452 THE CLASS STRUGGLE AN OPEN LETTER 453 everything in their power to make it as difficult as possible for any real radical to stick to those hopes!
But if the world war is to end in an alliance of imperialistic Germany and the Allies against radicalisni and socialism all over the world, if the Russian venture is pressed to its logical conclusion. then there of course is no choice for an honest radical between the present belligerent groups. do not know that can hope that this may be avoided. Writing to you about these things, although myself am pretty much losing any hope of response, we still leave an opportunity to you to prove in some concrete fashion that a capitalist state, confronted with the problem of a rising working class, has other channels to offer for the evolution than that of a brutal class war.
Again ask you, how in the name of common sense can you expect any one of us who has gone through the experiences which have had in these six months of modest attempts at proletarian diplomacy not to see, thạt every political move is made on the basis of economic interests and that if we, the Finnish Socialists or the Russian Socialists, were the very arch angels of orderliness, constructive political ability and common sanity we would be still branded as brigands as long as we did not renounce our social aims which are the natural next step in the social progress of the world?
However, did not write this letter in order to criticize only. have lived in America long enough to become an admirer of your tremendous resourcefulness, your ability of initiative, your youthful social vigor, unhampered by centuries of feudal tradition, and have dreamed, as many others have dreamed, that Amerira, because of these her assets, will be able to bring common sense into a world, which is now paying a horrible price for the inability of its ruling classes to admit that the twentieth century is a century of labor democracy. And heaven knows that I, and almost everyone of us who believe in the Russian Revolution and in the ultimate victory of Socialism, from the very outset of the world war have been partisans of the Allies. Not that we for a moment renounced our convictions that class interests are the paramount issue in every capitalist state. Yet we are no such fools as not to see that modern industrial evolution, which inevitably leads to Socialism, is less hampered, at least normally has been by the so called western democracy than by the rigid system of Prussianism. Also the sentimental traditions of liberal and revolutionary opportunity in France, in Belgium, in England, in Italy and in America as well as our wholehearted disgust with those peculiarities of modern capitalistic materialism which more pronouncedly than anywhere else are expressed in the Prussian system, have kept us distinctly in favor of an Allied victory if this war is to end in the victory of the one or the other side. only wish that the Allies, including the United States, would not have done Your experience in Russia up till today has, perhaps even to your satisfaction, proven to you that the best outcome of the situation would be to put an end to the intervention, as.
long as it is not too late. met a Government official not long ago who told me frankly that the best hope he entertained in regard to the Russian situation was that the Americans might be able to end the adventure at least as easily as you ended your Mexican intervention. am afraid that that optimistic hope is not likely to become a fact if something is not done at once. You were able to get away from Mexico with honor. You were the masters of the situation there, as far as your own actions were concerned. In Russia, especially in Vladivostok, you are not. your financial influence with the Allies notwithstanding. You may expect to do anything you want, but you will have to do that, into which the Japanese and Russian reactionaries will draw you. and they know more about how to complicate the Russian situation than your representatives know how to avoid a complication.
If there is any hope of an honest ending of the present situation, it can be achieved only on the basis of actual negotiations with the Soviet Government. Today, I, as the rep