The Star. MONDAY, MAY 13, 1895. To-Day.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5257, 13 May 1895, Page 2

The Star. MONDAY, MAY 13, 1895. To-Day.

There is much rejoicing in Germany, a cable message informs us to-day, at the rejection of the Bill which 1 Prince Hohenlohe introduced in the German Parliament for the suppression of Socialism. At the outset, it will be remembered, the Chancellor' urged, that the foundation of the nations moral and religious life was at stake, and that strong repressive measures must be resorted to. Yet the representatives of the Fatherland have refused to obey what was practically a royal mandate, and the German people are rejoicing at that refusal. What does it all mean P The utterances of the Emperor and the advanced militarists imply that Socialism is synonymous with the red iuin of Anarcby, and that unless an absolutely crushing force is exercised tho Empire may tumble to pieces. Yet the German people, who are credited, with intense devotion to the Fatherland, at the last elections recorded something like 1,800,000 votes in favour of pronounoed Socialist candidates. It therefore becomes of much interest to see what form of monBter it is that the Imperial Party professes to dread, and what is the ideal that the 'Socialists, obviously a powerful body even by sheer force of numbers, have set up.

Perhaps one cf the best exponents of German popular ideas is Herr Liebknetch, who is really the democratic leader, and who for a long time has been aiding the advance of the cvuee he has espoused, with his pen as well as with his voice. Some months ago Herr Liebknetch contributed to one of the magazines a powerfully written article wherein the Socialists' profession of faith was clearly set forth. He scouted the idea that he and those who thought with him lived and dreamed in cloud-Jand, and Baid :— ■

We do not want to abolish private property; it is only private property ia the instruments of production that we want to abolish, because it gives the pos3eesor power over his fellow-meß and renders them economically and politically dependent on him. Labour is to bs organised nationally and internationally, to the benefit and ia the interest of all, with equal rights and duties for all. Instead of private production and speculation we want to have all the economic functions of society performed by, through, and for the commonwealth. The commonwealth is to be substituted for the private speculator, who has only his own private interests at heart. •

The article went on to contend that between State-socialism and Democratic socialism there was a marked distinction, the word "socialism" having, perhaps, been more misused than any other. For example, Prince Bismarck's conception of police laws by the working of which all workman were to be insured against acciient and sickness was State Socialism ; while the people regarded such a scheme as simply an amendment, and a highly objeotionable one, of the existing poor laws.

Here Liebknktch argued that in reality Slate-socialism was State -capitalism —only that, and nothing more. " The State/ he faid, "is to become the sole proprietor, the sole capitalist, the sole master, who makes the people work and slave for the governing classes." Then came the setting forth of the esaential criterion of the popular Socialism as the abolition of wages-work, and the substitution therefor of fraternal co-operation. " What do we ask for P" the writer went on, and answered the question thus:—

Absolute liberty of the preßß ; absolute liberty of meeting : absolute liberty of religion ; universal suffrage for all representative bodies and public offices in the State and the commune ; national education; all schools open to all; the same opportunities of learning and education for all ; abolitiou of the standing armies and creation of national militia, so that every citizen is soldier and every soldier citizen 5 an international court of arbitration between the different States ; equal rightß for men and women— measures for the protection of the working clasaes (limitation of the hours of work, sanitary regulations, &c.) Can personal liberty, can tho right of the individual be better guaranteed than by this programme ? And can any honest Democrat find fault with this programme ? Far from intending to suppress personal liberty, we have the full rigbt to say that we are the Bole party in Germany that fights for the pnnciplesof Democracy. { Now, to us in New Zealand there is assuredly nothing 1 m the foregoing that savours of mad revolution. The declaration voices hopes and aspirations that are common enough nowadays i n many parts of the world, and it discloses the fact that social advantages already enjoyed in this country have yet tojbe fought for in Germany. '

some of the ating of truth. Theoretical anarchists he holds to be most harmless and inoffensive people. Of the "practical" anarchists he recognises- that in their composition there are a few lunatics and a few blustering spoutera j but with these exceptions, he declares, "nearly all the practical anarchists have been, and are, police agents." Nor was this thing said without warrant, for Puttkamer, Prioce Bismarck's Minister of Police, on one occasion stated in the Reichstag that be preforred the Anarchists to the Socialists, the former, being more easily dealt with from the pclice standpoint. The police, on the Minister's own admission, had, created a force of agents whose miserable duty it was to fiud out those who were actual Anarchists by inclination, incite them to crime, and then arrest them just in the nick of time, so posing as saviours of the country. Bat thU sort ofthing, Herr Liebknetch claims, has been effectively stamped out by the spread of pure Socialism, between which and Anarchy there is a great gulf fixed.

A chebbily appreciative article relative to the success of the New Zealand loan, in the columns of our Auckland evening contemporary, forms a refreshing contrast to the unwholesome utterances of a large proportion of the journals of the colony. That there has been a time of terrible depression, .everybody knows and regretfully admitß ; but those who have in them anything of hope and patriotism recognise the dawning of a brighter day that is first showing itself in this Brighter Britain. " Whilst hundreds of investors/* say 3 the Auckland Star, "are eagerly pressing their money upon the New Zealand Government at a rate unprecedented ia the history of any Australasian colony, crowds more are competing for shareja in our gold mines; and if it were not for the frightfully low prices ruling for all classes of products, New Zealand would to-day be more prosperous than any country under the British Empire. With even moderate rates for agricultural products, th 9 work of settlement now steadily, advancing would go on by leaps and bounds." Our contemporary does not fail to appreciate the beneficent effects of Liberal legislation in regard to land and the workers upon it, and of the provision of cheap money in easing the heavy burden of interest under which many men have groaned for so long. It holds, es we do, that the loan announcement cabled from London the other day, sounded tho doom of usurious interest wrung from the farmers of New Zealand. The farmers will be as keenly appreciative, in this regard, as they were when the present Government, readjusted the burden of taxation.