Teacher: Why cannot a boy Socialist be a Scout?
Scholar: Because a Boy Scout has te salute the Union Jack.
Teacher: Why must not a boy Socialist salute the Union Jack?
Scholar: Because the Union Jack is an emblem of oppression and slavery.
There we have the breezy, happy, good influences of the Scout move ment trodden down to make room for feelings of hatred.
Anyone who has attended a Comniunist meeting, whether it be an outdoor demonstration or a gathering held indoors, must have been impressed by the note of depress'on struck by the speakers. A jolly Bolshevist is scarcely to be found, and no wonder, for the "Red: flag Brigade," call them by what name you will, realize that they are proclaiming & doctrine, which, if ever put into actual practice, can only be after such strife and bloodshed as will bring tremendous niiseries to masses of people. There is no joy in the Communist creed for it is one that expressly sets cut to engender feelings of hatred and to propagate a sprit of revenge.
Gop a "Rosser Gop."
A recent number of "The Communist," the official organ of - the Communistic party of Australia, contains an article which just about reaches the high water mark in the matter of blasphemy and illogic~ ality. Early in this diatribe is this statement, in reference to the phrase "For God and the King." "It is only natural that God should be called upon, because all gods have been robber gods, which justified every act of murder and robbery which the ruling class has cared to commit." It is further stated that "when the workers have zreed themselves and brought about the abolition of classes there will be me room in the new world foe religion." There fellows a reference to the "Black International of Priests" and readers are told that "Suffer little children to coma unto me' has been the slogan of the Black International for 2,000 years.
ions have gone to them, and while capitalism deformed their bodies, the priests deformed their little minds."
There is something hideously brutal about such a distortion of facts. Whatever truth there may he in the contention that some of the old, rigid, tenets of religion have been forsaken by the Church itself, the suggestion that even the gentiest utterances of Christ ar: exploited by capitalism through the clergy for the sole purpose of grinding the faces of tha poor and perpetuating want and misery, seems to be unutterably base and immoral. When coupled with the call of the Communist Sunday School "We want little children to come to us,'"? it amounts to sickening hypocrisy.
Communist "Kings," we are told in this precious article, "are puppets, gods are all robbers, and the Chris: tian God has gone West! " Both are hideous bogies that the capitalist Goes not believe in, bub uses for his own predatory purposes. The only morality, the only purity of thought, the only hope for humanity lies in Communism."
Here is a sample of Communist morality, taken from the same paper. "All attending the Protestant demonstration at the (Sydney) Town Hall are requested to bring a Union Jack. Now boys get in early and sell all the flags you can. Make hay while the sun It amounts to this then capitalism is wrong and wicked, and the Union Jack is the emblem of capitalism used for its own gain. Nevertheless when you' get a chance to trade yourself and use the Union Jack for your own gain, do it with your might. Communism as it preached by its more vigorous advocates, after having dropped any pretence of logic from its mamifestes, appears to have decided ts throw overboard any moral senti-rents it may hitherto have posses-sea.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.