Page:H.M. The Patrioteer.djvu/341

Rh bookkeeper! Out of revenge Sötbier was making a provocative speech, in which he uttered the most striking judgments upon the alleged friendliness of certain gentlemen for the workers. It was simply a demagogic stunt, by which, for the sake of certain personal advantages, they wished to divide the middle-classes and drive the voters onto the side of revolution. Formerly the gentleman in question had said: Whoever is born a slave must remain a slave. "Shame!" yelled the organised workers. Diederich pushed his way through until he was beside the platform. "A vulgar libel!" he shouted into Sötbier's face. "You ought to be ashamed of yourself! Since your dismissal you have joined the malcontents." The Veterans' Association, under Kunze's command, bawled like one man: "Disgraceful!" and "Hear, hear!"—while the organised workers hissed and Sötbier shook a trembling fist at Diederich, who threatened to have him locked up. Then old Buck stood up and rang his bell.

When silence had been restored he said in a gentle voice, which rose and thrilled the hearers: "Fellow-citizens! Do not give the personal ambition of individuals anything to feed on by taking it seriously! What is the individual? What are classes even? The people's interests are at stake, and the people includes every one except those who want to be masters. We must stand together. We citizens must not again make the mistake, which was made in my youth, of entrusting our welfare to bayonets, as soon as the workers demand their rights. Because we would never grant the workers their rights, we have given the masters power to deprive us also of our rights."

"Quite right!"

"We, the people, have all perhaps our last opportunity, in the face of this demand upon us to increase the army, to assert our freedom against our masters, who are arming us still more, merely that we may be slaves. Whoever is born a slave must remain a slave. That is not said only to you workers, it is