burning questions of domestic policy before the
government. These: were what shall be done with
the Roman Catholics who thought that the Pope
should control Germany; and what shall be done
with the Socialists who believed in a revolution
in the form of government?
Bismarck determined to crush the life out of both
these parties, and had the most rigid and repres
sive laws enacted.
In 1873 the celebrated May laws were passed
which it supposed would completly break the
Catholic power. For introducing these measures
Bismarck was justly accused of violating the con
stitution, trampling on all religion, and ignoring
every principle of honor and right. He could en
force his laws, but he soon found he could not
change the religions convictions of the millions
of German Catholics. In spite of his repressions
they have continued to flourish and grow in pow
er. They have compelled the iron chancellor to
recede step by step from his position until the
May laws have all been repealed, and had he not
resigned when he did, he would have been com
pelled to ally himself with the Catholics in order
to secure a majority to sustain his government.
In his treatment with the socialists he has met
with the same fate. He has always been a most
bitter opponent of constitutional reform. His
first speech in the Prussian Reichstag was in op
position to the revolutionists of 1848, who were
trying to secure a representative form of govern
ment, and had it not been for his iron handed
policy we should long ere this have seen a peace
ful republic on the banks of the Rhine. Through
out his life he has endeavored to trample to death
all democratic ideas. It is this blood and iron
policy of repression which has created the social
ist party, and which has sent so many of Ger
many’s best citizens to seek liberty on the shores
of our blessed republic.
The socialists, while including many fanatics on
the land question, represent the great mass of dis
contented people who can no longer endure the
heavy hand of oppressive absolutism, and long for
THE FREE LANCE.
a more liberal government. But has Bismacrk suc
ceeded in his policy of crushing democratic ideas?
No! Here as elsewhere the principles of liberty
have flourished under repression. In the recent
elections the Socialists nearly quadrupled their
number of Representatives in the Reichstag. In
the city of Berlin where they have been under a
close police surveillance for thirty years,they have
doubled their vote, and now have a majority in
the German capital. Does this immense gain
in votes look as if Bismarck has succeeded in his
policy of crushing the popular movement to
wards constitutional reform? He has never been
allied to any settled line of domestic policy, such
as we have represented in our great political par
ties. When he found he was not supported by a
majority in the German Parliament he changed
his political principles in order to gain the sup
port of the many factions which go to make up
German politics. Thus, when with the National
Liberals he was a free trader; at another time to
gain the'votes of the conservatives he turned pro
tectionist. As a bait to the laboring classes he
changed his policy of grinding repression to a
species of state socialism. After a bitter persecu
ion of the Catholics, publicly declaring that he
would never go to Rome for aid, even after
raising a monument with the inscription, “We do
not go to Canossa,’’ he has gradually changed his
Catholic policy; and had he not been dismissed by
the sagacious and patriotic young emperor, he
would not only have gone to Canossa himself but
would have dragged all Germany with him in hu
mility to the Pope.
The German people have at last awakened to
the fact that their old hero has never represented
one sound economic idea; and has been supported
only by his own indomitable will and the mili
tary force which he has created about him. The
absolutism which he represented did very well to
bring a mass of independant states together and
weld them into a permanent powerful nation, but
it is not abreast with the modern growth of politi
cal ideas. The German people will no longer be