or aristocratic. It is this class, with its
greeds and vanities and suspicions and jealousies, which is the cause of
strife; the working-masses of the various nations have no desire to
quarrel with each other. Nay, they are animated by a very different
spirit.

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