228 THE CLASS STRUGGLE CURRENT AFFAIRS 229 But how about the preliminary conversations now being carried on in the form of dialogue across the Channel and ocean. why cannot the preliminary agreement be reached by this method? Evidently because the noble Lord and his no less noble friend across the Channel want to discuss things that cannot be discussed except in a small intimate meeting of statesmen of a certain type the Metternich Bismarck type.
It is only at such a gathering, for instance, that a bargain could be struck that Germany take and keep what she can get from Russia and incidentally reestablish order in Russia for the good of all concerned, in consideration of her reconsidering the question of Alsace Lorraine as a gift to France, while England keeps Mesopotamia and some other highly desirable portions of the habitable globe. It is only at such a conference that it could be arranged that Turkey should be compensated for the loss of Mesopotamia by grabbing Cis or Transcaucasia, or perhaps both. And it is only at such a conference that negotiations could be conducted, for instance, for the return of Kiau Chau by Japan to Germany, in exchange for permission to Japan to take and hold as much of Siberia as she thinks she can swallow.
And such a conference will be held and the nefarious work now in contemplation carried out, unless the working class steps in to prevent it.
It is therefore up to the working class to announce clearly and firmly that no round table conference will be permitted whether formal or informal, small or large, until the entire peace program, not only the principles but all of the essential terms of the future peace shall have been agreed upon in the presence and hearing of the entire world.
And to make assurance doubly sure, it would be well for the working class to announce its firm determination not to permit a peace at the expense of Revolutionary Russia; and that should the ruling classes attempt to force such a peace upon the world it will, if necessary, take the sword into its own hands and hold it until Revolutionary Russia is completely restored.
Recall Berger The election of Victor Berger, as one of the Delegates of the Socialist Party of this country to the contemplated International Socialist Peace Congress, is one of the most disgraceful things that have happened in the entire history of the party, and calculated to do it infinite harm. This action should be reversed as speedily as possible, and before the harm done shall have become irreparable.
In the entire membership of the Socialist Party there could hardly have been found another man so little suited for the task of delegate to an International Socialist Peace Congress than Victor Berger. In fact, his selection as one of the delegates casts reflection on the entire delegation, and is well calculated to give color to the accusation that the entire movement for the holding of an international Socialist Peace Congress is tinged with a pro German bias, which is supposed to be the justification for the Government refusal to issue passports to the delegates.
Ever since the outbreak of the great world war, Victor Berger has been conspicuous in the advocacy of everything that tended to help the success of German arms, and in defending the worst excesses of German Imperialism. In so doing he has repudiated every principle of socialist internationalism; and has treated with the greatest contempt and contumely the anti militaristic position and the peace professions of the Socialist Party of America. born jingo, he has been a German jingo and an American jingo by turns contriving a synthesis of the two which has become familiar under the name of Hearstism, an attempt to put American jingoism at the service of German Imperialism.
When the German cohorts succeeded in wiping Servia off the map in the summer of 1915, Berger Milwaukee Leader published an editorial eulogy of this enterprise, advocating the permenant Germanization of the Balkans, and approving highly of the action of Messrs. Scheidemann and Co. for supporting the Kaiser in his Balkan expedition. In order to make his