Allies: the evacuation of the occupied territories, the complete restoration and indemnification of Belgium; disannexation and a plébiscite in Alsace-Lorraine; the federalization of the Balkans on the basis of cultural autonomy and political union; "self-determination" for the Poles, CzechoSlovaks and Jugo-Slavs; a Jewish state in Palestine; the neutralization of the Dardanelles; Armenia, Mesopotamia and Arabia under the protection of a league of nations, the open-door in the African colonies.

Significantly, the ground and foundation of this territorial adjustment they declare to be a league of nations. If the Conference, made up of representatives from England, France, Belgium, Italy, Serbia, Rumania, follow generally President Wilson's programme of January 8 in the matter of territorial readjustments, they follow absolutely and particularly that part of it which deals with a League of Nations. This part has met either with silence or empty compliments or cynical comment from the governments and the Tory press of Europe. Yet this is the part that most concerns the

future of mankind, the part that more and more conspicuously defines the aim of the United States in the war. It is of supreme significance that Mr. Wilson's official and authoritative backing on this point comes from the representatives of the masses of men in Europe and not the classes. It is of extreme significance that the organized labor group of his own country was not represented at the Conference of these representatives, and that the Conference was libelled by Mr. Samuel Gompers as of pro-German " tendencies. It would be interesting to know where the president of the American Federation of Labor got his information, an information on which this organization failed to support the president on just the most vital point of his foreign policy!

To this policy the present masters of Germany have the fundamental objection that it would undermine their mastery. Consent to it will have to be won from them at the point of the sword, either that of our armies or that of their own subjects risen in revolt, or both! To this policy the interest

of the ruling classes everywhere opposes itself sharply and distinctly. That they have reason to fear its implications, and to fear the leadership of its foremost protagonist, may be seen from his address to a gathering of New Jersey Democrats. That address exhibits a realization of the implications of the war for the masses of men. It speaks of their "economic serfdom," of the hope for them of a new day of "greater opportunity and greater prosperity." Let the leaders of the American Federation of Labor beware how they answer the call of the representatives of the working classes of our Allies. It is these who to-day "stand behind" the president, holding up his hands and reenforcing his power for peace and freedom. To refuse to work with them is to refuse to work with him.

So far, the masses of America have accepted his leadership and his programme passively, without reflection and without agitation. Accustomed to gauge the importance of an opinion or an event by the headlines and editorial comments of their newspapers, they have had their attention

distracted by these to matters more instant, more spectacular, less relevant, less fundamental. Not the kept press alone has served its masters to the detriment of the whole country, even the more or less independent journals have fallen victim of and have reenforced the hysteria and blindness of war, have writhed and sputtered, struck out and poisoned, irrelevantly and uselessly. Yet never has there been a time when the president of the United States was in greater need of active, considered, intelligent support from his fellow-citizens who elected him to office. Opposed to his fundamental war-aims are not only the enemy we are fighting but the most powerful reactionary interests in our own land and in those of our Allies. The kind of peace we shall make will determine the kind of future we shall create for ourselves and our children. Win or lose, there is an inexorable alternative before us! On the one hand a universal and intensified nationalism, adjusted in a precarious balance of power, the power of a collection of militarized states, spending millions on munitions, perverting the minds

of citizens with universal military service, economic rivalries and industrial serfdom! On the other hand a commonwealth of nations, with members free from the fear of war, free from its burdens of military service and taxation, free to convert the protest against property and privilege which has been the history of democracy to the present day into the creative and happy coöperation of mankind that has been its hope and its promise. The choice is absolute. How it will be made will be determined entirely by the degree in which a thoroughly enlightened and crystallized public opinion in America shows, by definite action taken, that it joins hands with the masses across the sea in unflinching support of the president's international programme.

MADISON, WISCONSIN,
April 2, 1918.

H. M. KALLEN.