enormously increased the political lawlessness and economic
exploitations of the people; it refuses all serious political and social
reforms, while at the same time it tries to hold the people docile for
the imperialistic war policy, by means of rhetorical phrases about equal
rights accorded to all parties, about alleged discontinuation of
discriminations in social and political matters, about an alleged
readjustment and new direction of political matters, and so on.
The German Government because of its consideration for agrarian and
capitalists' interests has completely failed to care for the economic
welfare of the people during the war, to guard against misery and the
practice of revolting extortion upon the people.
The German Government is still holding fast to its war aims and so
constitutes the chief obstacle in the way of immediate peace
negotiations upon the basis of renunciation of annexations and
oppressions of all sorts: Through the maintenance--in itself illegal--of
martial law (censorship, etc.) it prevents the public from learning
unpleasant facts and prevents Socialist criticism of its measures. The
German Government thereby reveals its system of seeming legality and
sham popularity as a system of actual force, of genuine hostility to the
people and bad faith as regards the masses.
The cry of "Down with the Government!" is meant to brand this entire
policy of the Government as fatal to the masses of the people.
This cry also indicates that it is the duty of every representative of
the welfare of the proletariat to wage a struggle of the most strenuous
character--the class struggle--against the Government.
II. The present war is not a war for the defense of the national
integrity, not for the liberation of oppressed peoples, not for the
welfare of the masses.
From the standpoint of the proletariat this war only signifies the most
extreme concentration and extension of political suppression, of
economic exploitation, and of military slaughtering of the working-class
body and soul for the benefit of capitalism and of absolutism.
To all this the working-class of all countries can give but one answer:
a harder struggle, the international class struggle against the
capitalist Governments and the ruling classes of all countries for the
abolition of all oppression and exploitation by the institution of a
peace conceived in the Socialist spirit. In this class struggle the
Socialist, whose Fatherland is the International, finds included the
defense of everything that he, as a Socialist, is bound to defend. The
cry of "Down with war" signifies that I thoroughly condemn and oppose
the present war because of its historical nature, because of its general
social causes and specific way in which it originated (developed), and
because of the way it is being carried on and the objects for which it
is being waged. That cry signifies that it is the duty of every
representative of proletarian interests to take part in the
international class struggle for the purpose of ending the war.
III. As a Socialist I am fundamentally opposed to the existing military
system as well as of this war, and I always supported with all my power
the fight against Militarism as an especially important task and a
matter of life and death for the working-class of all countries.
(Compare my book "Militarism" and my reports to the International Young
People's Conferences at Stuttgart, 1907, and Copenhagen, 1910.) The war
demands that we carry on the struggle against Militarism with redoubled
energy.
IV. Since 1889 May 1st has been consecrated to manifestations and
propaganda in favor of the great basic principles of Socialism, against
all exploitation, oppression, and violence; dedicated to propaganda for
the solidarity of workers of all countries--a solidarity which the war
has not abolished, but strengthened--against the workers' fratricidal
strife, for peace and against war.
During the war the manifestation and propaganda of these principles is a
doubly sacred duty imposed upon every Socialist.
V. The policy advocated by me was outlined in the resolution adopted by
the International Socialist Congress held in Stuttgart (1907), which
pledged Socialists of all countries--after they should have failed to
prevent a war--to work with all their energies towards its quick ending,
and to take advantage of the conditions created by the war for hastening
the abolition of the capitalist order of society.
This Socialist policy is meant to be international, even in its ultimate
consequences. It imposes upon the Socialists of other countries the same
obligation with reference to their Governments and ruling classes that I
with others in Germany followed against the Government and ruling
classes of Germany.
This Socialist policy has an international effect, by spreading
reciprocal encouragement from nation to nation; it promotes the
international class struggle against war.
Since the beginning of the war I, together with others, have defended in
every possible way and upheld in the most public manner this Socialist
policy, and besides, so far as possible, have entered into connections
with those who shared my sentiments in other countries.
