The English middle-class Press has lately been very silent about 
the atrocities committed by Bismarck and his understrappers 
against the members of the Social-Democratic Working Men’s 
Party in Germany. The only exception, to some extent, has been 
the Daily News.* Formerly, when despotic Governments abroad 
indulged in such vagaries at the expense of their subjects, the 
outcry was great indeed in the English dailies and weeklies. But 
here the oppressed parties are working men, and proud of the 
name, and the Press representatives of “Society”, of the “Upper 
Ten”, suppress the facts and almost seem, by the obstinacy of 
their silence, to approve of them. What business, indeed, have 
working men with politics? Leave that to their “betters”! And then 
there is this other reason for the silence of the English Press: It is 
very hard to attack Bismarck’s Coercion Act*” and the way he 
carries it out, and in the same breath to defend Mr. Forster’s 
coercion proceedings in Ireland.**° This is a very sore point, and 
must not be touched. The middle-class Press can scarcely be 
expected to point out itself how much the moral position of 
England in Europe and America has been lowered by the present 
Government’s action in Ireland. 

At every general election the German Working Men’s party 
turned up with rapidly-increasing numbers; at the last but one 
above 500,000; at the last one more than 600,000 votes fell to 

a See the following telegraphic reports: “News from Berlin”, “Socialism in 
Saxony”, “The Social Democrats in Germany”, “News from Berlin”, The Daily 
News, Nos. 10981, 10983, 10994, 10997, June 27 and 29, and July 12 and 15, 
1881.— Ed. 

their candidates.*”” Berlin elected two, Elberfeld-Barmen, one; 
Breslau, Dresden, one each; ten seats were conquered in the face 
of the coalition of the Government with the whole of the Liberal, 
Conservative, and Catholic parties, in the face of the outcry 
created by the two attempts at shooting the Emperor,’ which all 
other parties agreed to make the Working Men’s party responsible 
for. Then Bismarck succeeded in passing an Act by which 
Social-Democracy was outlawed. The Working Men’s newspapers, 
more than fifty, were suppressed, their societies and clubs broken 
up, their funds seized, their meetings dissolved by the police, and, 
to crown all, it was enacted that whole towns and districts might be 
“proclaimed”, just as in Ireland. But what even English Coercion 
Bills**? have never ventured upon in Ireland Bismarck did in 
Germany. In every “proclaimed” district the police received the 
right to expel any man whom it might “reasonably suspect” of 
Socialistic propaganda. Berlin was, of course, at once proclaimed, 
and hundreds (with their families, thousands) of people were 
expelled. For the Prussian police always expel men with families; 
the young unmarried men are generally let alone; to them 
expulsion would be no great punishment, but to the heads of 
families it means, in most cases, a long career of misery if not 
absolute ruin. Then Hamburg elected a working man member of 
Parliament,*” and was immediately proclaimed. The first batch of 
men expelled from Hamburg was about a hundred, with families 
amounting, besides, to more than three hundred. The Working 
Men’s party, within two days, found the means to provide for their 
travelling expenses and other immediate wants. Now Leipzig has 
also been proclaimed, and without any other pretext but that 
otherwise the Government cannot break up the organisation of the 
party. The expulsions of the very first day number thirty-three, 
mostly married men with families. Three members of the German 
Parliament head the list*; perhaps Mr. Dillon will send them a 
letter of congratulation, considering that they are not yet quite so 
badly off as himself.*” 

But this is not all. The Working Men’s party once being 
outlawed in due form, and deprived of all those political rights 
which other Germans are supposed to enjoy, the police can do 
with the individual members of that party just as they like. Under 
the pretext of searching for forbidden publications, their wives 
and daughters are subjected to the most indecent and _ brutal 
treatment. They themselves are arrested whenever it pleases the 

a Wilhelm Liebknecht, August Bebel and Wilhelm Hasenclever.— Ed. 

Bismarck and the German Working Men's Party 409 

police, are remanded from week to week, and discharged only 
after having passed some months in prison. New offences, 
unknown to the criminal code, are invented by the police, and that 
code stretched beyond all possibility. And often enough the police 
finds magistrates and judges corrupt or fanatical enough to aid 
and abet them; promotion is at this price! What this all comes to 
the following astounding figures will show. In the year from 
October, 1879, to October, 1880, there were in Prussia alone 
imprisoned for high treason, treason felony, insulting the Em- 
peror, etc., not less than 1,108 persons; and for political libels, 
insulting Bismarck, or defiling the Government, etc., not less than 
10,094 persons. Eleven thousand two hundred and two political 
prisoners, that beats even Mr. Forster’s Irish exploits! 

And what has Bismarck attained with all his coercion? Just as 
much as Mr. Forster in Ireland. The Social-Democratic party is in 
as blooming a condition, and possesses as firm an organisation, as 
the Irish Land League.*” A few days ago there were elections for 
the Town Council of Mannheim. The working-class party nomi- 
nated sixteen candidates, and carried them all by a majority of 
nearly three to one. Again, Bebel, member of the German 
Parliament for Dresden, stood for the representation of the 
Leipzig district in the Saxon Parliament. Bebel is himself a 
working man (a turner), and one of the best, if not the best 
speaker in Germany. To frustrate his being elected, the Govern- 
ment expelled all his committee. What was the result? That even 
with a limited suffrage, Bebel was carried by a strong majority. 
Thus, Bismarck’s coercion avails him nothing; on the contrary, it 
exasperates the people. Those to whom all legal means of 
asserting themselves are cut off, will one fine morning take to 
illegal ones, and no one can blame them. How often have Mr. 
Gladstone and Mr. Forster proclaimed that doctrine? And how do 
they act now in Ireland?