THE MEANING OF THE SOCIALIST VICTORY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVII, Issue 51, 11 April 1890, Page 11

THE MEANING OF THE SOCIALIST VICTORY.

The sweeping victory of the Socialists in Germany, following as it did on the heels of the Emperor's rescript inviting an international conference to consider the labour question, has startled Europe. The victory is a notification to the European rulers that questions affecting the well-being of their subjects can no longer be ignored with safety to the State. It is not necessary for one to approve of socialism to see in the victory of the Socialists a strong evidence of a growing discontent with the present state of things in Germany and other European countries. The Emperor of Germany, who certainly cannot be accused of being tainted with Socialism, has evidently taken note of this growing discontent, and has proposed the only sensible way of allaying it — namely, the removal of the causes that generate it. Taking for granted that he was sincere in inviting an international conference for the purpose of devising ways and means of relieving the European wage-workers of the intolerable burden under which they are staggering — taking it for granted, we say, that he was sincere, Emperor William, in the words of Cardinal Manning, " has shown himself to be a true aud a far-sighted statesman." It is some years now since the Socialists began their agitation, professedly for the amelioration of the working classes in Germany. Bismarck has done his best to repress the agitation by restrictive laws, but the more he tried to suppress them the stronger the Socialists grew, until now they hold the balance of power in the German Parliament.

Circumstances contributed to their phenomenal success. The conversion of Germany into one vast camp bore heavily on labour. The wage-worker was taken from his family and his employment and was compelled to serve in the army for several years virtually without compensation. Then, too, the enormous taxes that had to be raised to support a great staading army crushed the wage- worker beneath a heavy weight. The Socialists were not slow to make a good use of all this. Their promise to abolish all armies, if they should ever get into power, was in itself sufficient to secure for them thousands of votes among the wage-workers. This goes far to explain their sweeping victory at the polls the other day. It remains to be seen what effect that victory will have directly and indirectly on the condition of German workingmen. — Irish World.