ment is typified by the "Middle Classes Union" of Great Britain, the latter phase is typified by the Fascisti of Italy. Let us examine both phases in turn in order to gage the growth of middle-class group-consciousness and to appraise its political and social possibilities.

The first definite symptoms of a middle-class movement were certain peculiar, but significant, events which took place in northern Germany early in the year 1919. At that time several of the north-German cities had fallen into the hands of revolutionary "Spartacists" (that is, German Bolsheviki), who at once began plundering and oppressing the bourgeois quite on the Russian model. However, the oppressed bourgeois promptly took the class-solidarity leaf out of the Spartacists' book; at least the members of the allied groups connected with the public health took such action. The amalgamated doctors, nurses, hospital attendants, pharmacists, and civic health officials declared "counterstrikes," and sick proletarians could thenceforth obtain neither drugs nor medical attendance, while proletarian patients were left unattended in their beds. The Spartacists were highly indignant, intimating that strikes were a strictly proletarian prerogative, but the counter-strikers stood firm, and so effective was this action of merely one portion of the middle classes that in two cities the Spartacists were forced to terms without any outside aid having been extended to the counterstriking professional elements.

This first revelation of organized middle-class power was not destined to remain an isolated phenomenon. Within a few months England saw the formation of her Middle Classes Union.

The

organization was formally launched in the spring of 1919, when a convention was held in London attended by delegates from every part of the United Kingdom. The key-note of the movement was struck by the chairman, who stated in his opening address that the union was being formed to obtain protection for those members of the community who could in no other way protect their domestic and political interests. "If you are properly organized," concluded the chairman, "you will become the greatest force in the nation. You can possibly hold up all the workers, you could hold up the capitalists, or you could even hold up the Government. You must see to it that you are not crushed or squeezed, and that you are placed in such a position as will necessitate a fair and square deal in all things, and the right to live."

The convention adopted a constitution, its preamble stating: "We are being taxed out of existence. We are being exploited for the benefit of the lower classes or for the benefit of the financial groups and profiteers of the upper classes."

In the body of the constitution the union's aims were thus officially stated:

"To promote mutual understanding between all classes of the community and secure an equitable distribution of national taxation.

"To obtain the removal of unfair burdens on the middle classes, and to enable them by collective action to protect their interests from legislative or industrial oppression.

"To scrutinize and watch all legislation and administration, and to secure suitable amendments of the law where the interests of the middle classes are unfairly prejudiced.

"To support, by legal action if necessary, the interests of any member which raise questions of general principle affecting the middle classes."

These constitutional clauses were elaborated in the union's official manifesto to the British public, which read in part:

"The Middle Classes Union is not concerned with social distinctions or religious variations. What it is concerned with is the interests which exist between those of capital and those of labor. In this sense the middle classes are the people with the middle interests. In political and economic affairs there are three main sections; two of them are the extremists (call them what you will). The third is the middle classes. And it is for the individual to determine whether he or she comes within this section-as a consumer, as a taxpayer, as a law-maker. Capital is organized for self-preservation. Labor is organized for self-advancement. But in the operations of these two sections, the other the unorganized middle, the section which is the butt, the buffer, and the burden-bearer when capital and labor are contending, has no standing and no representation. Within this middle body are the brainworkers, the commercial and trading, the professional and managerial classes, and those whose income is derived from pensions or savings. Self-analysis should indicate one's place. The domestic or internal interests of a particular profession or business may be served by the professional or business societies; but, so far as general political and economic questions are concerned, those who constitute these bodies, together with the vast mass of the middle classes who are not attached to any special organization, are in

capable, under present conditions, of any power of concerted action. The Middle Classes Union exists to weld together these unorganized and unrepresented middle classes into a strong, practical, coördinated entity for the protection of common interests. The very existence of a representative and powerful organization such as this will produce a moderating and stimulating influence on the political and economic life of the nation."

