European civilization, and with a more developed proletariat, than that of England was in the seventeenth, and of France in the eighteenth century, and because the bourgeois revolution in Germany will be but the prelude to an immediately following proletarian revolution.

In short, the Communists everywhere support every revolutionary movement against the existing social and political order of things.

In all these movements they bring to the front, as the leading question in each, the property question, no matter what its degree of development at the time.

Finally, they labor everywhere for the union and agreement of the democratic parties of all countries.

The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a communistic revolution. The prole tarians have nothing to lose but their chains.

world to win.

Workingmen of all countries, unite!

They have a

Socialism and Labor in Germany

In reviewing the European situation of Socialism and Labor for twenty-five years before the War, it is natural to begin with Germany, because the establishment of the Social Democratic Party in Germany was earlier than in any other country, and the movement was also stronger and better organized. Its relation to labor and to the co-operative movement was from the beginning harmonious and close. Educational commissions were appointed by the social democracy in conjunction with the labor unions, and a labor system of educational facilities for the labor classes, including education in economic and sociological questions, was established and developed in a way unequalled in any other country. A Socialist press of unrivalled importance was established.

The principles of the Karl Marx Communist Manifesto were adopted as early as 1869 as the basis of the first Social Democratic Labor Party, and, quoting from page 168 of Hunter, "Socialists at Work," we find that "In 1875, in order to achieve unity between the Lasallians and the Marxists, the program was altered, and many ideas of Lasalle were accepted in the face of the very vigorous opposition of Marx. Finally, however, in 1891, the German Congress revised its program and adopted a thorough and comprehensive Marxian position.

"This is expressed in the so-called Erfurt program of October, 1891, which remained the basis of the German party from that time forward."

Long before this, as far back as 1875, there had been a United Workingmen's Party which, at the elections of 1877, polled nearly half a million votes, electing twelve representatives to the Reichstag. Bismark attempted to block the increasing influence of Social Democracy, but was powerless to prevent its steady increase in voting power and in its representation in the Reichstag. The party secured one after the other a large measure of economic reform and labor legislation. This included a welldeveloped insurance system, according to which every employee receiving less than $500 a year in wages must be insured against accident, sickness, invalidism and old age.

The effect was especially evident in the German cities which

* See Addendum, Part I.

developed municipal ownership to a considerable extent under Socialist influence. The most brilliant philosophical and literary exponent of Marxism in Germany before the war was Karl Kautsky, who occupied an intermediary position between the Left Wing, headed by Liebknecht, and the Right Wing headed by Scheidemann. Because Kautsky led the moderately radical section in deprecating the more violent theories of immediate action of the Left Wing, he was stigmatized as not a true interpreter of Marx by all those who afterwards followed the lead of Lenin. It is interesting that during the period before the war the German Socialist leaders of the Center and Right Wings would not agree to the theory of peace at any price in case of war, but were in favor, under certain restrictions, of defending the Fatherland.

The analysis of the voting situation at the two elections of 1903 and 1907 will show how successful the Social Democratic Party had become. The party had over 3,000,000 votes in 1903, by far the largest number of votes cast for any party, the nearest approach being the 1,875,000 votes of the Catholic Party. It was almost the same in 1907. The Socialists polled over 3,250,000 votes and the Catholics 2,183,000 but, owing to the peculiarly unjust methods of counting votes in the cities, the Socialists never obtained the proportion of representatives in Parliament to which they were entitled. The especial value set upon the close alliance between the Social Democracy and labor unions is shown by that portion of the program of the Socialist Congress at Stuttgart in 1907, which followed largely the dictation of German leaders.

The following quotation does not touch upon other important declarations of the conference, its opposition to the war, and its review of the ways in which Socialism had prevented recent wars; nor does it touch on the discussion in regard to the general strike as a preventive of war, which was favored by the French under Jaurès, and opposed by the Germans under Bebel. We give here that part which relates to the trade unions and to industrial policy:

"To emancipate the proletariat completely from the bonds of intellectual, political, and economic serfdom, the political and economic struggle are alike necessary. If the activity of the Socialist Party is exercised more particularly in the domain of the political struggle of the proletariat, that of the unions displays itself in the domain of the economic

struggle of the workers. The unions and the party have, therefore, an equally important task to perform in the struggle for proletarian emancipation. Each of the two organizations has its distinct domain, defined by its nature, and within whose borders it should enjoy independent control of its lines of action, but there is an ever-widening domain in the proletarian struggle of the classes in which they can reap advantages only by concerted action and by co-operation between the party and the trade unions.

"As a consequence, the proletarian struggle would be car ried on more successfully and with more important results if the relations between unions and the party are strengthened without infringing the necessary unity of the trade unions.

"The Congress declares that it is to the interest of the working class in every country that close and permanent relations should be established between the unions and the party.

"It is the duty of the party and of the trade unions to render moral support the one to the other and to make use only of those means which may help forward the emancipation of the proletariat. When divergent opinions arise between the two organizations as to the effectiveness of certain tactics they should arrive by discussion at an agreement.

"The unions will not fully perform their duty in the struggle for the emancipation of the workers unless a thoroughly Socialist spirit inspires their policy. It is the duty of the party to help the unions in their work of raising the workers and of ameliorating their social conditions. In its parliamentary action, the party must vigorously support the demands of the unions.

"The Congress declares that the development of the capitalist system of production, the increased concentration of the means of production, the growing alliance of the employers, the increasing dependence of particular trades upon the totality of bourgeois society, would reduce trade unions to impotency if, concerning themselves about nothing more than trade interests, they took their stand on corporate selfishness and admitted the theory of harmony of interests between capital and labor.

"The Congress is of the opinion that the unions will be able more successfully to carry on their struggle against

exploitation and oppression, in proportion as their organizations are more unified, as their benefit system is improved, as the funds necessary for their struggle are better supplied, and as their members gain a clearer conception of economic relations and conditions, and are inspired by the Socialist ideal with greater enthusiasm and devotion."

The attitude of the Socialists during and after the War will be treated in a later chapter in connection with the Spartacide

movement.