The workingman's advocate., 1871-06-24
CoRKEsPoNDENCE.
I'VE do not hold ourselves responsible for any opin-
IN expressed by our Correspondents.
FROM LEIPZIG.
LEIPZIG, April 5, 1871

~ uOme1 WduIcU W CClOOi "N~ SAS
cesses Of the said rod they we're warn
ed the sentiments of the town popula'
ton were pointed out to them; they
were told that the intended drinking
feast was likely to be regarded as an In
suit and a provocatiOn by the numer-
Gus French officers present at Zurich
the thirty patriots were deaf TO the
voice of reason, they s00uLd have their
drinking match, and what was to be
toreseen came to pass-blOws instead
Of beer and beery speeches. Had the
affair ended here it would only be mat
ter for laughter but in consequence OF
the stupid behavior Of the local author
tiles, a common brawl was magnihed
into a riot, that cost several lives, and
may cost the cantonal government Sc
rious trouble yet Now, would you be-
lieve that from the day the first tele-
gram appeared up TO this hour, our
middle class and Younker Press is lay
ing the fault Of the Zurich riots to the
charge of the International Working
mems Association, which of course
(and the official investigation has
tDr0red it, is as innocent Of them as a
newborn babe? Some papers carried
the infamy 50 far as 10 throw the moral
responsibility on the imprisoned social
democrats Of Leipsig and Brunswick,
whose trial cannot be delayed much
longer, if it is to take place at all-and
against whom the jurymen are TO be
stirred up in time.
The events at Paris have somewhat
ruffled the temper of the Prussian gov
ernment. 1t is true, hey have given
rise to faint hope, that after all II
might be possible to restore our dear
friend Bonaparte, but in showing the
possibility of = sudden revulsion
in France, they have also brought
home in a manner not to be understood,
the disagreeable fact that the glorious
peace, for which we had to pay few
hundred thousand lives, rests on foun-
dation not more solid than quicksand
and may be swallowed up in a twink
ling to make room for fresh war. Ma
terIal guarantees to enforce the treaty
--fddlesIicks France is too large to
be permanently occupied even if Prus-
sia had four times as many soldiers as
she really has /; and so the things must
run their ia al course. Let them talk
at Berlin of Peace and prosperity, we
are already under the cold shadow,
which the coming war casts before it.
History has It's stern immovable logic,
and though kings and emperors may be
above grammar and written law, they
are not ABOVE reason and the eternal
law, that rules the development of
mankind.
The total result Of the elections is
unknown. Here in Saxony we have
not gained a new seat at the second
poll (Our candidate was beaten by a
few hundred vOtes) but an expected
victory has been won at Frankfort on
the Maine, where Mr. SOnneman, the
candidate Of the United Democrats, was
elected against Mr.. Rothschild The chief
of the famous Gold Dynasty, and as
servile as he is rich. SO we have two
Social Democrats in the Rechstag, and
one Democrat (Mr. Sonnemann) who
has accepted the Eisenach Programme,
with the exception Of the paragraph
demanding public credit for co-opera-
tive societies, though he does not OBJ
ject to estate help" on principle. Add
to these three members twenty partic-
ularists from Bavaria and Hanover, and
you have the whole opposition. The
remaining three hundred will 90
through thick and thin with Mr.. Bis
marck. 1t is notable that Prussia
proper does not send a single oppOsi-
tiOn member fact that must rather
startle the admirers of Mr.. Blsmarck's
universal suffrage. In a speech, which
Mr.. Liebknecht delivered at a meeting
in Berlin, in May, 1868, he thus char
acterized the Blsmarckian gifts
SIN the absOlutistic state universal
suffrage can only be the playthlng or
the tool OF absOlutism.
"When Bonaparte had murdered the
whole French Republic he proclaimed
universal suffrage.
"When Count Bismarck had achieved
the victory of Prussian YOunkerdom,
and when through his successes in
1866 he had finally conquered middle
class liberalism, and torn Germany to
pieces, he did what mis- prototype had
done fifteen years before-he proclaim
ed universal suffrage.
SIN both cases the proclamation OF
universal suffrage sealed the triumph of
despotism. This fact, alone, ought to
open the eyes Of those enthusiasts who
consider universal suffI age the panacea
for all political and social diseases.
ITO enter into the motives Of Bona
parte it is not the place here. As for
Count Bismarck his reasons are obvious.
"The three-cIass sufrage,t undemo-
cratic and even anti democratic az It ~,
has at the same time an anti-teudal
character, because it gives the majority
of the representation to the middle
classes, who, though always ready TO
make common cause with abSOlutlSm
against the workmen, against democ-
racy, are yet no friends Of the absolu-
tIstic State, as they want to see Ger
tain liberal reforms introduced. The
liberal chamber, the result Of the three
class suffrage, was in the way of the
Younker government; n cOunterpoise
had to be crested, and this was found
in universal suhragp.
elbow few are mentally and physical
ly independent in this Prussian Police
State. in this state of systematic drill
ing OF mind and body? Does not the
rural population alone. which blindly
obeys, and must obey the authorities
does it not form fully two-thirds Of the
whole population? On this Count Bis
marck's plan was built. And he had
not miscalculated. BY means of the
uaiversal suffrage he swept away the
opposition of the middle classes, and
acquired Reichstag's majority so do
cile, as the three-clsss suffrage could
never have furnished him with.