Socialists Fall Out.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 15, 12 October 1907, Page 15

Socialists Fall Out.

MILITARISM. .. COUNTRY STILL COUNTS. The sensation at tho Sooialist Congress nt Stuttgart on August 19 was tho frank repudiation of If. Horn's auti.militarist agitation by Hcrr Bebel (Germany) in the First Commission, and a fiorco rejoinder by M. Hervo. Tho latter's resolution, advocating tho desertion, and even the revolt, of soldiers in tho event of war, was under discussion, when II err Bebel said M. Herve maintained that thp Fatherland was only a Fatherland of tho ruling classes.. But was not .1 arlianient. an institution of the ruling classes? The whole Socialist policy aimed at tlio improvement of tho economic and political conditions of the bourgeoisie. It was indeed a great quesJ o .,yhpHl.the Fatherland belonged. All civilisation was based on tho mothertongue. Jr. Jlerve's idea was that it was all the same whether France conquered Germany or Germany France, which was absurd. ( WATCHFUL GERMANY. ■ Hottc.;" Hcrr Bebel added, dramatically, it you tried that your own people would tramplo you under, loot,"— (Cheers.) Let them, he continued, examine the question practically. Even if' they would, they' could not 'do what iu. Herve wished. If thev once aban-doned-the neutrality imposed upon them they would immediately have all the penal statutes against them. The antimilitarist propaganda in Franco would, if successful, endanger peace, for German military men were watching it with the greatest interest, and a disorganised army would inevitably 'attract a. strong opponent.. Germany, in truth, had no desire to go to war,' for the ruling classes knew they Could not, in all circumstances, rely on tho two million Socialists. The German Social Democrats alwnys combated militarism in tho Reichstag. So far as military armament was necessary, they wanted it in the -most democratic form. Horr Bebol concluded by declaring that thoy would not bo driven to a courso which would endanger the whole life of tho party. TIIE FRENCHMAN'S REPLY.

M. Horve, who was hardly able to contain himself, rose to his feet and in a tea-rent of wrathful speech said he did riot know the 'German General Staff followed his agitation with such interest and delight, but this he knew, that hot only his more iritimato friends, but the whole Socialist would hear with astonishment and grief of the attitude of the Gorman Social Democracy. The anti-militarist agitation started in ,an hour when at any moment Prussian bayonets might be turned against the Russian' revolutionaries, and the French asked themselves, What would the German Social Domocrats do then? Talk, doubtless, about throwing the moral elfect of their three million votes in the scale. Again, at the time of the Morocco affair, they asked what the Germans would do. ' Again the reply would be, "Our, thiee million votes." Herr Rebel had been good enough to teacli him the history' of " Fatherlanders," but he'had never heard anything worth listening to from Herr Bebel. The Fatherland, M. Horve proceeded, in a flow of angry rhetoric, was a milchcow for the capitalists and a stepmother for tho proletarians, for which they really had no need to get their heads broken, ' Herr Bebel made a distinction between wars of aggression and wars of defence,, "but-when two Powers, fall out an arrogant capitalist Press makes such a storm that you, German Socialists, havo neither courage-"nor strength to oppose."'.' A. BALLOT PAPER PARTY. M. Herve, whose speech was frequently interrupted by uproar and laughter, continued: "My anti-militarist agitation is a loud'cry to you to do your duty. Is it not a success for that agitation that I can laugh at the idea of 'Fatherland" in every town, in every ■ village in France without being torn to picccs?" The French, he added, had shown them the way, because tho French had revolutionary traditions, M. Herve ; denounced in unmeasured. terms the German party' as a benevolent' institution and a systematic paying machine, taunting it with wanting to conquer the world with ballot-papers. "When German, soldiers," ho cried, "go to set up again the throne of the Tsar, when Prussia invades France, what will you do?" Emphasising " you," he repeated, "What will you do?" He know that Herr Bebel had been in prison in a fortress in 1871, but he,had become a bourgeois.now, and 'feared the Government. ' Here JTerr Bebel shouted angrily, " We will ; tako ten years more imprisonment than-Frtmch anti-militarists." "WILL FOLLOW THEIR KAISER." Continuing, M. Herve declared that the Gorman' Social Democracy had become bourgeois arid feared tho Government. If they did' not follow the example of the anti-militarists they would not do the work of peace, but of war. The French General Staff had been demoralised by the agitation, for they knew that war would mean the revolt of' the proletariat. " But the Germans," M. Herve 'concluded, amid tremendous uproar, "I am snre will follow their Kaiser 1 and point -their rifles at the French proletarians defending barricades on which waves-the/red flag of revolution." . i ! ' . M. Herve's iingoverned words created a. most disagreeable impression, M: Suedekun, President of tho Commission, referring to the French " comrade" in conversation as a mountebank.