Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1890-03-15

! Will come into possession OF econo-
me and political power and all class
divisions will disappear. While the
struggle will thus naturally result in
the reconstruction of society on
the process is not by Matching
out most perfect plan of the ideal
society, but by finding the true nature,
the necessary conditions and tendencies
of this historic struggle.
Marx and Engels gradually succeeded
! in impressing their views upon the
leaders of the League of the just, "
which, at convention held in the sum.
mer of 1S47, was re organized under the
new name of League of the Commun.
lists" and adopted in its platform the pc.
sition of Marx and Engels. In the first
article Of that platform it was declared
| to be the object Of the League to bring
about "the downfall of tho bourgeoisie,
to place the proletarat into power, to
supersede the old bourgeois social order
| based on class antagonisms by the esta
blishment of new society without clas-
SEES and without, private property AT
| a second congress held towards the clos
of the same year, the League instructed
Marx and Engels to draw up declara-
ton of principles, From their pen issued
in the beginning of lS4S, few weeks
before the February revolution, the now
famous Communist Manifesto"
From 1847 to 1862 the Communist
League exercised wide.reaching in
iluence in the revolutionary movement
Of q or hnI off tat aH
branches in all parts Of the country, but
indirectly controlled most of the numer-
Gus workingmen's, farmers and turner's
organizations, that had sprung up and
whose leaders had everywhere been
made members of the League. They
took most active part in the Revolution
of 1S4S and were indeed the most de-
termined element in it. Although re-
cognizing the middle class character of
it, they went into it because it was in
the interest of the proletariat as well as
of the bourgeoisie to wipe out the feudal
institutions and also in order to use the
popular movement for the purpose Of
propagating their ideas. When the re-
volution was vanquished and reaction
set in, the communists were the first
and most numerous victims of persecu-
ton, and their clubs and most Of the
workingmen's clubs under their control
disbanded. The League was reorganized
on secret basis, but couId not withstand
the reaction, and in 1853 it had disap.
peared entirely.
Then followed several years Of deep
apathy among the German working
people. In spite of the reaction capital
ism was actually establishing itself on
| the industrial field. There was an
enormous activity everywhere. Capital
was bulldog railroads, factories, ware
houses, amassing wealth and concentrat-
ing wealth.producing proletarians, thus
preparing the soil and organizing the
! forces for new labor movement. Hav-
ing become powerful industrially and
socially the bourgeoisie began to again
assert itself poll ically.
The Progressist Party, the political
representatives of the bourgeoisie, en-
gagged in struggle with the government
| party, representing the landed aristOc-
racy. To strengthen itself in this strug-
gle and to prevent an independent or
hostile organization of workingmen, the
Progressists undertook to organize them
under their leadership. Schulze-De-
| litzsch, the originator of the scheme,
was entrusted with the management Of
it and from 1858 he was instrumental in
| forming workingmen's societies in all
parts of The country. There were bene-
fit societies, credit-supply, and even
cooperative manufacturing societies;
but the most numerous and important
of them were the educational societies.
In the latter the workingmen were to be
| educated in general matters of science,
art, invention, and last, but not least, in
the great principles of the Plogressist
| party, to which they were taught it was
their first duty to become devotedly at
tached. In the course of time men with
socialist ideas became members in some
of these clubs, and in 1862 the working
mems club of Leipzig had among its
members two Communists of the Welt
ling school, Julius Vahlteich and Will
! liam Fritsche. When the club decided
| to call a Convention Of workingmen's
| societies, it was on the suggestion of
Julius VahIteich that they applied to
Ferdinand LdsdlIe for advice as to the
| best programme for such a convention
| and as to the best means of alneliorating
the condition of the working class.
| Lasalle had become acquainted with
the ideas of Marx and Engels in 1858.
He had then and since been in occasional
personal communication with them and
! had studied their writings. notably
Engels' Condition of the Working
Glass in England, published in 1874, and
Marx Critical Review Of Political
Economy 1850. He had taken an &C
tive part in the Revolution of 184S and
1849, but during the reactionary period
he withdrew from all political move
ments and devoted himself to his
studies. He had established a reputa-
tation as a man of great learning and
literary talent by his work on the
| II.-....I.L--s