Page:Charles Emil Ruthenberg - Speeches and Writings (1928).djvu/12

8 ideals for a reorganization of society on a new basis. I have upheld those ideals and gone to prison for them when they were connected with the late war. I have stood by those principles in which I firmly believe and I still stand for those principles irrespective of the result of this particular trial. I expect in the future as in the past to uphold and fight for those principles until the time comes for those principles to triumph and a new society is built in place of the present social organization. … I will accept the sentence in that same spirit of defiance, realizing that I go to prison because of support of a great principle that will triumph in spite of all the courts, in spite of all the organizations of the capitalist class."

If we examine the basic types of characteristics of leaders of great forward social movements, we will find them to be inspiration, intelligence and industry. In Ruthenberg's whole revolutionary career we find these three fundamental prerequisities of first-rank leadership standing out in bold relief.

Ruthenberg left no theoretical works that have become standard classics in the international labor movement. All of his writings are manuals of tactics for the revolutionary movement in the United States in its various stages. Thus we will find in his writings before the proletarian revolution in Russia some of the hazy concepts and shortcomings which characterized the most militant and genuine Marxian kernels in the various socialist parties. In fact, Ruthenberg more than any one else symbolized the developing stages of working-class militancy. He shows a constant growth in his clearness and understanding of the revolutionary struggle into the full Leninist, Bolshevik viewpoint.

We must keep in mind that the achievements and contributions of any individual revolutionary leader can be estimated properly and judged only on the basis of the conditions of his times and only in comparison with contemporary leaders in the same movement. It is here that Rutifcienberg stood head and shoulder above the other leaders of the socialist movement in the pre-war days. It is here that Ruthenberg appears before the entire