The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-07-28
From the First World War to the Second
Rv Burck

wife, fell victim, in order to explode this powder
magazine into the air and to unleash all the an
tagonisms in the form of war. It is true that in
August 1914, the armament programs 4. the i'm
perialsts had by long way not been completely
carried through. However, even these incomplete
ornaments sud1ced to submerge the world in the
greatest of all wars for period of four and half
years. In 1914, Germany possessed not less than
thirteen double lines of railway track leading to its
west frontier which allowed of the passage of $50
railway trains over the Rhine bridges every day.
In the two first weeks of the war; train passed
over the Rhine bridge at Cologne every ten min
utes. When, in August, 1914 the storm broke loose
the rulers Only needed to press a button the gen.
eral stats to open their secret archives, and the
governing officials to pull out the drawers of their
desks, in order that the whole system Of military
alliances and war plans which had long before been
prepared in every detail, should begin to function
with mechanical precision
The shot fired at Sarajeyo was in the first place
an issue which affected Austria and Serbia alone
But following in its train the four Central Powers
side and twenty-three countries on the other
side were drawn into the vortex of war. 1t is true
that Turkey desired to remain neutral, but the
influence of the German bank treasures interested
in the Bagdad Railway proved to be more power
full. Gernany's 100000 mark loan to Bulgaria
and England's $25,000000 loan to Greece, bought
also the entry Of these powers into the war.
Already in 1912, Poincare had predicted the
outbreak of the World War in 1914 for he
that by this time a decisive stage in the
armament programs would have been accomplished.
The of 1914 was bound to become a world war
for the issue lay not only in the deep antagonism
between Great Britain and Germany and the
traditional hereditary enmity between France and
Germany, but also in the antagonism between
Austria Hungary and Russia in the Balkans in the
struggle for the Near East in the eXpansionst aims
of Japan and Italy, and in the dreams Of world
domination on the part of American imperialism.
The whole capitalist world was therefore,
caught in the tolls of the war The area of
the territory of the Central Powers amounted to
2225OOo square kilometres with a population of
15800o00O and an annual income of $4,000 900.
On the other side stood the Entente with its area
of S7,267o00 square kilometres, and a population
of 100000, possessing annual income of
s6,98 ,O00 0O0
The shot at Sara jevo was no accident and it
was not the real cause of the World War. Nor
did the outbreak of the World War depend on the
personality of the leaders of the government at
that time, Bethman- Hollweg Poncare, Grey or
Sasonov. In order that the wide massed of the
people, who after the World War were full of in
dignation at the war horrors which had been en-
dured, should be detected from struggle against
the real causes of the war; the imperialists cast
the blame one another for the outbreak of the
war; The war guilt lie was the great lie of all the
imperialists the accusation against persons and
governments in order to protect the capitalist system
whcih really bore the guilt. The responsible gov
ernmental leaders we're only the executive organs
of finance capital the rule of which leads to strug
gle for the division and re-division of the world
The capitalist social order which develops I'M
evenly is the source of all the contradictions,
tagonisms and war conflicts. After 1871 Germany
grew in strength four times as fast as England and
France, Japan ten times as fast as Russia The
process of this uneven development naturally al
tered the relations of power between the imperial
lists and the altered power relations in their turn
determined an alteration of the existing division
of the plumber, is, new partition of the world
In his article, "On the slogan Of the United States
of Europe" Lenn wrote:
There is and there be other way Of test
ing the real strength of a capitalist state than
that of war War does not contradict the principles
of private property-on the contrary it is direct
and inevitable development of those principles
Under capitalism, the even economic growth of the
individual enterprises, individual states is i'm
possible. Under capitalism, there is nothing else
that periodically restores the disturbed equilibrium
except crises in industry and wars in politics.
ITO be continued)
Lenin Selected Works Vol III The United