Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-01-31
ERA OF THE PROLETARIAT

THE war, so far as Europe is concerned,
moves now into the era of the prole.
tariats. The ties that bind men to obedience
to government are at best tenuous. They
snap when in conflict with the immutable
laws of economy, or il sacrifices beyond
the power of the masses to endure are
asked.
Government rests on the consent OF the
governed, examples to the contrary not
withstanding and the governed. through an
agony of suffering brought about solely by
class for purposes of ACKNOWLEDGMENT.
have learned that war without their sane
tion is an impossibility. They constitute
the cannon fodder, they are the victims,
and the pulsing of the telegraph instru-
tnent, the long arms of the wireless, pick
this truth out of it's prison and dlffuse it
universally. Autocracy clothes itself in
the garments of the actor sets lavish
stage and relies on the glamour of name
and place to sustain it, But the printing
press knows no respect for place or name.
It pitilessly exposes both. There is no
living brain that cannot now see the truth
IL 1t wants to see it.
Between II, your king" and I'VE, the
people" science has raised a great barrier,
for the latter I'm their vastness reverse the
tnlA a,,1 tl,n ntI nd of
merely puny human being. spoiled by the
accident of inheritance and training
strutting perhaps majestically but of in
ffnitesimal importance in the onrush of
modernity and human progress.
The fakir is always a fakir. 1t was
natural for the Prussian military caste,
having fooled all Germany and hurled
millions into unnecessary calamity by
setting up the plea that it was a war Of
easily fool people who were not Germans.
When an autocracy begins TO tell citizens
of other nations that they ought to rule
themselves and disseminates the seed of
revolution. it is not rocking the boat; it is
boring holes in it. 1t was fine business to
destroy the morale of Russia and win n
triumph in Italy by deception and fraud,
but revolution is a prairie fire and also a
boomerang To further its own ends the
German Government has been showing the
proletariats of other nations their power.
What wonder that the German proetariat
takes hint from the exhibit!
The truth is that all Europe is on the
verge of collapse. 1t is not that guns are
lacking. or munitions, or men, but the
romance has gone out of the conflict the
and there is not a village in any belligerent
nation of Europe that in the breasts of its
inhabitants there is not a deep longing
for peace longing which seeks utterance
and when it breaks into voice will speak
in thunder. The foment is everywhere. Is
realization of the Kaiser's dream worth
tankards of blood? If men Of ambition
cannot agree on a pea ee. cannot the
masses of the nations themselves agree on
one? May not discipline be treason il
obedience wrecks and ruins the world? Are
all men, too, insane that they must sustain
with blood and heart the folly of mad
man? Social upheaval like an earthquake,
knows no national confines. 1t is the great
heart of humanity struggling for freedom
The reason of the German proletariat has
been darkened, but it reaches for the light
The proletariat of every other nation holds
its senses acute. Signals of action haunt
the skies. Every one is a funeral banner
for autocracy, whether that autocracy is
German or Austrian, or bears the stamp
OF some other nationality. Mr.. Wilson
had his finger on the pulse of the patient
when he differentiated the German people
from the caste that rules them. His dag.
nosis was right, directionally the medi.
cine may not be strong enough But he
has brought us to the era of the prole-
tss1ats and things are going to happen in
the. future that win cause conservative citi-
xcns 30 have nightmares when wide awake.
The temple Of the social organism is in
pEpreps b reconstruction and what it win
1eok uks uhsr renovated neither prince
4 w Anser can foretel.
II2 X, n sN K -.--.---