gathered that the rulers in Vienna are pushing toward war with all their might. For the conditions imposed by the note that was presented in Belgrade last night are nothing short of a protectorate of Austria over Servia. It is eminently necessary that the diplomats of Berlin make the war agitators of Vienna understand that Germany will not move a finger to support such outrageous demands, that a withdrawal of the threats would be advisable."
The "Bergische Arbeiterstimme" of Solingen writes:
"Austria demands a conflict with Servyia, and uses the assassination at Serajewo as a pretext for putting Servia morally in the wrong. But the whole matter has been approached too clumsily to influence European public opinion.
"But if the war agitators of the Wiener Ballplatz believe that their allies of the Triple Alliance, Germany and Italy, will come to their assistance in a conflict in which Russia, too, will be involved, they are suffering from a dangerous illusion. Italy would welcome the weakening of Austria-Hungary, its rival on the Adriatic and in the Balkans, and would certainly decline to burn its fingers to help Austria. In Germany, on the other hand, the powers that be—even should they be so foolish as to wish it—would not dare to risk the life of a single soldier to satisfy the criminal lust for power of the Hapsburgers without arousing the fury of the entire people."
Thus the entire working-class press, without exception, judged the war's causes a week before its outbreak. Obviously the question was one of neither the existence nor the freedom of Germany, but a shameful adventure of the Austrian war party; not a question of self-defense, national protection and a holy war forced upon us in the name of freedom, but a bold provocation, an abominable threat against foreign, Servian, independence and liberty.
What was it that happened on August fourth to turn this clearly defined and so unanimously accepted attitude of the Social-Democracy upside down? Only one new factor had appeared—the White Book that was presented to the Reichstag by the German Government on that day, And this contained, on page 4, the following:
