In view of the vital differences between the Allied countries and the Central Powers, the commission is of opinion that it is highly desirable that the conference should be used to provide an opportunity for the delegates from the respective countries now in a state of war to make a full and frank statement of their present position and future intentions and to endeavor by mutual agreement to arrange a program of action for a speedy and democratic peace.

The Belgian delegation, which for the first time came into an Inter-Allied conference without a mandate to oppose an international gathering, carried conviction as to this conservative procedure. Moreover, the London conference did not attempt to reëstablish the International Socialist Bureau with its old scheme of representation, but decided that any international conference,

held during the period of hostilities, should be organized by a committee whose impartiality cannot be questioned. It should be held in a neutral country, under such conditions as would inspire confidence; and the conference should be fully representative of all the labor and socialist movements in all the belligerent countries accepting the conditions under which the conference is convoked.

The fact that the Italian reformists and the French majority groups-the pro-war wings of the socialist parties in the Latin countries which had shared in the war ministries no less than the Belgian socialists-were for this procedure is evidence that they had confidence in the safeguards outlined. We must weigh that against snap judgments on this side of the water that the Germans would have dominated "every feature of the program."

This London meeting was in early February. In the succeeding months the burden upon General Foch as supreme commander of Allied and American forces in France was to engineer such swift, united resistance to the tremendous German drive as to leave it a crumpled and disastrous failure. Beneath his immediate commission observers were quick to see in this move, prompted by the crisis, a further step toward organizing that mutual force to check and thwart aggression which had been advocated as the essential arm of a league of nations.

The Inter-Allied Labour and Socialist Conference was a manifestation of another essential factor-a first international joining of hands of great social groups that found common cause in the principles which they held should enter into the constitution and legislation of such a league.

CHAPTER IX

ALLIED LABOR'S WAR AIMS

A POINT has been reached where we can turn from the steps taken in engineering the program upon which British labor had united as never before the whole working class movement among the Allies, and resolve it into its elements. As Vandervelde said, the Inter-Allied Labour and Socialist Conference [London, February 20-24, 1918] was charged with working out a platform and a procedure.

The basis of that platform was the war aims memorandum 1 adopted in December by the British labor movement, but the Inter-Allied document 2 transcended all earlier outgivings in its approach to the problems of international relations, in the sequence with which it marshaled the principles of the workers' statecraft and in their application in turn, to the war, to the political ordering of the world, to territorial questions, to economic relations and to the problems of peace, of restoration and reparation.

"A device of the capitalist interests," read the Inter-Allied labor memorandum, would be "to pretend that the treaty of peace need concern itself only with the cessation of the struggle of the armed forces and with any necessary territorial adjustments." It reiterated that "a victory for German imperialism would be the defeat and destruction of democracy and liberty in Europe," but it envisaged only less as a defeat any return to the status quo ante in terms of a return to competing imperialisms,—to a crushing load of competitive armaments on the backs of the workers, to a world order of subject races and subjugated masses,-to the "war system" as the world knew it prior to 1914, with its "old yearnings after domination" which "corrupted the aspirations of nationalities and brought Europe to a condition of anarchy and disorder, which have led men to-day to the present catastrophe." "Of all the conditions of peace," it said, "none is so important to the peoples of the world as that there should be henceforth on earth no more war." It held up the vision of a new world which, to the workers, made the

struggle worth its cost. It brought down to earth and the common people thereof each of the great principles of settlement.

Thus, the Inter-Allied labor memorandum grounded its general proposals for a league of nations on the principle of self-government, as expressed in the demand for self-determination. It was for making the league inclusive of all belligerents and of every independent state, but it was for making the "complete democratization" of any nation the qualification for its participation therein. By the same principle, the emphasis put by the diplomats upon international courts was thrown by the workers (without abandoning the tribunals) upon an international parliament. By so much, they held, would the common people of the world become sovereign, and look to their security in their own kind, as against the "arbitrary powers who, until now, have assumed the right of choosing between peace and war."

Labor's memorandum called for the use by the nations of "any and every means at their disposal, either economic or military," in making common cause against any state refusing to submit to an arbitration award or attempting to break the covenant of peace. But it called also for "the prohibition of great armaments on land and sea, and for the common limitation of the existing armaments by which all the people are burdened," and it did so in order to prepare "for the concerted abolition of compulsory military service in all countries." Thus it put in terms of war and its heavy levies upon the working years and the workers' lives, the old American rallying cry that "taxation without representation is tyranny."

