The Republican journal., 1915-08-12
Socialist View Of the War.

Socialist View Of the War.
No Peace Terms Safe Until German Military
Despotism is Overthrow. A Case of
Crush or be Crushed.
From letter to the New York Times by h.
M. Hyndman, Chairman OF the Socialist
Party in England.
At the beginning of this war you al
lowed me, as one OF the Oldest Social
Democrats diving, to appeal to American
Socialists of all shades of opinion not to
allow themselves to be misled in regard
to the facts of the conflict by pro- Ger
man Misrepresentation or peace-at-any-
price propaganda. The unprecedented
struggle has now been going on for near
ly year. Millions of men have been
killed or mutilated, and hundreds of
millions sterling have been wasted. 1t
is not surprising, therefore, that WELL
meaning efforts should be made by hui
name people in the belligerent as well as
in the neutral countries to induce the
combatants to consider terms of peace.
For Social Democrat to oppose such
attempts to put stop to the wholesale
carnage and money expenditure appears
to some quite contrary to Socialist doc
trine and declaration against the broth
erhood of man.
But this is not so. The stupendous
fight now being fought is fig hit to save
Europe from a long-prepared endeavor
to put US all under the heel of Prussian-
lied Germany and her confederates, with
the intention of establishing a world
wide empire under the same militarist
n Tkor ho h.
whatever about that. The men who con-
troll the policy of Germany, from the
Kaiser and the King of Bavaria down.
ward, all openly avow it. The nation as
a whole does not deny it.
The pretence that the war was enter
ed upon as war of defence is complete
Iy abandoned, now that it has served its
purpose of giving the official German
and Social democratic party an excuse
for turning Chauvinists and supporting
the bitterest enemies of Socialism. All
disguise has been thrown aside. The
policy of conquest and empire is accept
ed as the policy of the Germanic Powers,
with the exception of a small and hither-
to uninf1uential section, whose protests,
fine as they are, produce no effect.
Germany's Motive at The Hague.
1t seems clear, also, that the elabo-
rate proposals which emanated from
Germany, at The Hague, for mitigating
the ferocity and reducing the horrors of
war were only suggested in order to
humane and more honorable than her
self. For it is now proved conclusively
that at the very time when these con-
Lott hr,
and accepted by her possible adversaries,
of poisonous gases) were being made
likewise which stand in the way of the
realization of the full German program
are denounced as being in no sense bind
ing, and declarations, however solemn,
are set aside as worthless. International
law has become mere hgment, and CEN
turies-old agreements, never broken in
modern times, are, to Germany, a vain
thing.
All this means and can only mean that
no reliance whatever can be placed in
Germany under her present rulers. If
she and her friends win in this war, or if
they succeed in obtaining ''draw," as
the result of this terrific contest, no ma
ton, great or small, near or remote, will
be safe from fresh attempt so soon as
the aggressor thinks there is again a
good chance of victory. 1t is not an or
binary campaign upon which the Ger
manic Powers have embarked. The al
tentative for all their neighbors is crush
or be crushed. The Kaiser himself has
lately put that in so many words.
| Nowhere has the truth been more plain
| 1v-o tod fhpv, h1 al, h.
| New York Times; none are better in
formed as to the real state of the case
than American Socialists, who learn
many facts about the campaign which
are carefully kept from us English. |
am amazed, therefore, to find that many
of them who are not of German birth
still uphold the cause of the Germanic
Powers against the Allies, and are anx-
ious to save them from the complete de-
feat which sooner or later must come.
Happily, the Belgians, the Serbians, the
French, the English, the Russians, the
Italians, one and all, declare that, under
no circumstances will they conclude a
separate peace with the ravagers and
pirates who have entered upon the great
est war of all time. and that no collec.
tive peace will be considered until Bel
GUM and France have been cleared of
the enemy and Prussian militarism has
been completely defeated.