The people, through their representatives, have never ruled this country and do not rule it to-day. The Constitution of the United States will not let them. It will not let them vote directly for President. In the beginning, the people did not even choose the electors who elected the President. State Legislatures chose them. No man except a legislator ever voted for the electors who chose Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison and some others. To this day the Constitution denies the right of the people to choose United States Senators and Justices of the United States Supreme Court. In the few states where the people practically choose United States Senators they do so only by “going around the end” of the Constitution. They exact a promise from legislative candidates to elect the senators for whom the people have expressed a preference. But this is wholly extra-constitutional. If the legislators were to break their promises, the United States Supreme Court would be compelled to sustain them in their constitutional right to do so. Now, here is the point. Granted that the American Revolution was of value to the American working class. Granted that the ills that followed from American rule were not so grievous as the ills inflicted by the ruling class of England. Grant all this and more. Still, is it not true that if it had not been for the ruling class of England, there would have been no occasion for a war? Is it not true that the English people, if they had been in control of their own government, never would have harmed the people of America? When did the English people, or any other people, ever harm anybody? When did a thievish, murderous ruling class neglect to harm any people whose plunder seemed possible and profitable? The idea that the people of one country, if left to themselves, would ever become embittered against the people of another country, is absurd. Test this statement by your own feelings. Are you so angry at some Japanese peasant who is now patiently toiling upon his little hillside in Japan, that you would like to go to Japan and kill him? Is there any person in Germany whom you never saw that you want to kill? Of course not. But if you are a “patriotic” American citizen, you may some day cross a sea to kill somebody. If you believe in “following the flag,” the flag may some day lead you into the hell of war. If you believe “it is sweet to die for one’s country,” you may some day be shot to pieces. But if so, you will not die for your country. Your country wants you to live. You will die for the ruling class of your country. If you should expire from gunshot wounds in Mexico, you might die for Mr. Guggenheim, or some other noble citizen who will be far from the firing line. Wherever you may die from war-wounds, you will die to put more money into somebody else’s pockets.