_ PICTURES OF THE
' SOCIALISTIC FUTURE
(1)5172er ahaptztt from 332ml)
'M
EUGENE RICHTER
MEMBER OF THE IMPERIAL GERMAN PARLIAMENT
AUTHORISED TRANSLATION BY HENRY WRIGHT
LONDON
SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO.
PATERNOSTER SQUARE
1893
CONTENTS
.~_.___
PAGE
I. CELEBRATION-DAY . . 1
11. THE NEW LAWS . . . 4
111. DISCONTENTED PEOPLE . . . 6
IV. THE CHOICE OF TRADES . . 8
v. A PARLIAMENTARY 511nm; . . 11
VI. ASSIGNMENT OF WORK . . . 16
VII. NEWS FROM THE PROVINCES . . 22
VIII. THE LAST DAY TOGETHER . . . 26
IX. THE GREAT MIGRATION . . . 30
x. THE NEW CURRENCY . . . 34
XI. THE NEW DWELLINGS . . . 37
x11. THE NEW STATE COOKSHOPS . . 42
XIII. A VEXING INCIDENT. . . . 47
XIV. A MINISTERIAL CRISIS . . . 49
xv. EMIGRATION . . . 51
XVI. RETIREMENT OF THE CHANCELLOR . 54
XVII. IN AND ABOUT THE WORKSHOPS . . 56
xvm. FAMILY MATTERS . . . . 60
XIX. RECREATIONS OF THE PEOPLE . . 64
XX. DISAGREEABLE EXPERIENCES . . 68
XXL FLIGHT . . . . . 72
XXII. ANOTHER NEW CHANCELLOR . . 76
XXIII. FOREIGN COMPLICATIONS . . ' . 78
XXIV. THE ELECTION STIR . . . . 82
XXV. SAD NEWS . . . 88
XXVI. THE RESULT OF THE E1ECI IONS . . 90
XXVII. A LARGE DEFICIT . . . . 93
xxvm. DOMESTIC AFFAIRS . . . 97
XXIX. A STORMY PARLIAMENTARY SITTING . 100
XXX. THREATENED STRIKE . . . 119
xxxr. MENACING DIPLOMATIC NOTES . . 121
xxxn. GREAT STRIKE AND SIMULTANEOUS OUT-
BREAK OF WAR . . . . 124
xxxm. THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION 131:0st . 126
XXXIV. DISHEAR IENING NEWS . . . 129
XXXV. THE LAST CHAPTER . . . I31
PICTURES OF
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE.
CHAPTER I.
CELEBRATION DAY.
THE red ag of international Socialism waves from
the palace and from all the public buildings of Berlin.
If our immortal Bebel could but have lived to. see
this! He always used to tell the bourgeoisie that
the catastrophe was almost at their very doors.
Friedrich Engels had xed 1898 as the year of the
ultimate triumph of socialistic ideas. Well, it did
not come quite so soon, but it has not taken much
longer. ' '
This, however, is immaterial. The main thing is the
fact that all our long years of toil and battling for
the righteous cause of the people are now crowned
With success. The old rotten regime, with its ascend-
ency of capital, and its system of plundering the work-
ing-classes, hes crumbled to pieces. And for the bene t
of my children, and children s children, I intend to set
down, in a. humble way, some little account of the
beginning of this new reign of brotherhood and uni-
versal philanthropy. I, too, have not been altogether
A
2 PICTURES OF
without some small share in this new birth of man-
kind. All, both in time and money, that I have been
able for a generation past to snatch from the practice
of my craft as an honest bookhinder, and all that my
family could spare, I have devoted to the furtherance
of our aims. I am also indebted to the literature of
Socialism, and to my connection with political clubs,
for my mental culture and my soundness on all social-
istic points. My wife and children are in full accord
with me. Our beloved Bebel s book on women has
long been the highest gospel to my better half, Paula.
The birthday of the new socialistic order happened
to be our silver wedding-day; and now, behold, t0-
day s celebration day has added fresh happiness to us
as a-family. My son, Franz, has become engaged to
Agnes Miiller. The two have long known each other,
and the strong attachment is mutual. So in all the
elevation of mind, inspired by this great day, we
have knit up this new bond of affection. They are
both somewhat young yet, but they are, nevertheless,
both good handset their trades. He is a. compositOr,
she a. milliner. So there is ground to hope it Will turn
out a good match. They intend to marry as soon as
the new regulations in respect of work, arrangements
of dwellings, and so 011, shall have reached completion.
After dinner we all took a stroll unter den Linden.
My stars I What a crowd there was! And What end-
less rejoicing! Not one single discordant tone to mar
the harmony of the great celebration day. The
police is disbanded, the people themselves maintaining
order in the most exemplary manner.
In the palace gardens, in the square in front, and all
around the palace, vast crowds were gathered, Which
showed unmistakable unanimity and steadfastness of
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 3
aim. The new Government was assembled in the palace.
Colleagues, chosen from amongst the foremost leaders
Of th e Socialist party, have provisionally taken over
. the reins of Government. The Socialist members of
the town council form, for the present, the corporation.
Whenever, from time to time, one of our new rulers
chanced to show himself at one of the Windows, or on
a balcony, the uncontrollable ecstasy of the people
would break out afresh, showing itself in frantic
waving of hats and handkerchiefs, and in singing the
workmen s Marseillaise.
In the evening there was a grand illumination.
The statues of the 01d kings and marshals, decorated
With red ags, looked strange enough in the red glare
of so much bengal re. The days of these statues are,
however, numbered, and they will shortly have to
give place to statues of bygone heroes of Socialism.
It has already been determined, I hear, to remove the
statues of the two Humboldts from the front of the
university, and to place there in their stead those of
Marx and Ferdinand Lassalle. The statue of Frederic
the Great, unterr den Linden, is to be replaced by that
of our immortal Liebknecht.
