A new meeting, organized again by Italian and Swiss Socialists, was held at Kienthal (24 30 April 1916) and 28 organizations were rep resented. There were 40 delegates, five on the German side (two women) ; on the French side, three members of the Chamber of Depu ties, MM. Brizon, Alexandre Blanc and Ruffin Dugens were present, without an official man date and solely of their own volition. A new manifest was issued similar to that of Zim merwald but its terms were more violent. It said in so many words that for the rich slackers the war meant but the death of others and that the "will of social revenges" should take the place of the struggle between the nations. The Socialist deputies were asked to vote against all military credits and taxes.
The National Council (Conseil National) meeting in Paris in August 1915 disavowed the "Pilgrims of Kienthal," as they were called, by 1,904 votes, but then there were 19 non voters and besides the real 59 absentees, 972 fictitious absentees refused to vote. The minority, represented particularly by the Fed eration of Haute-Vienne, by that of the Isere and by several groups of the Federation of the Seine, without binding themselves to the opinions expressed at Kienthal and Zimmer weld, seceded from the majority. The latter added to the expressed conditions upon which international intercourse might be resumed, an inquiry to place the responsibilities concerning the origin of the war and guarantees capable of preventing its renewal and the acknowl edgment of the right of lawful defense for the working classes of invaded countries. The in vitation addressed to the government to pro claim its "war-ends') might be considered as a concession to the minority, as on this ground the majority and the minority might meet. The moral break among the organized Social ists did not, however, break up the party. At its National Congress, held in Paris 25-29 Dec. 1916, a declaration was decreed upon by 2.838 votes to 109 (20 delegates not voting). It adopted as a first principle the liberation of Belgium and Poland and, in less distinct terms, that of oppressed countries from Alsace down to the Balkan states. It requested the Et.tente Allies to wage war energetically and to state clearly their peace conditions, answering thus the very vague conditions of the Central Em pires. (It is to be noted that the official an swer sent by the Allied countries to the presi dents of the United States and of the Swiss Confederation gave almost entire satisfaction to the desiderata of the Socialists). In order that peace might be a lasting one and that a Society of Nations might be constituted, the declaration demanded the existence in all coun tries of parliaments elected by universal suf frage and governments responsible to the people.
The party agreed also on the future eco nomic reorganization of France. But on the renewal of international intercourse which the minority wanted first and immediate, on minis terial collaboration in national defense, on the vote of credits, the discussion was animated and the difference between the two opposed factions was only from 200 to 300 votes. In the permanent administrative commissions in which both factions are proportionally repre sented, the majority has 13 members, the minority 11. As for the majority, its last mani festation up to the moment of writing has been that of the Socialist group of the Chamber of Deputies, joyfully greeting Mr. Wilson's mes sage to the American Senate (27 Jan. 1917), not because the President of the United States expresses therein the hope of °a peace without a victory," but because he opposes all imperial ist ambitions, wherever they come from, and wishes to see, as the Socialists do, the estab lishment of a fraternal society of nations.
At the meeting of the Confederation, which took place in December 1916, in spite of the very vivid criticisms of the minority against the majority, all agreed on a very general dec laration stating that in the future peace must respect the independence, the territorial integ rity, the political and economic freedom of all nations, small or great, and on an invitation to the government similar to that voted by the Socialists.
This having been said on the intestine strifes among the Socialists as well as among the trades-unions, a few words will suffice to indicate the questions peculiar to each of the groups.
The Confederation in its meeting of 1 May 1916, at which 94 organizations were repre sented, asked that the International Secretary's office be transferred from Berlin to a neutral country, to Geneva for instance, and approved the American Federation of Labor's initiative, proposing that an Inter-Syndicalist Conference should be held at the same time and in the same country as the future peace conference. It decided also to call a Conference of the Workers of the Allied countries, which met at Leeds in July 1916. There a temporary office for correspondence was created, to be located at Paris, M. Jouhaux becoming its secretary. There, also, was discussed the question of alien workers and of the means of organizing them in the different countries so that the interests of the workers (immigrants and native) might be equally respected. The meeting adopted also resolutions relative to the laboring classes to be inserted in the treatises of peace, includ ing especially guarantees relating to the right of syndication, to migration, to social insurance, to the hours, hygiene and security of labor, to the control which international organizations can and must exercise over the working of agreements concluded to that effect by the different governments. If we examine the syndical activity in France, we see it was marked by numerous interventions in favor of workmen and workwomen, interventions which, in the beginning especially, were mostly conciliatory; for the strikes, being for the greater part actuated by a demand for an in crease in salary, were comparatively not numer ous (107 in 1915 concerning 7,281 persons against 1,073 in 1913 concerning 220,428 per sons). In 1916 there were a greater number of conflicts, but for the most part they were easily settled.
The war has diminished or put an end to certain unions. Others, however, have in creased and there has been a certain merging going on among them. Thus, the railway em ployees and workmen who formed several rival organizations have become united into one vast and powerful federation.
It only remains to tell of the inevitable fall ing off of membership in the Socialist party, which took place primarily in the number of its members, 60 per cent of whom are mobilized: Mobilization Cards stamps Spin 1914 93,218 574,184 November, 1915 24,638 137,019 November, 1916 24,854 176,032 For the former it means an increase of 200 over the year 1915, for the latter an increase of 39,013, and the treasurer of the party states that the increase continued in 1917. In short, among Socialists and union workers an acute crisis of internationalism threatened the unity of the organized party and to a lesser degree that of the Confederation. But we can repeat the words of Mr. Charles Gide at the Confer ence of the Allied Co-operatives in September 1916: We read daily in the press that interna tionalism is dying away. This is not true. Neither capitalist nor intellectual nor co-operative in ternationalism is dying off . . . .p And we can add : °Neither is that of the working class . . . It seems only as if Germany is to lose the direc tion of the movement which is thus to take a new character.
In the intellectual, political and economic life of France, there is a very obvious penetra tion of ideas and dispositions of Socialist in spiration, in the wider meaning of the word, which shall not be entirely temporary.