Henri Hubert van Kol

Born May 23, 1852, in Eindhoven; died Aug. 22, 1925, in Remouchamps. Leader of the Dutch workers’ movement; a reformist.

As a student Kol joined the Dutch section of the First International. He worked as an engineer in Indonesia from 1876 to 1894, with interruptions. Kol and P. Troelstra were among the founders (1894) and leaders of the Social Democratic Labor Party of the Netherlands. He was a deputy in the lower house of parliament from 1897 to 1909 and in the upper house from 1913 to 1924. Kol propagated the idea that capitalism was supposedly carrying out a “civilizing mission” in the colonies. V. I. Lenin unmasked this idea of Kol’s (see Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 16, pp. 67–74).