Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/710

 THE EVOLUTION OF THE SOCIALIST PROGRAMME IN GERMANY (1863 1890).  1.--THE PROGRAMME OF THE ' GENERAL UNION ' (1863) GERMAN LmSOUR MODERN Social Democracy in Germany starts from LasssHe's Oen Reply (Oftenes A ntwortschreiben) to the working-men of Leipzig (March 1, 1863). Marshalled by this pamphlet, German working-men took up arms against the' Progressist party in politics, and in economics repudiated wholly the principle of individual self-help. It contained those theses of social reforr5 which the agitator, in all his subsequent writings, only explained, rationalized, intensified and defended. The sequel to this agitation was the formation of the 'Gen- eral German Labour Union' (Allgemeiner Dentschef Arbeiterve- rein) at Leipzig, May 23, 1863, in which the Social Democratic party first assumed an organic shape. The principles of its con- stitution were far too rudimentary to enable us to gain a very clear conspectus of the creed of its members in its full scope. It ran simply thus: 'The General German Labour Union, start- ing from the conviction that adequate representation of the social interests of the German working-classes and a genuine settlement of the antagonism between class and class can be effected only through universal, equal, and direct suffrage, aims at securing the establishment of universal, equal, and direct suf- frage by peaceful a.nd. co,nstitutional means, and especially by convincing public oplmon. Here we are only told the nature of the tactics to be employed, without learning anything further about the object of the cam- Translated from the Jahrbticherftr NationalOkmwmie und Statistik (Drite Folge, Erster Band, Zweites Heft).--EvTOR.