FOREMOST IN HONOR
Evans, Elizabeth Glendower
Foremost in Honor By ELIZABETH GLENDOWER EVANS 'THE ciiuies of Russia toward the peoples whom * she holds in subjection are known to all nations. Few of them know that when the socialist parties...
...Despite the dhnger of the dungeon or of death that always threatens them, they spoke out fearlessly both before and after the outbreak of war...
...Few of them know that when the socialist parties of the different countries of Europe are asked to give an account of themselves before the International, the socialists of Russia should stand foremost in honor...
...But we are convinced that the working class will find in the international solidarity the means to enforce peace at an early date...
...While the governments of Europe were preparing for it, the organized working class of the entire world, with the German workers at their head, unanimously protested...
...War has already begun...
...We are convinced that this war will finally open the eyes of the great masses of Europe, and show them the real causes of all the oppression and violence that they endure—that this latest explosion of barbarism will be the last...
...The hearts of the Russian workers are with the European working class...
...The organized working class of the belligerent countries has not been sufficiently powerful to prevent this war and the resulting return to barbarism...
...The terms of that peace will be dictated by the peoples themselves and not by the diplomats...
...In the Duma, when asked to vote the war fund, they first demanded an amnesty for all political prisoners and a general policy of conciliation toward the oppressed nationalities...
...After reading this declaration the Social Democrats and the Labor Members left the hall, refusing to vote the military credits...
...This war is provoked by the policy of expansion for which the ruling classes of all countries are responsible...
...Millions of workers have been torn away from their labour, ruined, and swept away in a bloody torrent...
...Millions of families have been delivered over to famine...
...When these concessions were refused Valentin Kranstoff, speaking in the name of both the Social Democrats and the Labor Party, read the following declaration: "A terrible and unprecedented calamity has broken upon the peoples of the entire world...
Vol. 6 • November 1914 • No. 45
