The Russellville Democrat., 1880-12-23
STATE SOCIALISM.
Bismnrcl's Extraordinary Movement
 What Does This Meang


 New Yorif Tribune,
 The humanitarian socialism that was preached in Berlin few years ago by the court chaplains became very unfashion- able when assaseins opened fire upon the Emperor It is now to be revived by the iron-handed Chancellor who has enforced the rigorous decrees against social de- mocracy. Bismarck seems to have shifted upon his own shoulders the heavy bur dens of the ministry of trade and com merce, in order that he might point out this new path. Consultations with econ omists, experts and theorists have fol- lowed, and the Chancellor has ayowed his intentions of bringing before the Prussian parliament some positive meas ures for allaying popular discomfort and helping the working classes to get on iE the world. The new policy has not been formulated, but the main idea seems to be the organization of trade guilds, or workingmen's insurance and mutual aid societies, whose corporate funds are to be guaranteed and augmented by the state, membership being compulsory, and em- ployers as well as laborers being liable to assessments. The scheme can not be in- telligently discussed when its so vaguely outlined as at present, but we direct at tention to it as a movement that should be closely watched and carefully studied. We do this for two reasons:
 First, because it is the strangest transit ton of Bismarck's changeful career. It is true that his apologists are now re- minding the public that as far back as 1S49, when he was a raw country squire elected to the legislature, he supported a motion for compelling all workingmen to become members of their own trade guild. It is also true thal fifteen years afterward he was impressed with the logic of Lasalle, the father of German so- cialism, and did not hesitate to take ad- vantage of his political support; and, furthermore, that the disciple and literary executor of that socialist philosopher has been to this day trusted adviser and confidential secretary ill the foreign of flee. Yet the appearance of the cham pion of militarism and force legislation in the role of state socialist has the effect of startling surprise. He has never had the reputation of being humani- tartan statesman He has always been as practical as blood and iron. What can be the meaning of this abrupt outbreak of sentimentalism? Is he in earnest in HIS StlettI llHDtllSc u ti1C condition of the workingmen? Or does he fear the political power of socialism and despise the influence of the middle classes? Does he perceive the grim irony of the Napoleonic problem: "Given a triangle; one side represents the church, another the army, another the people, and in the center you have the middle classes well inclosed or suppressed" Is he lengthening the bottom line of the triangle of German unity?
 Secondly, because the development of this form of state socialism may lead to momentous results. Those trade guilds supported by grants from the national treasury may be regarded as q tumble of poor law and mutual insurance; but inas- much as they embody the fundamental idea of the substitution of collective for individual capital and labor, they will mark an ~ fng advance in the ditec- tion of sod mocracy as Lasalle and Marx undef1 l)6d it. The Spectator, a tol- erably cool observer, predicts that the passage of such an act would shake the continent, if not England also, from end to end, inasmuch as 1t would seem to the entire proletariat of Europe that Prince Bismarck had realized their dreams.