Part 16 (2/2)

”After organization, which is effected with a show of parliamentary form, Richard Muller, chairman of the executive committee of the _Vollzugsrat_, mounts the speaker's tribune to give an extended report of the committee's activities. The report, which turns out to be really a defense of the committee, gets a cool reception. The _Vollzugsrat_ has drifted steadily to the left ever since it was appointed, and is strongly Independent Socialist and Spartacan, and it is already evident that the Majority Socialists have an overwhelming majority in the Congress.

”Chairman Leinert interrupts Muller's speech with an announcement that a _Genosse_ has an important communication to make. A man who declares that he speaks 'in the name of at least 250,000 of Berlin's proletariat, now a.s.sembled before this building,' reads a series of demands. The first, calling for the strengthening of the socialist republic, is greeted with general applause, but then come the familiar Spartacan (Bolshevik) demands for the disarming of the _bourgeoisie_, weaponing of 'the revolutionary proletariat,' formation of a Red Guard (loud cries of 'No!'), and 'all power to remain in the hands of the workmen's and soldiers' councils.' In other words, the Russian Soviet republic.

”A half dozen officer-delegates present join in the protests against the demands. Loud cries of '_raus die Offiziere!_' (out with the officers!) come from a little group of Spartacans and Independent Socialists at the right of the room. Order is finally restored and Muller completes his defense of the _Vollzugsrat_.

”A delegate moves that 'Comrades Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg be invited to attend the session as guests with advisory powers, in view of their great services to the revolution.'[57] The motion is voted down, five to one. It is renewed in the afternoon, but meets the same fate, after a turbulent scene in which the Spartacans and their Independent Socialist allies howl and shout insults at the top of their voices.

[57] Neither Liebknecht nor Luxemburg had been chosen as delegate, although desperate efforts were made to have them elected.

”Liebknecht, who has entered the building while this was going on, addresses his followers in the street in front from the ledge of a third-story window. The '250,000 of Berlin's proletariat' prove to be about seven thousand, nearly half of them women and girls and a great majority of the rest down-at-the-heels youths. His speech is the usual Bolshevik rodomontade. A middle-aged workman who leaves the crowd with me tells me:

”'Two-thirds of the people there are there because they have to come or lose their jobs. One has to eat, you know.'

”I learned later in the day that many of the paraders had been induced to attend by the representation that it was to be a demonstration in favor of the national a.s.sembly. It is also a.s.serted that others were forced by Spartacans with drawn revolvers to leave their factories.

”December 17th. The second day's session of the Congress was marked by a virulent attack on Ebert by Ledebour, between whom and Liebknecht there is little difference. The reception of his speech by the delegates again demonstrated that the Majority Socialists make up nine-tenths of the a.s.sembly. Barth also took it upon himself to attack Ebert and to disclose secrets of the inner workings of the cabinet. Ebert answered with an indignant protest against being thus attacked from the rear. Barth has the lowest mentality of all the six cabinet members, and I am informed on good authority that he has an unsavory record. His alleged offenses are of a nature regarded by advanced penologists as pathological rather than criminal, but however that may be, he seems hardly fitted for partic.i.p.ation in any governing body.

”Liebknecht's followers staged another demonstration like that of yesterday. The Congress had decided that no outsiders should be permitted again to interrupt the proceedings, but a delegation of some forty men and women from the Schwarzkopff, Knorr and other red factories, bearing banners inscribed with Bolshevik demands, insisted on entering and n.o.body dared oppose them. They filed onto the platform and read their stock resolutions, cheered by the little group of their soul-brothers among the deputies and by fanatics in the public galleries.

Beyond temporarily interrupting the proceedings of the Congress they accomplished nothing.

”The incompetence--to use no stronger word--of the _Vollzugsrat_ was again demonstrated today, as well as its careless financial methods.

