FOR ten years, Prince Bismarck has been busily at work settling and strengthening the German Empire, of which he, more than any other man, was the creator and founder. The difficulties of such a task are not easily estimated. Not only did Bismarck have to guard the young empire from foreign foes, but he found within Germany itself elements dangerous to its existence.
To protect it from France on one side, and Russia on the other, was a comparatively easy thing to do. Bismarck had only to rear fortifications, to increase the number of the army, to cause the army to be drilled and kept ready for active service, and to act shrewdly in his diplomatic relations with other powers. In these he has succeeded.
But within the empire itself lurked two dangers that might, if neglected, sometime prove fatal to it. With his iron nature and stubborn will, he determined that they should cease to exist.
The first which he attacked was the Roman Catholic Church in Germany, a power not to be despised. For the bishops and priests claimed that the allegiance of the German Catholics to the church was higher than that to the State; and Bismarck knew that the church was hostile to the new empire.
The other danger to the empire was the formidable growth of Socialism in Germany. This party aims at revolution. It would overturn all thrones, abolish all royal power, and would have the State governed on a system of what it calls perfect equality. About a year ago, Bismarck publicly stated that he believed that there were sixty thousand Socialists in Berlin alone; and that the Socialists comprised one-twenty-fifth of adult Germans.
The Socialists have at least been able to elect quite a number of deputies to the Reichstag, or Parliament; and their influence in that body has been too formidable to be despised.
At first, Bismarck tried to repress Socialism by severe laws, and such laws were duly passed. By them, newspapers could be suppressed, Socialist speakers or writers could be imprisoned, a man suspected of Socialism could be banished, and all secret organizations could be dissolved without warning.
This remedy has not proved effective; and now Bismarck proposes to deal with the Socialists, not by forcible suppression, but by "taking the wind out of their sails;" that is, he proposes that the empire shall do certain things which the Socialists themselves have advocated. So far as possible, he designs to provide work, to be paid for by the State, for those Germans who are out of employment. He intends to revive the old trade associations, and give them the power to control the trades to which they pertain; and to establish an insurance system, "by which the workmen shall be obliged to pay a small sum from week to week, to be reserved by the Government for their support and that of their families in case of need."
This is the main outline of his scheme. If it succeeds, it will take away much of the strength of Socialism, by putting an end to the discontent of those who are out of work, and therefore ready for conspiracy. But it is a very hazardous plan, and will require the most adroit statesmanship to put it into practice. It is at least wiser to satisfy well-grounded complaint, than, by repressing it violently, to make it only the more desperate and dangerous. — Youth's Companion.
RELIGION IN POLITICS.
By Editor
A SHORT time since we noticed the fact that a strict Roman Catholic had been nominated for mayor of New York City. This nomination called forth various opinions from both religious and political papers. The following from the S. F. Chronicle of Nov. 21, we consider a candid statement of the facts in the case:—
"The introduction of sectarian prejudices and sectarian feelings into politics is a thing to be deplored and dreaded. Yet it is a danger which is not easily to be avoided. Most unfortunately the last municipal election in the city of New York seems to have turned in some measure upon a sectarian issue. John Kelly, the great Tammany leader, is a zealous Roman Catholic, and under the terms of his treaty with the anti-Tammany branch of the party, he persisted in selecting Mr. Grace, a well-known member of that communion, as his candidate for mayor. Of course the religious belief of the candidate could not, under ordinary circumstances, be urged as an objection against him. But it has for years been generally believed that the Roman Catholic hierarchy cherishes a deep hostility to the American common-school system. No sooner was Mr. Grace nominated for mayor than the friends of the public schools in New York took the alarm. Attention was called to the singular fact that owing to the political strength of the Roman Catholic element in New York, and the subserviency of the Democracy to that element, there are already more Roman Catholic teachers in the public schools of the metropolis than the number of teachers belonging to any other five religious denominations.
"On the Sunday preceding the election Father O'Farrell from the pulpit of St. Peter's church exhorted his hearers to support Mr. Grace, and in the same discourse denounced a particular newspaper, the New York Herald, because some of its editorial utterances admitted of a construction unfavorable to the Church.
"The significance attached to the nomination of Mr. Grace, arises from the fact that the New York City Board of Education consists of twenty-one members, seven of whom are appointed each year by the mayor. Hence, in the two years of his term of office he can place in office fourteen of the twenty-one members of the Board, which, as thus constituted, could carry out the policy of supporting the parochial schools of the church out of the city treasury. We repeat, that under ordinary circumstances the religious faith of a candidate for office in the United States ought not to be even so much as referred to. But when a particular denomination avows a distinct line of policy in regard to the common-school system hostile to the whole genius and spirit of that system, and hostile to the principle of free, non-sectarian public education, the matter assumes entirely a new aspect."
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Ireland’s Growing Troubles
THE Alta California of Nov. 21, states that the Irish troubles are growing worse and worse, and says :-
"The Land League appears to be sweeping everybody before it. Even those who have heretofore been peaceable are being forced by the influence or threats of the more excited portion of the people into a position towards the landlords and the Government little short of rebellion. The idea appears to be to refuse payment of rents altogether. The landlords appear to be afraid to evict their tenants, for they are likely to be put back again and the landlords defied. The combination against landlords and against paying rents is reported as spreading, and terrorism taking control of the country, breaking down opposition. Tenants who are able do not pay their rents, but meet their landlords and defiantly refuse to pay more than what they see fit to decide upon, many refusing all payment. Instances are given in which the evicted tenants have been taken from the road and replaced in the huts from which they had been ejected, supplied with food and fuel, and told to remain there in defiance of the landlord and officers. Life of agents of land-owners, as well as landlords, has been taken summarily."
"Meantime, the British Ministry appears halting between two opinions. One portion has been in favor of applying force for the suppression of the troubles, and the others are opposed to the application of force, except as in the cases where military and constabulary have been furnished where crops were being gathered by Orangemen. The Land League and the tenants, generally, seem determined not to submit to the exactions of the landlords. They demand the abolition of the landlord system, and change of the tenant system into that of land-owners. But how is this to be done, unless the Government sees fit to come in as purchaser of the land from the landlords, to be disposed of to the tenants in some form, or to advance the means by which the present system may be revolutionized? If Mr. Gladstone can manage this question so as to give comparative quiet and satisfaction to the at present angry and revolutionary elements now at boiling heat in that unfortunate and unhappy country, while at the same time dealing with a tolerable show of justice toward the land-owners, he will have unraveled the most difficult political knot of the present day. One may hope this, but there appears but little prospect of its success."
Baptist Reform Against Kallochism
A CONFERENCE of Baptist churches was recently held at Stockton, which seems to have been the signal for a general advance of that denomination on this coast against Kallochism. The annual meeting of the churches, known as the San Francisco Association, was to have been held with the Stockton church; but that body declined to entertain the Association, for the reason that in so doing it would naturally have to entertain the Kallochs. Subsequently the Stockton church invited delegates from all the churches within the limits of the Associational boundary, in sympathy with its action, to meet with it in Conference. The response was really a hearty endorsement of the action of that church, placing it in the front rank of those who have been zealously battling for Baptist reform on the Pacific coast. It is plain that Kalloch's influence is fast waning, and will, so far as Baptists are concerned, soon be narrowed down to the precincts of Metropolitan Temple, San Francisco.
PUBLISHERS' NOTICE.
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SIGNS OF THE TIMES FOR 1881.
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