Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/724

 THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL the press, combination nd ssembly; general nd equl ntionM education by the State; gratuitous instruction; nd the pro- clmtion of religion s  priwte (unofficial) concern; the whole substantially mosaic of hewn stones borrowed from the pro,q-amme of Radical democracy, On the other hand the efforts brought to bear on present society were directed to the realization of 11 the demands lredy put forth in the Eisenach programme, with this difference that more honour and more detailed treatment were bestowed upon the protection of labourers. Figuring in the Eisenach programme as one only, nay, as a part only of one of the ten heads termed ' Next Postulates,' in the Gotha programme six of the correspond- lug eight heads are exclusively devoted to it. What was at Eisenach a mere subordinate consideration hastily noted down, and corresponding to the then obtaining standpoint of the party, which attached as yet little weight to the protection of labourers, appears at Gotha elaborated and evolved almost into a regular system. Right to unlimited combination, normal working-day, prohibition of Sunday labour, child-labour and female labour detrimental to health and morals, protective laws for the lives and health of workers, sanitary control of labourers' dwellings, supervision of all industrial activity by working-men delegates, employers' liability laws, regulation of prison labour, and finally full autonomy granted to all labourers' benefit funds, such was the list of petitions which German working-men were continually to lay before the existing government, and the granting of which they were to accept as a final settlement till the dawn of the ideal future state, which was to put an end to all their need, should shine on them more full of promise. The position taken up marks a change of front in Social Democracy in relation to the existing government. Whatever the grounds may have been, it is certain that far more weight than before began to be laid upon immediate practical social reform. These revised tactics proved a factor of remarkable range, fitted to bring in even more recruits to the party. In its organization too, as in its principles, the new Labour party adheres closely to Social Democracy of the Marxist type. Thus everyone is looked upon as a member of the party 'who confesses the principles of its programme and takes an active part (including pecuniary sacrifice) in furtherlug the interests of labour.' The direction of affairs is handed over to a committee of five of the same locality. At another place sits a ' commsson of control ' consisting of seven members, appointed