Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/73

 THE GERMAN INNER MISSION 59

Economic inequality and suffering. Countless causes have contributed to produce misery by the side of plenty and luxury. In no other country is the social question more bitterly debated than in Germany. 1 Wage workers are at the mercy of the crises and crashes of trade, and are swept about by the waves of the great industry. Youths can earn a certain low wage at an early age, and so become independent of parents and masters. The family bond is enfeebled ; thoughtless marriages follow illicit connections and increase the proletariat ; while the crowded ten- ements favor communism in practice and theory. A nation accustomed to handwork is not yet readjusted to machinery and capitalism. Democratic aspirations make the people acutely sensitive to slight, insult and inequality. Vices and crimes add other elements to the sources of misery. The sharp competition of city life differentiates social classes, lifts favored individuals to higher ranks and mercilessly crushes out those whose tardy movements cannot keep pace with the steam-driven machinery.

Socialism. The laborers or "proletarians," under the able leadership of socialists like Lassalle, Marx, Engels, Bebel and Liebknecht, have advanced to a position of political power. Their strength is in manufacturing cities. About the time of the Franco-Prussian war they formulated demands for state help, and continued their pressure for universal and equal suffrage and for legal regulations of the hours and conditions of service. By 1879 they counted 508,000 votes for the Reichstag and had twelve representatives. The attempts of Hodel and Nobiling to assassinate the emperor produced a reaction and gave an excuse for severe repressive laws. Under these laws the socialists con- ducted their campaigns by means of secret societies, became more and more united, compact and hostile, and when the laws expired in 1890 they triumphed over the fall of their powerful foe Prince Bismarck. In 1893 they had 1,786,738 votes for the imperial legislature, and had become strong in Prussia.

Socialistic literature has been profoundly influenced by the materialistic philosophy of Karl Marx. Church and state are to

1 PAUL GdHRK, Three A/ontht I'M a Workshop.