The Liberal democrat. [volume] (Liberal, Kan.) 1911-1924, 1916-02-18
BRAVEST MAN IN EUROPE DIS
CREDITED BY HIS PARTY

continual and gross offenses" he
has forfeited all rights of member
ship in his party. They have given
him the boot.
Poor Karll So they have cast you
out-you, the only consistent Social
list in the lot. 1t was you who fought
militarism like a tiger; you who
went to prison for your book, you
who exposed the Krupps; you who
told of corruption in high places, OF
titles bought for gold. 1t was you,
bravest of them all. who dared to
cast the only vote against the gran
of money for the war. And after all
you had done for your party, they
cried, Raus! 'Raus!" They cut
you dead. And now they've ousted
you completely Well, we'll, it's a
queer world, this, and no mistake.
OF course you knew all along that
you were breaking rules. On that
point there could be. no misunder-
standing. 1t is one of the rules Of
your party that the Socialists group
In the Reichstag shall vote as unit.
If you, as a consistent Socialist, did
not like the kaiser and his war, and
did not want to give him blood mon
ey, you had every right to express
your feelings in caucuses before the
party went into the chamber to vote.
But once your party had decided as
unit to support the war, 1t was
your duty to sit quiet or to stay
away.
You broke the rules then, and you
have broken them since. II your
party hasn't forgiven you the world
has. But what was 1t that the presi-
dent wouldn't read-your reasons
for what you did? The German pa
pers were not allowed to publish
what you wrote.
His fathers words in defense of the
party which had been attacked for
having made concessions to militar-
ism in 1870 probably came back to
him in that historic moment.
"In our fight against militarism,"
said old wilhelm Liebknecht, in an
impassioned speech at Zurich in
1898, 1--WE have not retreated by
hairs breadth. The annexation oil
Alsace-Lorraine? We condemned 1t
as an error. We denounced 1t as a
crime. said this in the Reichstag,
before militaristic Germany, I re-
peated il before the people. We have
paid for that opinion, and my com
rades, by bitter years of prison. Not
a man, not penny. this is our pro-
gram. Since it came into existence,
our party has not given to the Ger
man army a single man or single
penny. When the masses are Social
lists militarism will have seen its
last day."
And remembering these words.
the son stood up alone. He had to
do it. 1t was the call of the dead
leader, his own father, to the great
party which he had educated, and
which now, in his great moment of
political power, seemed in the eyes
of the world, to be sacrificing its
splendid past.
The father died in 1900. Karl
Liebknecht was then a practicing
lawyer in Berlin. He had been born
in 1871, when the father was max
ing his memorable fight against
The fighting spirit which has so
characterized him during the last ten
years was born in him and he grew
up in an atmosphere Of independence
and intellectually. He studied law
in Leipsic, and when he had finished
in 1898, proceeded to Berlin. He
now served his conscript year in the
pioneer battalion, and then engaged
In active practice. In 1902, after his
fathers death, he was elected to the
city government in Berlin. In 1907
he published his remarkable book,
"Militarismus and Anti-Militaris-
mus" The government forbade its
in Germany and clapped
the author into prison for eighteen
months on a charge of high treason.
He came out Of jail and was elected
to the Prussian chamber Of deputies. |
He was then 81 years old. His i'm
had made him marked |
man and in the Diet his speeches
showed that his party had found a
leader. BY the Sociallsts-particu-
larly by those who wanted clear
fight and not mealy-mouthed propa-
was looked upon as the |
one man on whom the masses could |
,aI,, A. 80 kkA h,rdanc