Page:Wilhelm Liebknecht - Socialism; What It Is and What It Seeks to Accomplish - tr. Mary Wood Simons (1899).djvu/63

 that, according to the criticism of the platform by Karl Marx, only the bourgeoisie, the propertied classes, would gain an advantage thereby, since the laborer under the present conditions could not send his children to the higher grades of school. Hence we have decided on a restriction and demand free instruction and educational apparatus only in the public schools.

With this demand belongs the other, the maintenance of the children at school, incidentally a demand which is found for nearly a hundred years in the famous school law of Lakanal, that was presented to the French convention and accepted by it shortly after the execution of Louis XVI. At that time the fundamental principle was stated that the state which compelled the parents to send their children to school is also bound to care for the physical needs of the children. The school question is a social question. Hungry children can learn nothing.

Our further demand speaks for itself—that those children who show peculiar talents, and by examination prove themselves capable of attending higher schools, professional and other schools, shall have free instruction and maintenance. With this addition our paragraph concerning schools is formulated without falling into excess or leaving the ground of real relations.

A further demand is for free administration of the law, free legal assistance and free medical attendance. In principle both belong together. The possibility to seek justice is to-day in general the privilege of the wealthy. The right to complain is in most cases really taken from the poor, since the complaint and process are too expensive. It is exactly the same with medical help in case of sickness. The physician is not a public officer and if even now in individual cases free medical attendance is assured it is only on certain conditions which every one can or may not fulfill. Hundreds of