Page:American Historical Review, Vol. 23.djvu/103

Rh or enlightened middle-class sympathizers. Accordingly, cataclysms and other disquieting bits of the Marxian system must be pushed into the background; a too unpatriotic attitude eschewed; and the party, in pursuit of all-important votes, must hold to practical exigencies—educational reform, extension of the right of association, direct and progressive taxation, universal direct suffrage extended to Prussia as it already existed for the empire, reduction of the hours of labor, increase of wages, protection against oppressive factory regulations. Though the Social Democrats both in the Reichstag and in their congresses continued to support arbitration and disarmament and to criticize the government for what they called its dangerous foreign policies, nevertheless there could be little doubt that from 1907 to 1914 the tide was running ever stronger toward moderation and compromise.

In the matter of imperialism—so significant in the elections of 1907—there was noticeable shifting. The historic attitude of the Marxian Socialists had been expressed at the International Congress of London in 1896 in a resolution declaring that "Whatever may be the pretext of colonial politics, whether it be religion, or the advancement of civilization, it is in reality nothing but the extension of the field of capitalistic exploitation in the exclusive interest of the capitalist class". Now, at the International Congress of Stuttgart in 1907, most of the Socialists of nations possessing colonies voted to modify the policy; and of the Germans, Karl Kautsky and Georg Ledebour wished to reaffirm the London Resolution, but Eduard Bernstein and Eduard David, supported by the trade-union leaders, were anxious to discard it.

The increasing toleration of imperialism was after all but a natural corollary to earlier Revisionist influence upon the question of "protectionism versus free trade". At the German Congress of Stuttgart in 1898, Kautsky had insisted that free trade is a Socialist "principle", but Max Schippel, ably seconded by Vollmar and Wolfgang Heine, had held it to be a mere matter of "tactics"; the resolution adopted at that time was Kautsky's with an important qualifying amendment introduced by Bebel in order to conciliate the Revisionists: free trade was indeed a "principle", but "eventualities might arise in which it would be legitimate to accord some