Today, however, we are no longer able to be silent in the presence of
German Socialist activity encouraging the obscure play of diplomatic
intrigues on the part of the Governments of the ex-Triple Alliance,
which tends to move Italian neutrality toward the tortuous and perilous
paths of indirect co-operation. We want to affirm that our wishes are
for the immediate cessation of the war without conquerors or conquered.
But if now this hope is vain, we express our desire that this infamous
war may be concluded by the defeat of those who have provoked it; the
Austrian and German Empires, since the empires of Austria and Germany
form the rampart of European reaction, even more than Russia, which is
shaken by democratic and Socialist forces, which have shown that they
know how to attempt a heroic effort of liberation; since if the German
and Austrian Empires emerge victorious from the war it will mean the
triumph of military absolutism in its most brutal expression, of a
barbarian horde massacring, devastating, destroying, and conquering in
violation of every treaty and right and law.
Nor do the German Socialists give us any confidence of knowing how to
restrain this; in the past they have only been able to realize
advantageous contrasts of labor and to attain gigantic election results
without exercising any influence in the policy of their own country.
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