Page:Wilhelm Liebknecht - Socialism; What It Is and What It Seeks to Accomplish - tr. Mary Wood Simons (1899).djvu/19

 is withheld from the people, but labor, on the other hand, is set free in the manner in which we demand it should be—that is, through socialistic production and distribution of the product of labor, the full proceeds of his work being assured to every laborer as far as the interests of society allow—what would be the result? The ruling minority would lose its means of power, which has its roots exclusively in the present manner of production and the exploitation of labor through capital. Economic independence would very soon bring the mass of the people into a position to gain their political independence also. This case can no more exist in reality, however, than the other, for the social question is inseparable from the political, and a reasonably organized society is thinkable only in a free state.

On whom does the iron yoke of the present class state not rest, oppressing and dishonoring? What do the people count for to-day? A prince covets his neighbor's land. The people beg in vain for freedom. The wishes and the happiness of a million on one side of the balance, the will and caprice of one on the other, and light as a feather the scale rises with the wishes, happiness and well-being of a million. The fury of war is unchained, thousands are plunged into death and hundreds of thousands into misery. Should this be so? The social democracy insists that no war be carried on except in vindication of the freedom and rights of the people. They wish, therefore, the POWER to declare war—for here we cannot speak of a right—to belong to the people and their deputies.

The strongest part of the nation, the men in the bloom of life, are torn away from their occupation for years, withdrawn from useful productive labor, placed in the standing army and drilled to blind obedience.

What is the outcome? War upon war, by means of