Upon our return home we kept up, in our cosy
family circle, this double celebration till a late hour.
My wife s father, who hitherto has not made much
account of Socialism, was With us on the occasion, and
was very sympathetic and cheery.
We are full of hope that we shall now soon vacate
our humble dwelling, three storeys high, and exchange
it for something better. Well, well, the 01d place,
after all, has witnessed many a quiet joy of ours,
no lack of trouble and sorrow, and plenty of honest
endeavour as well.
4 PICTURES OF '
CHAPTER. II.
THE NEW LAWS.
ONE hears the most exquisite stories of the scramble
there is on the part of the bourgeoisie to get across the
frontier. But Where are they to go to? Socialism is
now dominant in all European countries, with the
exception of England and Switzerland. The American
steamers are unable to meet the demand there is on
them. Those who can once reach the American
shores are all right, as the revolution there was very
soon quelled, and all hope of success cut off for a long
time to come. Let all such plunderers clear out, say
I. It is a good thing that, thanks to the suddenness
with which the revolution came at last, they have not
been able to take much with them. All State bonds,
mortgages, shares, bills, and bank-notes have been
declared void. These bourgeois gentry may as well
at once begin papering the walls of their ship cabins
with this trumpery. A11 landed and house property,
means of communication, machinery, tools, stores, and
such like, have been impounded for the bene t of the
new socialistic State.
The Onwawd, which has hitherto been the leading
organ of our party, now takes the place of the old
Imperial Advertiser, and it is delivered at every house
free of cost. All printing establishments having now
become the property of the State, all the other papers
have, as a. matter of course, ceased to appear. In all
other towns a local edition of the Onward is issued
with a sheet of local matter for each separate place.
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 5 '
Provisionully, and until such time as a new Parlia~
ment shall have been elected, the conduct of affairs is
in the hands of the socialistic members of the late
Parliament, who, in the shape of a. Committee of
Government, have to decide oh those numerous laws
it will be necessary to enact in order to establish the
new era.
The old party programme which was settled upon
at the Erfurt Conference in 1891, has been promul-
gated as an outline of the fundamental rights of the
people. This promulgation proclaims that all capital,
property, mines and quarries, machinery, means of
communication, and all possessions Whatever, have
henceforth become the sole property of the State, or
as it is now better called, the Community. Another
decree sets forth the universal obligation there is on all
persons to work ; and all such persons, whether male
or female, from the age of 21 to 65 years, are to enjoy
. precisely the same rights. Those Who are below 21
years of age will be educated at the expense of the
State, whilst those who are above 65 will be main-
tained in a, similar manner. All private enterprise and
productivity have, of course, ceased. Pending, how-
ever, the new regulations as to supply, all persons are
to retain their old posts, and to go on working for the
State, as their master. Each person has to render an
inventory of all such things as may have remained to
him after the embargo just spoken of; things Which
some might be tempted to regard as private property,
such as furniture, old clothes, bank-notes, and the
like. In particular, coins of all kinds are to be de-
livered up. New money certi cates are shortly to be
issued.
The new Government, thanks to the smart Chan-
6 PICTURES OF
cellor at its head, proceeds with no less energy than
directness of purpose. Every precaution in the rst
place is to be taken against any possibility of capital
ever regaining its old ascendency. The army is dis-
banded ; no taxes Will be collected, as the Government
proposes to raise that Which is required for public
purposes out of the revenue yielded by State trade
transactions. Doctors and lawyers are supported by
the State, and they are required to render their
services gratis whenever needed. The days of the re-
volution, and 0f the celebration of the same, have been
declared holidays established by law.
It is quite evident that entirely new and glorious
times are in store for us.
CHAPTER III.
DISCONTENTED PEOPLE.
AGNES, our prospective daughter-in-law, is quite in
consolable,and Franz is hardly less depressed. Agnes
is in fear for her dowry. For a long time past
she has been industriously saving up, and more
especially so since her acquaintance With Franz.
Her industry was such that she would scarce
allow herself time for her meals, and the sums
Which her companions spent in nery, in pleasures,
or in short excursions, she devoted to the increase
of her little capital. By these means she had no
less a sum than two thousand marks in the savings
bank at the time of her becoming engaged. It was
With no little pride and complacency that Franz told
me all this on the evening of the engagement day.
The young people began to devise schemes as to how
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 7
they could lay out this large sum of money to the
best advantage.
But now it seems that all her industry and economy
are to prove quite futile. Rendered uneasy by all
sorts of reports that reached her, Agnes determined
to go to the bank and give notice of withdrawal.
Arrived in the neighbourhood of the bank, she found
the street lled with excited groups. Old men and
women, and numerous girls who had been servants
during the old order of things, complained piteously
of being cheated, as they said, out of their hard-
earned savings. The of cials, it appears, had stated
that along with all other values which, by the
operation of the new decrees had been con scated,
the funds of the savings bank were also void.
The mere rumour of such a thing nearly made
poor Agnes faint. Summoning courage, however, to
enter the bank, she there soon received con rmation
of this incredible news. Hastening to us, she heard
it rumoured that deputations of bank creditors were
on their way to the palace to seek an interview with
the Chancellor. On hearing this I started off at
once, and Franz went with me.
We found an immense crowd gathered in front
of the palace. Across Lasselle Bridge (the old King
William s Bridge), streams of people kept surging up
towards the palace. It is clear this savings bank
question is deeply stirring the public mind. All
the entrances to the courts of the palace were
securely fastened. The crowd in front made various
efforts to obtain forcible entrance, but in vain. Sud-
denly several gun-barrels from inside bristled through
loopholes in the doors, which loopholes I had some-
how never noticed before.
