New-York tribune., 1919-07-17
The BoLsheuist Bubble
In Holland
By Eugene S. Bagger

q 1NCE the beginning of the war tbar.
- } was no more loyal member of +ho
Kalser's select corps OF the Kony,;ch
~Preussische Sozialdemokratie than Mr.. Troo,
stra, the powerful leader of the Du+c,
Social Democratic Labor party
The overwhelming majority of the Dutc,
nation were, of course, not pro- German
they were too close to Belgium and 70.
we'll acquainted with the meaning of Prrs-
sianism to be anything of the sort. Bu.
If they were not, it certainly was not Mr
Troelstra's fault. Imbued~with what nav
be called the jackboot of the sergeant maior
variety OF orthodox Marxism. satnratod
with the disciplinary, freedom hating tenets
OF type of socialism conceived exclusively
IN terms of class organization and tbs
struggle of blind forces, Genosse Troelstr,
could think of no higher mission for him
self and his group than acting as sort
of advance sales force for the pro-war pro.
anneXationlst, pro-kultur German majority
Socialists, little but boisterous brother
OF the Scheidemanns and Suedekums
But while Troelstra passed the tim.
calling the British and French imperialists
names and engineering little raids against
the Allied labor front, in the sacrosanct
name of proletarian unity, Marshal Foch
was busy beating life out of kaiserism.
and one day kaiserism collapsed and the
flag Of revolution was hoisted on the rova]
castle at Berlin. To cut the story short.
Mr. Troelstra suddenly awakened to the fact
that revolution had become the fashionable
thing, that it was done in the best Pms.
sian circles. AS he did not wish to maks
himself suspected of too much individu-
atty he decided to fall in cline with his
Berlin friends, and on November II. the
day OF the armistice, proclaimed to labor
meeting at Rotterdam: "The bourgeoise
has begun to realize that the time has come
for the laboring class to constitute itself
as the supreme power" And the day after
he declared in the session of the Second
Chamber that he saw himself forced-to
sacrifice himself on the altar of liberty?
NO, but "to follow the example of Berlin"
hardly novelty, to be sure, for him, as
he was doing it ever since August, 1914.
Reminded that he spoke for only % per
cent of the laboring population, he pro-
nounced, in the best Bolshevik manner.
that numbers were unimportant, at is
quality that counts,' 'we have right to
usurp political power" (note the fine jux-
taposltlon) "the army is on our side, and
so is three e-fourths of the police"
In justice to poor Mr.. Troelstra, we hurry
to say that he could not help it. There
were sitting at his elbow Mr. David Win
koop and Van Ravesteyn, the two repre-
sentatives of the genuine" Dutch Boil
shevik party, calling him old reactionarv
and bourgeois fossil and that sort of thing.
so he simply had to out-Bolshevize them.
even without the mighty urge of the Der
lin example" For an hour or so the
beautiful dream lasted, and Troelstra saw
himself glorified as a sort OF combination
Scheidemann and Ebert, the dictator of the
Dutch Socialist Republic. But then the
bubble burst. 1t appeared that not only
was the army not on Troestras side, but
even his own party made haste to dsavow
his braggadocio. Two days after his
harangue one of his lieutenants, Schaper,
made full recantation before the Chamber:
We are averse to any violence practsed
by a minority"
No wonder Troestra was too i'll to at
tend the meeting. He was i'll next day
when speakers at the Dutch Labor Con-
gress quletly but emphatlcally repudated
Bolshevik ideas and methods, the plan of
coup d'etat made in Germany. He re-
covered, though, the following day-for just
enough time to appear before the congress
and sing his political swan song, half apol-
ogetically, half dcfiantly. but with all the
marks of fnality. He got a mild ovation
like an old actor at his farewell performance
and he knew it,
And there ended, with Troelstra's poiti-
cal career, Berlin-made Bolshevism in tho
Netherlands. In the scores of indignation
meetings held by all parties, conservatives
and radicals, Catholics and Liberals, the
dominant note was that liberty is the best
antidote for Bolshevism-that in a democ-
racy like Holland reform by force is su-
perfiuous, hateful and impossible.