A serious-minded comrade and dedicated partisan of the working class. Swedish-born Frans Bostrom had joined the worker’s movement in his native land before emigrating to Washington State in the early 1900s. There he worked as a book-keeper, proprietor of a Marxist book and cigar stand, an editor of Socialist papers, and a shipyard worker with his last years in boarding-house poverty. Becoming a leading forces of the large, powerful left-wing in Washington State, he was elected State Secretary and later to the National Committee. Unafraid of political combat and a social rebel, Bostrom wrote–to the dismay of the many pastors and lawyers in the S.P.—with proper proletarian disdain for the ruling laws and morals of the time. Also, he intervened in all the Party’s consequential debates, pushing always to the left. Though later withdrawing from most activity, he remained a rebel, joining the Communist movement and supporting it with his meager resources before taking his life at age 62.

‘Utopian Versus Revolutionary Socialism’ by Frans Bostrom from The Washington Socialist. No. 222. April 8, 1915.

Man, and every other animal, and perhaps also every vegetable organism, is to himself a pivot around which the whole rest of the universe moves. To each there is first and foremost but one thing to consider, namely “I” (the EGO). Everything surrounding him has a value exactly in proportion to its usefulness to HIM. In natural condition his first instinct is self-preservation at any price. To the best of his understanding he will steer clear of situations that may endanger his existence or make his life uncomfortable and miserable. In all the world he can expect no other consideration from any other organism than what is conceded to him for the usefulness he renders to each respectively. No one can afford to give more. All sentiments and ideals are but manifestations of material needs or their gratifications. In satisfying his needs he economizes with his energy, follows the lines of least resistance, just as a drop of water spilled on a dusty table finds its way along the lowest depression and rolls along until it falls to the floor. In his dealings with other beings he finds the law of the strongest, the survival of the fittest, operating absolutely and mercilessly. He found it to his advantage to co-operate with men of his own race and standard of advancement against other races and other degrees of civilization. He found it advantageous to unite with his neighbors to resist invasions of strangers and so founded tribes and nations. And finally he combines within the nation with men of similar interests for the protection of mutual interests. At no time will he (if he understands his interests) enter into any combination, unless it promises a greater return than individual effort can bring. In other words, individualism is his natural, animal, condition, collectivism is his advancement, his experience, civilization.

WHY PROGRESS IS SLOW

Why does civilization advance so slowly?

Because, acting under the impulse of the instinct of self-preservation, men, when superior weapons were invented, used them, not for the benefit of all mankind, but for their own welfare.

Because, when natures forces became more or less clear to some men, they, instead of enlightening their fellows, utilized their knowledge for the mystification and mental enslavement of mankind, and thus became the priesthood and parasites of the world, following the lines of least resistance.

Because, when tools and machinery were invented, the great mass permitted the possessors to use these inventions as a means for its own enslavement. The law of the strongest alone can settle the problem. Will the giant, labor, strike the mosquito, capital, that is sucking its life blood? Comrade Barzee appeals to the mosquito to refrain from making its living in its natural way, appeal to the working class to strike the pest before all strength has oozed out of the arm. That is the difference between Utopian and Revolutionary Socialism. Comrade Barzee believes in the community of interests between the insect and the man, homogeneity of the exploiter and the exploited. I do not. Government is the rule of the club. We must swing the club. Our forefathers, captured in battle by their tribal enemies were made slaves. Given a chance, they would without hesitation have killed their masters to gain freedom. Our freedom can no longer be gained in so simple a manner. But that fact and that alone should be our only reason for not using the means. It doesn’t pay. But any one who hesitates to use the means that will work, whose superstitious scruples are stronger than his love of emancipation, is a traitor to the cause. Opportunism is the idea that the elevation of some of us to the office of “trustee” to watch the other slaves, is a gain to all, a step in the right direction. Is it?

The Washington Socialist was a weekly newspaper of the Socialist Party of Snohomish County published in Everett, Washington and edited by Maynard Shipley. Closely aligned with the Industrial Workers of the World, who were strong in the Pacific Northwest’s lumber industry, the paper ran for only 18 months when it was renamed The Northwest Worker with Henry Watts as editor in June, 1915, and again Co-Operative News with Perter Husby as editor in October, 1917. Like virtually all of the left press, the Co-Operative News was suppressed in June 1918 under the Federal Espionage Act.

PDF of full issue: https://washingtondigitalnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=WASHSOC19150408