8 PICTURES OF
Who can say what might have been the end
of all this if, at this critical moment, the Chancellor
had not appeared on the scene and thus restored
order? He stepped out upon the balcony of the
middle portal, and in a clear and sonorous voice,
declared that the savings bank question should re-
ceive the immediate consideration of the Committee
of Government. He begged all true patriots and con-
sistent Socialists t0 con de fully in the justice and
wisdom of the representatives of the people. Loud
hurrahs greeted our Chancellor as he withdrew.
Just at this moment several re brigacles came
tearing along at a gallop from different directions
towards the palace. There being new no police to
summon, the authorities had in their consternation
telegraphed from the palace, reporting a great fire
there. The arrival of the gallant fellows was greeted
with much laughter. By and by the crowd dis-
persed. in a more good humoured and pliant mood.
It is only to be hoped that the Government Will do
the right thing in this business.
CHAPTER IV.
THE CHOICE OF TRADES.
BIG red placards on all the hoardings remind people
that in accordance With the regulations of the new
Labour Law, all persons of both sexes, between the
ages of twenty-one and sixty- ve years, are required
within three days to register themselVes With a view
to being told off to some trade. The old police
stations and various other public o ices come in
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 9
nicely for this purpose. The attention of women and
girls is especially called to the fact that on their
entering upon work in one of the numerous State
workshops, they are forthwith relieved from all
, household toil, such as taking care of children, the
preparation of meals, nursing the sick, washing, etc.,
etc. All children and young people are to he brought
up in State maintenance houses and in public schools.
The chief meal of each day will be taken at the State
cookshop 0f the district. Sick people must all be sent
to the hospitals. Washing can be dOne solely at the
great central washhouses of the State. The hours of
work, for both sexes, both in trades and in State or
public departments, are xed at eight hours for the
present.
Documentary evidence is in all cases required as a
proof of the capabilities of persons to perform the
duties they enter themselves for; and in each case the
business hitherto followed has to he stated as Well.
Entries as clergymen cannot for a moment he enter-
tained, seeing that by a. resolution come to at the
Erfurt Conference of 1891, and Which is now accepted
as a fundamental law of the State, it is strictly
prohibited to devote any national funds to religious
or ecclesiastical purposes. Such persons, however,
Who, nevertheless, wish to follow this profession, have
full liberty to qualify themselves for it in their leisure
hours, after having worked the normal number of
eight hours in some branch Which is recognised by the
State as a trade.
After the publication of this intelligence, the life
in the streets resembled that on a. mustering day in a,
garrison town. Persons of the same trade formed
themselves into knots and groups, and having decor-
10 PICTURES OF
ated themselves with some sign of the trade chosen,
marched through the streets singing and shouting.
There were numerous groups of women and girls, who
painted in the liveliest colours the delights they anti-
cipate from the trades chosen, now that they have
once got rid of all housework. One hears that a
great many persons have chosen an entirely different
line from the one hitherto followed. Many seem to
fancy that the mere choice of a trade is identical With
being already installed in it, but such is, of course, by
no means the case.
So far as we as a family are concerned we mean
to make no change, but to remain faithful to those
old trades we have got to like; so my son Franz, my
future daughter in-law Agnes, and I myself have
entered our names accordingly. My wife has regis-
tered herself as an attendant at one of the children s
homes. By this means she proposes still to exercise
her maternal care over our youngest child Annie, four
years of age, whom we shall now, of course, have to
yield up.
1 may here mention that after the tumult in front
of the palace, the Ministry deemed it prudent to re-
introduce a body of police, which is to be four thousand
strong, and to station them in part at the arsenal,
and in part at the neighbouring barracks. With a
view to avoiding all unpleasant reminiscences, the
blue uniform will now be discontinued, and a brown
one substituted for it. In place of a, helmet the
police are to wear large Rembrandt hats with red
feathers.
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 11
CHAPTER V.
A PARLIAMENTARY SITTING.
IT was only with considerable trouble that Franz and
I managed today to squeeze ourselves into the House
situated in Bebel Square (the King s Square of old
days). A settlement was to he arrived at in respect of
the savings bank funds. Franz informs me that
amongst the 2,000,000 inhabitants of Berlin, there are
no fewer than 500,000 depositors in the savings banks.
No wonder, then, that the whole neighbourhood of the
House, the entire expanse of BebeI Square, and the
surrounding streets, were densely packed With persons
mostly of the poorer clad: sort, Who awaited With
breathless interest the decision of the House. The
police, however, soon began to clear the streets.
As the general election has not yet taken place,
and as all the seats of those members who were
elected,by the so-called better classes were declared
vacant: we found, as ahmatter of course, no other
members present save our old colleagues the proved
pioneers of the new. order.
At the request of the Chancellor, the head of the
Statistical Department opened the debate in a speech
dealing»largely with statistics, and-showing the real
magnitude of the question in hand. He said there
were eight million depositors in the savings banks,
with an aggregate of more than 5,000 millions of
marks. (Hear, hear, from the Left.) The yearly sum
formerly paid in interest amounted to mere than 150
,millions of marks. Of the deposits, 2,800 million
12 PICTURES OF
marks were invested in mortgages, 1,700 millions
in bonds, about 400 millions in public institu-
tions and corporations, and the balance of 100 millions
were oating debt. A11 bonds had been repudiated
by law. (Quite right, from the Left.) With the
transfer of all landed property to the State, all
mortgages were, as a. matter of course, annulled. It
was, hence, clear that there were no funds out of which
the claims of the savings bank depositors could be
satis ed.
At the close of this speech a member of the Right
got up. Millions of honest workmen and true
Socialists, said he (uproar from the Left), will feel
bitterly disappointed when, in place of getting the
full reward of labour as expected, they see themselves
deprived of those savings they had by dint of arduous
work been enabled to put by. By what means had
these savings been effected? Only by means of
continuous effort and exertion, of economy, and 0f
abstention from certain things, such as tobacco and
spirits, which many other workmen often indulged in-
(Uproar from the Left.) Many a one had imagined
that by putting by these savings he was laying up
something for a rainy day, or providing for his old
age. The placing of such persons on precisely the
same'footing with those who have not shown a morsel
of thrift, will be felt by millions to be an injustice.
