proletariat of Europe looked to him for guidance, and had faith in him—Camille Huysmans has said so in the speech delivered at his grave in the name of the Workers' International.[1] There can be no doubt that when he had fought against the war until all hope of preventing it was gone, he would have yielded loyally to the common duty of national defence and taken part in it with all his might. He had announced this point of view at the Congress in Stuttgart, in 1907, in full agreement therein with Vandervelde and Bebel: "If, whatever the circumstances, a nation were to refuse from the outset to defend itself, it would be entirely at the mercy of the Governments of violence, barbarism, and reaction … A unity of mankind which was the result of the absorption of conquered nations by one dominating nation would be a unity realised in slavery." On his return to Paris, in giving an account of the Congress to French Socialists (September 7,
- ↑ "Throughout the world there are six millions of us, organised workmen, for whom the name of Jaurès was the incarnation of the noblest and most complete aspiration.… I remember what he was for the workmen of other countries. I see still the foreign delegates who awaited his words before forming their final opinions; even when they were not in agreement with him they were glad to approach his point of view. He was more than the Word: he was the Conscience."
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