Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-20
GERMAN PAC|F|ST
=. DISPUTE FORESEEN
Socialist Party Factions TO
Debate Proposed Defense
Program in March.
BY JOHN ELLIOTT.

@SS 1SddAO W AuC STAR
BERLIN, January 19.-One of the
most interesting debates that Europe
will see this year, and one that may
be fraught with important consequences
to Europe, viii take place next March
in Magdeburg, when the Socialist party,
at It's annual party gathering, will dis
cusS the defense program as worked out
by party leaders. This will precipitate
stirring parliamentary battle between
the pacif1st school of thought in the
Socialist party and the militariSt party,
and will go far toward deciding in
which direction the Socialist party of
Germany-the largest political party in
the Reich-will take in the years to
come.
Eversince its origin, in the middle
OF the last century, MARKHAM socialism
has shown evidences of diverging opin-
ions as regard the movements and at
titude toward military power. When
the Franco-PruSSian war broke out in
1870 Schweitzer voted In the ReichStag
Tor war credits, while Wilhelm Lieb-
knecht, his fellow Socialist deputy, abb
stained, regarding the war as a con-
f1ict between two rival dynaStieS Today,
while the British and Scandinavian So
cialiSm Is predominantly pacifiSt, in its
fiber continental socialism has always
regarded military force as a weapon to
be used in creating a socialist state.
The famous Socialist leaders, like Bebel
and JaureS, always proclaimed the
necessity of citizens being trained to
defend their country. Karl Marx
prayed for a German victory over
France in 1870 because he hoped that
war would create a united Germany,
which would be more favorable for the
advent of socialism. Lenin, before the
World War, urged that disarmament
should be removed from the Socialist
program, because without arms capt.
talism couldn't be overthrow" Con-
tinental Socialists always tended to
admire universal military training as
practiced by the Swiss as being the
most democratic type of defense of
nation. So, while the Socialist govern
ment in Denmark few years ago pro-
posed virtually to abolish the nations
army and navy, the Communist regime
in Russia raised and trained Europe'S
largest standing army. The Magdeburg
congress next March will show whether
the pacifiSt theology is strongest in the
German Socialist party, or whether the
party will continue to trail in the tow
of preparedness advocates as in the
past.
Defense Program Drawn.
That this subject is not purely aca-
denic was shown last Summer and
Autumn when the controversy over
Germany's first postwar armored
cruiser was raging. The Socialist
representatives in the cabinet had
meeklys agreed to accept the. appropri-
atoms for cruiser and forget all about
it, despite the fact that the party had
made big gains at the polls in the
Spring before by virtue Of its promise
to turn down the warShip bill. But the
rank and file made such a protest that
when the bill came before the Reich
stag Socialist ministers who had previ-
vote against it. It is partly with the
idea of averting such party fiaScos in
the future that Socialist leaders have
worked out a careful defense program
which viii be submitted to the party
congress at Magdeburg-a city, by the
way, which knows from bitter exper-
ience something of the horrors of war.
Despite its lip service to decisions of
the Brussels Congress Socialist Inter-
national against war. 1t Is generally
agreed that the draft represents VIC
tory for Socialists who believe in main
tanning an efficient Reichswehr. "A
salient passage in the proposed program
declares: THE violent policy of the
imperialiSt and fascist states still con-
tainS the menace of counter-revolu-
tionary interventions and fresh wars.
Germany may be used as the field of
operations and dragged against her will
into Sanguinary entanglements. So long
as these dangers exist and cannot be re-
moved the German republic is COM
PEELED to maintain armed forces for the
.f5afny1eA n Iaa laka af,aaS ~ S%rI
peoples"
Factions I'm Debate.
Since this draft of the program was
published, in the end of December, the
columns of the Vorwaerts, the Of
fetal Socialist organ, have been carry
ing on a lively debate between the Sec
ton of the party which believes in
maintaining as large and as efficient a
force as the treaty of Versailles permits,
and the left wing, which would have
Germany entirely diSarmed. The view
points of the trade union officials and
party leaders are best represented, per-
hapS, by Franz Josef Furtwaengler, who
writes In Vorwaerts: IF pacifism con-
Sists in demanding destruction to the
last pistol without looking at our neigh
bors to the left or right, then such
paciflSm is the kind which I hope will
never prevail in our party, for with
such confession of faith no party can
ever assume the responsibility for the
guidance of state which is surround
ed by heavily armed nations" The out
look for the younger and more radical
members of the party Is expressed by
Gerhart Seger, who writes: Germany
could follow its historic mission and be
the first fully disarmed nation and ce-
clare itself the second neutralized staCe
in Europe"
(ConvriRht 1927