August Bebel, the German Socialist Leader.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXI, Issue XVII, 24 October 1903, Page 47

August Bebel, the German Socialist Leader.

In a very appreciative article in the current “Fortnightly Review,” on August Bebel, the leader of the German Socialists, Edith Sellers writes: “It is the Junkers, the Agrarians, the great capitalists, he maintains, who are the dangerous revolutionists in Germany. Ha and his friends are evolutionists, he maintains. They are eager for the complete reorganisation of the State, because, as it is, it is no longer in harmonv with the spirit of the age. The fitting time is eome for sweeping away feudal rights and class privileges, and placing the Empire on a democratic basis. Among the articles of his programme are universal suffrage, for men and women alike, and for all elections; the disestablishment of the Church; freedom of the Press; free and compulsory education. Secondary as well as primary; the abolition of indirect taxation; and. of course, the reorganisation of industry on a cooperative basis. He would like to see the present standing army replaced by a national militia, in which every ableembodied German would be enrolled; nnd he Is strongly opposed to all schemes for big navies and world empires, holding that Germany is not rich enough to indulge in such extravagances. Nor dees he see the utility of colonies in Which two officials and perhaps a missionary have to be maintained for every colonist. The burden of much of his preaching is that Germany must try to live Ir. peace with her neighbours, especially with France and England, if only as a means of putting a stop to the ever-increasing power of Russia, wherein lies, he believes, the danger the German people have most to fear. The neutralisation of Alsace and Lorraine Is a marked feature of the policy he advocates, and so is also a close alltanre between England ard Germany." No man his fought harder or more su.-msriu’ly to item the tide of Anglopnabla In Germany; It is, thanks to his influence in a great measure, that the working classes, especially in Berlin, are much more friendly li their feelings towards this country than either the middle classes or the Junkers. Even when the pro-Boer enthusiasm was at its height he denounced the ant’ English agitation m unsparing terms, and told his fellowcountrymen roundly that to turn against England was to cour* disaster.”