The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1878-06-16
THE ANTT-SOCIALIST BILL IN TIL
GERMAN PARLIAMENT.
Berlin Correspondent Liverpool Times.

Berlin Correspondent Liverpool Times.
On the 2Ath of May the German Parlia.
reading of Bismarck's new bill for the
suppression of Social Democrat excesses.
Although it would be o good thing for
-soeiet5 If the party of disorder disappeared
from Germany, the manner in which the
bill proposes TO achieve that end makes it
appear as q measure of revolving tyranny
which will never receive the sanction of
the ReichstAg, Dot even if q portion of the
National Liberals, in their unbouDded de-
sire to please the German Chancellor,
should vote in its favor. Catholics have
had . taste of this kind of legislation, and
will not be guilty of q useless cruelty,
whilst Democratic, Progressists. and LIB.
erals will oppose it, because In the bands
of the Prussian police it may suddenly be
turn ed agAinet them az we'll as the Social
Democrats, who, moreover, must be look ed
upon as their nearest relatives. A glance
0t the wording of the bill will show its
tyrannieSl nature. Clause / DEGREES that
books, and unions pursuing the aims Of
Social Democracy, can be forbidden or
suppressed by the Bundesrath. By this
clause alone all "Liberal" papers and soci-
cites in the country could eAsily be sup
pressed by the Government, for the LIB
eral" press in Germany swarms with
Socialist principles and aims. Clause 2
confers on the local police full power to
forbid the sale of newspapers in the streets,
and also public meetings. By virtue of
clause 3, assemblies can be prohibited or
closed by the local police authorities, if
facts justify the assumption that such as
semblieS foster the aims indicated by clause
!. Clauses 4, 5 and 6 decree the penalties
to be inflicted Incarceration not under
three mon ths) for infringing the law, which
IL made for the period of three years. AS
soon as the text of the bill became known,
all organs Of the press, except Reptile and
Conservative journals, pronounced their
disapproval of the bill, not only on account
of its tyranicai character, but because it is
looked upon as q mar 0uvre on the part of
Prince Bismarck for getting q pretext to
dissolve the Reichstag, which has of late
shown rather stroDg symptoms of inde-
pendence. If such is really his intention,
and If he sends the Reichstag home, Prince
Bismarck will afford another proof that,
whatever successes he may have achieved
in his foreign policy, he is not q competent
man to administer the interior affairs of his
country. Under him the people will never
be thriving, happy and free. His own
friends begin to despair of him his star is
on the wane. Liberal papers like the Voss
Ztg. said few days ago that few people
will mourn when Bismarck retires from
office. Nor is this cOOlneBs towards him
limited to the Liberal papers even in
Parliament it shows itself in pronounced
manner. Mr.. Won Bennigsen. who spoke
against the bill In the name of tho National
Liberal party, said that the present Gov
ernment of Germany seemed to have not
an atom of feeling of responsibility, and
justi6ed the suspicion that it pursued
other palitical aims than the suppression of
Socialist extraVRgances. As TO the bill
itself, he called it q great mistake that
would be productive OF no good. He had
not, however, the courage 20 openly attack
the remarkable words with which Minister
HOfnAnn introduced the debate on the fFst