* For a long time these mutterings and rumblings had been heard.  As far back as 1906 A.D., Lord Avebury, an Englishman, uttered the following in the House of Lords:  “The unrest in Europe, the spread of socialism, and the ominous rise of Anarchism, are warnings to the governments and the ruling classes that the condition of the working classes in Europe is becoming intolerable, and that if a revolution is to be avoided some steps must be taken to increase wages, reduce the hours of labor, and lower the prices of the necessaries of life.”  The Wall Street Journal, a stock gamesters’ publication, in commenting upon Lord Avebury’s speech, said:  “These words were spoken by an aristocrat and a member of the most conservative body in all Europe.  That gives them all the more significance.  They contain more valuable political economy than is to be found in most of the books.  They sound a note of warning.  Take heed, gentlemen of the war and navy departments!”

At the same time, Sydney Brooks, writing in America, in Harper’s Weekly, said:  “You will not hear the socialists mentioned in Washington.  Why should you?  The politicians are always the last people in this country to see what is going on under their noses.  They will jeer at me when I prophesy, and prophesy with the utmost confidence, that at the next presidential election the socialists will poll over a million votes.”

The Oligarchy wanted the war with Germany.  And it wanted the war for a dozen reasons.  In the juggling of events such a war would cause, in the reshuffling of the international cards and the making of new treaties and alliances, the Oligarchy had much to gain.  And, furthermore, the war would consume many national surpluses, reduce the armies of unemployed that menaced all countries, and give the Oligarchy a breathing space in which to perfect its plans and carry them out.  Such a war would virtually put the Oligarchy in possession of the world-market.  Also, such a war would create a large standing army that need never be disbanded, while in the minds of the people would be substituted the issue, “America versus Germany,” in place of “Socialism versus Oligarchy.”

And truly the war would have done all these things had it not been for the socialists.  A secret meeting of the Western leaders was held in our four tiny rooms in Pell Street.  Here was first considered the stand the socialists were to take.  It was not the first time we had put our foot down upon war,* but it was the first time we had done so in the United States.  After our secret meeting we got in touch with the national organization, and soon our code cables were passing back and forth across the Atlantic between us and the International Bureau.