soon enough. It is founded on a real superiority which can not be destroyed. We shall emerge from the war a poorer but a stronger people, a nobler and a more unified Germany.

"Remember that you in America will grow rich and richer. But I am not sure it will be good for you. Here, we shall not grow rich so rapidly. But we shall find happiness the more surely."

VIII

GERMAN THOUGHT BACK OF THE WAR—II*

The Leader of German Socialism and a German Trades Union Official

"TH

HERE are more than 2,000,000 working men now at the front; of these more than 1,500,000 are Socialists," said Doctor Albert Südekum, leader of the Social Democratic party in Germany.

"Yes," spoke up Albert Baumeister, Assistant Secretary of the International Federation of Trades Unions, "and among them large numbers are volunteers."

"Volunteers!" I exclaimed.

Baumeister.

"Yes; volunteers," repeated Mr. "When this war came upon us, more than 2,500,000 men, not called to the colors, volunteered. So heavy was the pressure of these men to be taken, that scores of thousands liable for service and notified to report were left behind. For example, I myself am one of these. I belong to the naval branch and, in obedience to instructions, reported at Kiel. But there I found more than 40,000 volunteers clamoring to be accepted. So here I am still waiting. And there are thousands like me."

*These conversations took place during January, 1915.

We were dining and spending the evening in talk in the big eating room of the Gewerkschaftshaus-that is, the Working Men's House-the labor center of Berlin. A good orchestra played classical music. The meal for three men cost a little less than five marks, or about a dollar ten cents. One man ordered rabbit pot-pie, the other two had large, thick pork steaks, and all three had potatoes, beans, peas, cheese and all the bread and butter they could eat-a fair example of food and prices in any popular restaurant in Germany.

Both Doctor Südekum and Mr. Baumeister speak English perfectly. I had met Doctor Südekum through an American Socialist of native American stock, who happened to be in Berlin for a short time, and whom I chanced to meet on the street. Through Doctor Südekum, I met Mr. Baumeister, and thus came the rare opportunity to get the radical sentiment of Germany, and the view-point of the German working man, at first hand.

Though forty-five years old and past military age, Doctor Südekum, since the time of the conversations here recorded (January, 1915) has proved his sincerity by enlisting as a volunteer. Because of his great prominence and influence, he finally was accepted.

Doctor Südekum is a natural orator and one of the most attractive and popular speakers in Germany. He has delivered lectures in America, and is well known to many American thinkers. He is a linguist, speaking French, Italian and other languages, as well as English and German. Doctor Südekum is one of the editors of Germany's celebrated Municipal Year Book, by far the most complete and authoritative publication of its kind

in the world. Also, he is a member of the Reichstag, representing Nürnberg.

"Every man, woman and child in Germany is peace loving; but they are, as things now stand, for this war to the uttermost," said this leader of the German Social Democratic party. "All of them will sacrifice everything, even life, to win. But if it can be said to be the war of any one class more than another, this is the German working man's war."

"How can that be?" I inquired in surprise, for I had come from America with the impression very firmly fixed that German working men and especially German Socialists, were opposing the war.

"We are fighting for our lives," answered Doctor Südekum. "It is our very existence which is at stake in this war. By intensive industry we have furnished employment to our millions of workers. The sale of their products was taking England's markets from her. This was because we worked harder, saved better, organized more carefully, and, by our spirit of solidarity and methods of mutual, cooperative helpfulness, created a better feeling, more contentment and a finer sentiment of service for the general welfare.

"In short, we produced a better product by making better and happier workers. The English were not willing to take the pains to do all this; they were not willing to meet our honest competition. That is why they are fighting to destroy modern Germany. And that is why this war means life or death to the German people and especially to German working men."

"But how," I asked, "could England destroy modern Germany? In case of your defeat, how could Ger

many's enemies impose any terms which would injure German working men?"

"In several ways. If one were to judge from the English talk against our centralized, national government, its dismemberment would be one way of destroying our industry by which our workers live. This is probably what is at the bottom of their hypocritical talk about loving the German people and only hating German nationalism, which they want to destroy in the interest of 'humanity.' You have heard that, have you not? 'the Germany of Schiller and Goethe!' The Germany of Goethe and Schiller could not have fed nearly 70,000,000 of people; it did not even feed the people it had in those days.

"We have all that the world admires in Goethe and Schiller, and a great deal more. We have noble ideals of human welfare, and we are working them out. Look at our laws for the care and comfort of the workers and the poor. We have led the world in this class of legislation, for the amelioration and betterment of human conditions. What English reformers are feebly clamoring for now, we Germans have had for years. And we have only begun. Much more of such reforms are coming. Several have been adopted since the war began. The Goethe and Schiller Germany did none of these things.

"Our wonderful economic progress has been made possible only by and through the creation of a central government; a national government, if you like that word better. We German Social Democrats want even more nationalism, especially more solidarity. Our tariff management, our trust management, our railway man