While the British Middle Classes Union has in no sense tried to start a new political party and has wrought no startling changes in general conditions, it has unquestionably proved a success and has become a real factor in England's political and economic life. It has averaged several hundred thousand members, who have made their united influence felt in many ways. Government action against wasteful expenditures and the progressive scaling down of income taxes can be traced in no small meaure to M. C. U. efforts. Here is an example. On a certain occasion the postmaster-general announced that telephone and telegraph rates would be raised after a given date. In England these services are government-owned. The M. C. U. took the matter up and had the question aired in Parliament. It was there decided that no increase of rates could be decreed without Parliamentary authorization. The rates were not raised.

In the industrial disputes that have so perturbed British life, the Middle Classes Union has likewise played a distinctly significant rôle. While not "anti-labor," the M. C. U. has taken a resolute stand against strikes of workers engaged in public utilities, strikes deliberately intended to enforce labor

demands by disrupting the life of the general population. In such cases the M. C. U. has recruited from its membership large numbers of competent persons who have taken the strikers' places and have insured the operation of the threatened public services. Here, again, a specific instance of M. C. U. activity may be illuminating. Let us hear from the pen of the M. C. U. President, Lord Askwith, how one such strike was nipped in the bud.

"At Sheffield," writes Lord Askwith, "the operatives of the power house that supplied the city with light threatened to walk out on a Saturday night in sympathy with the striking miners. News of the strike reached the Secretary of the Sheffield Branch of the Middle Classes Union late Saturday afternoon. He went over to He went over to the golf links, where a goodly number of our men were playing, and explained the situation to them. All the men who had any skill in such work volunteered for service. He next went to the houses of clerks, shopkeepers, professional men of all sorts, workers of all kinds, and explained the situation to them. When he was through he had two hundred men recruited for work in the power house.

"Fortified with this list, he paid a visit to the manager of the works. He showed him the list of skilled volunteer workers. The manager called in the labor foreman.

workers. He came back in a short while.

""The men will not go out on strike, Sir. If it's all the same to you, the works will remain open.'

"The works did remain open."

Such are the manifold activities of the British Middle Classes Union,activities directed against unjust measures from any quarter, whether from capital, labor, or the administration. Let us now turn to France, where a corresponding middle-class organization known as the "Civic Union" has arisen. The Civic Union has had somewhat narrower objectives than its British colleague, its activities having been mainly confined to fighting the revolutionary attempts of the radical wing of French labor. It must be remembered that in France labor tends to be "redder" than in Great Britain, many of the French labor leaders and a considerable section of the industrial masses having avowedly gone over to communism.

It was, in fact, under the menace of a communist plot to revolutionize France that the Civic Union came into being. In the opening months of the year 1920, the French reds scheduled a general strike for the red holiday, the First of May. The plan was to disrupt the public services, paralyze transportation, starve the urban population, and then by a sudden seizure of the chief cities secure control of France and establish the dictatorship of the

Faced by this ominous possibility, a group of resolute men determined to supplement the efforts of the Government by forming a volunteer organization to man the public services and thus preserve the national life from disruption. The idea met with wide

popular response, and the Civic Union soon enrolled in its ranks multitudes of persons of both sexes competent to fill pivotal positions liable to be vacated by strikers, and thus to assure an uninterrupted supply of the imperative needs of the city population.

The Civic Union was solidly organized, with a central executive committee situated in Paris, a general secretariat, and a permanent salaried body, keeping in touch with the Government, the press, and even with similar organizations in foreign lands. Despite this central administration, making possible quick and united action, considerable latitude was allowed the local units, thus permitting flexibility and rapid handling of local situations. Another interesting feature of the union's organization was the establishment of a "flying force" equipped and prepared for specially prompt activity at any remote point where there might be lack of preparation in a sudden emergency.

