Page:Karl Liebknecht - Militarism (1917).djvu/114

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MILITARISM

of the reckless desire of militarism for intellectual subjection and the centralized supervision of everything within its reach, and also indicates its tendency continually to extend its sphere of influence, legally or illegally, its desire for unlimited growth, its unlimited appetite for power.

OTHER WAYS OF INFLUENCING THE CIVILIAN POP-
ULATION IN A MILITARY DIRECTION.

An even more important result of the militaristic hunger for expansion than the mischievous reserve-officer system is the nuisance of the military claimant system in public employment, which, besides the purely military purpose mentioned, serves in no less a degree the purpose of sending into all the branches of the state and municipal administration a band of always faithful and enthusiastic representatives and propagandists of the militaristic spirit. By this method it is intended at the same time to insure the trustworthiness and loyalty of the bureaucracy serving capitalism, and to spread among the mass of the people who are particularly in need of education the "right," "state-