The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-11-11
AN UNDERGROUND POST. re
How the German Socialists Fight Bismarck
"A Marvellous Cipher.
Zurich Letter in New York Sun.

pfOpNgdJi0g Except
occasional riot there was free speech for them
throughout the Northern States. Nihilism in
Russia and Socialism in Germany flourish under
| sterner conditions. Their modes of defeating
the iron will of despotism are different, | know
! something OF the mysteries of the German So
cialisti propaganda. Its headquarters are in
this city and its official organ is a little weekly
! paper called the Social Democrat The German
law against the Socialists, promulgated Oct 81,
1881, and lately extended, gives into the hands
of tho police powers of repression unheard of in
the German fatheriand for about half a century.
They are far stronger than those of the Vicere
gal authority in Ireland under the coercion act,
and they even surpass those of the French
police under Napoleon III. They are enforced
with an iron hand, and arbitrary as they are
they are often exceeded. The will of Bismarck
directs the machinery, and the zeal Of his under
lings is too apt to outFun that of the master.
BY this law the police are empowered to dis
solve every union or society, to prohibit every
meeting. and to suppress every newspaper,
pamphlet, book, or other printed matter wherein
they choose to allege that Socialistic ideas are
disseminated. There is no appeal from the &C
ton of the police to any court An appeal may,
however, be taken to sort of special commits
sion of nine members selected by the govern
ment, the alleged culprit suffering in the mean
time, and having no redress if it should turn out
that there was real cause for the act of re-
preston. These commissioners are the judges
of both the law and the fact, without the aid of
a jury. The police almost invariably sus-
tanned.
Within a few weeks after the PRONUNCIATION of
this law about fifty newspapers were suppressed
by the police. at loss to the proprietors estl-
mated at half million dollars q large number
of families being thereby thrown out of employ
ment. All meetings supected of Socialistic
tendency We're sternly prohibited All tangible
organization was annihilated and the mildest of
printed Socialistic ideas was sternly suppressed
The man of iron made sure that no new converts
should be made, and that the rising generation
OF workingmen should grow up in the political
faith as it is in Brmarck.
This blow stunned the Socialists only for a
short time. Notwithstanding all of the difficult
ties that the arbitrary powers of the police
enabled them to place in the way of political
canvass, the Socialists increased the number of
their representatives in the German Parliament
from nine to twelve in 1881, and another was
added in 1883, at Hamburg, because of the death
of a ProereSSiSt, who was succeeded by the we'll
known Socialist Re9el'G2s , 1.ii1l e. their
voters in the parliamentary election of 1881 was
about half a million
The main instrument of the success of the
Socialists in sustaining and increasing their or
ganization and power in the teeth of Bismarck
is this same little weekly sheet published III
Zurich and the tale of their ingenuity, eXpe-
dents. and success in battling against Bismarck
is sort of Arabian Nights entertainment of
fact
The Social Democrat was established here
less than year after the passage of Bismarcks
masterpiece of repressive law In the interven-
ing time, and for abouta year. the gentleman to
whose courtesy | am primarily indebted for the
opportunities of investigation was in a German
prison. The first editor of the paper was Baron
George Won Nolmar who was crippled in both
legs in the French He is of the old nobil-
ity of Bavaria. His novel reading while
valescing from his wounds was in the line of
political economy, and this thin pabulun made
him Socialist, Notwithstanding the obvious
interests of his class. AS head of the propa-
ganda he assumed the name of Walther. The
business manager was Herr Julius Mot
4a11a III hon nf no
German Parliament who assumed the
name of julius Brandtner, and after
ward that of Morretti. Herr Carl De
rossi was a worthy coadiutor, who invented
their wonderful secret cipher code, which has
puzzled the brains Of the German police and of
the scientists at their disposal ever since Baron
Won Nolmar is now member of the German
Parliament
The paper was started with l, 500 subscribers
It was at first packed across the frontier in tho
clothes of pedestrians. The circulation is now
fully 10, 900 copies These are nearly all made
up into small packages for various places in
Germany. Each package is marked with sym
boil of the secret code. The packages are then
punched placed in cases, and sent over the
frontier by the hands of professional smuggers.
These offspring of protective tariffs are exceed
ingly adroit, and they are very seldom caught.
When everything is all right. cipher dispatch
tells the fact, otherwise another cipher causes
the printing of a new edition and its being for
warded through other channels.
Inc organization Is SO perfect anu Il6 cIan-
nels of distribution numerous that no one
channel does duty more than six times in
year. When one of these contraband cases
arrives at its destination the consignee ad-
dresses the various packages therein accord
ing to their final destination, as denoted by
the cipher symbols on each, aud, a rule,
forwards them through the post. No one of
these consignees can read the cipher that is
used by another, and thus the provision
against treachery is very complete. The postal
authorities and the police are utterly poweress
| to track this matter as it passes through the
mails. Ii, by any accident they should discover
package, it would be no evidence against the ad-
dresses if it were so, tits evident that packages
Intentionally sent to enemies of the Socialists for
the purpose of getting them into trouble would
be very common. This addressee distributes, or
causes to be distributed, the papers in the pack
age, and another member of the club receives
and distributes the package the week following,
and SO the circulation goes on.
The work of final distribution is the most
risky, for man who is detected in ono act will
get from two to six months Imprisonment for
it, and, as the judges sometimes hold him re-
sponsible for the contents of the paper, as well
as its distribution it is possible for him to be
punished with five years imprisonment for hand
ing one copy Of the Social Democrat to neigh
Dor. By the same means the propaganda supply
their subscribers with interdicted books and
pamphlets.
There is small edition of the Social Demo
crat very gauzy to bear the expense of letter
postage. This edition is folded and pressed into
fifteen different forms for many sizes of en-
velopes, and it is sent to subscribers to whom it
would be too risky to deliver the paper by hand.
A certain German Grand Duke has been a sub
scriber from the foundation of the paper, and he
receives it in letter form.
Almost every copy of this little paper has
many readers. The elaborate means taken for
its circulation show that it is held in very high
estimation by those who receive it, The Ger
man authorities have spent, and are spending,
large sums to destroy the interdcted sheet.
Numerous spies have been sent to Zurich, and
hosts of spies are on the frontier. The sur
Vigilance is so close that even here in Zurich it
would be the height OF imprudence to designate
to any man not thoroughly in the confidence of
from which the underground post starts its
secret journey; yet it travels with fair average