"A Peace Appeal to Labor" Published (1898)
Sun Apr 17, 1898
On this day in 1898, Bolton Hall, the treasurer of the American Longshoremen's Union, wrote "A Peace Appeal to Labor", urging workers to oppose American imperialism in the Spanish-American War on a class basis.
The piece was written and published at height of yellow journalism and war fever in the U.S., which was pushing for U.S. interference in the Cuban struggle for independence against Spain, and pleaded for the working class to not support the coming war. Here is a short excerpt from Hall's piece:
"If there is a war, you will furnish the corpses and the taxes, and others will get the glory. Speculators will make money out of it -- that is, out of you.
Men will get high prices for inferior supplies, leaky boats, for shoddy clothes and pasteboard shoes, and you will have to pay the bill, and the only satisfaction you will get is the privilege of hating your Spanish fellow-workmen, who are really your brothers and who have had as little to do with the wrongs of Cuba as you have."
- Date: 1898-04-17
- Learn More: books.google.com, www.historyisaweapon.com.
- Tags: #Labor, #Imperialism.
- Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org