It was under the control of a League of Nations, so conditioned, that the workers were for putting "the consultation of peoples for purposes of self-determination"; it was by the establishment of such a system of laws and guarantees that they saw removed "the last excuse for those strategic protections which nations hitherto have felt bound to require." They expressed agreement with the four propositions put forward by President Wilson in his message of February 11, 1918, and as against forcible annexation or conquest, they grounded their territorial propositions on the right of each people to determine their lives. "Neither destiny of race nor identity of language," so often a "cloak for aggression," but the "desire of the people concerned" was their touchstone. The memorandum called specifically

For the reparation by the German government of the wrong admittedly done Belgium; full payment for damage done and the restoration of Belgium as an independent sovereign state.

For the disannexation of Alsace-Lorraine as a matter of right and as precedent to a plebiscite, devised by the League of Nations, such

as should "settle forever" the future of the provinces, and finally remove from all Europe a quarrel which has imposed so heavy a burden upon it.'

For the evacuation of Serbia, Montenegro, Rumania, Albania and all the Balkan territories occupied by force; redress and reparation for all violations; each people to be given full liberty to settle its own destiny; and the Balkan states encouraged to federate for the settlement of common problems of customs and ports, autonomy, and the liberties of minorities.

For the support of the claims of Italians, hitherto left outside Italian boundaries for strategic reasons, to be united with Italy, and for full liberty of 'local self-government for such Slavs as remain in Italian territory, such Italians as remain on the East shores of the Adriatic.

For the reconstitution of Poland in unity and independence with free access to the sea.

For the abandonment by Germany of any scheme of annexation, open or disguised, of Livonia, Courland and Lithuania.

For according, under the rules of the League of Nations, national independence to such of the peoples of Austro-Hungary as demand it and their freedom to substitute a federation of Danubian states for the Empire. [The conference did "not propose as a war aim," its dismemberment or its deprivation of economic access to the sea, but could not admit that the claims of the Czecho-Slovaks and JugoSlavs "must be regarded merely as questions for internal decision."]

For the freedom of Palestine from "oppressive government by the Turk" and the formation of a free state under international guarantee to which the Jewish people may return to work out their own salvation free from interference.

For the freeing of Armenia, Mesopotamia and Arabia from the "tyranny of the Sultan and his pashas," and, if their peoples are not able to settle their own destinies, for their administration under an international commission subject to the League of Nations.

For the permanent neutralization of the Dardanelles.

For the special consideration at the Peace Conference of the question of colonies taken by conquest; for "economic equality in such territories for the people of all nations," for the "concession of administrative autonomy for all groups of people that attain a certain degree of civilization, and for all others a progressive participation in local government," and for tropical Africa a "system of control established by agreement under the League of Nations," which would "take into account the wishes of the peoples," would safeguard the native tribes in the ownership of the soil, and "devote all revenues to the well-being and development of the colonies themselves."

In other ways, the memorandum grounded its economic propositions on the principle of stripping international relations of privilege, economic friction and oppression. It ranged labor

Against punitive indemnities.

Against the economic boycott of any country.

Against the capitalistic exploitation or militarization of the natives of any colony or dependency.

Against the "alliance between the military imperialists and fiscal protectionists in any country whatsoever" as "a serious danger to the prosperity of the masses of the people" and "a grave menace to peace.'

Constructively, labor expressed itself:

For the freedom of "the main lines of marine connection" without hindrance to vessels of all nations under the League.

For the "open door without hostile discrimination against foreign countries."

For the conservation by each nation, of "its own supply of foodstuffs and raw materials, for its own people" along with the "development of its resources for the benefit of the world."

For (in view of the world-wide shortages caused by the war) a systematic arrangement, on an international basis, for the allocation and conveyance of the available exportable surpluses "to the different countries, in proportion not to their purchasing powers, but to their several pressing needs," coupled with government control, within each country, in order to "secure their appropriation not in a competitive market mainly to the richer classes in proportion to their means but systematically to meet the most urgent needs of the whole community."

For (in view of the discharge of millions of munition workers and the demobilization of millions of soldiers) government projects to prevent the flinging of "a large part of the wage-earning population into all the miseries of unemployment," "as much the result of government neglect as is any epidemic disease."

For international agreement "for the enforcement in all countries of the legislation on factory conditions, a maximum eight-hour day, the prevention of 'sweating' and unhealthy trades, necessary to protect the workers against exploitation and oppression, and the prohibition of night work by women and children."

For the restoration of devastated areas, as "one of the most imperative duties of all countries immediately peace is declared," for the "assessment and distribution of the compensation so far as contributed by any international fund under the direction of an international commission," and for a restoration not limited "to compensation for public buildings, capitalist undertakings and material property proved to be destroyed or damaged," but "extended to setting up the wage earners and peasants themselves in homes and employment."

For the setting up of a court of claims and accusations which should investigate allegations of "cruelty, oppression, violence and theft against individual victims, for which no justification can be