After his two month 1910 tour through the U.S., Karl Liebnecht returned to New York for one last public talk at Trommer’s Hall in Brooklyn on November 28th. Following that, a banquet was held in his honor before sailing home to Germany held 8th Street’s Labor Temple. In the speech that evening he denounced the U.S. and its hypocrisy; its poverty and lack of education shocked him, as did the police brutality and everyday corruption of life. Pittsburgh was ‘hell with the lid off’ and ‘America is a dreamland where the things that people take for real are mostly dreams’. Karl Liebknecht would write about his trip to the US when he returned and refer to it over the rest of his life. Included below are records of his final speech as well as one last interview before his departure. The articles are a treasure.

‘Karl Liebknecht Indicts America’ from the New York Call. Vol. 3 Nos. 333 & 334. November 29 & 30, 1910.

The 22d Assembly district Socialist party of Brooklyn will hold a mass meeting and give a reception to Dr. Carl Liebknecht on Monday evening at 8 o’clock in Trommer’s Hall, corner of Bushwick avenue and Conway street, East New York. Dr. Liebknecht will speak on “The Results of the Recent Election.” This will be the last address Dr. Liebknecht will make in A erica. George R. Kirkpatrick will also speak at the meeting. Admission tickets, at 10 cents, can be procured at headquarters, 675 Glenmore avenue, or by communicating with J. Spengler, 95 Elton street, Brooklyn. They can also be bought at the lecture of the People’s Forum, Hart’s Hall, Gates avenue and Broad- way, tomorrow afternoon at 3 o’clock.

‘Liebknecht Tells What He Has Seen Here’ from the New York Call. Vol. 3 No. 333. November 29, 1910.

In Farewell Speech Indicts Whole Industrial Life of America.

That no other country in the world save one- Russia- compares with America in its waste of citizenship of human life, in its trampling upon the rights of men, was the assertion of Dr. Karl Liebknecht, the famous German Socialist, in a farewell address delivered before an audience which packed Trommer’s Hall, Conway street and Bushwick avenue, Brooklyn, last night. Dr. Liebknecht has just completed a tour of the United States in the interest of the Socialist movement. He has spoken in all the principal cities. He visited and studied carefully our principal industries.

His indictment of America as a land where human life is valued far below the dollar; where childhood is nipped in the bud, so that our uncrowned kings may reap millions; where womanhood is sacrificed, both in the factory and in the street, so that our markets may be flooded with cheap labor, and our slums with unemployed men.

Liebknecht was deliberate and not hasty. It was, he declared, irrefutable and he paraded mass upon mass of facts dealing with Injustice-economic, political, municipal and judicial.

Afflicted by Capitalism.

“Your entire country, the country of marvelous resources, has been laid low by capitalism,” Liebknecht exclaimed. “I have visited nearly every large city in the United States; I have visited also large tracts of barren land. And I tell you, that all the talk of the preachers of contentment to the effect that a poor man can still go West and buy his own farm and get rich is false and absurd.

“You have plenty of land vacant yet, but that land, in order to be used, must be irrigated and cultivated and is beyond the means of an individual. Even if you were to buy a little farm somewhere where artificial watering, say, would not be necessary, then I say there is still no chance for man to make a living, not to speak of getting rich. Your entire country la surrounded by a network of railroads that work against the people and against the farmers.

“In what other country in the world do you find such close a connection between the railroads and the coal mines and the machinery trust and what not? Everything the people need, everything they use, wherever they turn, they are being robbed.

“Human life is cheaper here than almost anything else. I challenge any one to deny this statement. Let him visit Pittsburg. Let him visit McKees Rocks and compare the life of the people in these places with the life of the people in industrial towns in any country in Europe but Russia, and then deny that human life is not the cheapest thing in the United States.

“Where else in the world can you find child labor so outrageously exploited as you find it in the United States?

“Where do you find employers enthroned in the halls of Congress, so brazenly making and unmaking the law to suit themselves?

“In what other civilized country in the world do you find so many private police to club the working people when they go on strike?

American “Justice.”

“As for your justice, your law courts, what regard have they for human life, for the life of the workingman? The Chicago martyrs are not yet forgotten.

“But why dwell upon ancient history when your courts are making history in our own day, a history which shows the shame of America?

