Great preparations are being made all over the Continent against
the coming First of May. The intention of the work- men everywhere is to take holiday and make a demonetra.
tion in favour of a legal eight-hours' day. It is feared that, with such multitudes of men in the streets, riots will occur ; and in France M. Constans has absolutely prohibited the demonstrations, and ordered the streets to be kept clear by force. In Germany the demonstrations will be per- mitted, except in great cities, such as Berlin, Hamburg, Leipsic, Frankfort, and the like, where alone they could be effective. In Italy they will be allowed, but carefully watched; while in Austria, where almost every trade is striking every- where, the Government is behaving as if it anticipated invasion. The manifestations are not to be prohibited, but no workmen in the employ of the State may join, and the whole Army is being distributed so as to watch the capital cities and manufacturing towns and villages. The Emperor him- self presides over a special Council on the subject ; every separate suburb of Vienna is to be garrisoned ; and the Army will, it is said, be everywhere "dislocated." Serious rioting has already occurred in one place, and the Jewish publicans and shopkeepers expect a general attack, the Socialists of the Dual Empire denouncing them as the origin of all economic evils. The alarm must be exaggerated, but it is certainly genuine, and anti-Semitic feeling of an intense kind is betrayed in every great centre.
Previous page
