In an interesting article published by the German Socialist paper Vorwaerts, on September 27, 1914, and reproduced in our Press, occurred the following passage, in which the war is traced to its commercial sources:  “Germany has enjoyed an economical prosperity such as no other country has experienced during the last decade.  That meant with the capitalist class a revival of strong Imperialist tendencies, which have been evident enough.  This, again, gave rise to mistrust abroad, at least in capitalist circles, who did their best to communicate their feelings to the great masses, ... and so the German people as a whole has been made responsible for what has been the work of a small class....  The comrades abroad can be assured that though German workmen are ready to defend their country they will, above all, not forget that their interests are the same as those of the proletariat in other countries, who also against their will were forced into the war and now do their duty.  They can rest assured that the German people are not less humane than others—­a result to which education through workmen’s organizations has greatly contributed.  If German soldiers in the excitement of war should commit atrocities, it can be said that among us—­and also in other circles—­there will not be a single person to approve of them.”

Reading this statement—­so infinitely more sensible and human than anything to be found in the ordinary Capitalist Press of England and Germany—­one cannot help feeling that there is practically little hope for the future until the international working masses throughout Europe come forward and, joining hands with each other, take charge of the foolish old Governments (who represent the remains of the decadent feudal and commercial systems), and shape the Western world at last to the heart’s desire of the peoples that inhabit it.

“The peoples of the world desire peace,” said Bourtzeff, the Russian exile[20]—­and he, who has been in many lands, ought to know.  But they also—­if they would obtain peace—­must exercise an eternal vigilance lest they fall into the hands of class-schemers and be betrayed into that which they do not desire.  The example of Germany—­which we have considered above—­shows how easily a good and friendly and pacific people may, by mere political inattention and ignorance, and by a quasi-scientific philosophy, which imposes on its political ignorance, be led into a disastrous situation.  It shows how preposterous it is that Governments generally—­as at present constituted—­should set themselves up as the representatives of the mass-peoples’ wishes, and as the arbiters of national destinies.  And it shows how vitally necessary it is that the people, even the working masses and the peasants, should have some sort of political education and understanding.