(Applause from the Right, and loud cries of approval
from the galleries.)
The President threatened to have the galleries
cleared if such cries were repeated, and at this there
were cries, We areithe nation.
The President: The nation is in possession of a,
power of veto, but it possesses no right to take part
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. I3
in the debates in Parliament. Disturbers will be
ejected. (General approbation from all sides.)
A member of the Left now followed: A real
v Socialist of pure water never yet had bothered him-
self about savipg anything, said he. (Contradictory
signs from the Right.) Nobody Who had allowed
himself to follow the doctrines of economy so much
preached by the bourgeoisie had the least right to
reckon on any consideration at the hands of the
socialistic State. Let it not be forgotten, too, that
some of these savings were in reality only stolen from
the working classes. (Dissatisfaction frdm the Right.)
It should never be said that Socialism had hung up
the big thieves, but let millions of little ones escape.
Why, the various investments of this very savings
, bank capital had helped to foster the old system of
robbing the people. (Loud applause from the Left )
.None but a bourgeois can say a word against the
con scation of the savings bank funds.
The President here called the last speaker to order
for the grave o 'ence implied in designating a member
of the socialistic Parliament by the term bourgeois.
Amidst breathless suspense the Chancellor rose to
speak. Up to a certain point justice compels me to
.say that both the honourable members Who have just
spoken are quite right in What they have advanced.
A good deal might be said on the side of the morality
of these savings, but equally much may be ad-
vanced as to the demoralising elfects they have ex-
ercised in the form of accumulated capital. Let us,
however, above all things, never suffer a longing 100k ,,
at the past to divert our gaze from the great times in
which we live. (Hear, hear.) We must settle this
question as Socialists who know What they are about,
14 PICTURES 0F
and Without any admixture of sentiment. And in
view of this I say that to hand over 5,000 million
marks to a fractional eight millions of the popula-
tion would be a building up of the new social equal-
ity on a foundation of inequality. (Applause) This
inequality would inevitably soon make itself felt
throughout all the various branches of consumption,
and thus upset all our carefully conceived plans for
harmonising production and consumption. These fund-
holders to-day ask for a return of their savings : with
precisely the same right others might come to morrow
- those, for instance, who had sunk their savings in
machinery and tools, in business stock, in houses or
land and demand that their capital be refunded.
(Signs of approval.) How are we then to set bounds
to a possible reaction against the social order of things
now established? Whatever pleasures those persons
who had put by their little savings had promised
themselves as the fruits of their thrift, and their ab-
stinence, they would now reap a hundred times greater
reward in the consciousness of knowing that all alike
will ow share those great bene ts which we are about
inaugurating. But if you. take from us these ve
milliards, reducing by this amount the capital which
ought to work solely in the interests of the public at
large, then my colleagues in the ministry, and myself,
will be no longer in a position to accept the responsi-
bility of carrying out those socialistic measures Which
it was our aim to see accomplished. (Loud and long-
continued applause.) .
A great number of members had signi ed their in-
tention of speaking. But the President said it was
his duty to remind the House that, reckoning the time
spent on committee meetings, and that which the law
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 15
allowed to each member for reading and preparation,
the maximum eight hours had, as a matter of fact,
already been reached, and that under these circum-
stances the debate could not be continued before the
- next day. (Cries of vote, vote ) A resolution to
I apply the closure was proposed and passed. Upon the
vote being taken, the House, with only a few dis-
sentients, passed to the order of the day, and the sit-
ting was over
There were loud cries of indignation from the
gallery, and these spread to the street outside. The
police, however, soonmanaged to clear the space about
the House, and they arrested various noisy peisons,
amongst whom were a good many women. It is said
that several members who had voted against the bank
- monies being refunded to the owners were shamefully
insulted in the streets. The police are stated to have
made merciless use of their new weapons, the so-called
killers, a. weapon on the English pattern which has
just been introduced.
Within our four walls we had an abundant display
of reeentment and ill-feeling. Agnes rejected all en-
deavours to tranquillise her, and it was in vain that
my wife sought to comfort her with the thought of
the opulent dowry which the Government meant all
newly married couples to receive.
I won t have anything given to me, she cried
pettishly ; all I want is the wages of my own labour ;
such government is worse than robbery.
I much fear that to-day s events are not at all
calculated to strengthen Agnes hold on socialistic
principles. My father in-law has likewise savings in
the bank, and we darenot venture to tell the old
V gentleman that his bank book is mere waste paper.
16 PICTURES OF
He is far from being a miser. It was only the other
day he mentioned that he let interest and compound
interest accumulate ; we should nd at his death that
he had been really grateful for all our tender care of
him. In very deed one requires to be as rmly
grounded as I am in socialistic principles to stand such
reverses without in the least losing heart.
CHAPTER VI.
ASSIGNMENT OF WORK.
THE union between Franz and Agnes is suddenly put
off inde nitely. The police have to-day distributed
the orders relating to the occupations of the people,
Which orders are based partly upon the registration
lately made, and partly upon the plan organised by
the Government for regulating production and con~
sumption. . 1
True, Franz is to remain a. compositor, but, unfortu-
nately, he can t stay in Berlin, but is sent to Leipsig.
Berlin requires now hardly one twentieth part of the
number of compositors it formerly employed. None
but absolutely reliable Socialists are allowed on the
Onward. Now Franz, through some unguarded ex-
pressions in Palace Square over that unfortunate
savings bank business, is regarded With some sus~
picion. Franz will have it, too, that politics have had
something to do with the assignment of labour; and
he says, for instance, that in Berlin the Younkers
have been completely scattered as a party. One had
to go as a paperhanger to Inowrazlaw because there
was a scarcity of paperhangers there, Whereas in
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. I7
Berlin there are too many. ~Franz quite lost all
patience, and said it seemed to him that the old law
against the Socialists,'with its expatriation, had come
to life again; (Well, we must excuse a. little haste in
an engaged young man Who sees himself suddenly,
and for an inde nite period, cut off from the girl of
his heart. .
I tried to offer Franz a little comfort by remarking
that in the very next house a married couple had
been separated by the action of this law. The wife
goes to Oppeln in the capacity of nurse, the husband
to Magdeburg as a bookkeeper. This set my wife
going; and she wantedto know how anyone dared to
separate husband and wife ? It was infamous, and so
on. The good soul entirely forgot that in our new
community marriage is a purely private ' relationship,
as Bebel lucidly explained in his book on woman,
The marriage knot can at any time, and without the
intervention of any o icial whatever, be tied and
again untied. The Government is hence not at all
in a position to know Who is married, and who is not.
In the registries of names We nd therefore, as might
be logically expected, that all persons are entered in
their Christian names, and the maiden names of their 1
mothers. In a well-considered organisation of pro-
duction and consumption, the living together of
married couples is clearly only practicable where 'the
scale of occupation allows of such an arrangement;
not mice versd. It would never do to make the or-
ganisation of labour in any way dependent upon a
private relationship which might be dissolved at any
moment.
My wife reminded me that in old times appoint-
ments which were not quite agreeable to their holders
B
'18 PICTURES OF
had often been annulled, or exchanges made ; we
might anyhow make an e 'ort to get Franz exchanged
back to Berlin.
It occurred to me that an old friend and colleague
whose acquaintance I had rst made when in durance
at Ploezensee, under the law against the Socialists,
held now an in uential position on the Labour Organ;
isation Board. But on going there I found this de-
partment at the town hall besieged by hundreds of.
people who had come on a similar errand, and I was
unable to obtain entrance to the room. Fortunately
I encountered in the corridor another colleague who
is on the same Board. I told him what we had so
much at heart, but he advised me to let the grass
grow a little over the part Franz had taken in the
tumult in front of the palace, before applying for his
removal back to Berlin.
I further took advantage of this opportunity to com
plain that although my choice of the bookbinder s craft
had been con rmed, I was now no longer a master as
formerly, but only a journeyman. But he told me there
was really no help for this. It appears that in con-
sequence of the system of doing everything on a large
scale the demand for small masters is much less than
ever it was before. He went on to say that in con-
sequence of a big mistake having been discovered in
an account, there would be a vote of credit brought
in to appoint 500 controllers; and he advised me to
apply for one of these posts, or to try for a place as
public checker. I mean to follow his advice.
* My Wife s Wishes have so far been acceded to that
her services as attendant at one of the Children s
Homes are accepted. But, unfortunately, she is not
appointed to the one where our youngest born will
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 19'
be. They say that, as a. matter of principle, mothers
can Only receive appointments as nurses and attend-
ants to such homes where their own children are not
inmates. By this means it is intended to prevent any
preference being shown to one s own children, and
any jealousies Which other mothers might feel. This
certainly sounds very fair, but Paula} cannot fail to
feel the hardships of it. This is always the way With
Women, and they are so inclined to put their private
Wishes before State reasons.
Agnes is no longer to be a, milliner, but has got an
. appointment as a seamstress. There will be no great
V demand for ne head-gear, or geW gaws of any kind
now. From all I hear the new scheme of supply aims
solely at the production of all articles 6% moosse.
Hence it follows, as a. matter of course, that there
Will be but a very limited demand for skilled labour,
taste, and what more or less approaches to art in
trade. But it is all the same to Agnes, and she says
she doesn t care What they do With her so long» as she
'can t share her lot With Franz. They forget, as I told
them, that even Providence itself could not serve all .
alike to their full content. Then they should have
left each one to look after himself, interrupted Franz;
we could never have been so badly off under the old
system.
In order to pacify them somewhat, I read to them
~ out of the Onward a. statement in tabular form
dealing with the'selections of trades people had made,
and With the labour assignments to them. A greater
number of persons had registered themselves as game-
keepers than there are hares Within forty miles cir-
cumference of Berlin. From the number of entries
made the Government would have no 'di iculty in
20 PICTURES OF
posting a. hall porter at every single door in Berlin:
every tree could have its forester, every horse its
groom. There are a great many more nurse-girls
than kitchen maids registered; more coachmen than
ostlers. The number of young women who have put
their names down as waitresses and public singers is
very considerable, but this superabundance is balanced
by the paucity of those Who desire to become sick-
nurses. There is no lack of salesmen and saleswomen.
The same remark applies to inspectors, managers,
foramen, and similar positions; there is even no
scarcity of acrobats. The entries. for the more ardu
ous labours 0f the pavior, the stoker, the smelter are
more sparse. Those who have manifested a desire to
become cleansers of sewers are, numerically, not a.
strong body.
Under these circu1nstances,what has the Govern-
ment to do in order to bring their scheme for organ-
ising production and consumption into some sort of
harmony With the entries made by the people?
Should Government attempt a settlement by xing a.
lower rate of wages for those branches Which showed
any over-crowding, and a higher rate for those labours
Which were not so coveted? This would be a sub-
version of the fundamental principles of Socialism.
Every kind of labour Which is useful to the com-
munity(Behe1 always taught) must appear of equal
value in the eyes of the community. The receipt of
unequal wages would soon tend to favour inequalities
in the style of living; or it would enable the better
paid ones to effect savings. By this latter means, and
indirectly, in the course of time a capitalist class
would grow up, and thus the whole socialistic system
of production be thrown into disorder. Government
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 21
had under its consideration the suggestion to effect a
settlement of the dif culty by xing working-days
by varying lengths. The objection to this was that
some violence must then inevitably be done to the
natural and necessary dependence of various occupa-
tions upon each other. That matter of supply and
demand, which played such a prominent partunder
the old reign of capital, is not to he suffered under
any circumstances to come up again.
