KARL LIEBKNECHT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11685, 29 April 1916, Page 8

KARL LIEBKNECHT.

There hare been many iron crosses distributed in Germany since August, 1914, writes A. G. Gardiner. They have doubtless been given to brave'men for brave deeds. Bui the bravest man in Germany has bad no iron cross, and if lie. has escaped the martyr's cross it is only bocause the. Government dare not risk (ho consequences. Fir Karl Liebknecht might be even more dangerous dead than alive The news of his execution or even of bis imprisonment would be as disastrous to the Kaiser as the low? of a pitched battle. It would send through the trenches a chill reminder of tliat other war thai is temporarily suspended—the war for the liberties of the Prussian people. For there are two kings in Potsdam. There is the Kaiser who reviews his legions on the parade ground before the Old Palace and there is Karl Inobknecht who gathers his legions in the streefs. His election to the Reichstag as the Socialist representative of the Kaiser's own borough in IJII2 was the most bitter insult flic Kaiser ever received from his people. It was as though Windsor had returned a Republican to Parliament The Kaiser's sons ' ostentatiously led the way to the poll-, ing booth in the early morning, but at- night the people of Potsdam had elected old Wilhclm Liebknecht's son as their democratic king. CRITICISM OF SOCIALISTS. There has been much scornful criticism of the docility with which'the German Soialists have answered the call of the Prussian drill sergeant.. See what nonsense this Socialism is, it is said. See bow' it all vanishes into thin air at the sound of the trumpet. And see whaf an admirable institution is that Prussian drill sergeant. Oh, for a drill sergeant like him in England, a drill sergeant who at the word of command can bring the whole working class to heel and make them the obedient instruments of a triumphant aristocracy. "Yes,"' said Carl vie long ago. "the idea of a pig-headed soldier who will obey orders arid fire on his own father at the command of an officer is a great comfort to the aristocratic mind." And it must be admitted that there is ground for this comfortable conviction of the value of militarism as a strait-waistcoat for an insurgent democracy. The obedience with which the German Socialists, after marching for generations to the polls against the Prussian junkers and their military machine, fell into' step behind the junkers at the call of the bugle seems to reduce all their agitations and theories to idle wind. It encourages writers like the enigmatic Dr Billon to say that there is" nothing to choose botween the Government and the people. But that is to take a shallow view of the facts. Tho storm fell upon the Socialists of Germany as suddenly us. Thoy knew less of the causes of that storm than we knew. They saw only one thine,-as we did, that their country was m danger; and they resolved, as wo. did, to subordinate everything to the instant duty of saving it from ruin.

THE BRAVEST MAN IN EUROPE. The isolation •of Karl Liebkneeht, therefore, is more apparent than real. Millions of people in Germany are thinking his thoughts, and though he alone is uttering them to-day thoy will lie the governing thoughts of Germany to-morrow. The fact that ho is free to utter them is in itself a portent. The "Eye Witness" tells us of the German officer who, even in captivity, preserves his insolent hearing. He is the symbol of the Germany we arc fighting, and that we are going to beat. But Liebkneeht is the symbol of the Germany with Avhom we are going to be reconciled. Ho stands there, the bravest man in X'*'opo at this moment, challenging and reslVJiyj;; the whole current of the war. And; »o T have said, the significant thing is that it*, is still /free. It was different in 1870 father, Wilhclm Liebkneeht, one of the founders of German Social Democracy, was clapped in piison together with I?el>el. for resisting in the Reichstag the- proposal to annex Alsace-Lorraine. Karl has gone much further than his father went. It was lie who, when the German Press was fanning tho flame, of hatred against the Belgians by stories of atrocities committed against 'the German soldiers, hunted the stories to their source in hospitals and elsewhere, proved them to be baseless and denounced them as such, in "Vorwaerts." HIS TRUE METTLE. But it is in his resistance to the war itself that Dr Licbknecht has revealed his true mettle. While those of his fellow Socialists who opposed the war walked out of the Reichstag when the war credits were voted on December 2, he remained to utter his protest. The President would not allow him to speak, and when he handed in his speech in writing the President refused to insert it in the records. But the speech remains and reading it Ave cannot.wonder that the Kaiser dare not let his people sec it. For it denounces Hie war as having been "prepared by the German and Austrian war parties, acting together in the darkness of half-absolut-ism and secret diplomacy, with the intention of getting ahead of their adversaries." Th-. 1 cry against " Czarism" was an in posture. '''Germany, (be partner of Czarism. the most conspicuous example of politicil reaction, lias no mission as ;i liberator of cations. The liberation of the Russian and German people must be the work of themselves." His conclusion will'stand as one of the most famous indictments in history.

"Under protest against the war; against those who are responsible for it and have caused it; against the capitalistic purposes for which it is being waged; against the plans of jrnnexation : against the violation of the neutrality of Belgium and Luxemburg: against the, absolute'reign of the rights of war; against the social and political violation of their clear duty of which the Government and (lie ruling classes stand guilty. 1 shall vote aguii.st the war credits asked, for." THE NAKED TItUTTI.

