The working-men of different countries have been organizing in societies, of which it is difficult at present to tell the number and extent. It is known that these societies exist in Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and England, as well as in our own country, and that they have in some measure an international character. In France, before the war, there were 433,785 men in the organization, and in Germany 150,000.[233] Yet this is but the beginning.
At the menace of the present war, all these societies were roused. The society known as the International Working-Men’s Association, by their General Council, issued an address, dated at London, protesting against it as a war of dynasties, denouncing Louis Napoleon as an enemy of the laboring classes, and declaring “the war-plot of July, 1870, but an amended edition of the coup d’état of December, 1851.” The address then testifies generally against war, saying,—
“They feel deeply convinced, that, whatever turn the impending horrid war may take, the alliance of the working classes of all countries will ultimately kill war.”[234]
At the same time the Paris branch of the International Association put forth a manifesto addressed “To the Working-Men of all Countries,” from which I take these passages:—
“Once more, under the pretext of European equilibrium, of national honor, political ambitions menace the peace of the world.
“French, German, Spanish working-men! let our voices unite in a cry of reprobation against war!
…
“War for a question of preponderance, or of dynasty, can, in the eyes of working-men, be nothing but a criminal absurdity.
“In response to the warlike acclamations of those who exonerate themselves from the impost of blood, or who find in public misfortunes a source of new speculations, we protest,—we who wish for peace, work, and liberty.