more powerful than ever before. This situation is simply intolerable for the government; it is in duty bound to protect the State against this danger. In its struggle to protect the State the government turns to the House of Lords with an appeal for support and aid in strengthening the State and defending it against the assaults and undermining which endanger its peace and its future.

Section 72. Bismarck and State Socialism

Bismarck encountered far bitterer opposition on the part of the Social Democrats than the clergy had offered, for the socialists aimed at a reconstruction of the Prussian and the Imperial governments along decidedly democratic lines, and they furthermore proposed that all the great industries should be taken over and operated by the governments so revolutionized. The Chancellor, therefore, believed that the best way to deal with these new agitators was to suppress their meetings and newspapers, and in a speech made while his proposition was being considered in the Reichstag, he stated his reasons for regarding the Social Democrats as the enemies of the fatherland.

For eleven years we have had the advantage of associating 271. Bishere with Social Democrats, and do you remember, Gentlemen, marck's speech on of hearing, amid all the long speeches delivered in this place the Antiby socialists, a single one in which it was possible to discover Socialist the slightest shadow of a concrete idea or of a project for future law (condensed) action indicating what they actually intend to do when they shall have made a breach in the existing social system? I recall nothing of the sort, and I believe I know the reason why these gentlemen ore so carefully silent about the manner in which

Bismarck

criticises.

socialists

That these gentlemen with their obscure promises shou have been able to seduce some people is not astonishing for attacking any one who is discontented with his situation, particular sacred things when he resents it and makes the most of his discontent wi Germanic energy. When socialism is presented to the peopl who know how to read, but who can form no judgment on wha they have read (the ability to read is much more extensive wit us than in France or England, though perhaps the ability to form a judgment on what is read is less common in Germany than in these two countries), when one makes such people brilliant promises, and, moreover, contemptuously derides as rubbish and fiction everything formerly held sacred; when the glorious motto With God for King and for Country," which has filled with enthusiasm and guided and sustained our fathers and ourselves, is represented as a hollow phrase, a mere dupery ; when one takes away from such people faith in God, faith in our royalty, attachment to the country, belief in family relations, in property, in the transmission by inheritance of what has been acquired for the children; — when one takes away all this, it is then not very difficult to carry the half-educated man to the point of finally crying out with Faust: "Cursed be hope, cursed be faith, and cursed be patience particularly." If I had myself arrived at this state of unbelief which is taught to these people, if I had lost what the poet calls "Faith in God and in a better future," nothing could make me desire to live a day longer. (Loud applause.) Take away this faith from the poor man to whom you can assure no compensation, and you produce in him a disgust with life.

Recent advent of the socialists

It is only since 1867 that we have been able to recognize officially the leaders of Social Democracy by the presence in Parliament of Messrs. Bebel, Liebknecht, Fritsche, Schweitzer, and Mende. At the period of which I speak these gentlemen presented themselves with a certain timidity still, although they carefully announced that they were not tractable people like Lassalle and his kind, and proclaimed themselves true Social Democrats. But the ambition which animates them to-day, namely, to seize the power of the State and use it for their own interest and ideas, has really taken its rise since 1870.

takes the Paris Com

socialism

Before 1870, while the leaders of the International lived in Bismarck London and Geneva, France was the real home of their endeavors; France was the real field of their operations; it was mune as an only in France that the socialists had an army all ready, able example of to give battle for the Commune and render itself effectually the master of the situation for a short time.1 At that moment, when they found themselves in the possession of authority, did they work out a definite programme, indicating how they could employ their power for the advantage of the needy classes? They were able to write Utopian phrases in their journals, but with authority in their hands they made no attempt in Paris to show by example what they really wanted. They did nothing but assassinate, burn, give themselves up to cruelty of every sort, destroy national monuments; and even when they had transformed Paris into a heap of ashes, in the face of this destruction they did not know any more about what they wanted: "We are malcontents; things ought to be otherwise; but how? We do not know." They went no further.

The method suggested by Bismarck for suppressing social-democratic agitation met the approval of the Reichstag, and an elaborate law was passed against the socialists. The following are some of the principal provisions of the measure.

Anti-socialis

Associations which aim, by social-democratic, socialistic, or 272. Procommunistic agitation, at the destruction of the existing order visions of th in State or society are forbidden. The same holds of associa- law (1878) tions in which such activity makes its appearance in a manner to endanger the peace, in particular, the harmony between

different classes of the population. . . .

Meetings in which social-democratic, socialistic, or com- Meetings munistic tendencies, directed to the destruction of the existing

order in State or society, make their appearance are to be

dissolved Such meetings

Publications

Collections

forbidden. Public festivities and processions are placed und the same restrictions.

All printed matter, in which appear social-democratic, s cialistic, or communistic tendencies, directed to the destructio of the existing order in State and society in a manner dangerou to the peace and, in particular, to the harmony between diffe ent classes of the population, is to be forbidden. In the cas of periodical literature, the prohibition can be extended to an further issue, as soon as a single number has been forbidde under this law.

The collection of contributions for the furthering of socialdemocratic, socialistic, or communistic endeavors, directed toward the destruction of the existing order in State or society, as also the public instigation to the furnishing of such contributions, are to be forbidden by the police. . . . The money seized [by the police] from forbidden collections, or the equivalent of the same, is to fall to the poor-relief fund of the neighborhood.

Special For districts or localities which are, owing to the aboveprecautions mentioned agitation, threatened with danger to the public safety, the following provisions can be made, for the space of a year at most, by the central police of the State in question, and subject to the permission of the Bundesrath.

(1) That public meetings may only take place with the previous permission of the police; this prohibition does not extend to meetings for an election to the Reichstag or the diet.

(2) That the distribution of printed matter may not take place in public roads, streets, squares, or other public localities.

(3) That residence in such districts or localities can be forbidden to all persons from whom danger to the public safety or order is to be feared.

Bitter as was Bismarck's hatred for Social Democracy, he was by no means averse to government interference on behalf of the working classes. Indeed, it was largely for the purpose of destroying the discontent of the workingmen, which he regarded as largely responsible for

socialist gains in elections, that he proposed that the government should secure them against that poverty caused by sickness, accidents, and old age. Before his resignation in 1890, Bismarck was able to carry through a series of insurance laws for the benefit of the working classes. In an elaborate report published in 1904 the German government gives a full account of the nature and results of these famous measures.

classes are

The minimum of relief in case of sickness entitles the bene- 273. How th ficiary to free medical treatment and medicine for 26 weeks; working and in case of incapacity for work, financial assistance to the insured in extent of one half of the average daily wage, or to free hospital Germany (condensed nursing, besides one half of the allowance for those dependent on the sick person. Further, it entitles sick women to relief government for six months after their confinement; and in case of death, report) burial money amounting to twenty times their average daily wage.

The necessary means are raised by weekly contributions (not higher than four per cent of the average wage), two thirds of which is borne by the insured and one third by the employer. The administration is carried out through sickness clubs organized according to trades or localities, whose presiding officers are chosen from the insured and the employers according to the ratio of the contributions. The insurance against sickness embraces (inclusive of the miners' clubs) about ten million persons in more than twenty thousand clubs, and involves an annual expenditure of about 200 million marks.

Insurance against accidents replaces the old law of Employ- Accident ers' Liability (its many defects being equally harmful to em- insurance ployer and employed) by a legal provision, which also insures the person injured, or his survivors, in cases of casual accidents, or such as have occurred through the fault of his co-workers, or through his own carelessness. The personal liability of the

employer is thus changed into es