Page:Karl Liebknecht - Militarism (1917).djvu/14

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INTRODUCTION

of the exploited working class from political and economic bondage. As my father, who appeared before this court exactly thirty-five years ago to defend himself against the charge of treason, was ultimately pronounced victor, so I believe the day not far distant when the principles which I represent will be recognized as patriotic, as honorable, as true."

Liebknecht's courageous stand on this occasion was rewarded by a sentence of a year and a half in a military prison, as before stated. As a sharp rebuke to this sentence, the working people of Berlin promptly nominated and elected him, while still in prison, as their representative for the Prussian Landtag. It was in the Landtag that Liebknecht started his real campaign against Prussian militarism. His attacks against the system were bitter. Time without number he was called to order by the chair; frequently he was removed from the floor of the chamber.

He represented the working people of Berlin, as well, in the Common Council, and in 1912, the citizens of Potsdam-Spandau who were em-