Government reserves to itself the right to direct
criminals to do the more disagreeable kinds of work.
It has furthermére adopted the counsel which Bebel
used to give, 062., that of allowing more variety of
work to the same individual. Perhaps in the course
of time \we may see the same workmen, during dif-
ferent hours of the same day, engaged in the most
diverse and manifold occupations.
For the present no other plan seemed feasible than
that of a lottery. The entries for each trade were set
apart by themselves, and from these entries the ap-
pointments required for each branch of trade by the
Government organisation scheme were settled by a
simple drawing of lots. Those who drew blanks in
the rst lottery cast lots again and again until they
got a trade; and in this way the vacancies were lled
up in these branches of labour for which there had
V been a scarcity of applicants. I understand that a
kind of labour they do not at all relish has, in this
way, fallen to the lot of a. good many people.
Franz says there always have been horse~ra ies
and dog-raf es and all kinds of ra les, but this is the
rst time that man-raf es have taken place. He says
that even at the very beginning the Government are so
at their wits end that they have to resort to a. toss up.
22 I ICTURES 0F
But can t you see, I said to him, that for the
future all things are to be arranged on an entirely
new and different basis? For the present we are
still feeling the after effects of the old system of
exploiting, and of the dominion of capital. Once
let the spirit of Socialism be fully awakened, and
enjoy universal sway, and you will nd that the most
arduous, disagreeable, and dangerous labours will be
the very ones Which will draw the greatest numbers
of volunteers; and the reason is quite obvious.
These volunteers will be sustained by the lofty con-
sciousness that their labours are for the good of the
public at large, and they Will no longer have the
re ection that they minister to the Vile lust of
gain of unprincipled plunderers.
But. I could not get the young people to see things
in this light. ,
. CHAPTER VII.
NEWS FROM THE PROVINCES.
ALL young men of the age of twenty are required to
enrol themselves within three days. Agnes brother
is among this number. The National Bulwark, as
it is called, is to be organised and armed with all
speed. The spacious buildings of the War Ministry
were to have been converted into a vast infant s
school for the sake of the ne gardens adjoining.
(This school was to have been, too, the scene of my
wife s labours.) It is, however; now determined to
leave things as they were.
The internal affairs of the country render it neces-
TIIE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. >23
Sary that the National Bulwark should be calledeut
earlier than had been intended, and also that the
organisation be on a far larger scale than had been at
rst contemplated. The New Provincial Councillors
are constantly sending'urgent requests for military
assistance to aid them in the work of establishing the
new laws in country districts and in small towns
Hence, it has been decided to establish at convenient
centres all over the country, a battalion of infantry, a
squadron 0f cavalry, and a battery, In order to en-
sure better security the troops are composed of men
chosen from districts lying far asunder.
These country beers and louts must be brought to
reason. They actually go the length of objecting to
the nationalisation or as the of cial term runs,,the
communalisation of their private means,their, pos-
sessions in the shape of acres, houses, cattle, farm
stock and the like. Your small owner in the country
Will insist on remaining where he is,and sticking fast
to What he has got, in spite of all you can tell him of
the hard lot he has from sunrise to sunset. People
of this sort could be left quietly where they are, but
then the mischief is, it would greatly interfere'with
the vast scheme for the organisation of production.
So there is no other-way than to compel these thick-
headed people by sheer force to see What is to their
advantage. And when the whole organisation is
once in full swing such persons Will soon be, convinced
of the bene ts that have been conferred upon them
by Socialism.
Upon its becoming known that all the big landed
estates and large farms had been declared State pro-
perty, all farm servants and agricultural labourers at
once attached themselves zealously to our side. But
24 PICTURES OF
these people are now no longer content to remain where
they were. A great desire for a change has come'
over them, and they all make for the larger towns,
chie y for Berlin. Here, in Frederick St, and unter
den Linden, may now be seen daily the most out~
Iandish-looking individuals from the remotest parts
of the country. Many of them arrive with wives and
families, and with the scantiest means. But they
nevertheless clambur for food and drink, clothing,
boots, and what not of the best and dearest. They had
been told, they say, that everybody in Berlin lived on
the fat of the land. I wish such were only really the
case!
But, of course, we can t do with these backwoods-
men here, and they are to be bundled off back to
where they came from, which will cause some little
bitterness. It would be a pretty state of things if
the magni cent scheme of the Government for regu-
lating production and consumption were to be made
sixes and sevens of in this fashion by a. capricious
wandering to and fro of people from the provinces.
We should have them at one time swarming down
like ights of locusts upon the stores accumulated
here, to the neglect of necessary labours in their own
parts ; whilst at other times, when the t took them
not to come, we should behold all the stuff that had
been got in in anticipation of their Visit, spoiling on
our hands.
It would unquestionably have been better if those
regulations which have only just been issued had
been issued at the very rst. According to these
regulations no one can now tem orarily leave his
place of residence without rst providing himself
With a. leave-of absence ticket ; and no one can make
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 25
a permanent removal without receiving such direc-
tions from higher quarters. It is, of course, intended
that Berlin shall still remain a much-Visited capital ;
but people are not to come and go in a capricious,
aimless way, but only, as the Onward simply and
clearly sets forth, in a manner which shall accord
With the earefully prepared calculations and plans of
the Government. The socialistic $tate or, as we now
say, the Community, is in earn st as respects the
obligation on all persons alike to work; and it, there-
fore, is fully determined net to permit any vagabond-
ism of any kind, not even any railway vagahondism.
