The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-10-06
By H. NJ. WICKS.

In an attempt to justify the
treachery of the heroes of the sec
ond international who become kings
ministers and aided the bourgeoisie
utilize their special class instru-.
ment of coercion, the capitalist state,
against the working class, Morris
Hillquit, in his article in Current
History entitled "Marxism Essenti-
ally Evolutionary" assails the Boil
shevik revolution in the land of the
former czars of Russia.
If the revolution had remained at
the Kerensky stage, that is to say
if the Bolshevik party had joined the
government of agents of imperialism
who were playing the game of the
imperialist governments of Britain,
France and the United States, and
had endeavored to drive the work
ing class further into the slaughter
house of world war they would have
merited the fulsome praise of Hill
quit.
Or, better still, if they had stood
behind the government of the car
as his comrades, Scheidemann and
Ebert did behind the Kaiser of Ger
many, they would have conformed to
Hillquit's conception of socialism.
HilIquit Defends Kaiserism.
When the Kaiser socialists of Ger
many, under the leadership of Phil
lip Scheidemann and Frederick
Ebert, voted the second war credits
December 2, 1914 against Karl
Liebknecht and thirteen other MEM
bers of the reichstag, Hillquit flew
to the defense of the traitors to and
assassins of the working class in a
series of articles in capitalist ma
gazine. This infamous defender of
social patriotism tried to blame the
millions of socialist voters being
herded into the trenches for the fail
ure of their leaders to issue the call
for a struggle against war. In the
Metropolitan Magazine for March,
1915, Hillquit wrote:
The great bulk of the five and
a half million socialist and soci-
alist voters of Germany and Aus
tria spontaneously and simultane-
ously rallied to the support of
their countries as soon as war
had been declared. They had no
opportunity for mutual consulta-
ton. They acted on impulse,
which broke through with ele-
mental force. 1t was not de-
cision, not a policy-it was his
tory, and history cannot be
scolded or praised; it must be
understood"
1t is true the masses had no OPP
poNunity for consultation. But the
masses had representatives in the
reichstag, who, had they been Marx
lists and revolutionists, instead of
scoundrels and traitors, would have
used parliament as forum from
which to hurl defiance at the Kaiser.
They would have called upon the
millions of socialist voters to refuse
to fight, to hold their guns in their
hands and shoot their officers and
flock by the hundreds ofs thousands
into Berlin and destroy the Kaiser
and his government. At such time
the leadership of the masses, the
general staff of the class conscious
proletariat, must possess the revo-
lutionary courage and determination
to direct the masses into action re-
CARELESS of consequences to them
selves.
In his article in the Metropolitan
Magazine Hillquit argued that the
reason certain socialists in England
and Russia opposed the war was Be
cause their countries were in no
danger of invasion, while in Central
Europe there was danger of invasion.
Thus, the American socialist leader
took the identical words of Scheide-
mann in order to defend publicly
the action of the social traitors.
He explains this difference of
"opinion" among socialists as fol-
lows: