Page:Karl Liebknecht - Militarism (1917).djvu/200

 168 into the very heart of militarism. That rattling of cannons still rings in our ears and encourages us to proceed with our fight against militarism with indefatigable persistence and unsparing ruthlessness.

On January 21, 1906, the military interference was brought about by a demonstration against the infamous Prussian franchise. We know, however, that our militarism will be just as ready to slash and shoot if the issue were the overthrow of the imperial constitution in the reactionary interest by a coup d'etat. The latest disclosures of Hohenlohe and Delbrück have shown that Bismarck, in 1890, was on the point of dispersing the Reichstag, doing away with the Reichstag suffrage, driving the proletarian masses into the street in front of the mouths of rifles and cannon, smashing the defenceless ranks of the people to crush the Social Democracy, so as to erect with blood and iron on the lacerated proletarian bodies a strong-hold of Bismarckian and junker reaction. We have also heard that the German Emperor could not be had for that plan because he wanted first