This revelation of bourgeois determination, coupled with the Government's strong military preparations, sobered the revolutionary leaders, dampened the enthusiasm of the revolutionary rank and file, and undoubtedly diminished the gravity of the industrial crisis of 1920. That crisis, as a matter of fact, passed off with comparatively little violence or bloodshed. The "revolutionary general strike" was a failure. Many of the working-men refused to go out at all in what they had come to feel was a losing fight, while many others who did go out returned to work after twentyfour hours. Still, even as things were, matters were sufficiently serious, transportation being crippled for several days.

During that trying period the Civic Union proved that its organization was by no means on paper. Its activities in Paris were specially noteworthy. For example, the Metropolitan Railway Company called upon the Civic Union for over a thousand volunteers for various classes of work. The union instantly furnished the company a classified list of names, and nearly all the persons summoned left their business and reported to the posts assigned them. Similarly, the union was able to furnish the General Omnibus Company all the volunteers it required to operate its lines. The union supplied the transportation companies with motormen, conductors, ticket-sellers, and gatemen. It furnished a large force of volunteers to the railway companies, including men competent to fill adequately such specialized posts as engineers, firemen, switchmen, and train-despatchers. It supplied also for the municipal services (water, gas, and electricity) an adequate number of qualified operatives. Had there been occasion to do so, the union was prepared to supply a large force of skilled truck-drivers and men familiar with motor-cars to keep Paris provisioned. The Civic Union also stood ready to man the post-office and telegraph services.

Since this crucial trial of strength the industrial life of France has been much less perturbed, and the activities of the Civic Union have been correspondingly less spectacular. But the union stands ready to repeat its 1920 performance, and the communist press has paid the Civic Union the lefthanded compliment of declaring it one of the strongest arms of the "counterrevolutionary offensive" against the revolutionary proletariat.

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Let us now consider the second form of middle-class activity. As already remarked, it differs notably from the form we have just discussed. Instead of being essentially defensive in character and restricted mainly to the protection by legal means of middle-class interests, these latter movements are coalitions of the middle classes with other social elements in aggressive reactions against aggressive attempts at social revolution by the urban proletariat. Such coalitions have been formed wherever social revolutions have been actually undertaken, and should be regarded as natural reactions of a threatened society against its enemies. They have varied in intensity with the apparent imminence of the revolutionary peril. The reason why they have not occurred in England and France is because in those countries social revolution has never been really undertaken.

It is in central Europe that fullfledged counter-revolutionary movements have come into being. Central Europe has, in fact, been a battleground between the existing social order and social revolution. Just after the war it looked as though central Europe might be overwhelmed by the red tide surging in from the east. All the way from the Baltic to the Mediterranean, communism was making its great attack. Communist rule was actually set up for a short time in Hungary, Finland, and parts of Germany, while almost everywhere in central Europe the communists stood ready to light the flames of the class

other social elements leagued against the common foe. And to these coalitions it was the middle classes which furnished the most united and enthusiastic support. Their misfortunes had roused them to desperation, while they realized that the social revolution would strike them with special severity. The communists made no secret of their arch-hatred for the bourgeois, and the fate of the Russian middle classes was a grim warning, if warning were needed. Knowing that for them it was literally a life-and-death struggle, the middle classes responded first to the fight. Though often officered by leaders from other social grades, it was the middle classes which formed the nucleus of the counter-revolutionary forces, and which furnished the largest share of brains and financial backing to the counter-revolutionary

cause.

Whether it be the "White Guards" of Finland, the "Awakening Magyars" of Hungary, the Fascisti of Italy, or the Swastika organizations of Germany and Austria, all these counterrevolutionary movements are essentially similar in origin, spirit, and purpose. They are typified by the Fascisti. Fascism has been unquestionably the best planned, best led, and most successful of the reactions against communism, and has strongly influenced the other counter-revolutionary movements in their development.

The causes of Fascism lay in the unstable nature of Italian political and social life. In Italy political turbulence and bitter class cleavages were apparent even before the war, and those cleavages the war deepened rather than decreased. The Italian working-classes came out of the war