Socialism and Democracy in Europe Part 35

2. Radical tax reform, through the establis.h.i.+ng of a uniform, progressive income and property tax, collected by the communes; local taxes to be a.s.sessed upon increment value; and prohibition of all taxes upon the necessaries of life.

3. A common-school law providing universal public education free from all religious bias, compulsory up to fourteen years of age. Obligatory secondary schools, the inclusion of social and political economy in their curricula; the defraying of expenses of pupils by the state.

Subst.i.tution of professional supervision of schools for clerical supervision.

4. Enactment of a domiciliary law, in place of the present inadequate laws, providing for all the necessary sanitary and socio-political demands. Extending the munic.i.p.alities' right of condemnation to the extent that towns may erect houses and schools, open streets, and make all necessary public improvements demanded by the public welfare.

5. Pa.s.sage of a sanitary code. Regulation of sanitation in the public interests. Free medical attendance at births. Public nurseries.

6. The administration of public charities by the local authorities.

B.--OF THE COMMUNE WE DEMAND:

1. Abolis.h.i.+ng all taxes upon the rights of citizens.h.i.+p and of residence. Granting of full franchise rights after one year's residence.

2. Elections to be held on a holiday or on Sunday.

3. Pensions for communal employees.

4. The cost of local administration to be borne by local property or from additions to the direct state taxes. Abolis.h.i.+ng of all indirect taxes. Denial of all public aid to the Church.

5. All public services to be conducted by the commune; these to be considered as public conveniences and necessities, and not to serve a mere pecuniary interest, but to be run as the public welfare demands.

Rational development of existing water-power, means of communication, etc.

6. Stipulating, in every contract for munic.i.p.al work, the wages to be paid, and other conditions of labor, such arrangements to be made with the labor organizations; the right to organize into unions not to be denied to laborers and munic.i.p.al employees and officers. Abolis.h.i.+ng of strike clause in contracts for public works. Prohibition, of the sub-contractor system. Securing wages of workmen by bonds. Forbidding munic.i.p.al officers partic.i.p.ating in any business that will bring them into contract relations with the munic.i.p.ality.

7. Development of a public school system which shall be non-sectarian and free to all. Restricting the number of pupils in the cla.s.ses as far as practical. Furnis.h.i.+ng free meals and clothing to needy school children; such service not to be counted as public charity.

Establis.h.i.+ng continuation schools for both s.e.xes, and schools for backward children. Establis.h.i.+ng of public reading-rooms and free public libraries.

8. The advancement of public housing plans. The purchasing of large land areas by the munic.i.p.ality, to prevent speculation in building lots. Simplification of the procedure in examination of building plans, and the granting of building permits. Simplifying the regulations pertaining to the building of cottages and small residences. Munic.i.p.al aid in the building of workingmen's homes.

Providing cheaper homes in munic.i.p.al houses and tenements. Providing loans of public moneys to building a.s.sociations and agricultural a.s.sociations. Leasing of land by the munic.i.p.ality. Munic.i.p.al inspection of dwellings and of all buildings, the munic.i.p.ality to keep close scrutiny on all real estate developments. Establishment of a public bureau of homes, where information and aid can be secured, and where proper statistics can be gathered concerning building conditions.

9. Providing for cheap and wholesome food through the regulation and supervision of its importation and inspection.

10. Extension of sanitation. Conducting hospitals according to modern medical science. Establis.h.i.+ng munic.i.p.al lying-in hospitals. Free burials.

11. Public care for the poor and orphans. The bettering of the economic condition of women. The granting of aid out of public funds.

Public inspection and control of all orphanages, hospitals for children, and nurseries.

12. The establishment of public labor bureaus, which are to act as employment agencies, information bureaus, gather labor statistics, and supervise the sociological activities of the munic.i.p.ality.

Providing work for those in need of employment, on the public works of the commune. Provision for the support of those out of work in co-operation, with the labor unions' efforts in the same direction.

The extension of munic.i.p.al factory inspection and labor laws, as far as the general laws permit. Appointment of laborers as building inspectors. The development of the industrial and commercial courts.

Sunday as a day of rest.

13. Liberal wages to be paid workmen employed on public works. Fixing a minimum wage in accordance with the rules of the labor unions; formation of public loan and credit system; eight-hour day. Insuring public employees against sickness, accident, and old age. Making provision for widows and orphans of public employees. Right to organize not to be denied all munic.i.p.al employees and officials.

Recognition of the unions. Annual vacation, on full pay, to every munic.i.p.al employee and official. Munic.i.p.al employees to be given their wages during their attendance on military manoeuvers, and the payment of the difference between their wages and their sick-benefits in case of illness.

14. Formation of a union of communes or towns, when isolated munic.i.p.alities find themselves impotent in securing these demands.

6. ELECTION ADDRESS (WAHLRUF) OF THE GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRATS FOR THE REICHSTAG ELECTIONS OF 1912

On the 12th of January, 1912, the general election for the Reichstag takes place. Rarely have the voters been called upon to partic.i.p.ate in a more consequential election. This election will determine whether, in the succeeding years, the policy of oppression and plundering shall be carried still farther, or whether the German people shall finally achieve their rights.

In the Reichstag elections of 1907 the voters were deceived by the government and the so-called national parties: many millions of voters allowed themselves to be deluded. The Reichstag of the "National"

_bloc_ from Heydebrand down to Weimar and Nauman has made nugatory the laws pertaining to the rights of coalition; has restricted the use of the non-Germanic languages in public meetings; has virtually robbed the youth of the right of coalition, and has favored every measure for the increase of the army, navy, and colonial exploitation.

