New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-08-23

Of the workingmen OF Europe have been TO arsc
degree responsible for the delay IN the general
conflict which race prejudice and trade jealousles
we're bound 20 bring on
The Morocco incident of 1911 best illustrates
this power of international socialism. It IS no"
well known that the governments Of Europe
thought war was then inevitable An officer OF the
British navy told me that the nations involved
we're "wthin two weeks Of war" While the Crisis
vas at its height, while the German Boerse was IN
a panic and the British feet being coaled and
cleared for action the international socialist cor
nittee met in Switzerland and in splendldly
phrased paper protested against the Sacrlhce Oh
life for colonial aggrahdizement
By concerted agreement labor delegates IN the
various parliaments spoke vehemently against
such war Ramsay Macdonald, leader Of the
British Labor party, told the British Parliament
that, while the laboring men Of England were pa
triots. they most sincerely protested against
war that would compel English workmen TO Kill
their German brethren over question that could
be peaceably arbtrated. Jaures, with all the
compelling eloquence Of which he was the master
told France that her workmen viewed such war
with horror And August Bebel, in the German
Socialist Congress, which met at that time, deliv-
cred perhaps the most potent speech OF his long
and useful career. II was reported by the column
in all the great European dailies. He described
in repelling detail his experiences in the wars
against Austria, Denmark and France, and bitterly
arraigned civilization" that had proceeded no
further on the road to culture than to settle its
disputes BY international murder rather than by
international brotherhood
These international protests simultaneously
raised. had their effect. | was in London at the
moment, and am sure that these voices were not
unheard The Panther. for once, was not the
beast of war
Publicists and editors preachers and politicians,
called attention to the dramatic situation In
which labor had painted kings and cabinets to
the international brotherhood Of the humble,
which refused to be forced into butchery by the
pride of princes and the ambition OF traders
We all thought that this was significant of the
new era, the era without wars, when courts OF
arbitration should take the place of the ordeal o.
battle This was the Interpretation that leaders
not alone of socialism but Of liberalism put upon
it, Vanderyede, Jaures, Bebel, Keir Hardie and
many others told me it was the forerunner Of a
new time. There was, indeed, something noble
and inspiring and convincing in the thought Of
miic.s Of workmen of many lands allied IN an
;nvincibe. unfinchins army Of peace.
Then, suddenly, more unexpected than thun-
derboit out of a blue ssky, came this No one
knows where history will put the blame. But at
this mcment it looks if mobilization had beer
going on secretly in at least Germany and Russia
and that autocratc haste had taken socialist and
pacfcist uuawares.
When the fires Of war are lighted and
doctrine are consumed in the fame. Where are
the theories of Mars the oratories Of Bebel or
Jaures, the pronuncamentos Of the international: