The Western Comrade, v. 2, no. 6/7 - Marxist History.org

It is a calm analysis of events, and of motives back
of the war ;
an
attempt at contemporaneous history
as it unfolds from day to day.
Bismark said Europe must some day be all Slav
or all Teuton.
Russia is impregnable, invulnerable and uncon-
querable.
Germany may conquer all Europe but may not
successfully invade Russia.
Now to venture a few predictions.
This war will not end all war.
Slav and Teuton will divide Europe and the two
powers will remain for probably a century developing
and growing. Russia through (what is now)
Turkey to the south and Germany with her vast
new possessions will be long occupied mth their
multitudinous problems.
That these governments will be greatly liberal-
ized, that conditoins for the workers will be vastly
improved no one can doubt.
Czar and Kaiser may pass away. Liberal institu-
tions will be sure to follow. Great republics or the
United States of Europe may be established.
America cannot starve the war.
The best that can be done here will be to hold to
a policy of strict neutrality, keep out of Mexico and
adopt a war referendum measure to guard against
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the inevitable hour when we shall again
madman in the presidential chair.
have a
We shudder over the morning seareheads and
say the war is awful. It IS awful, but there is a
peace that is more horrible and hundreds of thou-
sands of workers would far better die on the field of
battle in the sunshine, breathing the free air, than
to perish miserably in the stifling mines or have
their bones ground in the maw of steel.
The war will go on despite peace pleas and
prayers to whatever gods may be. It was inevitable
and it is inexorable.
We may declare the war perverse and wrong-
minded ; we
may declare it senseless and say that
it is based on ambition of kings, but this war has
The Western Comrade
its roots in something far deeper than even personal
lust of power or thirst for conquest.
True, there were a thousand quarrels that seem
to us senseless. The eternal conflict over racial dif-
ferences and langTiages in the Balkans was a constant
menace to peace. There were scores of minor
causes and all helped at the hour of the call to colors.
Americans will do well to take an impartial,
impassioned view of the war and study its causes.
Let us not grow hysterical, tearful or prayerful.
European nations are bloodied. The first hot
rush is over. Prolonged sieges will follow. Steadily
powers will be worn down toward exhaustion.
Peace conferences and extensions of good offices will
be in vain and will be illy received.
We may not now assess the blame—if blame
there be—for the war. For fifty years the world
rode to war and now professes surprise to find itself
in the midst of a conflict.
For the present we have the opportunity to occupy
the position of spectators. We should get an
intelligent understanding of what is going forward.
Later we may not be able to take such a detached
and abstract view.—F. E. W.
The Real Cause of It
AT LAST the real cause of the war has been
found. According to an editorial in the Lokal
Anzeiger of Berlin, the English ambassador. Sir
Edward Goschen, on July 30th last, got peeved and
fired his cook. War was declared five days later.
It sounds almost plausible as war usually re-
sults when causes arise for the dismissal of the fam-
ily cook. Of course in this case the cook will have
her portrait hung in the great hall of fame. Her
name probably will adorn cigar boxes as other
heroes and heroines of the past.
However, it is doubtful if the flesh and blood
that once surrounded bleached bones of the million
slaughtered ever heard of Sir Edward's family
squabbles or knew he had ever had a cook.—F.
H. W.