Part 20 (1/2)

[32] This controversy is known as the ”revisionist movement.” The revisionists' position is set forth in Bernstein's book, _Die Voraussetzung des Sozialismus und die Aufgaben der Sozial-Demokratie_.

The Marxian position is set forth in Kautsky's reply, _Bernstein und die Sozial-Demokratie_. An English edition of Bernstein's book has been published in the Labor Party series in London.

[33] _Protokoll_, 1899.

[34] _Supra cit._, p. 94.

[35] _Supra cit._, p. 127.

[36] _Protokoll_, 1903, pp. 321-45.

[37] In the congress of 1907 Bebel tried to dispel the gloom by a long and optimistic speech in which he declared that their success was not to be measured by the number of seats they won, but by the number of voters. He closed by saying, ”We are the coming ones, ours is the future in spite of all things and everything.”--_Protokoll_, 1907, p.

323.

[38] One of the veteran party leaders answered my question as to the present-day influence of Marx as follows: ”The bulk of our party have never read Marx. It takes a well-trained mind to understand him.

Conditions have entirely changed since his day, and we are busy with questions of which Marx never dreamed and of which he could not foretell. He laid the philosophical basis for our party, but our party is practical, not philosophical.”

[39] In 1900 Bebel proposed the necessity of a working coalition with other parties in Prussia to gain electoral reform. He said: ”We cannot stand alone. We must attempt to go hand in hand with certain elements in the bourgeois parties--without, however, endangering our ident.i.ty.”

But the party was not willing to go as far as the veteran, and a resolution was adopted limiting such co-operation strictly to Prussia and giving the central committee full power to veto the acts any electoral district might take in this direction.

[40] _Protokoll_, 1910, p. 249.

[41] _Protokoll_, 1910, p. 272.

[42] In November, 1911, Berlin's new city hall was dedicated. The members of the city council were invited to be present. The Social Democrats cast a large majority of all the votes in Berlin. But the Social Democrats refused to attend the ceremonies. The program, as published, called for a ”Hoch!” to the Kaiser, and the Social Democrats never joined in public approval of the government.

_Vorwarts_, the leading Social Democratic daily, said that Social Democrats have nothing to do with such a display of ”Byzantinism.” ”If any one thought it necessary to shout 'Hoch!' he could shout 'Hoch!'

to the working population of Berlin.”

[43] _Protokoll_, 1907, pp. 227-8.

[44] Amongst the business people of Mannheim, Munich, and other cities in Baden, Bavaria, and Hesse, there are many who support the Social Democratic candidates, because, they say, there is no genuinely liberal party. It should, however, be borne in mind that the Social Democrats of these southern districts are liberal and progressive, not the unbending, orthodox variety of Prussia.

[45] VON VOLLMAR, _uber die Aufgaben der Deutschen Social-Demokratie_.

[46] The _Hansa Bund_ (Hanseatic League), organized a few years ago, may be the nucleus of such a party. It is composed of smaller manufacturers and business men opposed to tariffs and the trusts, and in favor of a more liberal government.

[47] _Protokoll_, Social Democratic Party, 1907, p. 228.

[48] _Protokoll_, 1892, p. 132.

[49] _Protokoll_, 1907, p. 255.

[50] See _Die Sozial-Demokratie im Munchener Rathaus_, issued by the Bavarian party executive committee, 1908. Also _Die Sozial-Demokratie im Bayerischen Landtag, 1888-1905_, 3 vols., issued by the Party Press in Munich; and E. AUER, _Arbeiterpolitik im Bayerischen Landtag_.

CHAPTER IX

THE ENGLISH LABOR PARTY