Page:Emile Vandervelde - Three Aspects of the Russian Revolution - tr. Jean Elmslie Henderson Findlay (1918).djvu/238

 alism, or else stand alone, condemned by us, discredited completely in their own eyes and of the working classes, who up to the present have been faithful to them."

To speak frankly, there might have been something to say for such a view had the Russian Revolution, by a triumphant offensive, dissipated any idea of a peace from war weariness or weakness; if the neutrals on their side had had no other idea than to uphold the right and found peace on a basis of international justice; if, in the Allied countries, Socialists were unanimous, both as to the responsibility of the war and the conditions necessary for peace. But at the moment when the friends of the Russian Revolution are anxiously asking themselves not only if she can, but if she will defend herself, when in the last countries to remain neutral public opinion is almost entirety governed by a dread of being drawn into the war—when, in short, in the Allied countries, the Socialists seem further than ever from agreeing as regards a policy of war or peace, we do not hesitate to say that it would be worse than folly to expect a general Conference, where the