New-York tribune., 1919-09-03

~ Amsterdam there gathered this month
the official delegates Of all tho labor
unions Of tho world. Before the war they
had been for twenty-five years under the
leadership and the domination of the German
Socialists. At tho Amsterdam Congress was
founded new international" with new
constitution and now officers-al finally
emancipated from German tuteagc.
The Germans were there with their al
lies, the small neutral countries of Central
Europe, their neighbors. pupils and pro-
teges. Before the congress was one week
old they had lost all the efforts by which
they had controlled tho old international
for a quarter of a century machinery,
prestige and everything
In view Of the extreme importance Of
socialist and labor parties and labor unions
in the present European crisis, this victory
is third Battle of the Marne.
The labor union Socialists in control Of
the new German government have not hesi-
tated to say officially and repeatedly that
they staked everything on the two German
led "Intcrnationals," l. e., the Socialists
and the labor unions. These bodies, act
ing in unison, we have been told by Count
BrockdorfR Rantzau at Paris and Premier
Bauer in Berlin, either to defeat the
peace treaty or bring about its immediate
revision. But after this Amsterdam Con-
gress Of these internationals is totally
lost, while the value of the other is de-
stroyed beyond repair
Even more than any political parties the
labor unions can claim to be the real rep
resentatives Of labor. Even more than
political parties they can make or break
any revolutionary movement. SO obvious
is this that after the battle was over at
Amsterdam the usual proposal to exchange
fluctuations with the Socialists, then be-
ginning their international congress at
Lucerne, was successfully challenged with
out word of protest from the other side
When one of the American delegates, Dan
iel Tobin, president of the tcamsters,
pointed out that it would be ilegitimate
officially to wish success to any political
organization whatever, no voice was raised
to question him-an epoch marking symp-
tom in this sociaiistic European movement
AS IN the war, America came in at the
last moment and insured victory On the
one side were Germany and Austria and
their neutral Scandinavia, Holland
and Switzerland on the other the En-
tente--America, England, France and BeY-
gum. For the Entente were Luxemburg
and Spain, with the Czecho- Slovaks waver-
ing.
There were 17,741, 900 labor unionistsa
represented, over 100000 in the Entente
countries. But Germany had controlled
the previous organization as well as the
tom
in Holland, with the Dutch leader Dude
geest as chairman. Also the ideaijstic and
extremely international minded and revolu-
tionary French he'd agreed chat the present
congress was to be summoned on the basis
of one nation vote e. G., ono vote for
Luxembourg, with 21, 900 members, and one
vote each for America, with 1900 coo;
England, with 4,750,000 and Germany, with
100000 members, respectively. Under
this system Germany was in full control
But it was assumed By all that COM
promise would at once b. reached, and the
congress at once gave an additional vote
for each million members. Under this sys-
tenn Germany and her allies still controlled
for they needed only one additional small
nation to make a majority.
Here is whore America came to the res
cue. Through impractical idealism the
French did not want to make any fight at
all against their German "comrades"-
though they participated fully in the Bel
gian, American and British denunciation of
German control before and during the war.
The British, without impractical idealsm
or theory, were yet credulous and COM
promising. Their leaders decided that the
time had come to trust the Germans,
though they were shocked as much as any
by the slippery words and actions of the
Germans later in the congress. Moreover,
they wanted to negotiate before the battle
had been fought
To both French and English, the Ameri-
cans-for the first time taking a leading
role in the international convention
seemed "rude" and "aggressive." Both had
long been against the Germans, but they