The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-02-26
Rebels Birthday Recalls Germans
 War Prophecy

War Prophecy Nxxx Monday, which will be cele- hraAed in America as the birthday of Ghe founder Of the worlds greatest renub1tc. will also be observed by Germans and socialists everywhere as fhA seventy fifth anniversary of the harth of Ferdinand August Bebel. The great leader of the German Social Demooracy died at Zurich in August, 1913. and few mouths later J can I@uraa the able chief of French so- cArliaxu. was assassiAated, Thus on che eve Of the most gigantic struggle of nations in all history the socda1- Anos of Europe were deprived of their uaonk 1nfluential chiefs, and the s7F@mNm Of brotherho hood and solidarity WhfcM had been fostered by BebeA end Iuares was rudely shattered.
 A1khough a preacher of peace. Herr Bs1sl b@iiewsd that it would come only after d terrible war, and he pre- dlO&sd, years before his death, that thla conflict would bring about geoupzng of the nations very much M1rn what has since. come to pass
 Hhs German fleet, E said Babel in Gsc0ssng the possibilities OF war. sau almost certainly be destroyed by tha English fleet that is certain to Do 1ts superiority in force, and Ger many will loss ell her colonies almost 4rnimed1ateIy after the declaration of | hoSta1t1eS ..hould Japan join her forces with tho eneu1aes of Germany. and this 5vvou1d be inevitable if Germany lights ng1and. than all the German col-A onaes in the Far Hast will be irrre- tt4svahly lost. despite all the super hurnan sacrifices involved in aequir- Ing them.
 s.But the most fatal loss of such a. war would be the destruction of the German merchant marine. and the T,1y r1qTf of markets.
 "A war with France and Russia, and with England as their ally, would also mean the complete de- struction of tho power Of Germany.
 sTVIc9ories in the war of the future will not come to German arms as easily as the capitalist neWspapers' and schoolroo1ns would lead us to be- Iieve The superiority over the ene- my inc Germans possessed in 1870 is absolutely impossible nowadays
 .sBut this is but one side of the medal. The other side is the econcm- ical situation of the people during the duration of the war.
 'aThe war will stop commerce and industry. It will stop the export sys- tem sof Germany, ana under the pres ent economic system, GermaaIys rob. bed of her export trade cannot ex-
 ssone Of the results of this rill be. acute unemployment Besides, the Import of goods into Germany will cease, ana Germany cannot exist VEithout Imports. Tne 9oodstlHs will rise greatly in pxfces and poverty and misery will reign throuehout the land
 Tt was a baaydl picture which BebeI painted of the oanbilfties which war would hold for the German people, The moral Of his argument, of course, was that the Hohenzollern monarchy and empire be overthrown and g SO cta1 democratic republic be esta.b- 1isIed in which ntlftarism would have no part
 Bebel the doughty. fiery old war r4or who made war on war; which he aenounced as one of the curses tn- fltcted upon humanity by the 'capt- taaist system, z was largely responsi- b1e for the great growth of she Ger man social democracy. He shared the persecution and imprisonment i'm fHcted upon his comrades, Marx and Ldebknecht, and. like theans was forced to seek refuge in England. He lived to see the day when he was one of the most pow werful men of the en- pfr.e whom the government reared to throw into prison
 Bebe1 was born in Cologne of humble parents and spent his childt. hood in Rhen1sh Prussia He attend cd school only two yeaEss at at four teen was apprent1ced to a turned. Tn athaf capacfty he travelled fthrough Austria and South Germany In his youth he was an opponent of so- cia1lstio ideas. but he soon changed his views, and about half a century ago he became one of the most earn est and influential of the propo- gandists of the Marxian economic Ereed.
 Like all of the Teufon socialists Of t1aak period he soon found himself in Jail. convicted of spreading opinions dangerous to the state.s When the Imperial Parliament was formed 1n 1.<-l c1 f,f the Reichstag, and, except for the time he spent behind bars he was continuously 2. member until his death
 him into conflict with the authorities and in 1s72 Rebel and wilhelm Ldeb- knecht--father of the present leader Of the anta-war socialists of Germany -were consigned to the grim fortress of Hubertsburg, sentenced to tive years Imprisonment for high trea- @on.
 He YVES no sooner released than he andu1gsd in some reflections on Prus- sian royalty which resulted in nine months confinement for 1ese najeste When Bismarck sought to sta1nI outss socialism, Bebe1 was continual 1y in open rebellion, and arrests. dnes and jail sentences only added fuel tc the flames Of his wrath.
 The German annexation of Alsace Lorraine, after the Fsronco-P -PrussiaI nation 'sBisnarck's fatal crime' h. usually called it-and the IroI Chancellor never failed to retaliats with a fine or a jail sentence.
 As the years passed, and millions o9 Germans fIocked to the standard which had been held aIo6t by Bebe and his comrades through the trou bIed years of persecution, the govern .xnent was finally brought to the rea1f nation that fepressive measures against socialism were futile. Bebe xzas perrnitted to -spend- his latte