Yesterday the Chancellor made another telling
speech in that convincing manner which, as the
Onward truly remarks, is so peculiarly his own. The
question had been raised in the House whether an
attempt should not be made to tranquillise the dis-
affected country districts by aggregating local pos-
sessions into local groups, instead of impounding such
possessions for the bene t of the whole Community?
These detached groups were to be called Local Pro-
duce Associations, each inhabitant of a district being
a unit of the local group. It is high time, said the
Chancellor, in his speech, that errors such as these
-errors which reach back to the time of Lassalle,
and which were fully disposed of at the Erfurt Con-
ference of 1891 sh0u1d be set at rest for ever. It
is evident that the results of the establishment of .
various Local Produce Associations would be to intro-
duce competition between the several associations.
Then, again, the varying nature of the quality of the
land must inevitably tend to produce gradations of
prosperity and non prosperity, and in this way to
' open a kind of back-door to the return of capital.
26 PICTURES OF
A well-digested scheme for the regulation of produc-
tion and consumption, and an intelligent distribu-
tion of the craftsmen in each several department
over the Whole State, are things which cannot admit
of any individualism, any competition, any personal
or local independence. Socialism can never consent
to do things by halves. (Loud applause.)
CHAPTER VIII. V
THE LAST DAY TOGETHER.
I HAVE had rather a bad time of it today with my
two women folk, my wife and Agnes. It was mother s
birthday, a day whose return I have for the last
twenty- ve years greeted With joy. On the present
occasion, alas! there was nothing but heaviness in
our hearts. To-morrow Franz is to set out for
Leipsig, and on the same day we must yield up our
other two children. Grandfather is to remove into
the Refuge for People of Advanced Years.
It Will readily be understood that there was more
thought of all these matters than of the birthday.
My wife s heart was full to over owing, especially at
the sight of grandfather. Socialism, said he, is
a calamity for all of us; I have foreseen this all
along. I tried to comfort him by describing to him
the easy, agreeable life he would lead at the Refuge.
What is all that to me? he cried, full of im-
patience. When there I shall have to live and
sleep and eat with strangers. I shall no longer
have my daughter about me to look after me. I
shall not be able to have my pipe whenever and
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 27
wherever the humour takes me. I shall be no longer
able to have games with Annie, or to listen to the
tales Ernst brings home from school. I shall never
' hear how things are going on in your workshop. And
whenever I become ill I shall be left quite to myself.
Old trees should be left where they are, and never »
be transplanted. And I am sure the end won t be .
long. in coming to me.
We tried to reassure him by promising to visit
him very often.
Such visits, said he, are only am doing of things
by halves. You are never alone and really at your
ease, and you are constantly getting disturbed by
other people.
We got little Annie, grandfather s pet, to do the
best she could, in her con ding way, to solace him.
The child was the only cheerful member of the com-
pany. Somebody had told her a lot of tales of all
the cakes, pretty dolls, clever dogs, picture-books,
and similar delights which were to be had' at the
Children s Homes. So she was never tired of talking
of these things.
Franz manifests resignation, and quiet, rm
resolution. But I don t like to see this in him.
It looks to me as though he were devisingsome plans
or other Which he is determined not to betray.
, Whatever such, plans may be I trust they are not at
variance With our socialistic principles.
My second son, Ernst, does not much betray what
. his thoughts and feelings are. Towards his mother,
however, he has been'especially tender, and this as a
general thing is not at all his way. We had meant
to apprentice him to some trade now, and he had
looked forward to this With much pleasure. He has '
28 PICTURES OF
3. skilful hand, and would push his way onwards at
a trade; but he has not made all the progress in
school matters that one could have wished. But
now it must be otherwise, as lads of his age, one and
all, have to be kept at school a few years longer
before they can receive a, technical training.
Upon everyone of her birthdays mother treats us
to a prime, juicy loin of veal, which Franz play-
fully calls our historical joint.
When you come to see me, as I hope you will
soon, said my wife, sadly, as the joint appeared on the
table, I shall not be able to set roast veal before you,
for I shall then no longer have a kitchen of my own.
y I have the greatest respect imaginable for your
roast joints, Ireplied; but it would never do to give
up our ideals on such grounds. So far from there
being any lack of roast joints in the future we shall
have them even more frequently than hitherto, and
many another delicacy in addition.
True enough, she answered; but we shall not
enjoy these things together. One gets his meals here,
another there. The distress caused to the individual
heart by all this tearing asunder is poorly compensated
for by knowing that the public at large live better.
I don t care a straw about the joint, but I do care
about the social life of the family.
Ah, I see, I said jocularly. It is not for the
sake of the penny worth of cake, but only for the kind
regards Which accompany it. Never mind, old lady ;
rest assured we shall not have any the less regard for
one another in the future, and we shall have more
leisure to show it than we have had so far.
Well, I am sure of one thing, she said. I would
a great deal rather work ten or twelve hours a day at
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE, 29
home for you 3.11, than eight hours for other people s
children, who are nothing to me.
After a short silence, she asked, querulously:
What I want to know is, why must things be
so ?
And Agnes, who always seconds my Wife when she
gets on to such subjects, repeated the question even
more querulously. Whenever these two talk a duet
there is very little'chance left for me, especially when
Franz remains neutral, or, what is worse still, keeps
odding approval to Agnes.
Have you then so entirely forgotten those de-
lightful lectures by Miss W., I asked, those lectures
on the emancipation of women, and on the equality
of women s rights in all respects With the rights of
men? You found those lectures at the time as in-
spiring as Bebel s book.
Oh, Miss W. is an old maid, they replied, Who
has never had more than her one furnished room.
