The Dominion FRIDAY, AUGUST 2, 1918. PAN-GERMAN SOCIALISM

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 269, 2 August 1918, Page 4

The Dominion FRIDAY, AUGUST 2, 1918. PAN-GERMAN SOCIALISM

. No ono who has followed the events of the war can be unaware that in Germany "Socialism" carries a meaning which it carries nowhere else in the world The shortsighted futility of pacifist, agitation in Britain and some other Allied countries , has never been more .conspicuously apparent than when it was directed to the object of getting into touch with men who pretend to represent the German "democracy." Some of the Labour leaders and , others of pacifist bent in Allied countries who maintain that there is a German democracy which only needs to be freed from the shackles of militarism to life its country into a place amongst the self-respecting nations of the world are apparently honest in that belief, but it is difficult to credit them with honesty in face of the overwhelming body of evidence that in Germany there is for practical purposes no such thing as democracy. The evidence on the point is not of a kind that needs to ba brought out or established by argument. It appears in events which have taken shape before the eyes of the world and are- already recorded in unchallenged- history. It would bo enough, if thero were nothing more to be added, that the German democracy has passively and knowingly tolerated and cooperated in the vilest crimes of which its military masters have been guilty. Under Pan-German leaderchip and inspiration, Germany has committed and multiplied on land and sea abominable crimes and atrocities from which any self-re-specting semi-barbarous nation would " shrink in horror.,, These things have- been done, sometimes with the applause, never with the condemnation, of the so-called Gorman democracy. Even in Germany 'protest against the horrors of war is possible. We have seen it in connection with the later developments of aerial warfare. But the only protests raised in Germany have been those of people in fear for their own miserable lives. While the Zeppelins were bombing London and Paris and the Allies had no means of striking an effective counter-blow, no wnisper of protest was raised in the Fatherland against the senseless and coldblooded murder of women and babies. Aiiiy demonstration that occurred was in the nature of the chorus of jubilation which greeted the sinking of the Lusitania. But the Allies had not long opened their aerial attack upon tho manufacturing centres of the Rhino Valley before clamorous protests wore raised in Germany against tho bombardment of towns "outside the war zone." Tho German "democracy," in a word, has looked with unqualified approval upon every deviltry of which its military masters, have been guilty; and gives that approval to-day except when there is assurance or danger of a return blow. This, however, is only tho first count in the indictment, though a great one. The people in Germany who 3 in any other country would constitute the rank and file of the democracy are well organised, so far as the mechanical aspects of organisation arc concerned, arc represented in political assemblies whose members enjoy fairly wide liberties of speech, though not of action. Yet tho colossal crimos of which Germany has been guilty in tho region of hor Eastern conquests have been accopted and approved by the German democracy after no more than a barely heard muttering of protest. The Brest Litovsk treaty, reduced to plain words, provides for the annoxation of the western provinces of Russia and the enslavement of tho people who occupy these provinces. _ The conditions impored on Rumania are in all essentials similar. German Socialists, however— except, perhaps, ■ tho few Minority representatives who nro prophets without honour in their own country—desire nothing more than that the process nf robbery and enslavement should proceed. When Schejdemann, the leader of the Majority Socialists, not long ago accepted an office which made him a Court functionary he took a step winch in almost any other country

would have led to his being contemptuously ejected by his parly. In Germany his- action was natural and normal. It illustrates the welldefined trend of German Socialist development. There is no need of additional evidence to establish the fact that German Socialism _ is complementary to German militarism. Nevertheless, an invaluable service to the Entente cause and that of tine democracy has been rendered by the London Times t correspondent formerly in Berlin in giving prominence to a book completed last year by Dr. Paul Lensch, a German Socialist journalist and member of the Reichstag. The service is measured by the fact that a clear appreciation of what is implied in the apparently incompatible union botween Socialism and militarism in Germany is essential if the Allies are to attain and establish tho secure peace at which they aim. Lensch certainly does a great deal to sweep away obscurities and to explain the unfaltering devotion of tho German "democracy" to the apostles of blood and iron. In his book, which is accepted by well-informed authorities as expressing the real mind of the German working classes towards the war, ho frankly and indeed aggressively disowns any such aims for German Socialism as tho overthrow of militarism and capitalism in the German Empire. He glories as frankly in the policy of conquest and exploitation. . He repeatedly exults in the charges of barbarism levelled against Germany, and says that they are really a measure of "foreign admiration.' . They call us barbarians (ho writes). So let it be! Wo ouirlit to drop all our whimperings or horrified, protests against the barbarism cry of tho English—to say nothing of tho French.' Lensch gives short shrift to the plea that the war was occasioned by British commercial jealousy. Ho makes no difficulty about admitting that the war followed inevitably upon Germany's adoption of Protection in 1879, and the "necessity" she was under of finding new markets territories to exploit. Ho has nothing but contempt for English "catchwords" such as "freedom" and "democracy." "For him," to quote the Times writer mentioned above, "all that is necessary is for Germany to break down old-fashioned political barriers in her strido towards world power through ever greater State concentration. He is satisfied that the necessary amount of 'freedom' will be granted to the German people, simply because that will be a necessary relief from the ever tighter domination by the State. For example, the Prussian franchise will be reformed because it has become tho interest of German finance to remove such obstacles to German prestige abroad !" Another illuminating utterance by Lensch may be cited, not from his recently-publish-ed book, but from an article- which appeared in the Socialist organ Die Glockc of October, 1917. On this occasion, while agreeing with tho aims of the Pan-Germans, ho blamed them for wanting everything at once. "First," he urged, "bring about the peace by underiitandirig which secures Germany's political independence, territorial integrity, and economic freedom of development, and then Germany will have shown herself so strong that 'all these things' shall be added unto her." It is to tho design thus blatantly proclaimed that Allied pacifists who are foolish enough to prate about a peace by understanding arc consciously or otherwise making themselves a party. Somo people may ho inclined to doubt whether Lensch, in his loudmouthed advocacy of barbarian conquest and of mechanical organisation of the German State with an eye solely to exploitation and political and economic domination, can be said to represent the main stream of the Social Democratic movement in Germany. An immediate answer to such doubts is' supplied, as we havo said, by the testimony of well-informed authorities tbat Lensch represents the attitude of tho majority of the organised German workers. But even if this specific assurance wero lacking, is it not obvious that in the long and searching test of the war the doctrines expounded by Lensch havo been given all but unqualified support by the German masses? The hope that bitter adversity may yet carry Germany to the point of revolution is not dead. But it is a matter of simplo common sense to recognise that in Germany beliof in the efficacy of brute forco as a thing superior to moral right is not narrowly restricted, but is widespread throughout tho nation, , and that until this belief is destroyed thore can bo no peace in the world worthy of tho name.