OUR OLD MASTERS 92 THE CLASS STRUGGLE 93 war in which Russians and Frenchmen invaded Germany would be to the latter a life and death struggle, in which its national existence could be assured only by the application of the most revolutionary measures. The present government will surely not open up the way to revolution, if not driven by compulsion.
But we have a powerful party which can either force the hand of government or can if necessary take its place, the SocialDemocratic party.
And we have not forgotten the wonderful example that France set us in 1793. The anniversary of 1793 approaches. If the Czar lust for conquest and the chauvinistic restlessness of the French bourgeoisie should interrupt the victorious but peaceful advance of the German Socialists, then you may be sure that they are ready to prove to the world that the German proletarian of to day is not unworthy of the French sans culottes and that 1893 may be placed alongside of 1793. And if the soldiers of Monsieur Constans set foot on German territory, we will greet them with the refrain from the Marseillaise: Quoi, ces cohortes étrangères Feraient la loi dans nos foyers?
In short: Peace insures the victory of the Social Democratic Party in about ten years. War either brings victory in two or three years or total ruin for at least fifteen to twenty years.
In the face of this, the German Socialists would have to be crazy to want war, thereby placing everything in jeopardy, instead of waiting for sure peaceful triumph. What is more, no Socialist, whatever his nationality, can desire the triumph either of the present German government or of the French bourgeois republicans or, least of all, of the Czar, which would mean the oppression of Europe. And therefore the Socialists of all countries are for peace.
Thus spoke Engels.
Strange, how the present leadership, whose representatives, as a rule, could not condemn Engels severely enough for playing with revolutionary fire and for his hasty prophesying have taken such a fancy to this article of our master. The riddle can be solved, however, by taking into account that isolated sentences taken disconnectedly are well suited to blind the worker. Sentences, mind you, which are to show, not that the Germans must fight the Russians and Frenchmen when attacked for the workers will do that without the aid of quoted authority but sentences which, through the reverence for the writer that attaches to them, shall serve to drive the workers instinctively and blindly into the arms of the ruling class.
The political policy of the present leadership means a complete break with the mental heritage of our old masters, and with the history and principles heretofore, of the Social Democracy. The logical consequence of such a course would be a national social reform workingmen party, in harmony with militarism and the monarchy, contenting itself with reforms attainable within the sphere of capitalist society. On the other hand, if the abyss that divides the present from the past were to be covered over by phrases and fine words, it will undermine the vitality of the deluded toiling masses for an indefinite future period. Translated by ERIC NIEL.