“What have your courts done in the case of Fred Warren?

“Where else, in what monarchical government, could you find such class justice as was displayed in the case of the Socialist editor?

“In Los Angeles organized labor is fighting for its life. In Chicago thousands of workingmen are on strike for living wages, on strike against an inhuman system of sweating unknown anywhere else on the globe. In New York you have had strikes. You are having them yet.

“How did justice, how the courts of law, work in the case of all these strikers?

“How did your government, your democratic government, treat the strikers?

“Were the police of New York and Chicago and Philadelphia any less brutal than the police of Russia? Then, where is your freedom? Is it not an empty word?

What Our Freedom Means.

“Does not freedom in America mean freedom to rob and to exploit- freedom on the part of capitalism to crush out the lives of the workers mercilessly, ruthlessly?

“One of your American women whom I met in a Western city, sized me up from head to foot, and then asked me, with great concern, what would be the state of marriage and divorce under Socialism. Would not Socialism destroy the family?” she asked.

“Well, I have had the opportunity to see something of the American family, the family which capitalism has begotten, and let me assure you that there could be nothing worse than the American family.

“You have in America millions of churches. You have more churches than one finds in even the less enlightened countries of Europe. Yet your preachers and ministers and upholders of the present order do not know or pretend that they do not know that prostitution has become a part of the economic system of the United States.

“When girls are employed in department stores, in big business establishments, for salaries ranging from $2 to $5 a week, with prices of food and clothing and shelter as they are charged by your trusts and corporations, your women are forced into the streets.

“And under such circumstances who will dare say that the present family is menaced by Socialism?

“I walked down Washington street in San Francisco-Washington, bear it in mind- and I saw things there that you will not see anywhere else.

“Women were offering their bodies for sale flagrantly and openly. And not only women, but mere children, little girls of twelve and thirteen years, were leading unbearable life.

“Where were your police, I wondered, and the Comrade who accompanied soon pointed out the police to me. Instead the police fraternized with the depraved keepers of these places. To my astonishment my San Francisco comrade explained to me that the police in the district were taken from among the district inhabitants and were appointed by the political boss of the district and hence were part and parcel of this district of depravity and shame.”

Awakening Coming.

But there was a bright side to America that Liebknecht saw, and this bright side, he said, was the awakening of the working people. True, he said, so far only a small percentage of the people have seen. The great majority of workingmen are still sunk into a sort of stupid slumber, but America has a great deal of energy and push and will power, and once things begin to stir here, they will not cease stirring until the present shameful order of society is completely wiped off the earth and a new order established.

In view of this awakening of the American people, Liebknecht pleaded, there is no excuse for any one to become pessimistic. Especially has pessimism on the part of Socialism becomes inexcusable.

The effect of this last election, when the Socialists of America won such a splendid victory, will not be forgotten soon.

In conclusion. Liebknecht pleaded with the Socialists to read and support the Socialist press. It is just as much a necessity to have a socialist press, he argued, as it is to have a party organization.

“You are in America today at the parting of the ways,” Liebknecht concluded. “If things go on as they are the American people have no future before them. Human life will cease to count with you. It is not counting for anything already. Your menageries, your zoos, are more sanitary than the homes of your workingmen.

“Such things cannot go on. Socialism will be coming with a giant’s stride. In fact it is coming now and before you know it the halls of Congress will be painted red.”

At the close of the meeting a resolution was adopted expressing sympathy with Fred Warren and protesting against the judicial crime which sentenced him.

Tonight Liebknecht will be given a banquet at the Labor Temple on East 84th street.

‘America is a Land of Foolish Dreams, Says Liebknecht’ by Elias Tobenkin from the New York Call. Vol. 3 No. 334. November 30, 1910.

German Socialist Declares It Is Time for an Awakening. SIGHTS ON HIS TOUR Capitalists Contrive to Keep Our Working Class Dormant and Deluded.

“As others see us.” is sometimes just what we are. When that “other” happens to be a man of the breadth of mind, of the wide experience and insight of Dr. Karl Liebknecht, Socialist representative of the working class in the German Reichstag, the way we appear to him is worth knowing.

Dr. Liebknecht has, in the last two months, been saying some unpleasant things about America-unpleasant to ruling class of this land. Some of the cities out West were offended at what he said about this grand country of “ours.” The newspapers of those cities rallied to the defense of the American institutions of which Dr. Liebknecht holds a painfully low opinion. Some of the German papers in the United States, who were in a position to get Liebknecht’s speeches more fully and more accurately than the English papers- for Liebknecht spoke in German only- characterized Liebknecht as a pessimist, not exactly fanatical, but still a one sided man whose views and utterances must not be taken too seriously.

Not one of these newspapers, however, dared deny what Liebknecht said about American conditions, not one voice rose to challenge the veracity of his statements.

The reason is that Liebknecht’s accusation against, and sometimes derision of, America was based upon incontrovertible facts.

Liebknecht is a German, but not a German patriot. To him man stands above country, and everything that oppresses man, whether it be the crowned ruler of Germany, with his vast army, or the uncrowned rulers of America, with their dollars, is equally hateful. In Germany Liebknecht was condemned to two years’ imprisonment for being too little of champion of the crown and too much of a champion of the cause of the people.

What Liebknecht has to say about America he says likewise as an enemy of American plutocracy, as an enemy of our uncrowned kings of finance and industry, and as a friend of the American working people and a champion of their cause.

“My strongest impression of America?”

Liebknecht repeated the question put to him.

“You can sum it up in one word- Dreamland. America is a dream-land, a land where the things which the people take as real are mostly dreams.

The Sacred Constitution.

“Your Constitution, for instance. What a beautiful dream? When I read your Constitution as a student I was inspired by its sentiments, by the freshness and simplicity of its truths. It was and is the grandest document of modern and ancient times. But what has America made of its Constitution? Once the United States Constitution was truth, and meant something. Now it is a piece of paper which must be made truth again.

“Your liberty is a dream and your right to the pursuit of happiness is a dream. What is real in America is an oppression which goes beyond all limits: a disregard for human life; a brutal, beastly chase for gold, the path of which is strewn with the bodies of millions of workers.

“Our coal and iron industry in Germany compares favorably, very favorably with your American industry. Yet where will you find in Germany- monarchical, army ridden Germany- a city that compares in its misery and hopelessness and stupidity with that plague spot of yours, Pittsburg? Why, Pittsburg is simply hell with the lid off.

Hypocrisy of “Brotherhood.”

“I found in America more churches than I ever saw in any country in Europe. Your preachers and ministers seem to talk more about the brotherhood of man than anywhere else in the world. Yet show me a country on the face of the globe where man stands against man like snarling wolves so openly as they do in the United States.

“Your American people need education, Class-consciousness is inherent in them, but it is dormant. The dream of freedom and opportunity which was once a reality in this country, still hangs over the minds of most workingmen here like a cloud. They need to be awakened from that dream. Their instinct of the class struggle, a class struggle created by your industries and your courts, which make no pretense at being other than class courts: by your police, both private and municipal, needs to be awakened and directed. This can be done only by education, by enlightenment. And this you will have to bring about. In fact, you are awakening to it yourself. The last election with the upward jump in the Socialist vote shows it. 

“And now for your dream philanthropy. In every city I visited I found a library with the name of the donor, Andrew Carnegie, prominently displayed. I was looking for the name of the artist who made the beautiful statues, the architect who built the beautiful buildings. Their names were tucked away in a corner and sometimes were not there at all. But the name of the donor was there. In Pittsburg I saw the Carnegie Foundation.

“What a mockery it is thus to stand in the same city where thousands upon thousands of workingmen have been dragged down to the level of beasts.

A Paying Proposition.

“In Iowa I ran across another type of a philanthropist. This man was a manufacturer and he prides himself upon having established a system of old age pensions in his factory. In the next breath, however, he explained to me that this system of old age pensions was an extremely an extremely paying, proposition. You see, the men themselves were helping to pay for their own pensions. But the company, instead of losing by subscribing so much for the pension fund. was really gaining. The pension, this man explained, would only be paid, to workers who had been in his employ at least twenty years. This meant that a worker could not leave his employ. He could not go to another factory to improve his condition or he would lose his old age pension.

“And then, in addition, this scheme brought him the choicest of workmen, so that in reality the amount the manufacturer subscribed annually to the pension fund was really part of the workers’ unpaid wages, which these choice workmen did not get because they were tied hand and foot by the dream of the pension to come.

