Page:Karl Liebknecht - Militarism (1917).djvu/120

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88
MILITARISM

hardly be that the administration of the army still cherishes any illusions in view of the Social Democratic successes, especially among the workers at the imperial navy yards. The very childish threat to close down the military shops in case the Social Democratic vote among the workers should increase, a threat employed at Spandau during the election of 1903, can impede the spreading of class-consciousness as little as any other threat, so long as militarism by giving its workers niggardly proletarian pay makes them over to the Social Democracy. One need but recall the frequent wage movements in the royal factories, the numerous conflicts of the men employed there with the military administration, conflicts which often assume an animated form, in order to overcome one's pessimism in regard to these workers.

The railroads, the postal and telegraphic services are institutions of decisive strategical importance, not only for the war against the exterior, but also for the war against the interior enemy. Those indispensable strategical factors can be made useless for militarism by a strike, which