90
THE CRISIS
portunity, to prevent the rulers of the present day from precipitating war and to force them to end it as rapidly as possible. But the position of the Social Democracy in this war cleared away all doubts, has torn down the dams that held back the storm-flood of militarism. In fact it has created a power for which neither Bernhardi nor any other capitalist statesman dared hope in his wildest dreams. From the camp of the social-democrats came the cry: "Durchhalten", i. e., a continuation of this human slaughter. And so the thousands of victims that have fallen for months on the battlefields lie upon our conscience.