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Show GERMANY'S REBEL. Far the first time a German in official offi-cial life has definitely blamed the German Ger-man and Austrian war parties for the present European conflict According to a dispatch from Amsterdam, the one member of the reichstag who voted . aprainet the war credit, Dr. Karl Lieb-knecht, Lieb-knecht, Socialist member, has written an article to eiplain his vote. He says: "This yrar was not desired by any of the peoples affected, nor was it kindled to promote the welfare of the Germans or any other people. It was created by the common action of the Germun and Austrian war parties in the obscurity of semiabsolutism and secret diplomacy in ordor to anticipate their adversaries. "At the same time the war Is a Napoleonic, attempt to unnerve and crush the prowin labor movement.'1 It will be seen that Dt. Liobknecht places no faith in the German official explanation of the war's causes. Ho charges that prior to Austria's ultimatum ulti-matum to Scrvia and Russian mobilization, mobili-zation, the war part3' in Germany had determined to briny on the conflict in order to anticipate the adversaries ; of the Triple Alliance. The war party assumed, as the crown prince recently stated in an interview, that an iron ring was being drawn about Germany by her adversaries, and J - that it was absolutely necessary for Germany to strike the first blow and to strike quickly to escape being crushed by the. growing power and aggression ag-gression of her enemies. In England another Socialist, Bernard Ber-nard Shaw, has adopted an attitude . similar to that of Dr. Liebknecht. He scoffs at what he terms English hypocrisies, hy-pocrisies, and ascribes British entrance into the war to material and selfish reasons. Ho derides the attempt of English statesmen and publicists to demonstrate that England began hostilities hos-tilities for the sole purpose of vindicating vindi-cating the sacredness of international obligations. In one respect Dr. Liebknecht 's statement will gain universal assent in this countr-. The war was not desired by any of the peoples affected, nor will it promote the welfare of the Germans Ger-mans or of any other people. This is not to say that the military caste of Germany were insincere in their belief that the war would promote the welfare wel-fare of their country. They wero confident con-fident of victory and believed that Germany would obtain a "place in the sun" which would be to her permanent benefit. Even at this stage of the conflict con-flict it must appear to the disinterested disinter-ested observer that the high hopes of the Berlin and Vienna war parties cannot can-not be realized. When Dr. Liebknecht says that the war ia a Napoleonic attempt to crush the growing labor movement he is looking look-ing through socialistic spectacles. He is seeking to escape the conviction that the pretenses of Socialism have collapsed. col-lapsed. All the fine talk to the effect that the economic system and not human hu-man nature ie to blamo for industrial evils, all the palaver about the solidarity solidar-ity of the working class all over the world and about the superiority of socialistic so-cialistic ideals has gone for nothing. Human nature is very much what the opponentB of Socialism have insisted that it was, and the Socialists, when they forgot their cosmopolitan ideals and their determination not to wage war, proved the case against themselves. them-selves. Only one Socialist in Germany, Dr. Liebknecht himself, has dared to assert as-sert antagonism to the war by positive action. The war will not crush the labor movement, although it may weaken the Socialistic propaganda. Both labor and capital are equally affected by the conflict; one will be injured as much as the other, but no true labor ideals will be destroyed. |