The head of the radical socialists in France is a man of forty something, short, thickset, with blue, intelligent eyes behind steel rimmed spectacles. He has rather long brown hair, a beard of a lighter shade of brown. His speech is quick and animated, with a little too much oratory in it. Every question I asked him was answered by a speech. It made me think of Gladstone of whom Queen Victoria said: “He addresses me as if I were a public meeting.” I asked Monsieur Thomas to tell me the spirit of the French working people during the war. Were they wholeheartedly patriotic, or was there any of the industrial unrest that had made itself felt in England. “Our French working class is more stable than the British,” he replied. “Every French man and woman worthy of the name wants the allies to win the war. In the Chamber of Deputies there have been only three men who have not shown themselves genuinely patriotic. “Those three went to Switzerland and discussed the war with certain Germans. Their act was denounced by all other socialists as well as by the bourgeois deputies. The men have absolutely no following.” “Is the French working class solidly socialist, or has it a majority of socialists?” “It has not a majority in numbers, but the socialist element is very powerful, much more powerful than surface indications show. In time of strikes the party always wields great influence. It is impossible for a stranger to understand the extent of socialist opinion throughout France. Reading the newspapers would not convey the facts to the stranger, because unfortunately the press and the people here are not together.” “Is your socialism revolutionary?” I asked. “No, it is more philosophical than revolutionary,” was the reply. “The opinions of your President Wilson are almost exactly ours. His war aims as stated by him find absolute echo in the French popular mind. Much more so than in the mind of the government.” This with a flash and a gesture that spelled “Clemenceau” very clearly. “We are not Bolsheviki, we are French,” he added with emphasis. “I wish you would explain to me, if you are solidly in favor of a peace with victory for the allies, why your group, and especially you as leader, wanted to go to the Stockholm conference and discuss peace without victory with the Germans.” Monsieur Thomas demurred a little at my way of putting the question, and right here I began to notice the blinders. “It is true that I was and am warmly in favor of the Stockholm conference,” he began. “I regret very much that Mr. Gompers and the American Federation of Labor have misunderstood my attitude and my object in wanting to meet in Stockholm representatives of the workers of all nations. They seem to think that my object was to fraternize with the Germans. Not at all. My object was to tell the whole German people the allies’ war aims, and their stated terms of peace.