"Is not the situation identical for Belgium? According to your reasoning, we ought to have stood aside to let you pass; without counting that England and France would have demanded, and rightly, a severe reckoning. In Belgium we are unanimous in placing honor above immediate material interests, and between our honor and the defense of our liberties, and the lives of a hundred thousand men, we should not hesitate an instant. . . ." The two German comrades having repeatedly declared that Germany was only defending herself against the attack of England, France, and Russia, it was pointed out to them that such was not the contention of German Socialist journals until the eve of the war. Up to the last day they held the view that the danger was not at St. Petersburg, Paris, or London, but at Berlin, for the government by letting Austria take action against Servia, was defeating the evidently peaceful efforts of London and Paris, and making it impossible for Russia to follow up the pacific suggestions made to her. "That is quite true," said the two German Socialists, "but when we talked in that way, we knew it was not true; we did so for political tactics, the better to bring pressure on the government. At the most, if Russia did not want war, it was solely because she was not ready and the reorganization of her army was not completed. If we had waited a few more years Germany would have been crushed, and that we could not have at any price. But you, who criticise our attitude so bitterly, you say nothing about the French Socialists who are fighting with Russian barbarism against German civilization." "French Socialists have always fought with energy against the Franco-Russian alliance, consequently you cannot hold them responsible. But you cannot ignore that the initial cause of the Franco-Russian accord lies in German militarism and imperialism, which you have opposed in times of peace, but which you now uphold with all your might. And we are forced to ask ourselves what would have happened if our French comrades had been able to prevent this alliance, when, at the critical moment, you deny all the principles of the International, and that in your country the principal factor for peace, Socialism, takes the side of imperialism." "You cannot dispute our good faith as Internationalists!" "The attitude of the German Socialists does not allow us to consider them as such. You may be excellent national democrats, but you have not acted like Social Democrats. When we say 'you,' we speak, of course, of those who were in favor of voting the credits. We know that a minority declared against it, and that on the side of those fourteen members of the Reichstag there are others in the party, and particularly those who have devoted twenty years of their lives to fighting against Czarism, and who have seen clearly and have not allowed themselves to be carried away by the Chauvinist tide." "How do you know that? Who has told you? Not one of those who declared against voting the credits, not even Liebknecht would dare, in any case, to declare so publicly, for he certainly would not be re-elected!" Speaking of the fate reserved for Belgium, the two visitors, who did not for an instant doubt the triumph of the German armies, said that Belgium would not be annexed, but that she would not be allowed to maintain an army, that the forts of Liège, Antwerp, and Namur would be razed, and that Germany would make Antwerp the base of such a powerful fleet as would force England to abandon all idea of future war. The Social Democrats were not supporting the war with enthusiasm, but concern for the maintenance of their organization did not permit them to take up any other attitude. The last-mentioned argument, whether correctly reported in this instance or not, occurs frequently in the statements of the German Socialist majority, as several of our documents have shown. The preservation of the German Party organization, moreover, is regarded as important by the whole International Movement-provided it is not done at the cost of the lives of Belgian, French, and British workingmen, or in a way to cripple the relatively advanced democratic or semi-democratic governments of these countries. In a word the preservation of the German organization from attacks of the German Government and the militaristic part of the German people might (or might not) justify certain concessions to militarism-provided these are not paid for by the Socialist organizations of other countries. In a speech made in London (on January 8th) the Belgian Socialist Minister, Vandervelde, also discussed at length the German Socialist attitude to Belgium. He protested against any peace that might merely restore the status quo. He is reported to have said: What shocks us is the way in which the German Social Democrats have taken part in the deliberate and cruel crushing of the Belgian people. German Social Democrats have seen what has been done in Belgium. They have not merely read about it as you have. They have seen the art treasures destroyed at Louvain; they have seen the destruction at Malines, and the massacres that have taken place, the desolation and ruin of the villages, the violation of women and girls and nuns in the convents; and they have made no real effective protest. One or two Germans have done so, and to them we render homage. The Belgian Socialists protested that they were bound as a matter of solemn right and duty to defend the country. Oh, said our German friends, this is "bourgeois ideology"! But as Socialists and Belgian citizens we uphold a different code of honor. A signature of a Socialist is as sacred as the signature of a bourgeois, and the signature of the Belgian nation was affixed to the treaty of neutrality, and we must maintain it, not merely for our own sake, but also for the sake of Germany and France. Belgium fills the rôle of a buffer state, established on purpose to prevent Germany being invaded by France, and France being invaded by Germany, and it was our duty to fight against any power that violated that neutrality. We fight, not merely because we love freedom and independence, but because we know that without freedom Socialism will be impossible; and also because we would not quietly allow the Kaiser to stab the republic of France in the back. We Belgian Socialists are fighting, and will continue to fight, for Belgian independence. What will happen if the partisans of Germany have their way? What is it they ask for? The maintenance of the status quo ante—that things are to remain as they were before; that in the future as in the past the strong are to dominate the weak, and that might is to constitute right; that Schleswig is to remain part of Prussia; that Poland is to be held down by Prussian gendarmes; that Bohemia is to remain tyrannized over by Austria; that Trentino and Trieste are to remain in the grip of Austria; that Alsace and Lorraine, torn from France by brute force in 1871, are to remain German provinces. Then Belgium will lose her independence, and Holland become a mere vassal state to Germany. On the side of the Allies stood the liberation of small countries: Ireland liberated by England, Poland by Prussia and Russia, Alsace-Lorraine returned to their mother country, reparation and justice to the Balkan nationalities-these are the considerations which justify the attitude of Belgium and France. There are some English people who do not feel this enthusiasm and display indifference. The Independent Labor Party had received [congratulatory] messages from Kautsky and Bernstein, who supported the voting of the war credits, applauding the I. L. P. for opposing such a course here. This will injure the Socialist cause in this country [Great Britain]. CHAPTER XXIV RUSSIA WHEN We come to Russia, we no longer find the same unanimity as we did at the outbreak of the war. Russia's leading Marxist, Plechanoff, who enjoys among the world Socialists a reputation as high as that of Guesde, and second only to that of Kautsky, has indorsed the French Socialist view of the war, and Axelrod, the next best known publicist of the same faction (the so-called Minority), takes a somewhat similar view. On the other hand, Martoff, and the other leaders of this faction and of other groups, still oppose the war, and are doing all in their power to utilize the present opportunity exclusively for the purpose of bringing about a revolution in Russia, as the arrest of a number of Socialist members of the Duma indicates. (As the article of Martoff refers to peace, rather than to war, we postpone our selections to Chapter XXIX.) That is, both the "Majority" and the "Minority" factions of the Social Democratic organization, the Social Revolutionists, and the various national Socialist parties -the Finns, Poles, Lithuanians, Jews, etc. are for the most part to seize the first opportunity for insurrection. The Lithuanian Nationalists, for example, have sought to strengthen their own position by aiding the Russian Government to conquer a part of East Prussia, on the ground that this territory once belonged to Lithuania and that a certain number of Lithuanians are still living there. To this the Lithuanian Socialists |