“This brings me to another dream reform, which I notice some of your capitalists who have their eyes open to the advance of Socialism, are beginning to advocate. It is the go- called ‘profit sharing’ with the workingmen.

The Profit Sharing Game.

“Now this is a thing which Socialists will have to make clear to the working people to prevent their being carried away by false hopes. Profit sharing will benefit not the worker. but the capitalist. It will tie the worker closer to the factory, because he will have the illusion of being part owner of it. The pittance which the worker will get in his old age from this profit sharing system will not be a tenth or a hundredth part of the amount he will have been robbed in wages during the time he was employed by the concern.

Old age pensions in America, as elsewhere, must be paid by the national government. The worker must not be tied down to a certain factory or to a certain job or relinquish his claim on a pension. He must be free to go and work wherever he please and for whomsoever he pleases, knowing that the government will be paying him a pension after his active period as an industrial soldier is over.”

American Trade Unions.

Liebknecht was asked what he thought about the American trade unions. His answer was interesting.

“Your labor movement here suffers from a want of class consciousness and must be guarded against bad and undesirable influences like a child. In the brief time that I have been here I have observed that the capitalist class of the United States is fully aware that the labor movement is not as class conscious as it should be, and it comes down to the labor movement and does everything possible to keep it from becoming class conscious. The capitalists and big business interests of the United States are now bending their efforts to make the unions not fighting organizations, but corruption organizations.

“This is a serious matter and American Socialists will do well to be on guard against it. It has been done in every country in the world and it is being done here now. Capitalism, recognizing the strength of organized labor, will begin to hobnob with it, will try to find a community of interests between capital and labor and will invent all kinds of means to prevent the labor movement from becoming class conscious and to weaken it by planting in it the seeds of corruption.”

American Municipalities.

“What is your impression of American cities?” Liebknecht was asked. He replied:

“They are behind most cities in Germany where the municipalities own the gas, water and other public utilities. Your cities are far behind Germany in housing conditions. The public is being robbed coldly and cynically. It is being mistreated and handled in a dog-like fashion which would cause men in countries other than the home of the free and the land of the brave to rise in indignation against the thieving and plundering public service corporations. The American generally takes these things good naturedly. But I don’t know whether the American cities will continue to take these insults so placidly. Milwaukee is setting an example for municipal efficiency which other cities will soon want to follow.”

The Newspapers.

When Karl Liebknecht’s father, Wilhelm Liebknecht, lived and was editing Germany’s great Socialist daily, the Vorwaerts, he adopted the characteristic of that Roman statesman who never left the tribune without reminding his countrymen that: “Carthage must be destroyed.” Wilhelm Liebknecht in every crisis on every great event reminded the German workers that they must have a press of their own, a Socialist press.

Dr. Karl Liebknecht has inherited this characteristic from his father. He seldom closes an address without pointing out the need of having a free press, a Socialist press.

“Talking about your oppressed and outraged classes,” Liebknecht said, “I must say a word for the American reporter. Nowhere is a knight of the pen taken so lightly as he is by your organs of the ruling class in America. In one of the cities I visited a reporter came to interview me. He was a Socialist, a party member. He talked to me long. An interpreter was on hand. There was no mistake about what he asked me or about what I answered.

“When I opened the paper the next morning, I found that there was not a line of what I said to the reporter in the paper. Instead there was an interview with me about the general strike, a thing we never mentioned. The story was made up in the office and views attributed to me which I never held simply because the editors of the paper wanted that kind of story. The individuality of the reporter, his standing and veracity, were jeopardized by the paper without the slightest hesitation.

“It is time for an active, militant Socialist press.”

The New York Call was the first English-language Socialist daily paper in New York City and the second in the US after the Chicago Daily Socialist. The paper was the center-right of the Socialist Party and under the influence of Morris Hillquit. The paper is an invaluable resource for information on the city’s workers movement and history, it is one of the most important socialist papers in US history. The Call ran from 1908 until 1923, when the Socialist Party’s membership was in deep decline and the Communist movement became predominate.

PDF of November 29 issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/the-new-york-call/1910/101129-newyorkcall-v03n333.pdf

PDF of full November 30 issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/the-new-york-call/1910/101130-newyorkcall-v03n334.pdf