But  the  striking  and  significant  thing  about  the
movement  thus  exemplified  is  that  it  has  given
rise  to  a  sense  of  comradeship  between  the  in-
dustrial workers  of  the  world  which  overleaps
ordinary  national   boundaries ;  the  workman  of
Chicago  feels  in  closer  sympathy  with  the  work-
man of  Berlin  and  London  than  he  does  with  the
Trust  magnate  in  the  next   block — I  mean  the
workman  who  is  conscious  of  the  existence  of
the  international  movement  to  which  I  refen


The  Churches  and  the  Masses

Here  we  have,  then,  the  birth  of  a  genuine  inter-
national consciousness  which  seems  destined  to
grow  with  considerable  rapidity,  and  to  do  by
direct  pressure  of  public  opinion  what  all  the
arts  of  diplomacy  have  hitherto  failed  to  do  in
securing  the  peace  of  the  world.  This  was
strikingly  evidenced  a  little  while  ago  when  the
Tyneside  workers  drew  upon  their  own  funds
for  the  assistance  of  the  strikers  in  the  North
German  coal  dispute.  The  International  Socialist
Congress,  which  met  recently  at  Stuttgart,  marks
a  long  step  in  the  same  direction.  The  impressive
thing  to  be  noted  about  such  gatherings  is  that
at  the  very  moment  when  international  jealousy
is  so  pronounced  between  England  and  France
on  the  one  hand,  and  Germany  on  the  other,  the
leaders  of  the  Socialist  parties  in  the  legislatures
of  these  same  countries  should  meet  on  common
ground  with  the  apparently  perfect  realisation
that  they  are  one  and  the  same  party  united  for
the  attainment  of  a  common  object.  Of  what
other  political  party  or  economic  organisation  in
the  world  could  this  be  said  ?  It  is  inconceivable
that  British  Liberalism,  for  instance,  should  send
delegates  to  meet  and  confer  with  American
democrats  for  the  furtherance  of  their  common
principles.  There  are  no  such  principles.  The
ordinary  political  parties  of  the  several  States  of
Christendom  are  purely  local  and  limited  in  their
outlook,  and  never  pretend  to  be  anything  else.