The result of their reactionaryism is an enormous increase of the burdens of taxation. In spite of the fact that in 1906 over 200,000,000 marks increase was voted, in stamp tax, tobacco tax, etc., in spite of the sacred promise of the government, through its official organ, that no new taxes were being contemplated, the government has, through its "financial reforms," increased our burden over five hundred millions.

Liberals and Conservatives were unanimous in declaring that four-fifths of this enormous sum should be raised through an increase in indirect taxes, the greater part of which is collected from laborers, clerks, shopkeepers, artisans, and farmers. Inasmuch as the parties to the Bulow-_bloc_ could not agree upon the distribution of the property tax and the excise tax, the _bloc_ was dissolved and a new coalition appeared--an alliance between the holy ones and the knights (Block der Ritter und der Heiligen). This new _bloc_ rescued the distiller from the obligations of an excise tax, defeated the inheritance tax, which would have fallen upon the wealthy, and placed upon the shoulders of the working people a tax of hundreds of millions, which is paid through the consumption of beer, whiskey, tobacco, cigars, coffee, tea--yea, even of matches. This Conservative-Clerical _bloc_ further showed its contempt for the working people in the way it amended the state insurance laws. It robbed the workingman of his rights and denied to mothers and their babes necessary protection and adequate care.

In this manner the gullibility of the voters who were responsible for the Hottentot elections of 1907 was revenged. Since that date every by-election for the Reichstag, as well as for the provincial legislatures and munic.i.p.al councils, has shown remarkable gains in the Social Democratic vote. The reactionaries were consequently frightened, and now they resort to the usual election trick of diverting the attention of the voters from internal affairs to international conditions, and appeal to them under the guise of nationalism.

The Morocco incident gave welcome opportunity for this ruse. At home and abroad the capitalistic war interests and the nationalistic jingoes stirred the animosities of the peoples. They drove their dangerous play so far that even the Chancellor found himself forced to reprimand his _junker_ colleagues for using their patriotism for partisan purposes. But the attempt to bolster up the interests of the reactionary parties with our international complications continues in spite of this.

Voters, be on your guard! Remember that on election day you have in your hand the power to choose between peace or war.

The outcome of this election is no less important in its bearing upon internal affairs.

Count Bulow declared, before the election of 1907, "the fewer the Social Democrats, the greater the social reforms." The opposite is true. The last few years conclusively demonstrate this. The socio-political mills have rattled, but they have produced very little flour.

In order to capture their votes for the "national" candidates, the state employees and officials were promised an increase in their pay.

To the high-salaried officials the new Reichstag doled out the increase with spades, to the poorly paid humble employees with spoons.

And this increase in pay was counterbalanced by an increase in taxes and the rising cost of living.

To the people the government refused to give any aid, in spite of their repeated requests for some relief against the constantly increasing prices of the necessities of life. And, while the Chancellor profoundly maintained that the press exaggerated the actual conditions of the rise in prices, the so-called saviors of the middle cla.s.s--the Center, the Conservatives, the anti-Semites and their following--rejected every proposal of the Social Democrats for relieving the situation, and actually laid the blame for the rise in prices upon their own middle-cla.s.s tradesmen and manufacturers.

_New taxes, high cost of living, denial of justice, increasing danger of war_--that is what the Reichstag of 1907, which was ushered in with such high-sounding "national" tom-toms, has brought you. And the day of reckoning is at hand. Voters of Germany, elect a different majority! The stronger you make the Social Democratic representation in the Reichstag, the firmer you anchor the world's peace and your country's welfare!

The Social Democracy seeks the conquest of political power, which is now in the hands of the property cla.s.ses, and is mis-used by them to the detriment of the ma.s.ses. They denounce us as "revolutionists."

Foolish phraseology! The bourgeois-capitalistic society is no more eternal than have been the earlier forms of the state and preceding social orders. The present order will be replaced by a higher order, the Socialistic order, for which the Social Democracy is constantly striving. Then the solidarity of all peoples will be accomplished and life will be made more humane for all. The pathway to this new social order is being paved by our capitalistic development, which contains all the germs of the New Order within itself.

For us the duty is prescribed to use every means at hand for the amelioration of existing evils, and to create conditions that will raise the standard of living of the ma.s.ses.

Therefore we demand:

1. The democratizing of the state in all of its activities. An open pathway to opportunity. A chance for every one to develop his apt.i.tudes. Special privileges to none. The right person in the right place.

2. Universal, direct, equal, secret ballot for all persons twenty years of age without distinction of s.e.x, and for all representative legislative bodies. Referendum for setting aside the present unjust election district apportionment and its attendant electoral abuses.

3. A parliamentary government. Responsible ministry. Establishment of a department for the control of foreign affairs. Giving the people's representatives in the Reichstag the power to declare war or maintain peace. Consent of the Reichstag to all state appropriations.

4. Organization of the national defense along democratic lines.

Militia service for all able-bodied men. Reducing service in the standing army to the lowest terms consistent with safety. Training youth in the use of arms. Abolition of the privilege of one-year volunteer service. Abolition of all unnecessary expense for uniforms in army and navy.

5. Abolition of "cla.s.s-justice" and of administrative injustice.

Reform of the penal code, along lines of modern culture and jurisprudence. Abolition of all privileges pertaining to the administration of justice.