western leaders was held in our four tiny rooms in street here was first considered the stand the were to take it was not the first time we had put our foot down upon war but it was the first time we had done so in the united states after our secret meeting we got in touch with the national organization and n our code were passing it was at the very beginning of the twentieth century a d that the organization of the finally their long policy on war their doctrine was why should the of one country fight with the of another country the benefit of their masters t on may a d when war threatened between and italy the of italy and held a conference at and threatened a general strike of the of both countries in case war was declared this was repeated the following year when the affair threatened to involve france germany and england the iron heel and forth across the atlantic between us and the the german were ready to act with us there were over five million of them many of them in the standing army and in addition they were on friendly terms with the labor in both countries the came out in bold declaration against the war and threatened the general strike and in the meantime they made preparation for the general strike the parties in all countries gave public utterance to the principle of peace that must be preserved at all even to the extent of revolt and revolution at home the general strike was the one great victory we american won on the th of december the american minister was withdrawn from the german capital that night a german fleet made a dash on sinking three american and a and the city next day both germany and the united states declared war and within an hour the called the general strike in both countries for the first time the german war lord faced the men of his empire who made his empire go without them he could not run his empire the novelty of the situation lay in that their revolt was passive they did not fight they did nothing and by doing the general strike nothing they tied their war lord s hands he would have asked for nothing better than an opportunity to loose his war dogs on his rebellious but this was denied him he could not loose his neither could he his army to go forth to war nor could he punish his subjects not a wheel moved in his empire not a train ran not a message went over the wires for the and railroad men had ceased work along with the rest of the population and as it was in germany so it was in the united states at last organized labor had learned its lesson beaten on its own chosen field it had abandoned that field and come over to the political field of the for the general strike was a political strike besides organized labor had been so badly beaten that it did not care it joined in the general strike out of sheer desperation the workers threw down their tools and left their tasks by the ns especially notable were the their heads were bloody their organization had apparently been destroyed yet out they came along with their in the metal working trades even the common and all labor ceased work the strike had tied everything up so that nobody could work besides the women proved to be the strongest of the strike they set their faces against the war they did not want the iron heel men to go forth to die then also the idea of the general strike caught the mood of the people it struck their sense of humor the idea was the children struck in all the schools and such teachers as came went home again from deserted class rooms the general strike took the form of a great national and the idea of the of labor so appealed to the imagination of all and finally there was no danger to be incurred by the colossal when everybody was guilty how was anybody to be punished the united states was no one knew what was happening there were no newspapers no letters no every community was as completely isolated as though ten thousand miles of wilderness stretched between it and the rest of the world for that matter the world had ceased to exist and for a week this state of was maintained in san we did not know what was happening � ven across the bay in or the effect on one s was weird it seemed as though some great thing lay dead the pulse of the land had ceased to beat of a truth the nation had died there were no on the streets no factory no hum of in the air no passing of street cars no cries of � nothing but persons who at rare intervals the general strike went by like ghosts themselves oppressed and made unreal by the silence and during that of silence the waa taught its lesson and well it learned the lesson the general strike was a warning it should never occur again the would see to that at the end of the week as had been the of germany and the united states returned to their posts through them the leaders of both countries presented their to the rulers the war should be called off or the general strike would continue it did not take long to come to an understanding the war was declared off and the of both countries returned to their tasks it was this renewal of peace that brought about the alliance between germany and the united states in reality this was an alliance between the emperor and the for the purpose of meeting their common foe the of 