116 THE CLASS STRUGGLE CURRENT AFFAIRS 117 our feet by the vociferations of Messrs. Scheidemann Co.
and their following in Germany and elsewhere.
It is therefore refreshing to see Kautsky standing by the true Socialist principles, and braving the terrors of the German Government, as well as of Scheidemann Co. in order to proclaim them to the German proletariat and to the proletariat of the world.
In the course of an article which appeared in the issue of the Neue Zeit dated September 14, 1917, Kautsky says that the question of the independence of nationalities must be viewed by Socialists from the point of view of the interests of democratic progress the world over, and then he proceeds. Such considerations may under certain circumstances demand imperatively that a great revolutionary state be held together against its reactionary enemies. If the Finns and Ukranians now want to get away from the Russian state, it is merely an after effect of the policies of Zarism which drove them into opposition to Russia and of a lack of faith on their part in the staying qualities of the Russian Revolution.
But they ought to know that their hopes of national independence are intimately bound up with the Russian Revolution that the only way in which they can secure their independence is by their standing by Russia and not by their separating from it, thereby weakening it.
It would be interesting to find out how much the expression of these un Scheidemann views have contributed towards Kautsky separation from the Neue Zeit, which not only weakened but destroyed that once justly famous international Socialist institution.
replacement of Bethmann Hollweg, who had attempted to govern with the aid of the Scheidemann Socialists, by an obscure unknown bureaucrat of reactionary proclivities. Now we witness the closing of the second chapter of that much heralded process of democratisation with the replacement of the unknown reactionary by a well known one. For Count Hertling, who has just been appointed German Imperial Chancellor in place of the stopgap Michaelis, has spent a life time in the service of the German reactionaries, rendering them faithful and efficient service.
Unlike his predecessor, Count Von Hertling is a man of conspicuous ability, which he has always used in an endeavor to stem the incoming tide of democracy. It is interesting to note in this connection that when the Reichstag first asserted its independence, and the German powers that cast about for a proper man to inaugurate a strong policy. in the place of Bethmann Hollweg temporizing policy. they turned to Hertling. Hertling declined the post, however, but is said to actually have named the man who was to hold the place for him until the time shall have arrived for the real man to come to the front.
With the Russian Revolution just accomplished and the situation on the Western front none of the best, it was evidently considered too risky a matter to defy the Reichstag majority by appointing to the Chancellorship such an outspoken opponent of parliamentary government as Von Hertling. It was therefore considered policy to put a nonentity in the place, who would keep it warm until more propitious times.
The propitious time for the real man to assert himself has evidently arrived. The Russian Revolution has run into such excesses, that Scheidemann instead of being compelled to take note of it by way of paying tribute to it and making a pretense of emulating it in some degree at least, is now enabled to openly point a finger of condemnation and warning against it. Instead of being compelled by the Russian Revolution to assume a semirebellious attitude towards the German Government, Mr. Scheidemann can now lecture the German working class on the dangers of revolution in the midst of war and pride himself on the fact that he had by his leadership kept the German working class froni Making Haste Slowly Germany is making haste slowly along the pathway of reform toward democracy. So slowly, indeed, that to an outsider it may look as if she were going backwards instead of forwards.
The first chapter of the great crisis which was to transform Germany from an autocracy into a democracy closed with the