108 THE CLASS STRUGGLE CURRENT AFFAIRS 109 selves by declaring war without adequate or reasonable cause.
We should do the country the honor of correcting that fatal mistake as soon as possible. Alliance with foreign nations should not be tolerated. Our hands should be kept entirely free to negotiate at any time without regard to the interests or desires of any other nations.
But now it is: Act, not withdraw.
The reversal of position is complete but is it final?
The Italian Debacle We brand the declaration of war by our government as a crime against the people of the United States and against the nations of the world. In all modern history there has been no war more unjustifiable than the war in which we are about to engage. No greater dishonor has ever been forced upon a people than that which the capitalist class is forcing upon this nation against its will.
Our readers know that we are not counted among the admirers of the St. Louis resolution. But there is one thing that we must say for it: There was no equivocation here: no room for doubt. The authors of this resolution foremost among whom was Morris Hillquit made their opposition to America entry into the war and its continuance therein as clear and as emphatic as the English language could make it. The American people were plunged into this war against their will by trickery and treachery; our entry into the war was crime against our own people and the nations of the world; our war against Germany is the most unjustifiable in all modern history; our continuance therein will cover our people with dishonor. The American people do not want this war. We must withdraw as soon as possible.
There could be no mistake about that, and there was none at the time.
At the great public demonstration against the war, held under the auspices of the First American Conference for Democracy and Terms of Peace, afterwards The People Council, at Madison Square Garden, New York City, on May 30th, 1917, the Chairman read a message from one of the leaders of that movement which shows just where Mr. Hillquit and his associates stood at that time on this question and that they did not stand where they stand now. That message read, in part, as follows. am conscientiously opposed to the war and in favor of bringing it to a speedy close by any and every legitimate way consistent with the honor of our country. We dishonored ourThe disaster which has overtaken the Italian armies is one of the most important as well as one of the most interesting events of the entire world war. It is important because its necessary result is to prolong the war. Every German military success strengthens the reactionary forces in Germany, and every strengthening of these forces postpones the coming of peace. The question of war and peace is distinctly up to. the German people; and strengthening of the reactionary forces in Germany is simply another way of saying that the German people are not ready for any peace that would be acceptable to the rest of the world.
Notwithstanding this deplorable aspect of the situation, however, there is no denying the fact that there is a certain amount of satisfaction to be derived from Italy discomfiture, for those who look for abstract Justice.
For Italy has not only richly deserved her fate, but has directly brought it upon herself by the extreme selfishness of the policy which she has pursued since the outbreak of the world cataclysm.
When Italy entered the war the present writer said in the New Review. At last Italy has jumped off the fence on which she has been sitting for nearly ten months. Amid all the disgusting things which this war has produced, or has uncovered to the gaze of the world, Italy on the fence was the most disgusting. Not that