The Washington herald., 1919-03-23

the spirit Of revolt rose In him.
and he was expelled 1t twenty
four hours notice, and in secret.
he was forbidden to tell why he
was expelled.
In Berlin he fell in with q group
called the "Bundes Neues Water
lands'-a society formed to encour-
age the kind Of patriotism which
all honest Nationalists believe in
the patriotism which believes in
locking the truth about ones own
country squarely in the face. The
boy read Mulhon's book and tho
Lichkowsky documents. and then
the light broke upon MIN. And
when the boy read these things he
cried all night. After that he was
a revoiutionist. The old spirit Of
ls4S was upon him. He worked for
the general strike of 1918 which
lasted for five days. He believes
that II the majority Socialists had
supported that, January strike
which tied up. the Krupp works
the war would have ended then.
While Germany was planning the
great offensive he and thousands
Of youths like him worked to un-
dermine the imperial government.
which they hated. He was arrested
and tried with Kurt Eisner. and
while he was in Jail the revolution
was boiling-the revolution which
finally stopped the war and sent
the Kaiser to Holland. There must
be thousands of youths like him in
Germany. And while the revolu-
tion today may or may not be gen.
uine. they are. genuine. And upon
them Is the hope of future Ger
many. His story Is worth telling
that we in America may know
that amid all the falsehood and in,
trigue which imperial Germany IS
spreading throughout Europe. amid
all the treachery which the Ger
man imperialists are pracficing at
home and abroad. there are still In
Germany a few true souls who see
the wickedness of the impeI iaiists
and are putting up a game, ever IL
a losing fight against tremendous
odds.
But TO return to the Berne Con-
ference. Excepting the English
delegation. which was by far the
most intelligent delegation there.
the Berne Conference was not par
ticularly close to the working peo-
pie. The English delegates were
working men, for the most part.
But other countries sent college
professors and aRitators, lawyers,
politicians and well-to-do dfeamers.
And they all loved TO talk There
was a flood of useless oratory for
six days, mostly from the various
Slavic nations. the czechs and the
Jugo-Slavs. They were all clamor-
ing to Justify their nationalism.
The resolutions, when they came,
denounced Bolshevism, stood by
the Presidents fourteen points.
and set forth labor charter
which was not radical compared
with most of the labor dec
larations, hardly more advanced
for the Socialists than the Com
pers' program Is for the labor
unions.
Yet something more important
than the program of the interna-
tional Socialists has been done by
the Berne Conference. 1t has re-
established the international status
of labor. From now on 1t will be
easy for labor to function in in
ternational matters as 1t is easy
for capital to function. And the
internationalism of capital is pro-
verbal.
The league Of nations will make
the international action of labor
necessary. One of the most i'm
portant boards of the league will
be the labor board. 1t will work
co-ordinately with the economic
board and the financial board, and
we shall have international labor
standards and international labor
markets. and International labor
aspirations. under the league, Just