The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1918-08-31
GERMAN SOCIALISTS Use
BRANT|NG AS CAM0uFLAGE
Guide and Warning Which Remove Mask of Pre-
Is Utiliedz as Stalking Horse for the Huns.
BY WILLIAM ENGLISH WALDING

BY WILLIAM ENGLISH WALDING
Of the American Alliance for Labor
and Democracy.
The German peace agitators are in
perpetual need of a stalking horse
behind which to hide. The latest
candidate chosen is Hjalmar Brant-
Ing, the leader of the Swedish Social
lists and one Of the three managers
into whose hands the coming Inter
national' Socialist Conference has
been placed. The other two, Troel-
stra, a cynical pro-German, and
Hrysmans, a pacifist fanatic of the
most violent type, have already been
discredited.
Branting is not pro-German, but
he is neutral in this great wa: of
autocracy against DEM :racy. More
over. he has lent himself to all the
Stockholm peace maneuvers carried
ON Ey the German government, and.
worst of all, he offers himself as IL
cloak for the German Socialists even
going so far as to defend the Ma
jority faction.
Arthur Henderson says that we can
trust the coming conference because
one Of its managers is Branting, who
is admittedly not pro-German.
Believed He is Honest.
It is probable that Branting is
honest and regards the enormous is
sues Of the war as of no moment
when compared to the demand of all
classes in Sweden that the war should
cease.
Branting's paper, The Social DEM
okraten, is delighted that the defeat
lists have got the Majority in the
French Federation Of Labor in favor
or an early peace - which would
mean, of course, the abandonment of
all Eastern and Southeastern Europe
to the mercy of Germany. But Brant-
ing's worst crime against interna-
tional democracy is his defense of
the German Majority Socialists. He
says, for example, that he does not
believe the statement Of the Vor-
waerts that the Majority Socialists
favor a German peace. Brantings
position is shown in the following
statement:
Were the German people to learn
some day that the Socialists Of all
countries, including some of it's own
chiefs, disapproved Prussian militar-
ism, there are chances that some Of
it's Socialists, at least those who have
a saner conception of Socialism,
would rally to the cause
This is an amazing statement to
come from a well-irformed man like
Branting. It can only be explained
by the supposition that he is willing
to. deceive the world as to the true
position of the German Socialists.
Granting knows very we'll that all
Socialists outside Of Germany dis
approve of German militarism."
Branting knows further that the Ger
man Socialists are fully aware of this
fact. Granting knows that ''some"
German Socialists already support
the democratic peace terms but that
they are a very small minority.
Branting knows, in spite of his pre-
tense Of not knowing it, that the
number Of such genuinely democratic
Socialists is too small to have any
effect whatever on German public
opinion.
Branting says in this same state
| ment that the German people might
be induced to revolt as the result of
! an International Socialist conference.
Yet nobody knows better than Brant-
! ing that only small proportion of
the German people are ready or able
to revoll-and that even these are
ready to join in a revolutionary
movement only If there is a CORES
| ponding movement against the demo-
cratic governments of France and
! Italy.
Revolution Is Remote.
! Branting knows further that abor-
tive attempts to revolt would be far
more harmful in France and italy
than in Germany.
Branting acknowledges, in the
:! same statement, that the so-called In
ternational. was dominated by the
! Germans up to the beginning of the
war. He knows very we'll that the
! German influence, together with that
| of their Bolshevik and fanatic pa.
cifist allies, has enormously in
creased since the war.
The whole attitude Of Brantine
from the beginning of the war has
been utterly valueless to the demo.
cratic cause, in spite of occasional
vague phrases Of sympathy. Hi.
statements in the past two weeks and
his advocacy of negotiations to settle