughter's fair hand!’
> 
> 
> ‘Boy, she is yours. But hold! Look me in the eye. Throughout all this have you been loyal?’
> 
> 
> ‘To the core!’ cried William Barker.
> 
> 
> ‘And,’ continued the old man, in a voice husky with emotion, ‘are you in favour of a vigorous prosecution of the war?’
> 
> 
> ‘I am! I am!’
> 
> 
> ‘Then boy, take her! Maria, child, come hither. Your William claims thee. Be happy, my children! And whatever our lot in life may be, *Let us all support the government!*’ (Huddersfield Worker)
> 
> 
> 




That sounds home-like, does it not? We have a good many jingo patriots here (save the mark) who are making a fortune in the same way, and of course howling for the war as long as it pays them a good thumping profit.


The Americans coined the phrase to describe the Civil War that it was:


*A Rich Man's War but a Poor Man's Fight*.


It was a good phrase, terse and descriptive. But are all wars not rich men's wars, in the sense that they are made for the profit of the rich, and poor men's fights in the sense that it is the blood of the poor that is spilt in them all?


But some day the sons of the poor will determine to fight





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p.178






only in their own interest, and against All the Ruling Thieves of Civilisation.


And then –



> 1. The proud throne shall crumble,
>   
> The diadem shall wave,
>   
> The Tribes of Earth shall humble
>   
> The pride of those who reign.
>   
> And war shall lay its pomp away
>   
> The fame which heroes cherish,
>   
> And glory born in bloody fray
>   
> Shall fade, decay and perish.
> 
















