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230 THE CLASS STRUGGLE CURRENT AFFAIRS 231 German imperialism more palatable to his Socialist readers.
Mr. Berger assured them that the Kaiser Balkan policy had been approved in advance by Karl Marx himself, and that Scheidemann and Co. in supporting that policy were carrying out the last will and testament of Karl Marx.
And when, a year later, Hearst and other jingoes some American and some German, and some both tried to embroil this country in war with Mexico, Berger loudly demanded war, in defiance of the Socialist Party which was holding meetings protesting against such a war. Berger enthusiasm for a Mexican adventure by the United States was so great that his then puppet in the Mayor chair of Milwaukee ordered that the day when the Milwaukee National Guardsmen were to leave for the Mexican border be kept as a public holiday, so that the citizens of Milwaukee could give our boys a proper send off, for the expedition which Berger evidently believed would keep them employed in Mexico long and profitably. The Milwaukee Leader even went into the flag business so as to be able to supply its readers with American flags for the joyful occasion.
During the three and a half years that the great European conflict has lasted, there was not an occurrence, either in American or world politics, that Berger has appraised otherwise than from the point of view of German imperialism.
When the German Socialists split into a Kaiser and antiKaiser party, he openly ranged himself on the side of the Kaiser Socialists, and in opposition to the Liebknecht group and the Independents.
When the Russian Revolution broke out and it was feared at Berlin that it might lead to reorganization of Russia military resources and a vigorous prosecution of the war by the new Russian Republic Berger heaped abuse upon the Russian Revolutionists, informing them at the same time, however, that they could redeem themselves by making a separate peace with Germany, and advising them to lose no time in doing so.
During the terrible days of the last months of the peace negotiations between Russia and Germany, the Milwaukee Leader did its best to discourage the fighting spirit of the Russian Revolutionists and their sympathizers in this country, searching for precedents in American Revolutionary history to justify a separate peace. In his zeal for a separate peace, he even went to the extent of praising the Bolsheviki whom he hates and despises for their internationalism when they seemed to be inclined towards a separate peace.
But all this is nothing in comparison to Mr. Berger latest feat in internationalism la Berlin and Potsdam.
When the world stood amazed and horror stricken at the dismemberment of Russia by Germany and the strangling of the Russian Revolution by German Militarism, when Germany was actually marching her army into a defenseless country, into a country that has thrown away her arms, Berger actually came out with a defense of German Imperialism in its nefarious work of raping Russia and strangling the Revolution.
Whenever an extraordinary occasion arises and Mr. Berger wants to convey some special message to the world, he usually has himself interviewed, Hearst fashion, by his own paper.
Such an occasion arose when Germany started on her march into Esthonia after Russia threw away her arms. And Berger was equal to the occasion. On the same day that his paper brought the news of Germany march into Esthonia, Washington Birthday, he published an interview with himself on the front page of his paper, in which he frankly took German Imperialism under his protection and openly put his stamp of approval on what the Kaiser and his cohorts were doing in Russia. Creating independent states. Berger reported himself as saying, is not annexing them to Germany. Poland, Courland, Lithuania, Esthonia, Livonia and Finland are to be independent states, which according to the London version means, that they are annexed to Germany. The average reader will not be able to make out the sense of this.
At least we Socialists stand for the right of every nationality to assert itself and to live its own national life as far as this is