SocialismSyndicalismWorld War

506 THE CLASS STRUGGLE EDITORIALS 507 ening to a more independent attitude on war and peace. The of delegates were not interested in the terms of peace, or in problems of reconstruction; they betrayed a pitiful lack of understanding of things in general and the war in particular; they seemed unaware of, or brutally ignored the terrible agony that has come to Europe in four years of unparalleled carnage; their whole contribution was of the fire eating variety carry on, war to the finish! Brutality and stupidity, crowned by an assumption of superiority and complacent impudence, characterized the of L, Mission.
class. The of may yet become convinced of the reactionary character of its attitude by the arguments of war itself. most interesting and characteristic feature of this world war is the conscious use governments must make of labor and Socialism in order to create the psychology of carry on! It is simultaneously a necessary and a dangerous procedure. Necessary, since war to day affects the whole people, must mobilize all the social, industrial and psychological forces of a nation for the prosecution of the war; dangerous, since it subtly inculcates labor with the consciousness of its necessity and power. In spite of the reactionary of bureaucracy, and under the dynamic impulse of the war itself, European labor will appreciate its power more and more; it will march onward toward the ideology and action of revolutionary Socialism, not retreat to the reactionary positions of the of French and British and Italian labor, even the patriotic elements thereof, is beginning to realize that the government; policy of asking labor to carry on, while the governments determine when and how the war shall end, and upon what terms, is a reactionary procedure, calculated to promote the very interests that provoked the war. European labor, hesitatingly, gropingly, unintelligently, perhaps, but none the less actually, is making up its mind that it shall not simply be cannon fodder, but an independent force in the making of peace. This is the wpirit that Lloyd and Clemenceau are afraid of, not so much because of what it is now, but because of what it may become; and so Lloyd George sends a British Labor Mission to this country, consisting of the most reactionary elements of British unionism; and the of being recognized for the reactionary force it is, is asked to send a mission to France and England, to become an instrument against awakening labor and for reaction, PROGRESS BACKWARD Ten years ago socialist sentiment within the of promised to become an influential factor in the life of the organization. number of great international unions were undeniably under socialist influence, unions whose membership was largely composed of the so called American element were electing socialist national officials and socialist delegates to of conventions with increasing frequency. To be sure, the delegates who held definitely socialistic views were still in the minority, a minority that could not hope for years to become a majority.
The United Mine Workers of America, numerically the strongest of the of Internationals was typical of the mental upheaval of that time. More than fifty per cent. of its membership showed marked socialistic tendencies. In 1908 its convention adopted a declaration of war against the National Civic Federation, that was essentially an attack upon Samuel Gompers and John Mitchell, the erstwhile idol of the miners.
The same convention emphasized its anti militaristic sentiment by the passage of a constitutional amendment providing for the The of in its official expression at least, is to day precisely where European labor was during the first year of the war supine, carried away by the impetus of the war, dickering for small advantages to be secured out of Armageddon, and accepting a General Staff ideology. The eloquent arguments of war itself have convinced labor of the stupidity of this attitude; and labor in Europe is awakening, has awakened to the point where the governments must import American reactionary labor officials in the struggle against the developing consciousness of