Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1918-03-01
GERMAN SOCIALISTS
AND THE GREAT WAR

Those socialists who want the
workingmen in this country to give
In to Germany are surely blind and
very inconsistent. In Germany the
Socialist party supports the war.
That ought to be expected in any
country after war is declared. But
it was a year before the war. in 1913,
that the socialists of Germany voted
with the capitalists for the enormous
war taxes that enabled the kaiser to
get ready for war .... 4
No new appropriations of money
for war purposes can be made in
Germany without a majority vote in
the reichstag, and in 1913 it required
the ITO votes OF the socialists to
| make a majority.
Always before that year they had
voted against the kaiser when he
asked the reichstag to appropriate
money for preparation for war. But
in 1913 they made a trade with him.
They voted for the extra military
taxes on the excuse that the capital
lists and aristocracy were to pay the
bills, and that the taxes would be
voted anyhow in a worse form.
With this slim excuse they vio-
lated all the principles of anti-mili-
tarism and International brotherhood
of wage-earners which they had
always claimed to stand for.
These 40 votes that carried the
new military taxes were a strict
party vote, dictated by the caucus Of
the party. There were 81 socialists
who voted against the proposal in
the caucus, and SO who voted for it.
Then, according to their caucus
rules, the whole 10 members voted
in the reichstag as they were direct
ed to do by the majority of So in the
caucus.
The minority protested, and one of
their leaders truly exclaimed: 'The
moment we give to the government
the funds to cover military expendi-
ture, our whole struggle against mil
itarism becomes a farce" Yet the
minority yielded and voted unani-
mously in the reichstag.
1t was worse than farce. 1t was
a crime against the socialists and
workingmen of every other land.
Without the enormous war budget of
1913, for which these socialists
voted, Germany could not have
stored up the munitions in secret and
have gotten ready to strike the newt
year before other countries could get
ready.
/ And, in order to clear themselves
and make a record, this socialist eau
Gus in the German reichstag played
a cheap political trick. They asked
the government to divide the ques-
ton, so that they could vote against
ornaments in one vote, and then
turn around and vote for the taxes
to pay for the ornaments by another
vote.
They added fraud to their crime.
They sold out to the militarists, and
, did 1t in such a tricky way that they
could still say they voted against
militarism.
But they did not deceive them
selves. mo high-sounding words"
exclaimed Geyer. leader of the
minority. mot even your vote against
the military bill as such, will alter
the fact that you have strengthened
militarism by voting the means to
carry it into effect" Yet Geyer
voted with the others to strengthen
militarism.
With such record of double-deal-
ing, charged and admitted out of
their own mouths, how can any So
cialist have the audacity to ask the
workingmen of America to give in to
the socialists of Germany? Indeed,
a leading American socialist has said
there is nothing in the principles of
socialism that requires the socialists
of one nation to lie down and let the
socialists of Germany shoot them.
Germany's alleged offer of peace
to the Bolsheviki of Russia shows
why the socialists of Germany sup
port the kaiser Germany is report
ed as demanding that Russia should
admit German manufactures free of
tariff duty and should give to Ger
many control of the entire Russian
expectation Of wheat.
Whether these are the actual de-
mands or not, they agree with Ger
many's record. 1t is the record of
what she calls peaceful penetra
ton" This kind of peaceful pene-
tration" means the destruction of
Russian manufactures and low wages
for Russian workmen. in favor of
high profits for German capitalists
and high wages for German work
ingmen. 1t means that Russia will
not have the industries or the skilled
labor that can make munitions of