The Caldwell watchman. (Columbia, La.) 1885-1946, 1914-03-13

5s- .a - monarch, hesitat-
ed to use his en-
Ormous power toward suppression OF
the party which he SO vigorously de-
nOunces.
Electorate 80 Per Cent. Socialist.
He has allied with him in this de-
termined opposition the clerical and
conservative classes, combinations OF
capital and possessors Of privilege,
the agricultural interests, the less
radical liberals of the middle class
and yet-nearly one voter in every
three in Germany is Social Demo
crat, the largest single party Is the
Social Democratic party and its mem.
bership, organized on military and
welldisciplned lines, is, with occa-
sional and temporary lapses, steadily
increasing. The figures which politi-
cal statistics furnish showing its
progress are sufficiently impressive as
to its growing strength and import
ance. In thirty years it has increased
the number of its voters from 100000
to more than 100000. from to 80
per cent of the total number Of votes
polled, with 10 representatives, de-
spite an absurdly inequitable suf-
frage system, in a reichstag or par
lament of 397 members.
FaS more impressive even than
these figures are the conversations
Of the Man in the Street, the pro-
gram which to him Is gospel, the or
ganization which he has built up and
maintained, and Vorwaerts Forward}
the trenchant daily newspaper which
he reads. These will count, whether
we approve or disapprove, in tomor-
rows Germany, and tomorrew's Ger
many is to loom large in tomorrow's
world.
What Social Democrats Demand.
The party platform or program
may be summed UP in few words. The
editor of Vorwaerts declared it thus:
Adult suffrage. one vote for each
man and each woman; government
responsible to parliament; local self
government; referendum; voluntary
militia; freedom of speech and of the
press; equality of woman and man
before the law; no state church; COM
pulsory attendance, with free tuition
at state schools; free legal proceed
ings, medical attendance and burial,
provided by the state; progressive in
come tax and succession duty"
In advocating this program the
Social Democratic party has other and
less clearly defined purposes. 1t is
committed, through its leaders, to an
attack upon the church which has led
its more radical members and official
utterances to approve atheism. THE
party is confessedly and entirely
atheistic," said a Berlin Conservative
journalist. On the contrary, the man
in the street, while attacking the
church as a kind Of class privilege
Is frequently careful to distinguish be-
tween church and religion, between
ecclesiasticism and the Deity. In
deed, an entire section of the party
or ally Of it, the Christian Social
Union, as its name suggests, is at yari-
ance with the doctrines of atheism.
For Peace and His Throne.
The abolition of monarchy is, of
course, held as an end to which the
Social Democrats look forward. 1t is
not strange that the emperor views
the party with such scornful and
vehement disapproval. The assertion
is often heard in German cafes that
the emperor, war lord as he is, and
seeker after military renown, has
been constrained to become an advo-
cate of peace many times, and just
now in the latest-but not the last
Balkan struggle. for the predominant
reason that war might and probably
would mean the downfall of the
monarchy. Peace and a throne have
been preferred above war and Will
liam Hohenzollern, private citizen.
The kaiser keeps his own counsel and
the assertion may be wholly unjusti-
fed, but there have been twenty-five
years without war and the emperor at
Berlin still reigns and rules.
The purpose of a program is some.
times more indicative of party's de-
sire than the program itself. This
huge workingmen's party has ex-
pressed its purpose in much writing.
Of making many books on the Social
Democratic party in Germany there is
no end. Much translated quotation
therefrom is WEAKNESS to the flesh.
A single quotation from an official
handbook of the party, with an early
announcement of purpose, furnished
at the Office of Vorwaerts, the official
organ, will suffice:
THE aim of Social Democracy is
not to divide all property, but to COM
bine it and USE it for the development