Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1890-03-29

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was becoming serious for the man OF
blood and iron, when on May II. 1878,
a half idiotic young man named Hoedel
fired several pistol shots in the direction
of Emperor William l. who was driving
through the Inter den Linden Avenue
in Berlin. When Bismarck was informed
of the alleged attempt on the Emperor"
he wired back from Friedrichsruhe,
where he was staying at the time, this
laconlc suggestion: exceptional law
against the socialists. He saw his
chance; by working the Hoedel attempt
skilfully he could frighten the people
into state of alarm, where they would
be willing to give the man who would
save society from the socialist terror
carte blanche for anything he might
deem fit to advise.
Hoedel, physically, mentally and
morally ruin at the age of u is now ad
mtted to have acted without any politi
cal motive; if he aimed at the Emperor
at all (Which he himself denied and is
doubted by many well informed per
sons), he was actuated by herostratic
desire to close his miserable life with a
sensational, world surprising deed. At
the time the facts of the case were care
fully concealed or will ully distorted by
| the government agents and the newspa-
pers; Hoedel had to be charged to the
Socialists; Bismarck wanted it so for
his reactionary purposes. Nine days af-
ter the act the first exceptional law was
laid before the Reichstag. All the par
ties were surprised by such violent de-
parture from the principles of consti-
tutlonal state; they were not ripe for
Bismarck's plan; the bill was rejected by
vote of 243 against 60. Only the Con
servatives, Imperialists and three Ma
tional Liberals voted with the Govern
ment.
Bismarck was still delberating upon
the advisability of a dissolution, when
on June a second attempt was made on
the Emperor Nobiling's bullets were
without doubt seriously aimed, but that
they were directly or indirectly the
result of the Socialist agitation is so alb,
solutely out of the question that it is
surprising to this day how this baseless
slander could so long find believ vers
among the German people.
Nobiling had been until shortly before
the deed an employe ee in the Statistical
Bureau of Saxouy in Dresden; his only
contact with the Socialists was that he
appeared several times in their meetings
and opposed tueir views, taking the
position of and acknowledging himself
as belonging to the National Liberals.
BY suppressing these facts and feeding
the newspapers with false reports Bis
marck stirred up an unheardo outbreak
nf ru nd hot bn
They were insulted in public places,
bounded by police and employers re-
fused admlttance to theatres, saloons
and restaurants. Thousands of them
were placed under arrest and on the
tiimsiest of charges; sycophancy was
rampant; casual remarks in saloons or
in private conversation were made the
subject of ''denunciations" to the police
or prosecuting attorneys and formed the
basis of Outrageou, sentences. How far
things had gone is shown by report of
Bayard Taylor, then U. S. Minister to
Germany, made to the Secretary of
Sta e, warning German American cti-
zens travelling or sojourning in Ger
many to refrain from all political con-
versations as liable to involve even
American citizens in difficulties.
Under this pressure of public senti-
ment the Reichstag would now have
been perfectly willing to pass any anti
Socialist bill which Bismarck might
have submitted. But he wanted to get
rid of that Reichstag; he wanted an
election at that very moment. Nine
days after Nobillng's shooting Bismarck
dissolved the Reichstag under the false
pretense that, the fist anti Socialist bill
having been rejected, new bill would
not fare better now. The election took
place on the 30th of July, 1878. Never
was party forced into a campaign
under more adverse conditions than
were the German Socialists at that elec.
ton. And they held their own mag
niticently. Their vote was 437. 1853,
$4,000 less than at the normal election
III 1877. The loss was sustained in the
small towns and rural districts, the
city vote showing on the contrary a
decided increase. In Berlin, for instance,
the vote rose from 31,522 in 1877 to
j6 lf. Though all the bourgeois par
ties had everywhere combined against
the Socialists ito drive them out of the
Rechstag las the war cry was, they
secured nine seats. The new Reichstag
was composed of III Conservatives and
lmperiallsts, 107 National Liberals, 1876
Centrists, 26 Progressists, Socialists and
IA belonging to smaller groups. On Oct.
49, 1878, the new Reichstag passed the
exceptional law by a vote of 221 against
l49, the majority being made up of the
Conservatives and National Liberals.
ITO be continual