At that meeting—­the first to be held after the repeal of Bismarck’s anti-socialist law—­the president claimed that they had secured more votes at the Reichstag election than any other party; they were the strongest political party in Germany.

Since that year they have consistently increased their power, till in the present Reichstag they have no fewer than one hundred and eleven members, giving them almost an absolute majority.

It seems an irony of fate that at Halle in 1890 one of the speakers who dilated on international brotherhood and the inseparable bonds which bound Belgian and German workmen—­was a Belgian delegate!  Singer, in reporting on the doings of the representatives in the Reichstag, said:  “We consider peace among the nations to be an indispensable preliminary for the improvement of social conditions.  We vote against expenditure for military purposes, because we are convinced that this continuous arming, accompanied by the constant improvement of murderous weapons, must be ended.  It is contradictory to the civilizing task of the nations for them to be armed to the teeth, lying in wait for the moment when they can devour each other.

“Militarism is an evil for the nations; its burdens cannot be borne for ever, and even to-day the nations are collapsing under them.  Modern conditions are unbearable; out of them spring ever-increasing armaments, and at last a time will come when war must break out, because the state of modern armed peace will one day have become impossible.”

Another authoritative pronouncement from the report[63] of the Social Democratic Congress in Erfurt, 1891, deserves mention.  It is a passage from a speech delivered by the elder Liebknecht in the Reichstag:  “As regards the defence of the Fatherland all parties will be united when it is necessary to meet an outside enemy.  In that moment no party will shirk its duty.”

[Footnote 63:  “Protokoll ueber die Verhandlungen des Parteitags der Soz.  Dem.  Partei Deutschlands zu Erfurt, 1891.”]

This is an instance of what Germans call Rueckversicherung, or a covering insurance.  Having pledged themselves never to leave the Fatherland in the lurch—­and the pledge was repeated on many occasions—­they were free to babble to French, English and Italian Socialists about the blessings of internationalism, general strikes, and eternal peace.  But there is no single instance on record to show that German Socialists considered any other benefits of internationalism, except those which served the purposes of their own nationalism.

At Halle, 1890, Liebknecht said:  “These ideas are indisputably correct.  Nobody,[64] no matter how enthusiastic he may be for the international cause, will dare to maintain that we have no national duties.  National and international are not opposing principles.  The word ‘national’ must be rightly understood.  It includes only a certain, limited portion of international humanity.  The part belongs to the whole, and international merely means going beyond the boundary-posts of the nation, the narrower limits of the native land; to extend one’s horizon to include the whole; to consider humanity as one family and the world as a home.”