CHAPTER XXVI ITALY THE Italian Socialist Party held firmly to neutrality. A certain number of leading Socialists, however, were in favor of war against Germany and Austria. Among these were the whole of the Socialist Reform Party, Battisti, a Socialist leader from the Italian part of Austria, and Raimondi, a Socialist leader only recently expelled from the Party and solely because of his FreeMasonry. Finally, we have Mussolini, editor of the Avanti, who admitted his position in favor of war and was forced to resign (see Chapter XVII). It will also be noted that even those leaders who favor neutrality, like Della Seta, and the moderate, Turati, express the wish to see the Allies victorious in the war. The Syndicalist-Socialist Members of Parliament, Labriola and De Ambris, are also in favor of war. Suedekum and another German Socialist deputy, and also several well-known Austrian Socialists, visited Italy early in September, to try to defend the position of the German and Italian Parties. This led the Italian Party at Rome to issue the following statement: We Socialists regard the dispatch of the German mission to Italy as an offense against the dignity and independence of Italian Socialism; the more so as the German Social Democratic Party, by supporting the German and Austrian policy of aggression, has forfeited the right to the title of Internationalist Socialists. But if now this hope is vain, we express our desire that this infamous war may be concluded by the defeat of those who have provoked it-the Austrian and German Empires. For the Empires of Austria and Germany form the rampart of European reaction, even more than Russia, which is shaken by democratic and Socialist forces that have shown that they know how to attempt a heroic effort of liberation. If the German and Austrian Empires emerge victorious from the war, it will mean the triumph of military absolutism in its most brutal expression, of a barbarian horde massacring, devastating, destroying, and conquering in violation of every treaty and right and law. Nor do the German Socialists give us any confidence that they know how to prevent this; in the past they have only been able to realize advantageous contracts of labor and to attain gigantic election results without exercising any influence in the policy of their own country. The defeat of the German Empire may, by breaking down the feudal political régime of the empire, taking away from Russian absolutism the assistance it has hitherto enjoyed, and contributing to alter decisively the aims of all European policy, offer German Socialism an opportunity to emerge from its voluntary impotence and to redeem itself. Since, finally, the victory of the French Republic, now imbued with genuine Socialism, and that of England, where the truest democracy flourishes, means the victory of a European political régime open to all social conquests and desiring peace, and signifies the agreement between states at last free and nationally re-inforced by the substitution of a system of national militia for defense in the place of hordes professionally organized for aggression, this would also bring about the liberation of the German people also. Therefore, under existing conditions, while nearly the whole of Europe is at war, we may well raise our cry of horror and of protest; but our protest strikes only those who desired the war, not those who submit to it in order to defend themselves against oppression. In this war is outlined on one side the defense of European reaction, on the other the defense of all revolutions, past and future, brought about by an historical necessity stronger than the intentions of governments. And because of this we must affirm that there remains for us only one way of being internationalists, namely, to declare ourselves loyally in favor of whoever fights the empires of reaction, just as the Italian Socialists residing in Paris have understood that one way only remains to the anti-militarist—to arm and fight against the empires of militarism. This is our answer as Italian Socialists to the German Socialists. The mission of the German Socialists in Italy was chiefly remarkable for a Socialist meeting in Milan at which a discussion between Italians and Germans occurred. The speech of Della Seta was especially noteworthy. Della Seta found it exceedingly strange that the German Social Democrats should turn to their Italian comrades in such a moment. He said: "The defense of the conduct of the German Socialists does not convince us. You speak of that France which is allied with Russia, and of the English enemies of Germany, but we speak of our France, of revolutionary France, of the France of Jaurès, and of no other. The French Socialists continued to conduct an anti-military propaganda in a country clamoring for revenge. The French Socialists fought against the French preparation for war, which the Germans did not do in their country, or only did up to the point when the imperialistic feelings of the Kaiser and the bourgeoisie might be offended. "German domination is a worse danger for us than that of Czarism, because Czarism keeps the German army from marching on Paris. Because the French banner protects everything that is most revolutionary in spite of all failures and errors. The German cry to-day is, "Deutschland über Alles," and German Socialists are not working against this. "In the present case they ought to have acted according to republican principles. But the German Socialists published in Vorwaerts that the Kaiser had worked for two years against war.* You speak of German civilization being in danger, but we can see no civilization in the power that attacks neutral Belgium and accomplishes the destruction of Louvain. On the whole, you Socialists use the same arguments as the German bourgeois government. *This is a misinterpretation of the position of Vorwaerts. See above, pp. 138, 139. And "To us the Kaiser is no better than the Czar. . if there is a secret wish in your present words and steps, there is also a secret wish in our neutrality, but this wish shall be no secret for you, just as your thoughts are no secret for us. We say openly that we weep over destroyed Belgium, and follow the fate of France with trembling. And as to the relation of party to party we will, when peace draws near, call together an international conference as soon as possible." In his reply, Suedekum stated that he had been sent by the German Party. The neutrality proclamation of the Italian Party has already been reproduced in Chapter XVII. Their attitude toward peace, and incidentally toward some of the questions of the war, follows in Chapter XXIX. It may be noted here, however, that there are signs that they have abandoned their plan of a general strike in case of a declaration of war. CHAPTER XXVII THE UNITED STATES THE Socialist Party of the United States has favored immediate peace at all stages of the war, and all its thinking about the great conflict has been more or less influenced by this desire. However, there is a very wide variety of opinion, and as there has been no official Party Congress since the war, we sum up this opinion by quotations from those two party leaders who have served longest as representatives to the International Socialist Bureau, Morris Hillquit and Victor Berger, from the presidential candidate, Eugene V. Debs, and from his most popular rival at the last convention, Charles Edward Russell. We also reproduce quotations from the New York Call, the party's daily organ in English, and from its official weekly, The American Socialist. MORRIS HILLQUIT The most copious and complete American discussion of the relations between the Socialist Parties and the war has undoubtedly been that of Morris Hillquit, who, besides a number of briefer statements on the subject, wrote a series of articles in the Metropolitan Magazine. In the February number, Hillquit took a position which a number of Socialists have attacked as being nationalistic. Hillquit denies the justice of the criticism. The disputed passage is as follows: |