Page:Jean Jaurès socialist and humanitarian 1917.djvu/144

 … "And what I deplore for France … great force as she is of moral nobility, what I regret is, that she has supplied her share in initiative, in example, in the detestable responsibility for these universal violations of sworn faith, in this abasement of the international signature and loyalty."

At this point in his speech a great outcry was raised against Jaurès. He was called to order, fists were shaken at him and great confusion reigned. The deputies however seem to have listened to him with greater calmness the next day when he finished his speech, developing in it, in more detail, the dangers of international finance. At the end he reverted gravely to the unsafe condition into which these adventures were continually leading Europe. He spoke of that "atmosphere of storm, of suspicion, from which it seems the lightning of war might be precipitated at any moment." He begged them not to believe the fatalistic doctrine that such a war was inevitable, but to work honestly against it with all their strength. In a terrible and prophetic passage he described what a modern European war would be and then ended on a happier note by recalling the forces that were working even now for peace.

The tremendous danger with which the modern developments of capitalism and finance threaten peace drove a certain number of French Socialists