Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1903-09-19

grams and the selfish tariff program oil
the Agrarians, both of which bear
hardly on the masses.
1t is against this moderate tendency
that Herr Bebel, the most fanatical
member Of the party and at the same
time the most eloquent member of the
reichstag, has hurried himself, and it is
on this question that the Socialist con-
ference is in danger of splitting. 1t
has, however, steered the same couri @
before without mishap. The dispatch
es, moreover, indicate that the men,
bers fully realize how much they would
sacrifice by a. untimely insistence n
formulas when by uniting to secure
their common objects they can con-
tinue to play an effective part in the
government of the country. There is,
therefore, hope that harmony will be
preserved.
The Importance of the Socialist in
preserving anu developing the genuine
parliamentary spirit in Germany is one
of the most striking feature of German
politics. For the Socialists are, in
certain sense, Ghe only real political
party in the empire, as England and
this country understand the term. In
the last reichstag they had 81 men,
bers, representing 100000, votes. Or
quarter of the electorate At the
election last June the party polled
5000, 900 votes, three-fourths of the
total, and elected 81 members, The
rest OF the country is divided between
two groups Of Conservatives, two Of
Radical Liberals, the Conservatives Or
National Liberals, the Clericals and
numerous national parties of protest,
such as Poles, Alsatians anC Danes.
Owing to the districting of the country
the Socialists, however, only have 81
out Of the 3O7 seats. though if repre-
sentation was equal they would have
149 seats. They, are, nevertheless,
the second party in size in the reich
stag, and have always been we,l-disci-
plined and compact and their leaders
good parliamentary taclicians and the
ablest debaters. They are, moreover,
the only party that has stood out for
parliamentary liberty. Without their
persistence and boldness in pillerying
the government for every act of inius-
tice and every violation of the consti-
tuition it is probable that the reichstag,
through the subservlent spirit Of the
other parties. would have become
merely the meek register of the en-
peror's will, without even a tradition
of dignity to justify it, Without their
united stand and vigorous protests it is
doubtful if even the small remnant of
freedom Of speech, of the press and of
religion which the kaiser and the
bureaucrats have spared would have
survived.
Since the Socialist party not only
looks forward to the suppression of
absolutism in the future, and the es-
tablishment of government of equal
rights in which the executive shall be
governed by the constitution, and not
govern in spite it, as Kaiser Wilhelm
has done; and since it is the bulwark
of the inalienable rights of the indiyi-
dual and the protector of the weak
against the strong, even Americans,
who justly regard with hostility or
amusement the fundamental tenets of
orthodox Socialism-the progressive
poverty of the poor, the conflict OF
classes, the injustice of the unearned
increment, and the sovereign remedy,
state control of production and distri-
butiOn--are bound to have lively
sympathy with the practical purposes
of German Socialism and to hope that
it will not disprove the theory that it
is the only party in Germany which
has learned the fl st lessonin parliamen
tary government-Larty unity and dis
cipline and the subordinatiOn of theo-
ries to practical political facts.