The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-09-08

 ent in an editorial in the London 1 Times on War and Class War. For fifty years, the editorial reminds us. i've have been told that the united voice of the workers will forbid war, and strenuous efforts have been made to put sQme substance into the prom ise. A universal strike on the advent
 or approach of war has been proposed and much discussed as an e6ectual means of frustrating it.
 Socialists Fighting Socialists. The Socialists must be as surprised. as all other divided groups are, at the amazing spectacle of this frat1r1- cidal strife. German Social Democrats | in one army are fighting the Socialists of France, Belgium, and England in the army of the allies The question | is a fair one which the Times raises, I.ewhere is the class-conscious solidar- ity of la;hor?'' However. it is only fair to remember that the same ques- | ton arises at the sight of Christians | i'm a life and death struggle against | Christians. Protesta,nts against Pro ltestants, Catholics against Catholics, l the holy Orthodox Greeks, against the holy gOrthodox, in the same irrational struggle.
 There are reasons for dou1bting as l too nasty the conclusion of the Times that the class war of Socialism and l the international peace movement as lsociated with it have evaporated and are in process of collapsing altogeth- er.' The onset of this war was too sudden and severe for anything to withstand. The German Socialists in deed proved to be no exception. The same night on which martial law was proclaimed throughout Ger
 many their z9 newspapers were sup pressed, their clubs and unions were not permitted to have another meet f1f IaiT me
 sumriaarily shot for continuing to pro test against war. In France the fore- 1 most Socialist Juares, was killed by a fanaticaI French patriot who justified his murderous deed by claiming to | have rendered France a, service in re- moving the man who, in his consistent stand for international peace, opposed the measure for the three years of military service.
 The Workers Protest. | In the face of this rising tide of passion and the far more perilous military repression, the German Social Democrats held meetings and made | public demonstrations in protest against the impending war at Weimar.
 Stuttgart, Strassburg and Berlin until | "a state of war and martial law were proclaimed. To be sure, they did mot l court martyrdom as did the early Christians f1l the:r stand against the
 Caesars. Neither did the heirs of those martyrs professing to follow the Prince of Peace in any of the warning
 nations. On the contrary, Socia1ists certainly became opportunists, as did the adherents of every other outstand- ing cause or sect, party or faction. The French are led to war by a premier who had been a leader in the Socialist Party, upon whose arms the widow of the murdered Juares leaned as she followed her: husbands I 1sdx fr T1nt a iSf leader. M. Hurve, who had even ad- yised French soldiers to desert in case of war, himself applied to enlist under the co1ors. The Confederation Gen era1e du Travail, corresponding to the American Federation of Labor, issued an appeal to all trade unionists to join in the defense of France. All these apparently self-stultifying attitudes and actions are extenuated by the hope that the war will break up the 4 German monarchy and thus be the
 first step toward "the United States of Europe"
 M vandervelde. the scholarly yet popular Socialist leader in Belgium, at the violation f~the neutrality of his country by the German invasion, consented to serve in the ministry of the clerical and conservative party which he had always opposed. Even Peter Kropotkin, prince of Russia exiIed because of his anarchistic be lief, from his refuge in England de- clares his loyalty to his people in their war, which has already brought from the autocracy assurances of more lib erty to Poland and Finland and to the Zemstovs throughout the Empire.
 The London Demonstration
 The British parliamentary Labor Party, with the trade unionists and other more radical groups, had writ ten. spoken and taken action against Brita:n's engaging in the impending war.
 A great meeting of protest was held in Trafalgar Square the Sunday before England declared war against Ger many. It was attended by many thou sands of working people. During the meeting, a Russian, a German a. Frenchman and Swiss embraced each other and stood with joined hands while the crowd cheered. The resolutions adopted called upon the
 workers to unite to prevent their re- spective governments from engaging m war.
 The British Socialist Party issued a manifesto to the workers of Great Britain, declaring that ''it is not a war of peoples" that ''the workers of Germany declared vehemently against war,1 that never again must we en- trusts our foreign affairs to secret diplomacy and that "onIy an agree ment between the peoples of France, Germany ana Great Britain will be solid guarantee of peace and a, power full bu1wark against the encroach-
 nents of Russian despotism. a result which may easily come of the present war;
 After war had been declared, how continue opposition to the govern 1,-enfsS foreierr no15cv and fa