CHAPTER X

GERMANY

THE German Socialist Party has over 1,100,000 members and secured 4,239,000 votes, one-third of the total number cast, at the last Reichstag election in 1912. Its vote increased nearly one million during the five years from 1907 to 1912, and it now has 113 of the 397 votes of the Reichstag, constituting the most numerous party in that body, and more numerous also than either the combined Liberal or the combined Conservative groups. The party has the support of three-fourths of Germany's labor unionists. It owns 86 daily papers and controls many thousands of subsidiary organizations of various kinds. The actual or potential influence of such a party upon public opinion, if not directly upon the government, is evident.

While the declarations of the Austrian Socialists were first in point of time, those of the German Party are first in point of importance. Its position was clearly defined by its anti-war proclamations of July 25th and 31st, by the editorials of Vorwaerts and Die Neue Zeit, the official party organs, and by the resolutions of the Berlin mass meetings of July 29th, and the revolutionary resolutions of the Wurtemburg Socialist Convention, then in session. In all of these documents it will be noted that there is the strongest possible opposition to the war and that every conceivable argument is used against it.

Even the most opportunistic Socialist newspapers,

now very warlike, offered no exceptions. We close this chapter with the official declaration of the party in the Reichstag, on August 4th, in favor of supporting the war. This is, of course, one of the most important documents in the whole volume.

Many of the declarations, articles, and speeches in Part IV, either attack or defend this official statement of the German Socialist position. Only one note needs to be made at this point, namely, that the party refused all responsibility for the declaration of war, and supported the war only on the ground that it was already being fought. It is probable, therefore, that the Socialists are not to be blamed, directly or indirectly, for the actual declaration of war. Those Socialists who attack the party's action in supporting the war on August 4th, claim only that this action may so seriously strengthen the government as to enable it to prolong the war, and so greatly increase the destruction of life and property it entails, and that this action may postpone or make more difficult that democratic revolution against the military party now in control of Germany, which might otherwise have been expected at the close of the war. The Socialists who defend the German Party on the other hand do so chiefly on the ground that its support of the German Government helped to prevent a Russian victory.

It will be noted that none of the later statements of Socialists outside of Germany, and only a few of those of the Germans, regard English or French defeat by Germany as desirable from the Socialist standpoint, while almost none desire to see Germany defeated by Russia. The chief difference of opinion, then, is solely on the question as to whether predominance of defeat or victory for the German Government is more to be wished for from the International Socialist point of

view. The main question is: Is it or is it not to the advantage of International Socialism that the German Government should be able to strengthen itself by results obtained from the war?

The official proclamations of the Party Executive before the war were as radically anti-governmental as the editorials of the party press. Many of the latter threatened revolution or defeat. We shall begin with the official proclamations.

PROCLAMATION OF GERMAN SOCIALIST PARTY (JULY 25TH)

The fields in the Balkans are not yet dry from the blood of those who have been massacred by thousands; the ruins of the devastated towns are still smoking; unemployed, hungry men, widowed women, and orphaned children are still wandering about the country. Yet once more the war fury, unchained by Austrian imperialism, is setting out to bring death and destruction over the whole of Europe.

Though we also condemn the behavior of the Greater Servia Nationalists, the frivolous war-provocation of the Austro-Hungarian Government calls for the sharpest protest. For the demands of that government are more brutal than have ever been put to an independent state in the world's history, and can only be intended deliberately to provoke war. In the name of humanity and civilization the class-conscious proletariat of Germany raises a flaming protest against this criminal behavior of the war provokers. It imperiously demands of the German Government that it use its influence with the Austrian Government for the preservation of peace, and, if the shameful war cannot be prevented, to abstain from any armed interference. Not one drop of a German soldier's blood shall be sacrificed to the lust of power of the Austrian rulers and to the imperialistic profit-interests.

Comrades, we appeal to you to express at mass meetings without delay the German proletariat's firm determination to maintain peace. A solemn hour has come, more serious than any during the last few decades. Danger is approaching! The world-war is threatening! The ruling classes who in time of peace gag you, despise you and exploit you, would misuse you as food for cannon. Everywhere there must sound in the

ears of those in power: "We will have no war! Down with war! Long live the international brotherhood of the peoples!" (Our italics.)

THE LAST MESSAGE OF THE PARTY EXECUTIVE (JULY 31ST)

The second manifesto, issued immediately after the mobilization order, differed in no essential way from the first-as its leading passages, which follow, demonstrate:

Comrades, martial law has been declared! The next hour may bring with it the outbreak of the world-war. And with it bitter trials will be forced upon the people, upon our whole Continent.

Up to this last moment the international proletariat has done its duty. Beyond the German border everything is being done to keep peace, to make war impossible. Our earnest protests, our repeated attempts to avert this catastrophe have been useless. The conditions under which we are living have once more been stronger than our will and the will of our working-class brothers. So we must look at that which lies before us firmly, unflinchingly.

The terrible butchery of the European nations is a horrible verification of the warnings we have given in vain to our ruling classes for more than a generation. . .

Berlin, July 31, 1914.

THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

MASS MEETINGS IN BERLIN (JULY 28TH)

On the 29th of July, twenty-eight Social Democratic mass meetings were called in Berlin, the text being "War against War." A resolution was passed which ended as follows: "The German workers, just as the French, are now confronted by the problem of so dealing with their respective governments as to prevent the sacrificing of these peoples to the desperado tactics of Austria and Russia. Down with the cry for war! Long live the international brotherhood of man!”’*

* Vorwaerts, July 29th.

At these twenty-eight meetings-one alone of which had 70,000 persons in attendance-the Marseillaise was, as usual, sung-and also on the streets.

Similar meetings were held in nearly all the other large cities. In many places they were dispersed by the police, and nationalistic or "patriotic" counterdemonstrations were also held-though the Socialist meetings are reported to have been the larger in most

cases.

The Socialists of Wurtemburg, especially Stuttgart, seemed to take a position even more revolutionary than those of Berlin. Here the clear threat of a general strike was heard.

RESOLUTION OF THE SOCIALIST PARTY CONGRESS OF

WURTEMBURG (JULY 25TH, 26TH)

(Vorwaerts, July 27th)

On the 25th and 26th of July the National Congress of Wurtemburg Social Democrats convened at Esslingen. The following resolution, proposed by the well-known Clara Zetkin, a member of the national executive of the German Party, was passed:

"The representatives of the Wurtemburg Social Democracy promise the masses to assemble and train them, on the ground of the revolutionary class struggle, so that they may be prepared with self-sacrifice to put forth their full economic and political power for the maintenance of peace. They send greetings to the brave proletariat of Russia, which has again entered the lists in a strike of the masses for economic and political rights. They greet it also as a strong shield for peace in these dire times. The fact that the Russian proletariat has been able to cripple Russian Czarism indicates the great power that may be wielded by a daring and unselfish working-class organization in the battle for freedom and peace."

THE POSITION OF 'VORWAERTS'

We next give selections showing the position of Vorwaerts, the official party organ, from July 25th to Au