The San Francisco call., 1896-08-03
FROM A GERMAN
POINT OF VIEW.
Comments on the Socialist
Labor Fiasco in
London.
UNDISGUIsED DELIGHT.
Bebel and Singer No Longer Re-
garded as Formidable
at Home.
PITILEss JIBEs OF THE PRESS.
Short of Funds, Full of Dissensions and
Jealousies, the Organization
Is Wreck.

BERLIN, GERMANY, Aug. 2.-The Co
Iogne Gazette and other semi-official or
gans have during the past week devoted
more than the usual amount of space to
the proceedings of the International So
cialist Trades Congress which closed its
session in London yesterday. The fact
that more attention than usual was paid
to the congress was not due to recogni-
ton of the importance of the meeting, but
to the delight in being able TO expose the
crazy idiosyncrasies of the delegates and
the general inaptitude of the socialists to
combine as political factor. Following
on the Lille (France) congress of social
lists, where the French members of that
party scoffed at the sentiments of the
German delegates regarding the war
hatchet being forever buried. the Lon
don meeting, where Herren Bebel and
Singer, Nine. Clara Zetkin and other Ger
man delegates were feeble and ineffective
figures amid the general riot, greatly helps
to make socialism more odious than ever
throughout Germany.
The Vorwaerts, principal organ of the
German Socialists, admits that the con-
gress i'll London was a humiliating spec
tacle.
While inferring that the fighting and
other disorder was due to the absence of
competent management in the proceed
ings, the consensus of opinion, as ex-
pressed by the press, is that the London
and Lille congresses ought to prove a per-
manent check to the growth of German
socialism. Hitherto the socialist leaders,
when taunted with being unpatriotic, vim
dicated themselves and their party by de-
claring that they were ready at any time
TO fight to maintain the integrity of the
Fatherland. The language of the German
delegates at The Lille congress ignored ma
tionalism and proclaimed the solidarity of
international interests.
Commenting upon the scorn with which
the French treated these declarations, the
Hamburg Nachrichten SAYS that the Lille
congress proves anew that the interna-
tional solidarity of the socialists does
not stand the test. 1t adds that the Ger
man summons for the proletarlans to
unite does not find a response among the
socialists of France.
The Munich Neuste Nachrichten says
that the turning of their backs upon the
Fatherland by Herren Liebknecht. Singer
and the other German delegates was re-
ceived with condemnation by the Ger
mans. Lebknecht's anti-National pro-
tests against the acquisition of Alsace-
Lorraine by Germany only stirred up a
war feeling. The protest practically de-
clared that the French desire to secure
revenge for the sequestration of the French
provinces by Germany was perfectly legiti-
mate.
The Frankf1rter Zeitung, which is known
for its intimate relations with Herren
Singer and Liebkneeht, advises the Ger
man socialists not to talk about fraternity
where no fraternal feeling exists. Such
talk, it says, Is thrown away upon the
French to the reproach of the Germans,
who caused an outbreak of chauvinism
that had been dormant for many years.
The Cologne Gazette says that the So
cialist leaders denial of having any Ma
tional feeling will estrange many of their
patriotic comrades, and finally the North
German Gazette calls upon the German
people not to allow the Socialists to fur
ther poison public life. The latter paper
is a semi-official organ, and its language
seems to be a threat of renewed Govern
ment action against the Socialists, but
nothing official can be learned as to
whether such action is contemplated.
If the delegates to Socialist congresses
continue to expose themselves to such uni
versal contempt as has been showered
upon them at the Lille and London gath
erings. the German Government will read
lily permit the holding of their proposed
international congress IN this country in
1899, which the delegates to the London
congress feared would not be allowed.
They, therefore, arranged that in the event
of the German Government refusing it's
sanction 10 the holding of a congress here
to hold it in Paris in 1900.
According to the Socialist press the
funds OF the party are running very low.
These papers abound in complaints that
the comrades do not pay their dues, etc.
For instances, in Dortmund, where the
party has many thousands of members,
the collections were notenougn to pay the
expenses of their delegate to the inter
national congress. The Rhenish, Saxon
and Bavarian district committees have
issued an appeal for money. The failure
OF the exchequerS is partly ascribed TO sus-
picion on the part of the workingmen that
the money is not put to the use for which
they intended it, as hardly a week passes
without a case of embezzlement of the
party funds becoming known. Last week
it was discovered that Landers, the leader
OF the masons at Leipsic, was using the
strikers money for his own purposes. All
these cases tend TO make the workingmen
chary of the financial support they give
the party.
An electric explosive machine was sent
a few days ago to Colonel Krause of the
Berlin police. Fortunately its character
was suspected and the machine was
opened and its contents rendered harm
police traced the machine and found that
1T had been sent by an anarchist named
Paul Koscheman, who was arrested and
jailed. Max Westphal and his wife and
Wilhelm Weber, all anarchists, were
found to be implicated in the affair and
they are also nnder arrest. Machines
similar TO that sent to Colonel Krause and
a quantity of explosives were found in
Koscheman's lodgings.
Chancellor Won Hohenlohe will come to
Berlin from the country on Thursday
next when he will meet Emperor William.
Afterwards he will proceed to his wife's
estates in Russia on personal business
The Emperor is now with his family at
Wilhelmshohe. An incident OF the life of
the Empress there was a military spec
tacIe that she ordered on Monday near
Cassel. The Hessian infantry and the
Hessian Hussars held field maneuvers, the
Empress aid her three eldest sons attend
ing on horseback. The maneuvers were
held on the old battlefield. The general
in command described the various moves
to the Princes. who displayed marked in
terest The Empress afterward ordered
that every man who had taken part in the
maneuvers should be given an extra litre
of beer at her expense.
Instigated by the Prussian agrarians