The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-18

number were to be, say, doubleday
At present the party indirectly Achieves
something In the way Of social reform by
Joining forces with n or OF er OF the
liberal groups. If its strength were to be
doubled would 1t achieve anything sub
stantial alone? 1t Is doubtful, for it seems
quite certain that all the other parties in a
Reiohstag of more than 500 members would
combine to thwart purely Social Domo
cratic deT ands.
TO CRUSH SOCIAL DEMOCRACY.
Already has the Government been twice
in serious conflict with it. One OF the &C.
| oasions was in 1873 when the attempts OF
Hoedel and Nobillng on the life OF the old
Emperor William, following as they did
within a month Of each other, were made
by Bismarck the retext for passing his
drastic Socialist law, under which about a
T. ousand years we're distributed as punish
ment among the Social Democrats, hundreds
Of printing offices were closed, and liberty
Of speech and Of meeting among Social
Democrats was practically abolished. The
law could not last, and was repealed after
three years,
The second occasion on which the Govern
ment tiled to destroy the movement was
in 1894, when it brought in an act named the
Subversion bill UmsturtZ Voridge) which
made it a punishable ofrerce to ATTACK
publicly by insulting utterances religion,
the monarchy. family, or property in Il
manner conducive I produce a breach of
the peace or to bring the institutions of the
State into contempt" This bill was re-
ject d by the Reichstag, and the Govern
ment did not venture TO go behind the
rejection and call another Parliament.
There was even "a third occasion OF con-
fict, all the conflicts, be il remarked, being
initiated by the Kaiser, when the latter de-
clared in 1858 that a bill would be brought
in by which every one who tried to hinder n
German worker who was willing to work
from doing his work, or who melted him to
strike, would be punished with penal servi-
tude. This bill, too, was introduced into
the Reichstag and, like its predecessors Of
similar character, was rejected.
STILL THE KAISER HAS GUNs.
Thus all attempts to crush the movement
failed, but they were constitutional at
tempts: and IL constitutional measures
finally fail the Kaiser has still his soldiers.
his guns and his million sterling in gold in
the secret treasury at Spandau. As to
what would happen in case OF a really serlous
conflict, no one here has any doubt.
The Kaiser would not hesitate for one
moment about ordering half the population
of any given town 10 be shot down il need
we're, for has he not already made many
speeches to this effect and said that 'the
soldier and the army. not Parliamentary
niajorities and resolutions, have welded
together the German Empire? The Kaiser
will not give up his God given heritage for
lack OF using a little powder and shot.
For the present and doubtless for many
years there is not the slightest danger Of a
general refusal by the soldiery to obey
orders of any sort, or of the Social Demo-
Gratis refusing to join the colors against
their country's enemy. Especially in the
event of war with France is there no danger
that they, in other words, the working class,
would decline to come into line with the
rest of the imperial forces.
The truth is militarism and patriotism
are 30 closely identified in the German
mind that on the call to arms all grievances
would be, at least for the time being, for
gotten. There is, nevertheless, always
one powerful weapon in the hands OF the
Social Democrats. They can order a
general strike and thus paralyze the En-
pire's industry.
Whether they will ever think fit to use it
for political ends remains to be seen. Hither-
to they have only employed 10 in local cir
cumstances such as, for example, the
agitation last year among the Ruhr district
miners for improved conditions.
AFTER BEBEL, WHAT?
One possibility Of the future has yet to
be mentioned. The party is full of the
aggressive spirit, it is admirably organized
and disciplined, and it is even compare
lively wealthy under Bebel's benevolent
despotism. But Bebel is getting along in
years and it is not easy to foresee what will
happen upon his disappearance from the
scene.
There is no one OF anything like his ex-
p~erience and ability to succeed him, for
men like Singer, Bernstein, Won Wollmar.
Mehring, Stadthagen, kGutsky. the
preacher of the pure Gospel, or Torque-
mazda of the party; Schippel, the financial
expert; DR.. David, specialist for agricult-
ural questions, not to mention Rosa Luxem-
bourg, a Polish Jewess usually alluded to
by the party as "reddest Of the red, are all
people Of secondary talent. One of two
things may therefore happen; Either the
party may split UP into factions, as the
Irish party in the English Parliament peri
odically does, or another set of ideas may
come to the front and another leader arise
to give voice to them.
THE R~EvIsIoNIsTs.
If the latter occurs, the new set of ideas
will be those known within and without the
party as the doctrine of revision, and the
new leader would in that case be the chief
representative Of revision, namely, Bern
stein. Bebel and the party as a whole now
and always describe themselves as revo-
~lutionary. in a peaceful sense that is, but
still revolutionary and irreconcilable with
the Government. The Rsvisionists are Of
quite another temper, for they are willing
10 cooperate with the Government in return
for concessions, while Bebel is all for I'M
compromising aggression and the destruc-
ton Of the existing order Of things before
taking constructive measures; but the
ideas Of the Revisionists are as nebulous as
the ideas of the re~volutionaries.
In the meantime what will happen will
probably be this, that the spirit Of free