It  is  therefore  just  in  time  of  war  that  it  becomes  the
supreme  duty  of  Socialists  to  stick  to  their  principles
and  apply  them  to  the  problems  of  the  nation.  Socialism
is  never  more  precious  for  national  guidance  than  during
a  war.  It  has  a  belief  in  civil  liberty  as  a  condition  of
national  efficiency  and  security,  it  has  a  conception  of
the  place  of  war  in  the  life  of  a  people  and  of  the
policies  which  make  peace  certain  and  secure,  which  no
other  parties  share  or  can  understand.  It  is  therefore
not  during  a  war  that  the  call  should  come  to
Socialists  to  merge  themselves  in  coalitions.
There  may  be  times  of  great  internal  crisis  when
liberty  is  threatened  by  military  conspiracy,  and  then
Socialists  may  have  to  merge  themselves  in  other
movements  for  the  time  being.  I  always  defended  the
Jaures  policy  of  the  Parliamentary  bloc  during  the
Dreyfus  crisis.  Millerand,  who  represented  the
Socialists  in  the  French  Government  at  the  time,  failed
us,  and  his  personal  desertion  involved  the  policy  in
disfavour.  But  the  disaster  was  due  to  Millerand's
character,  not  to  the  fault  of  the  policy.  Some  men
will  look  after  their  own  personal  interests  and  will  use
parties   to   advance  those    interests,    and  when   that


THE  INDEPENDENCE  OF  LABOUK        39

happens  honest  men  and  wise  policies  have  to  suffer
opprobrium.  But  the  problem  remains  to  be  faced
again  and  again  whenever  similar  circumstances  arise,
and  until  the  man  is  found  whose  rectitude  is
unassailable  and  who  refuses  to  run  the  ship  aground  in
his  own  interests.
