Prince Bismarck spoke on Wednesday for the second time in
favour of the Anti-Socialist Bill. He declared that he was in favour of all means for relieving workmen from need, and especi- ally of co-operative societies, which the Government would not shrink from assisting ; but he desired to put down the Socialism which, preaching to the people that the ideas of God, Fatherland, and Property were frauds, sought heaven only in momentary enjoy- ment. There were 60,000 such Socialists in Berlin alone, thoroughly organised, and their propagandism must stop. For himself, if he lost his faith in God and a Hereafter, he would not live a day. He condemned strongly the thirst for luxury and for getting-on manifest in Germany, believed that laws and opinions were alike too lenient, and hinted a sort of admiration for the swift French method of shooting Socialists down. His speech made a deep impression, especially on the middle-class Members of the Reichstag, who are evidently under a fear that the Socialist movement is directed against them, and who express through Herr Lowe a jealousy, which is felt also in America and even in England, at the comfort enjoyed by handicraftsmen, as com- pared with intellectual workers. Their position, said Herr Lowe, is daily advancing, while that of professional men retrogrades.
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