Page:Karl Liebknecht - Militarism (1917).djvu/16

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
vi
INTRODUCTION

new voice of freedom will be heard from now on in the Reichstag." The words were prophetic. This body never heard stronger protests against the domination of the civil mind by the military than those which this new apostle uttered. He issued his invectives against the armament trust, and showed its corrupting influence over government officials and press. He gave to the public the story of a late Prussian general, who lived by borrowing—a not infrequent habit of these officers—and by trading in government medals and positions and honorary titles. The general had been in the good graces of the Kaiser, and the story did little to increase the prestige of the latter or of the military caste. The man about to be selected by the Kaiser as war secretary was exposed by the anti-militarist member of Parliament as an ordinary swindler and the honesty of the military group was thereby further brought into question.

Liebknecht also raised his voice in behalf of a German Republic at a time when those who now declare that the only way to end the war is