The American papers were shocked because the Russian
Socialists were deserting the cause of democracy,
and giving Germany a chance to win the war. The
American papers called them German agents, but Jimmie
did not take any stock in such talk as this. Jimmie
was familiar with the “frame-up” as it
is operated against the workers in America. He
saw that the first thing the Bolshevik leaders did
was to make an appeal to the revolutionary workers
of Germany. The Russian proletariat had shown
the way—now let the German proletariat
follow! Literature was printed and shipped wholesale
into Germany, leaflets were dropped by aviators among
the German troops; and when Jimmie and Deror read
that the German generals had protested to the Russians
against such practices, they laughed aloud with delight.
Well might the war-lords squeal; they knew what was
coming to them! And when in January Jimmie and
Deror read of the revolting of a brigade of German
troops, and a strike of several hundred thousand working
men throughout Germany, they thought the end was at
hand. The little tailor got up in local Ironton
and made a motion that it take to itself the name
“Bolshevik”—which motion was
carried with a whoop. And these American Bolsheviki
went on to consult with the labour-unions, suggesting
that they should form “shop-committees”,
and prepare for the taking over of industry a la Russe!
III
But something went suddenly wrong with the newly built
revolutionary steam-roller. The German military
chiefs seized their strike-leaders at home and threw
them into jail, or shipped them off to the front trenches
to be slaughtered. By terrorism, shrewdly mixed
with cajolery, they broke the strike, and sent the
grumbling slaves back to their treadmill. And
then the German armies began to march into Russia!
It was the crisis to which Jimmie Higgins had been
looking forward ever since the war began. Tolstoi
had taught that if one nation refused to fight, it
would be impossible for another nation to invade it;
and while Jimmie Higgins was no mystic or religious
non-resistant, he agreed in this with the great Russian.
No workers in an enemy army could possibly be brought
to fire upon their peace-proclaiming brothers!
And here at last was the test of the theory; here
were German Socialists ordered to march against Russian
Socialists—ordered to fire upon the red
flag! Would they do what their masters, the war-lords,
commanded? Or would they listen to the clamorous
appeals of the international proletariat, and turn
their guns against their own officers?
Copyrights
Jimmie Higgins from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.
