Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1919-01-10
THE SPARTAcUS GROUP
Some Facts About Most Extreme So.
cialists of Germany.

/
:.
Some Facts About Most Extreme So
cialists of Germany.
A mysterious group Of German Bol-
sheviki have recently made their a.
! pearance in the cable dispatches from
: Germany, which must have somewhat
puzzled the American reader. Tins is
the Spartacus group, or Spartacides,
and they are, we are told. party OF
extreme Socialists, led by DR.. Leib-
knecht and Rosa Luxenburg, who wish
to see a proletarian autocracy replace
the old military autocracy In the
Fatherland. The name. they tell ps
| is derived from the fact that early IN
the war DR.. Liebknecht issued num-
ber Of anti-war pamphlets signed with
the pseudonym "Spartacus." The
choice of this name, correspondent
of the Manchester Guardian AYERS, rs
due to the fact that the revolutionists
of 1S4S had a partiality for signing
their anonymous pamphlets with class
ical names, a habit which the Leb-
knecht group have revived. The orig
nal Spartacus, it will be recalled, was a
Thracian soldier taken prisoner by the
Romans, reduced to slavery, and train
ed as a gladiator. He escaped, PRO-
claimed the freedom of al! slaves, rails
ed a powerful army, and several times
defeated the Roman consuls who were
| sent against him. An unhappy augury
for the success Of DR.. Lebknecht and
his Bolshevik followers lies in the f3et
| that that Spartacus came to his de-
feat and death in B. C. II through dis
sensions among his followers. 81.
The Berlin correspondent Of the Kel-
nische Zeitung draws graphic picture
of the terrorism exercised in Berlin by
the "Spartacus gangs" He writes:s
"Dr. Liebnecht himself, whose I'M
prisonment has obviously clouded ms
formerly keen intelligence, and prona-
bly, turned his brain, spends his. time
in visiting barracks in Berlin,S Spa
dau and elsewhere, and melting NE
men to refuse to allow any distinctions
even of non-c commissioned officers pr
nder-officers or to admit them to the
local councils. His chief Of staff, Rr;
Levy, who before the war was his btt-
mess partner in his lawyers office rs
preaching fanaticism in Berlin to all
and sundry. -
The word Spartacus4 goes through
the city like a bogy. Civilians, sol
diers, employees, capitalists, all feel
themselves equally threatened. A sit
ting Of the Prussian lower house had
to be adjourned because it was feared
that the Spartacus gang was going %
seize the building.
1.-The Lokal Anzeiger has several
times failed to appear, as result Of re-
peated efforts by the Spartacus gang 70
seize It. Careful burghers cham UP
their house doors, and it would be
well if the steadier elements of our
workmen and soldiers would chain up
the door Of their hearts against the
murderous and suicidal ideas Of the
Spartacus gang"
The Sparticides seem to have a par
ticular prediction for embarrassing
the newspapers, in order, we are told,
to terrorize one or other of them into
becoming a Spartacus organ. The
Manchester Guardian writes:
1T seems that the Berlin newspapers
are still having an anxious time. The
writing of their leading articles is con-
stantly being interrupted by the arriv-
al of handful Of unscrupulous-look-
| ing bandits with a machine gun. 1t
must not be supposed, however, that
these intruders belong to the lnde-
pendent Socialists, who recently form
ed the coalition government with the
Social Democrats or Majority Social
!sts. They belong essentially to the
Spartacus group, small collection OF
extremists, led by Liebknecht and
Rosa Luxembourg, who had little or no
following at all before the revolution.
The group had few members, no news
paper, and only mysterious connec-
ton with the Bolshevik Isvestiya since
| the Russian revolution.
mot only is any newspaper to be
provided with a military guard against
it's forays, but the Spartacus people
have also been relieved Of another
newspaper that they had seized. Like
the Lokal Anzeiger, the Norddeutsche
has not submitted tamely to its forci-
BILE Transformation into an Interna-
tionale, but has re-emerged from It's
crisis as the Deutche Allgemeine Ze1-
tung, and announces that it will con-
tinue it's policy % before. This means
that the Spartacus group has still no
newspaper of it's own"
Having failed to keep the Lokal An
zeiger, which they seized, the Spar
tacides have produced a small daily
sheet, which bears the name they gave
to the Anzeiger when in their hands
Die Rote Fahne, or Red Flag.
War Risk Insurance.-Uncle Sam