Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1913-07-11
.AC|TATORS IN ARMY
QU|ETED BY FRANCE;
TROUBLE NOWENDED
Government Uses Drastic Meas
ures Against Those Who
1ncited Mutiny.
SOLDIERS SOUGHT RELEASE
Many Objected to Year Of Ad.
ditionaI Service After Enlist.
mont Period Had Elk.
pired.
SOLDIERS SOUGHT RELEASE

Par!s-The governments last dras..
tic measures against the agitators who
caused the recent m%utinies among SOL
diers in various parts of the country
as a protest against the three years.
military service. and the knowledge,
that M. Clemenceau Is one of the !.
strongest men in France today, Is ready
to come to the assistance Of the presi-.
dent, have entirely taken the wind out
OF the sails of the hotheads of the Gen.
eral Confederation Of Labor, and MOI
more troubles are anticipated.
Everybody here knows The Frenchi
soldiers to be patriotic n eager to
sacrifice everything for the sake OF
their country, SO 1t would be as abb
surd to identify the recent disturb.
ances in the French army with the
anttmilftarist movement as to IDENTIFY
the recent strike of the workmen in
the Champagne vineyards with the
temperance movement.
The XXI Of Champagne we're /,
not interested In temperance theories
very much III reverse-but they did
want shorter hours and more pay. Sim
ilarly 1T Is safe to recko that the vast;
majority of the young men who have
got themselves into trouble with tho,
military authorities were o inter-i
ested In antimilitarisln theories and ac-
cepted military service as a more orr
less unpleasant necessity, but they dol
not want to be kept a third year In
barracks just as the normal mOmentj
or release, upon which they had SO long
been reckoning, arrived.
The whole situation can only be UNI
derstood In the light of the history of
revolutionary syndicalism, from which,
ural offshoot.
1t vas not long before the General
Confederation Of Labor discovered that
society possessed In the army an UNI
answerable reply to all Its attempts t0
o%verturn the state.
Its only hope was to gain the army
TO Its side. and that could only be ac-
cOmplished by working on the young,
conscript. The Catholics had already
formed associations with the purpose.
OF keeping the young soldier III touch
with his religion and making his life
more easy and more interesting for
him.
The leaders Of revolutionary syndi-
calism decided to follow the example
OF the Catholics. and they formed the
which was kept alive by subscriptions
from h various syndicates. When any
member OF q syndicate was called to-
the colors he would receive from the
Sou du Soda a postal order for 81
q letter begging him not to fire on
his fellows of the Oppressed" prole-
tariat IL he was called out on strike
duty.
Throughout his military service this,
institution tried to keep In touch with
him by sending occasionally a postal
order and far more often q moro or less
revolutionary or antimilitarist tract.
All this revolutionary propaganda
produced only n practical result. the
muttny of the Seventeenth regiment
during he wine riots in the south. and
this mutiny was due to an entirely
special cause. How hopelessly revolu-
tionafy syndicalism had failed to touch
the army was shown during the rail-
way strike. M. BRAND modified the
railway men, and practically every
striker, as soon as he became q sOldierj
forgot his grievances.
The truth is hat revolutionary SYM
dicaltsm. as at present constituted, cam
never do more than carry on q guerrilla
warfare against society. It can no
more overthrow the present order than
the wandering tribes Of the Sahara can,
hope to overthrow French rule at Fez.
Where discomfort exists It a exploit
1t n give 1t an organization, but it
cannot produce a general movement
throughout the working classes.
It is the irony of fate that so long
as theG General Confederation of Labor
seemed to- be a power In the land It
could find no discomfort in the army
ready to its hand. Now that 1t is dis
credited the International situation has.
given 1t an opportunity that q few
plicated matters. though there can be
little doubt that he national spirit Of
the people would have come victor
lousy through the crisis.
Al-.A-- NAf>-aAl