ur surprise. The experiences of the last three years
have been such that nothing can now surprise us. But we have likewise
lost all power of trust. Having learned that those who desire truth will
vainly wait for it to come to them, we set out to seek truth for
ourselves wherever it may be found. When there is no drinking water in
the house, we must e'en go to the well.

To-day let us listen to the words of the opposition in America, as
expressed by one of the boldest of the periodicals serving that
movement, "The Masses" of New York.[19]

Here expression is given to non-official truth, and this, also, is no
more than part of the truth. But we have the right to know the whole
truth, be it pleasant or unpleasant. It is even our duty to know it,
unless we are poltroons who fear to look reality in the face. You need
not search the files of "The Masses" for records of greatness that has
been lavished in the war! We know all about this, anyhow, from the
official reports with which we are deluged. What we do not sufficiently
know, what people do not wish to know, is the material and moral
unhappiness, the injustice, the oppression which, as Bertrand Russell
points out, are for each nation the obverse of every war, however
just.--That is why, as far as America is concerned, we must consult the
uncompromising periodical which I am about to quote.

* * * * *

Max Eastman, the editor, is the soul of "The Masses." He fills it with
his thought and his energy. The two last issues to reach me, those of
June and July, 1917, contain no less than six articles from his pen. All
wage implacable warfare against militarism and blind nationalism. Nowise
duped by official declamations, Eastman declares that this war is not a
war for democracy. The real struggle for liberty will come after the
war.[20] In the United States, as in Europe, the war has been the work
of capitalists, and of a group of intellectuals, clerical and lay.[21]
Max Eastman insists on the part played by the intellectuals, whilst his
collaborator John Reed emphasises the part played by the capitalists.
Similar economic and moral phenomena have been apparent in the Old World
and in the New. In the United States, as in Europe, many socialists
support the war. A number of them (notably Upton Sinclair, with whom I
am personally acquainted, and whose moral sincerity and idealist spirit
I fully appreciate) have adopted this strange militarism. The