Though the International was dead, the forces which gave it birth were still alive. The principles it proclaimed continued to exercise the thoughts of men. It had placed before the world a whole group of problems for study, for experiment, to be pursued through doubt, struggle, and agony, to some kind of wise and beneficial solution, we fervently hope.
We should not be discouraged by the fact that the efforts made for the solution of the questions of the world have so often been so hopelessly incommensurate with the greatness of the task which they attempted.
In beginning these high endeavours, men have always been like children groping in the dark. Yet the failures of one generation have frequently shown the way to success in the next. The International attempted the great task of the present epoch of the world in its most difficult form. We need not be surprised that its success was partial; and we may with confidence expect that the lessons taught by it will prove most helpful for the future.
In truth the International had only suffered a brief eclipse. The various socialistic societies all over the world continued to be fully conscious of the international character of the movement in which they were engaged. Without a formal organisation they represented the claims and aspirations of the same class, had common sympathies, and pursued like aims. While differing greatly in methods of action, and even in principle, they felt that they belonged to the same stream of historic effort and tendency.
The international movement soon began again to find expression in congresses representing the different countries. Such was the congress at Ghent in 1877, which was not marked by any noteworthy feature. Greater than any socialist congress previously held were those which assembled at Paris in 1889, the centenary of the Revolution, on the 14th of July, the anniversary of the fall of the Bastille. There were two congresses, one representing, as far as any difference of principle was concerned, the more uncompromising Marx school, the other consisting of delegates who are not indisposed to co-operate with other democratic parties. But the cleavage of principle was by no means definite; the difference between the two meetings originated largely in personal matters, especially as regards the French socialist parties, which issued the invitations. The immediate occasion of disagreement related to the manner of proving the mandates of the members. Both congresses advocated an energetic collectivism, while both also urged more practical measures for the protection of labour, such as Sunday rest, an eight-hours working-day, etc. The Marx congress consisted of 395 delegates, and the other congress of about six hundred delegates from the various countries of the civilised world.
International Congresses followed at Brussels in 1891, at Zürich in 1893, and in London in 1896. Both at Brussels and London there was much disorder, caused chiefly by the presence of a considerable number of delegates with anarchist sympathies, and proving too clearly that the International of Workers was like the Concert of Europe, not yet ready to march.
After being alarmed by an International of Workers, the world was agreeably startled by the project for an International of Governments. In 1889 the Swiss Government brought forward a proposal for an International Conference on Labour of the countries most interested in industrial competition. The question assumed a new aspect when, early in 1890, the young German Emperor issued rescripts, one of which contained the same proposal. Naturally, the matters presented for discussion by the Emperor covered only a small part of the ground occupied by the International of Workers. The protection of adult labour, except in mines, was excluded from the business of the conference. Sunday labour, the protection of women, children, and young persons, were the chief questions laid before the meeting. There can be no doubt that the conference gave a much-needed and a beneficial stimulus to legislation for the protection of labour in civilised countries, though it by no means realised the sanguine expectations that many formed regarding it.
The main result of the conference has been the recognition by the Governments of the fact that there are labour questions of vast importance, and that these questions have international aspects which can no longer be ignored. Let us hope that it may be the beginning of better things. In the course of human improvement we may hope that the question of the needs and rights of labour will ever take a large place beside the concerns of war and diplomacy, and that it will eventually supersede them. The workers have a growing influence at the elections in civilised countries. It is their duty to press their just claims on the Governments, and so to bring about that desirable consummation.
| [1] | Enthüllungen über den Communisten-Prozess zu Köln, von Karl Marx, Einleitung von Fr. Engels, p. 3. |