(I may mention, for example, my journey to Belgium and Holland in
September, 1914; my Christmas letter in 1914 to the Labor Leader; the
International Socialist Meetings in Switzerland, in which, I regret to
say, I was unable to participate personally, being prevented by superior
powers, etc.)
VI. This policy to which, cost it what it may, I shall hold fast, is
not mine alone, but it is also the policy of an ever-increasing
proportion of the people in Germany and of the other belligerent and
neutral States. It will soon become, as I hope--and to this end I am
resolved to toil on--the policy of the working-class of all countries,
which will then possess the power to break the imperialistic will of the
ruling classes, and to shape as may seem best the mutual relations and
conditions of the people for the benefit of all mankind.
KARL LIEBKNECHT,
_Armierungssoldat_.
LIEBKNECHT'S TRIAL AND RELEASE
On June 28th, 1916, Karl Liebknecht was sentenced at secret trial to
thirty months' penal servitude. When the public prosecutor asked for
this secrecy, Liebknecht exclaimed:
"It is cowardice on your part, gentlemen. Yes, I repeat, that you are
cowards if you close these doors."
Nevertheless, the court decided to exclude the public, upon which
Liebknecht cried to his wife and Rosa Luxemburg, in the audience, "Leave
this comedy, where everything, including even the decision, has been
prepared beforehand."
Following the announcement of the sentence given Liebknecht, the
Potsdamerplatz in Berlin was the scene of a serious outbreak.
The next day (according to reports from Switzerland) strikes of protest
against the Liebknecht case took place in Berlin and some 55,000 persons
were involved in them. In other cities strikes and demonstrations of
protest also took place.
An appeal was taken but resulted only in an increase in the sentence to
four years' and one month's imprisonment at hard labor. Furthermore, he
was deprived of all his civil rights for a period of six years after he
should have served his term.
[Associated Press Dispatch]
PARIS, October 25.--An enormous crowd assembled before the Reichstag
building in Berlin yesterday, calling for the abdication of Emperor
William and the formation of a republic, according to a special dispatch
from Zurich to _L'Information_.
Dr. Karl Liebknecht, the Socialist leader who has just been released
from prison, was applauded frantically. He was compelled to enter a
carriage filled with flowers from which he made a speech declaring that
the time of the people had arrived.
_Printed in the United States of America._
The following pages contain advertisements of a few of the Macmillan
books on kindred subjects.
The End of the War
BY WALTER E. WEYL
_Author of "American World Policies," "The New Democracy,"_ etc.
_$2.00_
"The most courageous book on politics published in America since the war
began."--_The Dial._
"An absorbingly interesting book ... the clearest statement yet
presented of a most difficult problem."--_Philadelphia Ledger._
"Mr. Weyl says sobering and important things.... His plea is strong and
clear for America to begin to establish her leadership of the democratic
forces of the world ... to insure that the settlement of the war is made
on lines that will produce international amity everywhere."--_N. Y.
Times._
The New Democracy
AN ESSAY ON CERTAIN POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC TENDENCIES IN THE UNITED
STATES
_Cloth, $2.00_
"A masterly, scathing, and absolutely fearless arraignment of things
that ought not to be in a republic, and of tendencies that no democracy
ought to tolerate."--_Boston Herald._
"A thoughtful volume ... a big synthesis of the whole social problem in
this country. A keen survey."--_Chicago Evening Post._
"A searching and suggestive study of American life.... A book to make
people think.... Notable for its scholarship and brilliant in execution,
it is not merely for the theorist, but for the citizen."--_Newark
Evening News._
American World Policies
_12mo, $2.25_
"It is refreshing to read Dr. Weyl ... his approach to the problem is
absolutely sound and right."--_The Dial._
"An economic philosophy neatly balanced, suavely expressed, and of
finely elastic fibre."--_New York Sun._
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York
_THE WORKS OF H. H. POWERS, Ph.D._
The Great Peace
"A clear, frank statement of the problems confronting the nations of the
world and how those problems must be faced to insure a lasting peace."
