‘Manifest Destiny and Capitalist Morality’ by Daniel De Leon from the Weekly People. Vol. 10 No. 34. November 17, 1900.

“The United States Government is fitting up houses of prostitution in Manila for the benefit of the soldiers. Periodical inspection will be made by army surgeons.”—Exchange.

“In the name of all that is Good and Holy, in the name of the men, women and children who have come to us from foreign shores to better their condition, here let us stand together, maintaining the wages of the workingman, availing ourselves of these great reservoirs of wealth that God has given us and go forward, brushing from our paths all demagogues and ambitious men by telling them that we know our business and are going to attend to it.”—From printed report of Mark Hanna’s “speech” to workingmen.

In the name of “Manifest Destiny” and the Divinely ordained mission of the American people to spread Christianity to the isles of the sea and over the Orient, the capitalist class has conquered the Philippines and is reaching out to “civilize” China. The blasphemous claim that the capitalist is only the agent of God, carries with it the further excuse that the rapine, looting and slaughter is willed by God.

Territorial conquest involves the establishment of just such institutions as are mentioned above. Whether they are officially recognized and regulated matters not.

They inevitably “follow the flag.” Capitalism first makes it impossible for the wage worker to have home and family htake up arms to make a living and invade foreign lands for the purpose of fulfilling the “Manifest Destiny” of the class which robs and rules him. He is deprived of the tool of production and given the knife of the assassin; he is deprived of family life and given the house of prostitution.

And all this is cloaked with a garment labelled “Divine Mission,” and “Manifest Destiny.” The capitalist is more hypocritical than was the feudal baron who used the crusades for the rescue of the holy sepulchre as a mask for acquiring the wealth of weaker peoples. The Crusader believed in himself and his religion; the capitalist prates of “all that is Good and Holy” while adulterating goods, building bagnios and destroying the family life and virtue of those who fight his battles.

The capitalist class worships but one god: Capital; it desires but one Heaven: a world where labor power costs nothing; it fears and shivers before one Hell: the thought that the capitalist will be compelled to work for a living. Socialism spells hell to the capitalist and he will do everything in his power to avert that punishment. He proclaims his “Manifest Destiny” to be the conquest of foreign lands, and he sets up vice as a pillar of the capitalist system, all in the interest of capitalist morality. He knows that the conquest of foreign markets is the only escape from domestic shipwreck. He does not know that it is only a temporary respite, that his destiny is to go down, together with his “Divine Mission” of spreading vice and crime and that the working class which he exploits and degrades to-day will to-morrow dictate terms to him in this wise:

“You offered us vice for virtue with the alternative of accepting or starving. We offer you virtue for vice, work instead of idleness, you will take this offer or starve.”

The Republican party, faithful agent of the capitalist class forces idleness, crime and prostitution on the people. The Socialist Labor Party, devoted agent of the Working Class will destroy prostitution and the crime-breeding capitalist class, together with its political agent.

New York Labor News Company was the publishing house of the Socialist Labor Party and their paper The People. The People was the official paper of the Socialist Labor Party of America (SLP), established in New York City in 1891 as a weekly. The New York SLP, and The People, were dominated Daniel De Leon and his supporters, the dominant ideological leader of the SLP from the 1890s until the time of his death. The People became a daily in 1900. It’s first editor was the French socialist Lucien Sanial who was quickly replaced by De Leon who held the position until his death in 1914. Morris Hillquit and Henry Slobodin, future leaders of the Socialist Party of America were writers before their split from the SLP in 1899. For a while there were two SLPs and two Peoples, requiring a legal case to determine ownership. Eventual the anti-De Leonist produced what would become the New York Call and became the Social Democratic, later Socialist, Party. The De Leonist The People continued publishing until 2008.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/the-people-slp/001117-weeklypeople-v10n34.pdf