Even by this time the shift of sentiment in the ranks of Independent Socialism had proceeded to a point where this party's continued ascendancy would have been as great a menace to democratic government as would Liebknecht's Spartacans. Adolph Hoffmann, the party's Prussian Minister of Cults, openly declared that if an attempt were made to summon the national assembly it must never be permitted to meet, even if it had to be dispersed as the Russian Bolsheviki dispersed the constituent assembly in Petrograd, and his pronouncement was hailed with delight by _Die Freiheit_, the party's official organ in Berlin, and by Independents generally. Emil Eichhorn, who was once one of the editors of _Vorwaerts_ but now prominent in the Independent Socialist party, and who had been appointed police-president of Berlin, was on the payroll of _Rosta_, the Russian telegraph agency which served as a central for the carrying on of Bolshevik propaganda in Germany. He did as much as any other man to make the subsequent fighting and bloodshed in Berlin possible by handing out arms and ammunition to Liebknecht's followers, and by dismissing from the city's Republican Guard--the soldier-policemen appointed to assist and control the policemen--men loyal to the new government. The Spartacans were feverishly active. Liebknecht and his lieutenants organized and campaigned tirelessly. _Der rote Soldatenbund_ (the Red Soldiers' League) was formed from deserters and criminals and armed with weapons furnished by Eichhorn from the police depots, stolen from government stores or bought with money furnished by Russian agents. The funds received from this source were sufficient also to enable the Spartacan leaders to pay their armed supporters twenty marks a day, a sum which proved a great temptation to many of the city's unemployed whose sufferings had overcome their scruples. The first demonstration of strength by the Spartacans came on November 26th, when they forcibly seized the Piechatzek Crane Works and the Imperator Motor Company, both big Berlin plants. Spartacan employees assisted Liebknecht's red soldiery to throw the management out. The funds and books of both plants were seized, soldiers remained in charge and plans were made to run the plants for the sole benefit of the workers. The cabinet ordered the plants restored to their owners, and the order was obeyed after it became apparent that the _Vollzugsrat_, although in sympathy with the usurpers, did not dare oppose the cabinet on such an issue. The openly revolutionary attitude of the Liebknecht cohorts and their insolent defiance of the government, resulted in armed guards being stationed in front of all public buildings in Berlin. But here was again exhibited that peculiar unpractical kink in the Socialist mentality: the guards were directed not to shoot!