Edward Aveling

“ The workers hold Liebknecht as worthy, not because he appears before them as an idol, but because they bear about within them the most living results of the deeds and the teachings of the man. Liebknecht's writings have led the workers into the way of knowledge. His name is bound up with the memory of the great successes and the most famous deeds of the fighting proletariat. ”

“ What we have here in these congratulations from thousands and thousands of people is evidence again of the fact that in the long run the people do not forget those that work for them, and that they never quite forget their martyrs. Undoubtedly, the working-class is a hard task-master, and has a natural aptitude for dwelling upon the deficiencies and the blunders rather than the efficiency and the good work done. But how completely the bourgeois miscalculate the real feeling of the working-class is shown by the remarkable demonstration in connection with Liebknecht's birthday. ”

“ Finally, we quote the few words of those writers on the Vorwärts who have been for years in daily and hourly communication with their editor:—"Everyone knows that Liebknecht is one of the truest friends of the working people; an unselfish, untiring fighter in the van of Socialism; a veteran of the democracy ; the embodiment of the international solidarity of the proletariat of all countries." ”

“ We quote a sentence or two from Liebknecht's reply in thanks. "As long as I have been in the fight, I have been used to being the target for all arrows. I am used to blame, to calumny, to enmity of all kinds, and I have learned to defy them all with laughter. But I am not used to praise, and that has so overwhelmed me. We Social-Democrats are not generally spoiled in that direction. We use sharp criticism among ourselves, and consequently this which has been my fate for some days—for this evening I am already celebrating my 70th birthday for the third time—has been new to me. ”

“ Strong and elastic as steel, fresh in spirit as a young man, full of confidence in the final victory of Social-Democracy, and as joyous in the fight as ever, thus appears to-day the seventy years old veteran of the German Workers' battalions." Finally, this is how his friend and fellow-worker Bebel speaks of him, who, after the death of Frederick Engels, is the veteran of the party, and is the last and only one of its original leaders that stood by its cradle. ”

“ Not only because the effect of his writings reaches far beyond the frontiers of Germany; not only because the feeling of the oneness of our efforts makes all workers share, not only in the results obtained by themselves, but in the results obtained by the workers in any country; but because Liebknecht is one of the most active and most faithful furtherers of the idea of the internationality of our movement. Liebknecht celebrates his seventieth birthday in the vigour of unbroken strength, in the full activity of his faculties. ”

“ We cannot do better here than quote a few words of Bebel from his article on Liebknecht in the Neue Zeit:—"Although opposed to all cult of the individual, the Social-Democratic Party can and will not fail to pay to the man who has been its leader longer than the ordinary life of a man the tribute of thankfulness for what he has done, suffered, and gained for the party. ”

“ So far as the personality of Liebknecht concerns us we hold it to be the first duty of a politician to be just to his political opponents, and to learn to consider him from the purely human standpoint. ”

“ The Socialist Deputies of Italy know that they are conveying the feelings and wishes of all comrades in Italy when they greet the grand old fighter, and wish him still many years during which he may carry on his work of propaganda, organisation and education, in the fight for the international freeing of the proletariat. ”

“ The courageous self-sacrifice, the joy in battle. that have proved to the full the strength of character of the old fighter, stand out as an example for every soldier of the proletariat. The fruits of this life so rich in deeds belong first to the German workers. Liebknecht was at the beginning of this great political organisation of the proletariat, he helped in its earliest advances, he fought in the van of the defence during the terrible years of the anti-Socialist laws ”

“ As to the main kingdoms and principalities of Germany, the Socialists are now represented in Parliament in all of them but Prussia, where the infamous three class system of voting obtains. This system the German Government are anxious to introduce into Saxony, as it plays dead into the hands of reaction. The 47 members by no manner of means represent the number of Socialist members that there ought to be in proportion to the votes given. ”

“ In the year 1865, Liebknecht was again banished from Berlin and Prussia. He went to Hanover and then to Leipzig. In Leipzig he met Bebel for the first time, and from their meeting and the work done by them and others dates the commencement of the formation of the present immensely powerful German Social-Democratic Party. The trade unions in Saxony were growing greatly in strength, and between them, Bebel and Liebknecht on the one hand, and the Lassallean party on the other, there was conflict. ”

“ In the person of Liebknecht, I repeat, is embodied that of the party ; his own life is that of the party; his life more than that of any other amongst us is bound up with the life and development of the party. ”

“ The only other example for which we have space is that of the Socialist press in Germany. There are altogether 133 Socialist and trade union papers, and it must be remembered that the German trade unions are all really socialistic, and not merely passers of mere sentimental resolutions. ”

“ He embodies in his own person its long years of fight and their consequences, but also embodies in his own person the victory and growth of that party. ... He has always in those fights stood as a brave soldier in the foremost ranks. ”

“ Afterwards when times bettered a little, the Marx family moved to Grafton Terrace, Haverstock Hill, and Liebknecht with his belongings lived almost opposite the Mother Shipton in that neighbourheod. It is worth noticing, as showing Liebknecht's kindness and self-sacrifice that on one occasion—an occasion never forgotten by Marx—when Marx's wife was down with small-pox, Liebknecht, although he had a child of his own, took the Marx's children into his house. ”

“ Thus considered it appears to us clear that during his long, active life, under the most difficult conditions, that have involved him in the heaviest personal sacrifices, he has been, and remains, faithful to his work for the masses of the people. ”