Page:Wilhelm Liebknecht - Socialism; What It Is and What It Seeks to Accomplish - tr. Mary Wood Simons (1899).djvu/59

 arms and a people without arms. Every one should be a soldier, however, as in Switzerland, and in order to bring about such a system it is necessary that every one from his youth be exercised in the use of arms, in marching, gymnastics, firing, etc.

In Switzerland every school teacher in every village knows the military exercise. He is at least an under officer in the confederate army; perhaps a higher officer. He teaches his pupils from the earliest age exercising, military gymnastics, to shoot with the cross-bow, and at a certain age the child receives a gun. In short, the youth are educated in all the exercises necessary for military service.

We demand decision concerning war and peace by the representatives of the people. Of this only a word. It was moved to say "directly by the people," the present construction being thought a backward step. No; it is not. On the contrary, it is a positive advance on the road to the reasonable and practicable. Observe once, a war comes suddenly, how would it be possible for all the people to vote concerning it? And in these days wars mostly come suddenly. We free ourselves from phrases and express our demand in a practical way.

Further, we require the decision of all international disputes by arbitration. It has already been sufficiently demonstrated at the congress of Brussels that we are no Utopians in regard to "eternal peace." In our well-known resolution there we have stated that the conditions which bring the permanent danger of war have their roots in the present economic society, in the system of capitalism. We are not like the "industrial enthusiasts," who would leave the cause and merely remove the consequence. We make the demand that an international board of arbitration be established, before which all disputes between states shall be brought. However,