”December 18th. A well-dressed German who stands beside me in the diplomatic gallery insists on explaining to all occupants of the gallery that it is intolerable that the speaker now in the tribune should be permitted to speak of the late 'revolt.' 'It was not a revolt; it was a revolution, and they ought to compel him to call it that,' he says. How typical of the mentality of a great number of the delegates themselves! They have spent precious hours discussing Marx and Bebel and the brotherhood of man--which, however, appears to extend only to the proletariat--but only two or three clear heads have talked of practical things. The failure of the Socialists generally to realize that it is not now a question of doing what they would like to do, but what they must do, is extraordinary and amazing.

One speaker has read nearly a chapter from one of Bebel's books.

Only a few leaders are clear-sighted enough to insist that it is more important just now to save Germany from disintegration and the German people from starvation than to impose the doctrines of internationalism upon a world not yet ready for them. The members of the average high school debating club in any American city have a keener sense for practical questions than has the great majority of this Congress.[58]

[58] This may appear to be an extravagant comparison, but it is so near the truth that I let it stand.

”December 19th. The Congress tonight changed the date for the National a.s.sembly from February 16th to January 19th. Hardly forty of the delegates opposed the change. These forty--Independents and Spartacans--tried vainly to have a resolution pa.s.sed committing Germany to the Russian Soviet system, but the vast majority would have none of it. Haase spoke in favor of the National a.s.sembly. If he maintains this course his cooperation with the three Majority members of the cabinet will be valuable, but he is a trimmer and undependable.

”The Congress was enabled by a bolt of the Independents to accomplish another valuable bit of work, viz., the appointment of a new central _Vollzugsrat_ made up entirely of Majority Socialists. It includes some excellent men, notably Cohen of Reuss, whose speech in advocacy of the National a.s.sembly and of changing its date has been the most logical and irrefutable speech made during the Congress, and Leinert, first chairman of the Congress. With the support of this new executive committee the cabinet will have no excuse if it continues to s.h.i.+lly-shally along and fails to exhibit some backbone.

”But I am apprehensive. A scraggly-bearded fanatic in one of the public galleries today repeatedly howled insults at Majority Socialist speakers, and, although repeated remonstrances were made, n.o.body had enough energy or courage to throw him out.

Leinert once threatened to clear the galleries if the demonstrations there were repeated. The spectators promptly responded with hoots, hisses and the shaking of fists, but the galleries were not cleared.

”German government in miniature! The same mentality that places guards before public buildings and orders them not to use their weapons! _Sancta simplicitas!_”

It will be observed that the foregoing report, comparatively lengthy though it is, fails to record an amount of legislative business commensurate with the length of the session. And yet there is little to add to it, for but two things of importance were done--the alteration of the date for holding the elections for the National a.s.sembly and the appointment of the new _Vollzugsrat_. Outside this the accomplishments of the Congress were mainly along the line of refusing to yield to Independent and Spartacan pressure designed to anchor the soviet scheme in the government. New light is thrown on the old _Vollzugsrat_ by the fact that it had invited the Russian Government to send delegates to the Congress. The cabinet had learned of this in time, and a week before the Congress was to a.s.semble it sent a wireless message to Petrograd, asking the government to abstain from sending delegates ”in view of the present situation in Germany.” The Russians nevertheless tried to come, but were stopped at the frontier.

The manner in which Haase and Dittmann had supported their Majority Socialist colleagues in the cabinet by their speeches during the Congress had demonstrated that, while there were differences between the two groups, they were not insurmountable. The events of the week following the Congress of Soviets, however, altered the situation completely.

It has been related how, in the days preceding the actual revolution in Berlin, the so-called ”People's Marine Division” had been summoned to the capital to protect the government. It was quartered in the Royal Stables and the Royal Palace, and was entrusted with the custody of the Palace and its treasures.

It speedily became apparent that a wolf had been placed in charge of the sheepfold. The division, which had originally consisted of slightly more than six hundred men, gradually swelled to more than three thousand, despite the fact that no recruiting for it nor increase in its numbers had been authorized. A great part of the men performed no service whatever, terrorized inoffending people, and, as investigation by the Finance Ministry disclosed, stole everything movable in the Palace.

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