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excuse for their attacks. For instance, it is unquestionable that Bebel, aside from what seems to me his sound theory of the milieu which must exist as a soil for the proper incitement and development of the successful Massenstreik, is influenced by his fear of the power of the reaction if it should be too much harassed. For instance, in his speech on the general strike, he said: My opinion at bottom has never varied. I have always said that the general strike cannot be organized in Prussia as in other countries. We are in the presence of a violent reaction, malicious and brutal, against which we cannot launch an organization such as so important a struggle demands. To attempt such an adventure without being prepared is to furnish to the reactionaries, to the agents provocateurs, the very occasion they desire to reduce still further that which remains of our liberties."

That, it seems to me, is a pretty conservative stand for the leader of the greatest political party in Germany to take. But Bebel unquestionably relies upon parliamentary methods and strength for the attainment of socialist ends. The working men must still further unite, must still further become conscious of the historic rôle they are to play before they will be able, in the words of Karl Marx, to throw off their chains. Until both of these objects of the party are attained it might lose much that it has already gained if it were to attempt to move by revolutionary methods. This attitude is conciliatory and, in a sense, conservative. Is it not also far

seeing and wise?

When we left Mannheim, no one thought that within a few months the German empire would be in the throes of an election. The general opinion was that the gov

ernment would not soon again give the socialists an opportunity to prove their strength. Flushed with success, and enjoying an electoral history of remarkable achievement, the socialists were perhaps over-confident of their growing influence and power. With an organization little short of perfection, with an electoral strength nearly double that of any other party, with local elections going everywhere in their favor, it were unreasonable to expect a set-back. To the astonishment, therefore, of all Europe the German government in December, 1906, on a ridiculous issue, ordered the dissolution of parliament, and appealed to the country. The government had demanded from the Reichstag a supplementary grant of 29,220,000 marks, a comparatively small sum, for the maintenance of troops in Southwest Africa. In spite of a pathetic appeal from the Chancellor, Prince von Buelow, this demand was rejected. The Conservatives, Antisemites, and National Liberals were ready to give their 168 votes, but the Clerical and Social Democratic parties refused their 178 votes. The latter went so far as to demand a reduction in the fighting strength in the colony from 8000 to 2500 men. Military advisers declared that any such reduction would be dangerous to the interest of the German colonial policy. Buelow, who was anxious to cut himself loose from the control of the Clericals, insisted upon the Reichstag voting the required sum, and upon his defeat, he carried out his threat of dissolution. There was tremendous excitement throughout the German empire, but the general belief was that the actual position would not be changed, and that the government would have to meet the same opposition when the next parliament assembled.

The Reichstag is elected by universal manhood suffrage by ballot (every man of 25 has a vote), and there is supposed to be one deputy for every 100,000 inhabitants. But the electoral divisions were settled in 1869 and 1871, and have never since been altered. In 1871 there were 397 deputies, because the population was at that time about 39,000,000; but since then it has increased to nearly 60,000,000, and the number of deputies has remained the same. The rural population of Germany has during this period decreased, while that of the cities has increased many-fold. For example, Berlin, in 1869, had 600,000 inhabitants, and therefore six members. It now has a population of nearly 2,000,000, and should have 20 members, but it is still represented by only six. The Clericals and Conservatives are usually returned from rural and thinly populated districts, while the Social Democrats gain their support mainly from the cities and large industrial centres. For instance, they elect all but one of the members for Berlin, and have great strength in Chemnitz, Zwickaw, Stuttgart, Frankfort, Karlsruhe, Dortmund, Duisberg, Hannover, Hamburg, Munich, Nuremberg, Leipsic, etc. But it is precisely these places that suffer from inadequate representation, and consequently the Social Democrats, with over 3,000,000 votes, send only 43 deputies to the Reichstag, while the Conservative party, with 1,000,000, returns fifty-nine.

In Germany, as in other continental countries, there are many parties with different shades of political opinion. It is difficult to give an American an exact idea of what they stand for, as they differ so much from our parties. They represent almost every point of view; sometimes standing for the interests of one class or another; some

times for the interests of certain nationalities in the empire; sometimes for specific economic and political principles. It may, however, be said that there are sixteen different parties or fractions, as they are called in Germany, the five most important of which represent as nearly as possible the following definite interests: The Conservatives are a powerful group representing the old aristocracy, and supporting monarchical and autocratic institutions. The National Liberals here, as everywhere, represent the industrial interests, and while politically more advanced than the Conservatives, from the economic point of view their interests are even more opposed to the workers than those of the Conservatives. During the last ten years the Liberals have been forced to support the monarchy. The Freisinnige represent the Free Trade section; their philosophy is mainly that of the Manchester School, and their watchword" Modern Progress and Freedom of Commerce." The two most powerful parties are the Clericals and the Social Democrats; together they have as many votes as all the others combined; but the division between them is complete. The Clericals represent the Catholic interests. Their strength is among the most conservative and often the most ignorant classes of the population, and their power is immense. The Social Democrats, on the other hand, represent the wage-earners, and the most intelligent and far-seeing of the small-propertied classes.

With this short statement of the suffrage inequalities and party divisions the electoral campaign will be more intelligible. Having broken with the Clericals, Buelow had now to look elsewhere for the governmental majority. Accordingly, when he gave out the "Wahlparole," he did not publish it in an official paper, but

addressed an open letter to the head of the National Party (Reichspartei), a section of the Liberals whose chief aim is to combat the socialist movement. The combating of socialism was the bridge which, it was hoped, would join the Conservatives and the Liberals; and it was decided their electoral tactics should be to try to awaken that apathetic part of the propertied class, who seldom trouble to vote, to a sense of the danger of revolutionary socialism. This made it appear that the government was not chiefly combating the Clericals, although, as was subsequently shown, it used underhand methods in its vain attempt to crush their power. Nevertheless, the electoral campaign resolved itself mainly into a struggle of Conservatives and Nationalists against Social Democrats.

At the beginning of the campaign "the honor of the nation" was preached from every reactionary platform, but rather unfortunately for the empire-makers the government itself was obliged, at the end of a week, to admit that the war with the Hereros was at an end. This, however, did not discourage the bourgeois candidates from exploiting the people's patriotism. Votes were obtained by every means possible. The workers were beguiled, by jingoism and imperialism, into forgetting their own troubles; the bourgeois were awakened to the danger in which their privileges stood from socialism. The merchants were terrified into action at the impending danger of a socialist state, and were assured that their only hope lay in joining to form a compact majority. The interested classes were called on to support the institutions which supported them. The disinterested and exploited workers were fed with Chauvinism and fallacies concerning the advantages

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