Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-08-21


the Constitution a document guarantee
ing most Of the German socialists Inn
mediate demands, while II is socialism
to advocate eighty-cent gas or three-cent
car fares.
AS a matter Of fact. the intense oppo-
sition of the German emperor and the
ruling classes to
Why Conservatives the social demo-
=. cratic party is not
hueC SVCldiiSIo. based at all on
any opposition 10 or fear of the so-called
socialistic principle of collective owner
ship and state administration OF the in
struments of production. The emperor
and the conservatives are willing to meet
the socialists more than half way in this
regard. The bitter hatred the conserva-
tive classes in Germany manifest toward
the socialists is based upon the paradox
ical ground that the German socialists
venture to assert the freedom Of the indi-
vidual. In the accepted American mean
ing Of the words, 1t rs the democracy
and not the socialism of 1.-THE German party
which brings down upon 1t the wrath of
the kaiser and the German conservatives.
. The social democratic party has bene-
fitted by reason of the efforts made to re-
the imperial constitution. which granted
universal suffrage for elections to the
reichstag. the social democratic party
polled about ,OOo votes: Six years later,
in 1877, the vote increased 10 nearly
100000. Bismarck became thoroughly
alarmed by the growing Importance of
this democratic party, which threatened
to overturn his ideas OF absolute state au-
thority. and he resolved to destroy ii.
In May, 1878, drunken man. who had
been expelled from the social democratic
party because he was an anarchist,
attempted to assassinate Emperor Will
liam. Bismarck laid the blame for this
murderous attack upon he local democratic
party, and brought forward bill for Its
suppression. That bill was, however. re-
jected by vote of 251 to 81. Only three
weeks later another man attempted to kill
the emperor. and succeeded in dangerously
wounding him. Bismarck also laid his
crime to the door OF the social democratic
party, although the would-be assassin
was not connected with that organization.
The two attempts on the emperor's life
gave Bismarck an opportunity to go to
the country with a campaign aimed
against the socialists. He dissolved the
reichstag. and began his agitation. Under
his orders, the police terrorized the So
cial democrats, their meetings were
broken up, their newspapers suppressed,
and In one month no less than a thousand
socialists were imprisoned for lese ma
jeste.
-
The new parliament met, and in October
passed the socialist repression law. This
began a verit-
Started Reign of able reign of
Terror for Socialists. s s.fof iVI ,ns
Their associations were dissolved, more
than 400 periodicals were suppressed,
many OF their leaders were banished from
the country, and others were placed un-
der police supervision and deprived of
employment. Thousands were reduced to
poverty, many were imprisoned, and 9TH
ers were obliged to fee to Switzerland,
England and the United States. This per-
secution was kept up. with more or less
severity, as long as Bismarck remained
at the helm of state.
One OF the causes which led up to the
rupture between the present kaiser and
Prince Bismarck was the emperor's con-
viction that Bismarck had erred in deal
ing with the socialists. He resolved that
he would kill the social democracy with
kindness. Shortly before Bismarck was
dismissed the emperor published re-
script. lacking the constitutionally neces-
sary countersignature of the chancellor,
in which he declared that 1t was the duty
of the state to regulate the time, the
hours and the nature of labor in such a
way as to insure the preservation of
health, to fulfill the demands of morality,
to secure the economic requirements of
the workers, TO establish their equality
before the law and to facilitate the full
and free expression Of their grievances
A little later he called an International
conference for the protection of workers
Then Bismarck was dismissed and the
emperor began his attempts to crush the
socialists by granting them some of their
socialistic reforms and thus bribing them
to forego their democratic doctrines.
The result was that In the first election
the socioist vote increased from 100000 to
.4o5O0O. After that the emperor gradually
abandoned his liberal policy and more and
more initiated Bismarcks methods, tactics
and mistakes. But the party has thrived,
and in the twenty years since William
dropped his great pilot from the ship OF
state it has more than doubled its vote
TOm0rrow-THE GERMAN. ADVANCE.
XvIII-PoIitical Agitation.