No less remarkable was his .speech in the Prussian Diet in March, when the h.ui-aucracv revealed " the naked truth that in Prussia everything re tiains .>.•; beforo." I 'n» war had op-wic wah the promise that the infamous property 'suffrage in Prussia should he abolished; hut with the soldiers securely hi the trenches the oligarchy had repudiated th;> promise. The people were to die, hut they worn to have no renard. They were to liberate Russians from C'y.ari.sm. but they were to remain political slaves themselves- slaves to the trinity of Militarism, .Monarchy and I'roportv. This time Liebkneeht, was permitted to speak, but tho Diet fled at his rising. They dared not stay to hear him tell how "our soldiers will clench iheir fists in the trenches" as they hear of iheir betrayal. The magnitude pf ihat betrayal can hardly be exair.gerafod.' Prussia, is ; , despotism. Tho three-class suffrage so effectually excludes the people from repi csentation that in the whole Diet there are only seven Socialists. Add to this the fact that the Government is responsible not to Parliament but to the Kaiser and it will he seen how completely divorced the people are from ihe affairs of Government. And yet

A FEARLESS CHAMPION OF DEMOCRACY. UNCROWNED KING OF POTSDAM.

» our !>r Dillons fell IJS .ther* is nothing to ebooso between Mie people ;.nd the , < lyr,inn\ which enslaves them. | If (his wc-rv true we might indeed 1 I despair. But it. is Lot true. '.' Vori waerts " knew it was not true whou it courageously declared -for it had alrendy been several times suppressed--- , that " domoerrdic control by the people would have prevented 'the" war."' Tt is the crowned King of Potsdam, no*--the nn-Towned King of Potsdam with whom we arc at death grips, and until we, appreciate that fact we shall not understand. vrJinfc this war is really about. Jt is nofc-fl. -war between this country and that, this people ;\n<] that, this race and that, but between this ideal and I hat— between the ideal of despotism and the ideal of freedom—between absobtism and democracy, between imperialism and national liberty, iho parties to the quarrel have got so curiously mixed that this truth is a little difficult to see and sometimes even a little hard to believe. But it is the truth all the same, and in that truth is the one gleam of hope in the vast tragedy. THE BEST HOPE. And yet, if this struggle has one meaning more profound than any other Jt is_ this, that wo are waging a war • of civilisation against barbarism—a barbarism which is only more hateful 'because, in M. Oamboir's phrase, it is "pedantic barbarism/' Gormauy's crime is not to bo measured by the visible wrong. It is a crime against the soul of the world. She has shamed humanity. She has outraged the sanctities which are the common heritage of all of us and has made the civilisation that men have won from the ages a hideous jest. We have to repair that, wrong and to affirm the reign of law among men. But we shall not do it with the methods of barbarism against which we war. The punishment that is inflicted shall be adequate to the enormity of the crime, but it shall be the punishment of justice and not of revenge or hate. The best hope of the recovery-of the world from the wounds of this war is in the deliverance of the German people from Kaiserism and that hope can best be measured by the significance of Karl Liebknecht. There are some people who see in him only a negligible figure, the equivalent of those wdio oppose the war in this country. But. that is to ignoro the fact that we live under a democratic system and are fighting for the existence of democracy, while Liebknecht _ lives under ;i despotism which is fighting for the maintenance and extension or despotism. If it were true that there is nothing io choose in this , war between the ideal of this country. | and the ideal of Germany, there would be ground for the suggestion that Licb- , knecht is only a perverse persou. But 1 who will say that that is true? Who will .say that it means nothing to the world whether Germany or the Allies win? Liebknecht knows that it means everything and he would rather see Germany Redeemed by defeat than Kaisemm enthroned over the earth. There are others who say that Liebknecht'a opposition is in some subtle way that they do not explain a pawn in the German game. If it were not so, they say, some means would have been .found of suppressing him. But ' those who see in him a tool of the Kaiser know little of the man or of his career, and the fact that he is at liberty is the most "conclusive proof of his influence even in the midst of the war. THE MILITARY FETISH. For if the Government thought they could risk imprisoning him ho would have disappeared long ago. It would not be the first time that.they had had him under lock and key. He made his reputation as a barrister in, 1905 by his defence in the famous Konigsberg 'trial of the German Socialists charged with conspiracy on behalf of the Russian revolutionists and he followed this up with a fierce anti-militarist propaganda. For. like Bebel, he knew that no good Mould bo done with Prussia until the military fetish -was destroyed and with the true instinct of the reformer he aimed at the heart of the tyranny. His i reward was eighteen months' imprisonment. .

But they could not suppress a. man like Karl Liebknecht by putting him in prison any more than"they could suppress his father in that way. When he came out Berlin celebrated the fact by electing him to the holy of holies of junkcrdom, the Diet itself. And since then, and especially since his election at Potsdam to the Reichstag, his powor has increased. With the death of Rebel—brave old Rebel of the merry eye and the impetuous eloquence—lie became the foremost figure in the most powerful party in Germany, his opinions uncompromising, his honesty unquestioned, his courage equal to any occasion. Ho has Jess spaciousness and imagination than- Jaures, whose death is the greatest personal calamity that has befallen Europe in this war—perhaps less gentleness than dwelt under the kindly exterior of old Wilhehn .Liebknecht. But he has a clear aud powerful mind, immense force of character, and a gift of scorn. "Have you rend Roosevelt's articles or. Socialism?" he was asked at the end of an interview when he was on his visit to America in 1910. ''My dear sir. T will only discuss opinions worth while discussing," was his reply. It will be seen that •be has taken the measure of Mr Theodore Roosevelt. The which enabled him. little more than "'a year ago, to make in the Reichstag that famous exposure of the oorruptioirpraotised by Krupps—an exposure which led to the trial and sentence of high officials—lias now found a larger field of activity.

The two Kings of Potsdam will emerge from the war in a very different relationship from that of-the'past. The militarism that sustained the despotic rule, of the Kaiser will ho discredited and we how? in ruins. Upon its ruins Karl Liebkneoht will stand as the most powerful democratic figure in Germany. Under his inspiration, it may be, his country will he no longer n menace to the world, hut a hulwark of Liberalism in. Western Europe.