Page:Karl Liebknecht - Militarism (1917).djvu/24

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xiv
INTRODUCTION

peat, that you are cowards if you close these doors. You should be ashamed of yourself." Despite this protest the public was excluded.

When the news of the sentence was conveyed to the people crowding outside of the court room, a cry went forth, "Our Liebknecht has been condemned to two years and a half imprisonment. Long live Liebknecht!"

An appeal was made, but resulted only in an increase in the term of sentence to one of more than four years, and further appeal was denied. At present, Liebknecht is in prison making shoes, presumably, some one asserted, to help the Prussian government to stand on its feet. Sentenced, as he is to penal servitude, it is impossible for him to practice law again, and his legal career seems thus a thing of the past. The German ruling class has now accomplished its object. It has Karl Liebknecht, one of the noblest and truest fighters for democracy and freedom, safely behind prison bars.

In all his agitation against war and militarism, and against political despotism, Karl Liebknecht