Great Falls daily tribune., 1919-09-17
A BELGIAN RADICALS VIEW.

place, it should be borne in mind that Mr.. de Man
is a leader of the more extreme factions of So
cialisn. He claims to be an internatiOnalist in
stead of Belgian.
/ While he studied in Germany his most inti-
mate friend was the late Karl Liebknecht, and
| they collaborated on the pamphlet on militarism
for which Liebknecht later received four years
prison sentence With Liebknecht he founded
the powerful Socialist Young Peoples federation,
/ and in the three years preceding the war he orig
| mated and developed with funds furnished by
| M Solvay 'the Belgian Carnegie the rapidly
growing system of Belgian schools for laboring
people. The object of these schools is to train
Belgian laboring people for better citizenship
and in the year preceding the war the SO schools
had 5000 men and women studying nights and
holidays the problems of government, of trade
unionism or Of cooperative institutions
In July, 1914, NJ. de Man was one Of the little
group of continental labor leaders, including
Jaures, Haase and Mueller, who strove until the
last moment to avert the war through aligning
international labor against it. When all efforts
failed and Belgium was invaded, he Immediately
enlisted He rose to the rank Of first lieutenant,
won both the British M c. and the Belgian war
cross, and after three years in the trenches was
!
Dor to Russia and later to this country to study
labor conditions. He is at present on his second
mission to this country for his government His
book, "The Remaking Of a Mind" thoughtful
study Of the development Of his ideas on nation
alism, socialism, capitalism, and other problems
under stress of his war experiences, has just
been brought out in this country by Charles
Scribners Sons.
| Il came to America with great expectations"
says NJ. de Man, combined with certain un-
easiness lest they should be disappointed. The
literature of the German social-democracy and
Of the American socialist party which | had
studied abroad taught that American democ-
racy was mere blind for the most ruthless form
of capitalist exploitation Of the workers. My
greatest surprise was to find that not only is
America not a community Of dollar Worshippers,
but that in no other country-and | have lived
| in practically every country in Europe north and
west of the Bakans-does mere material wealth
carry with it less prestige, in no other country
is it less considered the one aim in life. Your
rich people mostly work hard, and the few loaf
ers don't advertise the fact
"You Americans are blessed with capitalism
that l might call pure for want of better
word. By this | mean that it has developed in
an atmosphere of national self government po-
litical freedom, and equality Of chances and
rights. 1t is pure political reflex of the spirit
of competitive capitalist production. [ believe
that in such an atmosphere socialism can evolve
gradually and experimentaly from capitalism
by the mere play of the tendency to indefinite
improvement in efficiency inherent in the COM
petitive system, and by the movement toward
more and more political self-determination by
the masses which gives them the power to coun-
teract monopOliZatlon.
"My experience as traveller has taught me
that there few tests that can be made by
casual observer within few hours visit to any
city Or country, and which are sure indication
Of the prevailing level of public morality. OBJ
serve to what extent the birds in the parks and
public squares are afraid of human beings;
whether there are many silly or obscene inscrlp-
tons on walls, doors, etc; whether crowd of
people is able to discipline itself when entering
a street or railroad car and in occupying the
space within; how many different classes there
are on these, as an indication Of the social cleav
ages in nation; whether the tip system is wide
spread or not. evidence as to the dignity with
which human labor is treated; whether there
many sign-boards in public places synonymous
with the ominous German Verboten! telling how
far the people are left to their own honor to be-
have themselves properly; whether one sees
much menial or heavy labor done by women and
children; and whether the quantity of papers
and offal lying about on park lawns and similar
places denotes a pubc-spirited citizenship
In all these tests except litter in public parks
and lawns Mr.. de Man finds the United States
superior to Europe. In fact he is so much
pleased with the democracy and character of the
United States that he says he contemplates
bringing his family here to live so that they may
grow up under our democratic ideals Regard
ing the tests he says he gives in visiting new
country to gauge the character Of the people,
he says:
"The first day landed in America, noticed
@Lo+ 4Lo LinIe