The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. SATURDAY, MAY 12, 1917. FOR DEMOCRACY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 113, 12 May 1917, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

SATURDAY, MAY 12, 1917. FOR DEMOCRACY.

For the eatue that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs reniitanct, For the future in the distance. And the good that ice cm*, da.

"I do not know what America can do precisely," a German general is reported to have eaid when America broke with Germany, '"but I am sure that a hundred million people all thinking on one subject ought to produce results that will be a serious matter to Uβ." There will not be complete unity among these hundred millions, but there is ample proof that the number oi Americans who are throwing their energies into the war Jβ quite large enough to affect the German fortunes seriously. All that we have heard of the attitude of organised Labour in America towards the war shows that it means to do its best to help the Government. We have had cabled to us within the last few days the stirring message sent to Russia by Mr. Samuel Gompere, President of the American Federation of Labour, and the news that organised Labour has offered to abrogate the eighthour rule and other rights wherever emergencies demand the fullest co-opera-tion with the Government, without, however, surrendering the right to strike. In Britain Labour was slow to surrender these rights, but it must be remembered that it took men a long time to realise how great and critical was their country's ordeal, and that trade union right 3 had been won in a

long, hard, and often bitter struggle. Those rights mean more to the worker than most people in comfortable circumstances understand. It will be a very valuable contribution to the Allied cause if workmen throughout the United States act up to this patriotic offer.

But organised Labour in America did not wait ior war to begin before it defined its attitude. In the middle of March a conference at Washington, representing about 3,000,000 workers, pledged Labour's support to the Government in a statement that we would like to see get the widest possible circulation in Australasia. "We speak for millions of Americana," began the conference's declaration. "We are not a sect. We are not a party. We represent the organisations held together by the pressure of our common needs. We represent the part of the nation closest to the fundamentals of life. Those tre represent wield the nation's tools and grapple with the forces that are brought under control in our material civilisation." The pledge was emphatic "We, the officeis of the National and International Trades Unions of America, hereby pledge outselves in peace or war, in strese or storm, to stand unreserved'y by the standards of liberty and the safety and preservation of the institutions and ideate of our Republic" It wae the earnest hope of delegates that the Republic might be

"safeguarded in its unswerving desire for peace," and ite people spared the horrors and burdens of war. "But, despite all our endeavours and hopes, should our country be drawn into the maelstrom of the European conflict, we, with these ideals of liberty and justice herein declared, offer our services to our country in every field of activity to defend, safeguard, and preserve the Republic of the United States of America against ite enemies, whoever they maj* be, and we call upon our fellow workmen and fellow citizens in the holy name of labour, justice, freedom, and humanity to devotedly and patriotically give like service." * Some American Socialists pointed out that the war was a contest between autocracy and democracy, and declared that the proper aim of Socialist worldpolitica wae an alliance of the politically advance.! nations lor the defence of the democratic principle throughout the world. One of the signatories to this manifesto wae Mr. Charles Edward Russell, who, according to a cable message received to-day, is to be a. member of the official American mission to Ruesia.

"Some men are afraid that we are getting into thie war, instead of being proud," he said in a epeech ehortly before the state of war began. "What is there to be afraid of, except that we might do the right thing? No sacrifice can be too great for thoee who inherited Valley Forge."

These are inspiring woTds. These men do not ehout that this is a capital iate' war, in which Labour stands to gain nothing; they do not juetify abstention from fighting or war work on the ground that the worker, would be just as well off under the German as under the American flag. They take their stand on the side of freedom and justice, the ideals of the Republic, for which the founders of the Republic bled. The Socialist ie not a sexless internationalist; he does not forget Valley Forge and its -ignificance. He realises the criminal folly of the point of view that regards the war as a vast brawl in which Socialism has no interest. "If we could have a full revolutionary Socialist programme to-morrow, we might be called upon to defend it against nations which were organised for aggression under military and aristocratic rulers; precisely as revolutionary France was called upon to defend her ideals against the rest of Europe." Thie recognition in the greatest of neutral countries that the war ie a war for freedom and democracy is spiritually welcome to the Allies, who in ■bearing the heat and (burden of the day are sustained by the thought of the noble cauee they axa defending.