(Ready Shortly.)
America among the Nations
_Cloth, $1.50_
"For an understanding of this new crisis that we are facing in 1918 we
know of no book more useful or more searching or clearer or more
readable than H. H. Powers' 'America among the Nations.' It is really a
biography, or rather, a biographical study. Its hero, however, is not a
man but an imperial people."--_Outlook, New York._
"Mr. Powers takes unusually broad views and they are enforced by a
historical knowledge and a logical development of ideas that carry
conviction.... An excellent book."--_Philadelphia Public Ledger._
The Things Men Fight For
_Cloth, $1.50_
"An able, unprejudiced and illuminating treatment of a burning
question."--_Philadelphia North American._
"Probably no other book dealing with the war and its sources has made so
dispassionate and unbiased a study of conditions and causes as does this
volume."--_New York Times._
"Out of the unusual knowledge born of wide observation and experience
came this unusual book. We may not altogether agree with its
conclusions, but we must admire the breadth of it, and feel better
informed when we have perused it. The liberal spirit of it cannot fail
to impress the careful reader."--_Literary Digest._
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York
_ERNEST POOLE'S NEW BOOK_
The Village: Russian Impressions
BY ERNEST POOLE
_Illustrated. Cloth, $1.50_
This volume describes in personal and narrative form Mr. Poole's visit
to the small estate of an old Russian friend, whose home was a rough log
cabin in the North of Russia. From there he ranged the neighborhood in
company with his friend, talking with peasants in their huts; with the
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village store; with the priest, the doctor and the school teacher, as
well as with the saw-mill owner.
Their views of the war, the revolution and American friendship are all
of great significance now, for the peasants form nearly ninety per cent.
of the Russian people.
"The Dark People": Russia's Crisis
BY ERNEST POOLE
_Author of "His Family," "The Harbor," etc._
_Cloth, 12mo, $1.50_
"Too strange, too romantic, too imaginative, to be anything but sober
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"A valuable book, ... sane and informative, ... shows close study by an
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"We have never read a book more deeply thrilling. It is not the book of
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"A sincere, unpretentious, and strikingly successful attempt to get at
the mind and heart of these people in the midst of revolution."--_N. Y.
Evening Post._
Inside the Russian Revolution
BY RHETA CHILDE DORR
_Illustrated. Cloth, $1.50_
"Mrs. Dorr's book is an excellent piece of reporting. It will be the
exceptional reader who will not find here what he would most like to get
from an American visitor who has had exceptional opportunities to learn
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"As a distinctively first-hand study of a world event of illimitable
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THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York
The Flaming Crucible
BY ANDRE FRIBOURG TRANSLATED BY A. B. MAURICE
_$1.50_
Under the title _Croire_, this autobiography of a French infantryman was
published in Paris in 1917. It is a revelation of the French spirit. It
is rather a biography of the spirit, than an account of the amazing
experiences M. Fribourg encountered, from 1911 at Agadir, through the
fighting on the Meuse, and part of the campaign in Flanders. The
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their elevation. There is a definite climax toward the end where M.
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with his fellow soldiers.
Behind the Battle Line
BY MADELINE Z. DOTY
_Cloth, $1.25_
What are the women of the world planning for the future? To find that
out, Miss Doty made a trip around the world. She takes you into the
heart of each nation she visited--Japan, China, Russia, Norway, Sweden,
England and France. The differences in civilization are vividly shown,
mainly through the daily thought and life of the women. _Behind the
Battle Line: Around the World in 1918,_ depicts the great spiritual
struggle that, beside the physical battle, engulfs the world.
The War and the Future
BY JOHN MASEFIELD
_Author of "Gallipoli," "The Old Front Line," etc._
_Cloth, $1.25_
"It was well to reprint these lectures, and it will be well for the book
to have the widest possible reading and permanent preservation for
rereading.... No man in the world to-day has a more searching, accurate,
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THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York