The morning call., 1894-10-16
THE RIGHT OF ASSEMBLY In
GERMANY.

One of the measures which Will be pro-
posed to the next Reichstag in Germany
will be an amendment of the law regulat-
ing the right of assembly. At present, In
Prussia, the attending police officer may
close a meeting if it appears to threaten
the public peace" and IN Hamburg the
police may forbid meeting if ''ia the
opinion of the police the public safety and
peace require such course" In Saxony
no meeting, excursion or public festivity
can be held without permission previously
granted by the police, and this p rmission
may be withheld by the officers in their
discretion. The Emperor William wants
a law for the consolidated empire, which
amounts practically to denial of the
right of assembly.
1t is not to be denied that there is some
ground for his wish. Vast numbers of the
socialists are drifting into anarchism.
There are now anarchist clubs all over
Germany, and they support papers which
advocate the destruction of all govern
ment. The members educate their children
10 sing the Marseillaise ami to threaten re-
venge aud blood to all who oppose them.
When they speak in public they menace the
rich with the vengeance Of the poor The
speakers are generally iliterate persons,
who, as the FOrpdrtS, itself a socialist
paper, says, would not undertake to make
pair of boots without appl lenticeship, yet
who Will unblushingly parade political
theories without the iaintest acquaintance
with political science. Hence, the h0t-
niSche Zeitang, an official paper, calls for
further measures of repression, and as
sails the right of assembly to begin with.
forgetting that 1t was precisely the denial
of that right which caused the downfall OF
Charles Y and Louis Philippe.
The German Government does not real
iZs that errors of policy are always fol-
lowed by punishment, though the punish
menE sometimes comes in an unforeseen
way and at an unexpected time. The
Emperor William. not being a man of his
own times, declares that he reigns by the
right of God, and that he has a per.ect
rght to waste the substance of his people
in maintaining useless and preposterous
armies. For this error he is punished by
an astonishing outburst of socialist and
anarchist feeling among his people. AS a
rule the Germans are hard-headed, sens-
bic people, who know that nothing would
be gained for liberty or popular well-being z
by lie Inauguration of anarchy, to end In
military despotism; but they are so exas-
perated by the pig-headed stupidity of the
monarch who rules them that they fly into
extremes which their sober common-sense
could not justify. They are repeating his
tory. Just century ago the French were
driven to such paroxysms of fury by the
imbecilty OF the King. the obles and the
aHt rota+ +.o that, ir1fo a1l
absurd follies, abolished religion and mar
riage aud SET up The guillo inc as panacea
for political evils. The Germans are drift
ing in the same direction.
If there is any sense at Berlin the Reich
stag will interpose to prevent the folles
Of the young Emperor yielding their natu-
raj fruit. 1t is not by interdcting meet
ings of the people that anarchy can be
stamped out That policy will only swell
tbs numbers of anarchists. The remedy
required at the present crisis is TO remove
the causes which convert sensible and pa
triotc Germans into anarchists. Means
can surely be found to convince tbs En-
peror that he lives in the last decade of the
nineteenth century and not ia the first dec
ade of the eighteenth: that he is Emperor
of Germany not by the grace of God, but
by the will of the German people; that a
German has a perfect right to criticise his
policy without being traitor worthy Of
death; that the earnings of the German
masses-many Of whom are toiling for 90
cents a day-belong to the people who earn
them. and cannot be sQuandered on fuss
and feathers without grave crime. If
these truths can be Injected into the i'm
peral mind the anarchists will evaporate,
as they do in this country. II they cannot,
The catastrophe which has so long been
foreseen may not be long delayed.