GERMANY SOCIALIST.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 3669, 2 November 1912, Page 3

GERMANY SOCIALIST.

THE PARTY’S WONDERFUL DEVELOPMENTS.

According to Mr. Harry S. Gullett, London correspondent of the Sydney “Sun,” the Social Democratic Party in Germany is about to assume control of the political situation in the German Empire. The world, he says, has no parallel for the suddenness of tlie development of this party. It commenced with the. Universal Verging Men’s Association, founded by Lassalle in 1863. This Association suffered from dissensions, bad leadership, and persecution at the hands of the authorities. Its leaders were imprisoned and exiled. Its one nc ivspaper had to be published first at Geneva and then at London. Its propaganda had perforce to be colorless and quiet. Yet it grew steadily year by year. In Karl Marx it found its greatest and most intellectual leader. The party which succeeded the Association has always oeCn organised and administered by the working classes without professional organisers or professional agitators. It has been fighting “a. soldier’s battle," and the military'training which every made German receives has taught the rank and file of the party the strength that lies in discipline. To-day the Social Democratic Party is the itroag est individual pai’ty in the Reichstag and the greatest force in Europe for international peace.. The. Party .s in close touch with British labor leaders and it resolutely refuses to believe in the “British menace.” At the iastgeneral election the Party’s strength in the Reichstag was raised from 57 to 110, and it has 224 members in the various State Diets-and 10,000 municipal councillors within the Empire. Hie number of its adherents grows enormously year by year, and its funds accumulate in proportion. During 1911 the Party enrolled 133,000 members and 171,000 additional subscribers were gained by the Party’s 86 daily newspapers. At the elections in January of this year the Party spent £45,000, as against £23,000 in 1907 and £14,000 in 1903. While its ideals are revolutionary, the Party’s methods are essentially evolutionary. It can at present render an other political parties in Germany, impotent, and presently, it is prophesied, it will take control of tlie political machine.