Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/231

 SOCIALISM 215 (1867-1871), that it began moderately to flourish. In the meantime the adverse party also made considerable progress. The confederation of German unions, which was founded in 1863, declared in 1865 for universal suffrage, pronounced against the Schulze-Delitzsch schemes in 1866, and in the congress at Nuremberg of 1868 by a large majority declared their adhesion to the International. In a great congress at Eisenach in 1869 they founded the "social democratic working-men's party," and in the same year sent repre- sentatives to the International congress at Basel. Great efforts were made for a fusion of the Eisenach and the Lassalle party, and this was effected in a congress at Gotha (May 1875). At this congress 25,000 regular members were represented, of whom 9000 belonged to the Marx party and 15,000 to that of Lassalle. The united body assumed the name of the "socialistic working-men's party of Germany," and drew up a programme, which, as the most important manifesto hitherto published by any socialist body, deserves to be given entire. Pro- I. Labour is the source of all wealth and all culture, and as use- gramme ful work in general is possible only through society, so to society of social- that is, to all its members belongs the entire product of labour by istic an equal right, to each one according to his reasonable wants, all working- being bound to work. men's In the existing society the instruments of labour are a monopoly party. of the capitalist class ; the subjection of the working class thus arising is the cause of misery and servitude in every form. The emancipation of the -working class demands the transforma- tion of the instruments of labour into the common property of society and the co-operative control of the total labour, with application of the product of labour to the common good, and just distribution of the same. The emancipation of labour must be the work of the labouring class, in contrast to which all other classes are only a reactionary mass. II. Proceeding from these principles, the socialistic working-men's party of Germany aims by all legal means at the establishment of the free state and the socialistic society, to destroy the iron law of wages by abolishing the system of wage-labour, to put a term to exploitation in every form, to remove all social and political in- equality. The socialistic working-men's party of Germany, though working first of all within the national limits, is conscious of the inter- national character of the labour movement, and resolved to fulfil all duties which this imposes on the workmen, in order to realize the universal brotherhood of men. In order to prepare the way for the solution of the social question, the socialistic working-men's party of Germany demands the estab- lishment of socialistic productive associations with state help under the democratic control of the labouring people. The productive associations are to be founded on such a scale both for industry and agriculture that out of them may develop the socialistic organi- zation of the total labour. The socialistic working-men's party demands as bases of the state (1) universal, equal, and direct right of electing and voting, with secret and obligatory voting, of all citizens from twenty years of age for all elections and deliberations in the state and local bodies ; the day of election or voting must be a Sunday or holiday; (2) direct legislation by the people ; questions of war and peace to be decided by the people ; (3) universal military duty ; a people's army in place of the standing armies ; (4) abolition of all excep- tional laws, especially as regards the press, unions, and meetings, and generally of all laws which restrict freedom of thought and inquiry ; (5) administration of justice by the people ; free justice ; (6) universal and equal education by the state ; compulsory educa- tion ; free education in all public places of instruction ; religion declared to be a private concern. Within the existing society the socialistic working-men's party of Germany demands (1) greatest possible extension of political rights and liberties in the sense of the above demands ; (2) a single progressive income-tax for state and local purposes, instead of the existing taxes, and especially of the indirect taxes that oppress the people ; (3) unrestricted right of combination ; (4) a normal work- ing-day corresponding to the needs of society ; prohibition of Sun- day labour ; (5) prohibition of labour of children, and of all women's work injurious to health and morality ; (6) laws for the protection of the life and health of workmen ; sanitary control of workmen's dwellings ; inspection of mines, of factories, workshops, and house- labour, by officials chosen by the workmen ; an effective employers' liability Act ; (7) regulation of prison labour ; (8) workmen's funds to be under the entire control of the workmen. By this time the socialism of Germany began to be a power, which was calculated to excite grave alarm among the ruling classes. The social democrats had returned five members to the North German diet in 1867. For the German diet in 1871 they had counted only 120,000 votes, and returned two members; but in 1877 they had returned twelve members and polled nearly half a million. In Berlin the socialist voting strength had risen from 6695 in 1871 to 57,511 in 1878, an increase which was all the more remarkable that Lassalle could hardly obtain a hear- ing in the capital when he commenced his career. A much more significant feature of the movement was the admirable state of organization to which the socialist propaganda had attained. A large number of skilful, intelligent, and ener- getic agitators spread their doctrines throughout Germany; a whole machinery of newspapers, pamphlets, treatises, social gatherings, and even almanacs diffused the new creed. In all the great centres of population, in Berlin, Hamburg, and the industrial towns in Saxony and on the Rhine, the socialists were rapidly tending to become the strongest party. The Government accordingly intervened with exceptional legislation, which in 1878 was carried during the excitement occasioned by the attempts on the emperor's life of Hodel and Nobeling. These exceptional laws, though administered with great rigour, have not by any means succeeded in arresting the progress of the move- ment, as at the election to the Reichstag in 1884 the socialists polled about 600,000 votes and returned twenty- four members. Berlin alone counted 68,000 socialist voters. In the last report relating to the anti-socialist law laid before the Reichstag (1885) the continued pro- gress of the party is admitted. The participation of the Catholic Church of Germany in Catholic the social question dates from the period of the Lassalle socialism agitation. In 1863 Dollinger recommended that the ofGer ' church should intervene in the movement, and Bishop von m Ketteler of Mainz lost no time in expressing sympathy with Lassalle. In a treatise entitled Die Arbeiterfrage und das Christenthum (1864) Ketteler criticizes the liberalism of the Manchester school in substantially the same terms as Lassalle, and recommends the voluntary formation of productive associations with capital supplied by the faith- ful. In 1868 the Catholic socialism of Germany took a more practical form : it started an organ of its own and began to organize unions for the elevation of the working men. The principles of the movement have been with some precision expounded by Canon Moufang in an elec- toral address at Mainz (1871), and by the writers in their organ. All agree in condemning the principles of liberal- ism, especially in its economic aspects, as destructive of society and pernicious to the working-man, who, under the pretence of freedom, is exposed to all the precariousness and anarchy of competition and sacrificed to the iron law of wages. Self-help as practised in the Schulze-Delitzsch schemes is also considered to be no sure way of deliverance. This general remedy is union on Catholic principles, especially the formation of trade guilds suited to modern exigencies, which some of their leaders would make a compulsory measure enforced by the state. The views of Moufang, which are most definite, may be thus summar- ized : legal protection for the workers, especially as regards hours of labour, wages, the labour of women and children, sanitation ; subventions for workmen's productive associa- tions ; lightening of taxes on labour ; control of the moneyed and speculating interests. In the organization of unions the success of Catholic socialism has been great ; and the social democrats admit that they can make no progress in Catholic districts where the church has developed its social activity. The socialist activity of the Protestant Church of Germany Protestant dates from 1878. The most important literary product of socialism.