The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1913-12-28
Emperor Is Worried.

The fact that public opinion forced
the kaiser to change his first intention
Of upholding the military authorities
on every point of the Zabern incident,
has shown the German people their own
strength, and they arc determined to
follow up their action until they are
granted real parliamentary government
and until the army has been taught
that it is the servant and not the mas
tor Of the people.
The year 1914 which we are about
to enter, is therefore apt TO be fraught
with political events of the greatest
importance, events which will probably
not only mean the downfall of the
kaiser g semi-autocratic power, but
which will also mark turning point in
the ride of Socialism.
Signs are not lacking even now that
a crisis is approaching in German So
cialism. After the immense gains of
tho party at the elections two years
ago, came a stngnation or rather
falling off. The number of subscribers
to Socialistic papers in German has de-
creased 1880 during the last two years,
and the increase of members of the
party has increased only 1,3 per cent,
which practically means a decrease in
the number of male Socialists, for there
has been a very active and successful
campaign carried on among women. AT
the recent elections in the Grand Duchy
of Baden, which is state often chosen
as the most reliable political indicator
in Germany, the Socialists lost 1l,600
votes and seven seats in tho diet.
Woman Is Analyst.
The revolutionary wing of the party,
headed by the energetic and politically
f,hi nl ha
peatedly maintained that the cause of
this stagDation is due TO the fact that
the party has been pervaded by the dry
rot of bureaucratism. Inside the enOr~
nous and complicated Socialistic organ
ism, she says, the mighty army Of So
cialistic officials have become too pow
erful and the party has got to got out
of intimate touch with the masses. AS
q remedy she has repeatedly advocated
general strike. Her demands gained
considerable weight when the most
visionist Ludwig FRANKIE, indorsed her
plans, emphasizing that in the general
strike the party possessed powerful
weapon which might be used with sue
cess in tho fight for election reforms
in Prussia. The long and bitter feud
between revisionists and Marxists was
thus ended, and the only disagreement
within the party has lately been be-
tween bureaucratism and tho masses.
In the question of q general strike
the burcaucrats won, for everybody
agreed that at the present moment a
general strike would only hurt the in
terests of the party and empty its treas
ury. 1t then became necessary to find
new weapon, and this was found by
Karl Licbknecht, who wrote in the
"VorwaeTts:
"In secession from the state church
and boycott OF the church, we possess
weapon the power Of which we have
hitherto neglected to try
Idea Is Approved.
Other Socialistic writers like Walter
Oehme Edmund Fischer and Max Maur-
enbrecher, took up this idea, which was
universally approved, and on meet
ing on October IS, Karl Liebknecht
declared a general strike against the
established church, with the result that
1928 of the delegates present imme-
diately left the Prussian State church
"The church, as we know it," said
Liebknecht, "is no religious organiza-
ton. The Prussian established church
is stnte institution OF political char
acter. 1t is a means in the hands OF
the ruling classes to suppress the masses,
and as the church is q state institution,
you hit the state when you strike at
the church. -
Tho scheme of the Socialists is to
persuade the members of the party to
leave the state church in a body in
order to weaken the church and thereby
the state, and thus force it to grant
democratic election reforms, simultan-
eously arousing the political interest
of the masses.
On the success or failure of this
scheme depends the political fate OF the
Socialist party in Prussia, and indirectly
in all Germany,