Gentlemen, the war preaches with a brazen tongue the necessity for Democracy; and to you all, who think that you can rebuke in such a sharp way the demands of the people, the idea must emerge, through the shell of your careless hostility and provoking and people-betraying demonstrations, that the interior political conditions of Germany will form themselves even now during the war. Gentlemen, the proletariat is in exactly the same position as the poor starving wretch of the old tragi-comedy, who, dressed in distinguished garments, for one day of illusions, pretended to be a prince. After the present revelations, the dream, the hero dream that every one is to be recognized as a free German citizen, as an equal German citizen, this dream will vanish even to the last illusionist,--he will awaken from the illusion of this monstrous three-fourths of a year. He will get sober, and full of bitterness, draw conclusions for his political attitude even during the war. Gentlemen, the only salvation for the mass of the people is the struggle that has not changed to-day from yesterday. Not by yielding and not by adapting itself to conditions, and not by submissiveness, but only in struggle will the people find its right. (Assemblyman Hoffman, Soc.-Dem., "Very true!") The class struggle alone is the salvation of the proletariat and we hope that we will carry on very soon the class struggle in open international intercourse with the proletariat of all countries, even with those with whom we are at war. In this international class struggle rests not only hope for the democratization, for the political and economic emancipation, of the working class, but also the one hope for the mass of the people concerned even during the war. Their one prospect and hope for the termination of the horrible killing of peoples is in the struggle for a peace in a socialistic sense. Gentlemen, the equal franchise you rudely denied for the duration of the war. Even after the war you don't want to grant such franchise. Laughable patch-work reform is all that one of you, the representative of the influential Progressive Party (_Fortschritlichen Volkspartei_), expects at the most; the majority says even here "No." Gentlemen, that means to the mass of the people the fist! ("Very true!" from the Soc.-Dem.) Against that I place the cry: away with the hypocrisy of the _Burgfrieden_ (civil truce)! Forward to the class struggle! Forward to the international class struggle for the emancipation of the working class and against the war! ("Bravo!" from the Soc.-Dem.) IN DEFENCE OF ROSA LUXEMBURG