Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1892-03-04
SOCIALISM AND CRANKISM,

Socialism is slowly but surely gaining
ground in Germany, and it threatens ere
long to overturn the government. So
cialism in Germany, however, is very diff
ferent from socialism as it exists in this
country. The platform of socialism in
the old world asks for equal rights and
popular government; in this country it
stands for destruction of acquired rights
and a general dizzy all around. Here is
the platform of the German socialistic
party:
l. Universal suffrage without distinction
OF sex for all subjects Of the empire over
20 years of age; direct elections OF the peo-
pie by secret ballot: the principle OF zone
man one vote" and Biennial parliaments.
2. The direct participation of the people
in legislation with the right to initiate or
reject laws, and the annual revision of the
scale of taxation.
8. A wide extension of the principle of
local government and lhe election of all
public officials by the people to whom such
officials are to be held responsible.
4. The training Of The people in arms, so
as to form a national defense to take the
place of a standing army.
5. The decision of peace or wal to rest
with the representatives Of the people; in
ternatlonal disputes to be settled by arbi-
tration.
+. The repeal of all laws prohibiting or
restricting free expression of opinion, or
the right of association or public meeting.
I. Religion to be a matter of private
opinion, and all payments of public money
for confessional OF religious objects to
cease, ecclesiastical or religious cOmmuni-
ties to be considered private associations,
which manage their own affairs.
s. The SeculariZatiOn OF the national
schools.
9. Free administration of Justice.
10. The abolition of capital punishment.
IL. Free medical assistance, and free dis
pOsal of the dead.
IL. A graduated income and property
tax.
10. The abolition of direct taxation.
IA. The taking over by the state of all
W~orklngmen's insurance agencies.
ID. An unbrOken period of rest OF thirty
six hours in each week for every working
man.
The Minneapolis Journal makes an ex-
cellent comparison of this platform til
that promulgated at the recent meeting
of the self-styled, only genuine blown-in
the-bottle reformers of the United States
at st. Louis. 1t says:
"The German socialists ask, as the high
est boon, the possession of the very privi-
leges which the st. Louis indictments
have always had. The ballot, popular
participation in civil administration, local
standing army, freedom of speech, separa-
ton of church and state, standardization of
national schools, a weekly rest day for
neutrality-suspicious. constitute the burden
of the socialissic demands of men who
have, since 1868, been nurtured in the
teachings of u men as Ferdinand Las
sale, Schultze-D elitze. Karl Marx. Engel,
Liebknecht, Jacoby, Becker and Stamm.
The German socialistic scheme contemp-
lates no financial vagary. Its aim il to
promote a material utilitarianism for the
relief Of the restricted populace, living un-
der a ruler who, with his family, claim
thata the Hohenzoelerns received their
belong to him by divine right. The social
lstic platform demands the widely recog-
nized rights of the masses. The st. Louis
platform, im%pregnated with the unreason
Of the extreme radical socialism of France
assumes a condition worse by far than that
which afhicts the ~worklpgmen OF Germany
under an emperor who insists that he
received his crown from Gods table. Let
the makers of the st. Louis platform con
template with shame the modest demands
of the German social democracy and COM
pare them with their W parade of an
utterly fictitious condition. Lasselle,
Marx, Engel, Schultze-Delitsch and their
brethren made demands based upon
an actual condition of political and
social disability, which is a disgrace to
any government in this 10Th century: The
St. Louis radical socialists set forth an
imaginary cOngeries of wrongs and de-
mand the subversion of the federal consti-
tuition and the distraction and demora!lza-
ton of the social state. And for what pur-
pose? Simply to crafty the ambition of a
group, of d~emagogues, who have found it
pecuniarily profitable to themselves tO en-
large the area of popular discomfort. 1t is
a we'll known fact that perfectly healthy |
men have been made to believe they are |
sick by a reiterated declaration by ac-
quaintances that they look badly and must
be sick. Some white people can be made
to believe that they are negroes through
such iteration, n vice versa. It is this
sensitiveness Of imagination upon which
the Donnelly demagogues seek to exercise
their mendacious trickery.