Page:Karl Liebknecht - Militarism (1917).djvu/121

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
MEANS AND EFFECTS
89

would lead to a complete paralysis of the military organism. It is therefore quite natural that militarism should earnestly strive to imbue with its spirit the minds of the officials and workmen belonging to the staffs of those industries of communication and the factories connected with them (railroad-shops, car factories, etc.). The unscrupulous manner in which this purpose is being pursued is not only demonstrated by the system of military claimants for civil employment, previously described, but also by the fact that in several states those employees have been placed under the military law; it is further shown by their political condition, in the militarist countries where they have been deprived of the right of combination either by administrative procedure (as in Germany and France) or by special laws (as in Italy, Holland, and also Russia). Naturally, we do not deny that apart from those military interests the capitalist state guards its general interests in preventing its employees in those industries of communication from being captured by its enemies. Those efforts, too, will necessarily be fruitless in