The workingman's advocate., 1870-12-03
LEIPZIG, Nov. L, 1871

LEIPZIG, Nov. II, 1870.
To the Editor Of the woEKrseMAS's AD~poArE
When the present war broke out,
the SocialistDemocrats were the only
party in Germany that denounced it as
a dynastic one and laid the whole fault
at the door of the Prussian government
and especially Of Count Bismarck. The
shopkeeper-democracy {" volkspartei !"
party Of the people who until then,
in the German questions, had, to some
extent, at least, been our allies, were at
once seized by the patriotic Juror, and
gave up every opposition to the
Prussian policy, so that we were left
quite alone in the struggle. The
Prussian government did everything
in its power to crush u.s. Our Execu-
tive Council was put in prison, and
many other members Of the party met
the same tate. The ToLkst0Gt, the or
gan of our party, was forbidden in all
North German provinces where the
state of siege is proclaimed-that is to
say, in two thirds of Prussia. In Sax
ony ukGse was published, fvrbidding
our party to hold any meetings about
the war. Besides, the Prussian mill.
tary authorities outlawed everybody
that dared to utter "unpatriotic" ideas
and feelings, and they had the impu-
dence to cause number Of our friends
to be arrested in parts of Germany not
belonging to Prussia-for instance, in
Gotha. However, the German work
ingmen were not TO be cowed. They
used all means left to them to prove
the righteousness of this war and to
protest against the proposed annexation
Of Alsace and Lorraine as being con-
trary to the principles Of true democ-
racy, which do not allow us to dispose
of our fellow men as of a herd of
sheep, and as creating a source OF
hatred between the Germans and
Frenchmer. and 50, on the one hand,
giving our Tunkers a preteXt for in
creasing still more the burden of stand
ing armies, and on the other hand, put
ting 1t in the power Of Russia to ar
range wars in western Europe at the
shortest notice and, while the two
champion peoples of European demOc-
racy are throttliEg one another, to
achieve herself The triumph Of despo-
tism and barbarity And our protests
were not III vain. They showed our
brethren III France that we had not de-
serted the standard of international
bI therho1d, and, which is Of still high.
sr Importance, they helped to change
the current OF public opinion i'll Ger
| many.
How completely this latter has been
done appears conclusively from the
simple fact that the German Social
Democrats, although by brutal military
force prevented from holding mass
meetings and organizing other demon
stratIons against the intended .annexa
llOn ~Ld the continuation Of the war.
have yet gained the great negative sue
cess OF rendering It impossible for our
n Idle classes to arrange their intended
great patriotic movement in favor
OF annexation and war. As we are only
forbidden to hold meetings of our own,
but not to visit the meetings called to-
gether by other parties, we should have
everywhere turned the tables against
the patriotic fools, and passed reso-
lutlons In our own sense. This thev
knew, and not daring to face us in pub
lie, they had to recur to the modest
makeshltt OF private nook and corner
meetings, where they fabricated servile
addresses and petitions. In all Ger
many not one mass meeting has taken
place IN favor OF annexation and the
war. The only place where the bour-
geols tried 1t was In Munchen, and there
our party had the majority. Since then
no attempt has been made anywhere.
And this negative victory is the more
significant since the whole press Of
Germany is hostile to us. With the
exception Of JacOby's ZukGutt (Future).
in Berlin, and the Frankfurt Gazette. in
Franktort-On-the-Maine, there. i not
one paper, political or unpolitical,
throughout Germany that does not,
with more or less zeal, ride the ''nation-
al hobby-hOrse. This contrast be-
tween real and artificial public opinion
between the mind of the people and
the spirit of the newspaper press-is
one OF the characteristic features of our
age and the necessary result Of class
government. We have the same phe
nomenon in England, where the work
ing classes-I mean the industrial
working classes-torm the majority Of
the population, and have only one
paper Reynolds Newspaper that pro-
notes their political and social inter
ests, and this paper, even, being only
the private speculation OF an enter
prlslng bourgeois. And how Is it in
your United States Since the German
WOrttngmen's Onion (Arbettey Un.. Al,
In New York, had, unfortunately, to be
given up, your paper, az tar as | know,
is the only one in the whole United
States that can truly be called an organ
of the working classes.
The press IN Germany as every
where else, is the monopoly Of the rul-
ing classes, their principal engine VI
power. And the classes are the Aris-
tocracy (TuDkers) and the Bour-
geOise. That the former uphold a
policy Of conquest, that they are il
favor Of a war a. Foutrance against the
French Republic, is natural enough.
Like the American shareholders OF old
they cannot exist without annexation,
and for the same reasons; thus they
want arge standing army to oppress
the people and to get the means of liv-
ing for themselves, and since the army