She may none the less on that account he in the
right, I answered. The principle of equal rights,
equal obligations, irrespective of sex, constitutes the
basis of the socialistic Community." Our platform is
the total independence of the Wife from her husband,
and this end is to be obtained by securing to women
an equal and independent income for services done
away from their own homes; no more household
serfs, and no more slavish services on the part of
Wives or servants. Hence we endeavour to reduce
3.11 household work to a minimum by transferring
this as far as possible to great central establishments
conducted by the State. We must have no children and
n0 elderly persons about the homes, so that these, by
their Varying number in different families, may again
30 PICTURES OF
give rise to all the gradations of wealth and poverty.
These are the doctrines which Bebel taught us.
I dar'esay all that is very nicely and mathemati-
cally worked out, said grandfather ; but it can
never bring happiness. And why not? Because
humanity is something more than a ock of sheep.
Grandfather is quite right, cried Agnes. And
then she clasped Franz round the neck, and hung
upon him, and said she never had the least Wish to be
* emancipated from him.
Under these circumstances there was at once an end
to all reasonable argument.
But, after all, I wish 'to-morrow, with all its part
ings, were well over.
CHAPTER 1X.
THE GREAT MIGRATION.
IN place of the cab which we had expected to fetch
away grandfather and the children, a furniture-van
pulled up before the house in the early morning. An
ol cial Who accompanied it said that we had no occasion
to move out before the evening; his instructions at
present were merely to fetch the furniture.
Fetch the furniture ? said my wife in amaze-
ment. I thought that household goods were to re
main private property.
Certainly, my good woman, answered the man.
We are by no means instructed to take all the things
away. All that the Community lays claim to is what
is comprised in this list.
And. he handed us the inventory we had had to
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 31
give in previously, and also showed! us a. copy of the
Onward, with a bye-law 0f the Government, which
we had somehow, in the agitation of the last few
days, quite overlooked.
My wife remained like one petri ed, and it was
long before she could somewhat recover herself. The
of cial was meantime very patient and civil, and did
all he couldto reconcile her to the necessity of the
step.
My good lady, he said, where in the world are
we otherwise to get such a quantity of furniture
together as will be required for the many State
' establishments for the education of children, the care
of old people, the nursing of the sick, the providing
the people with meals, and so on ?
Then why not go to rich people, my wife asked,
to people who have great big mansions stu ed as
full as they can hold with the most beautiful furni-
ture 2
We do that as well, he replied, smirkingly. In
Zoological Gardens St, Victoria St, Regent St, and
that district there is quite a. procession of furniture-
Vens. All traf c for other vehicles than these has
been stopped for the present. No one is to retain
more than a, couple of beds, and as much other furni-
ture as he can stow away in two or three good sized
rooms. But even then we have not a suf ciency.
Only just imagine, we have here alone over 900,000
persons below the age of twenty-one who have to be
housed in Children s Homes and in schools. Then
you have another 100,000 persons over sixty- ve Who
have to be provided for at the Refuges. In addition
to all this, there are to be ten times as many beds as
heretofore in all the hospitals. Now tell me where
32 PICTURES OF
are we to get all these things from, and. not steal.
And tell me further what would be the good of all
these beds, and tables, and cabinets to you when
granny yonder, the young gentleman here, and the
little girl are no longer inmates of the house ?
My wife wanted, at least, to know what we should
do when they all came to Visit us.
Well, you will still have six chairs left, was the
reply. .
Yes, but I mean when they stay overnight ? my
wife asked.
There will be some dif culty about that, as you
will nd very little room at the new place! he
answered. '
It now came out that my good wife had suffered
her imagination to lead her into supposing that at the
new distribution of residences we should, at the very
least, receive a neat little villa somewhere at the
West End, and be then able to furnish one or two spare
rooms for our friends. I must say, though, that Paula
never had any grounds for letting her imagination
take these lofty ights, inasmuch as Bebel always
taught that domestic a airs should be on as small
and frugal a scale as possible.
Paula tried to nd comfort in the thought that
grandfather and the children would at least sleep in
their own old beds at their new places. She had
fully meant, in any case, to send the cosy easy chair
t0 the Refuge for her father s use.
But the of cial shook his head at this.
That is not quite what is intended, he said.
The collected articles will be sorted out, and the
best use consistent with tness and harmony made of
them. The furniture in these places would be some
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 33
What of a motley character if each inmate were to
bring his own lumber with him.
This only served to ' cause renewed lamentations.
The easy-chair had been our last birthday present
to grandfather. It was as good as new, and the 01d
gentleman always found it so comfortable and easy.
Little Annie s cot had been slept in by all the
children, one after another. It had been relegated to
the lumber attic, and brought down again, time after
' time, as occasion required. The large wardrobe,
which we subsequently gave up to grandfather, had
been amongst the very rst things we had bought
when we got married, and' this we obtained by weekly
payments. It took us no end of labour and economy
to get our few things together. The looking-glass
Was a. heirloom from my father. He always used to
shaVe himself before it. I remember knocking o
that bottom corner as a. boy, and getting a good
thrashing for it too. Thus, one way and another, a.
1 part of our very life s history clings to every .piece of
furniture about the place. And now all these things
are to become mere broker s gear, and to be scattered
for ever!
But our regrets were unavailing, and we had to let
them load the van with our furniture." Towards
evening another, of cial came to fetch away grand-
father and the children. But we were not permitted
to accompany them, the of cial saying with some
asperity, that there must be an end somewhere to all
these partings. And I cannot say that the man was
altogether in the wrong. The fact is, all this display
of feeling is not quitein character With the victories
of reason of modern times. Now that the reign of
universal brotherhood is about beginning, and millions ,
C
34. PICTURES OF
stand locked in a. fond embrace, we must strive to let
our gaze wander far: beyond the petty narrow limits
of past and vanquished times.
I tried to point this out to my wife when the others
had all gone, and Paula and I were left alone. But
oh, dear! it is dreadfully quiet and desolate in the
half empty rooms. We have never known quiet like
this since the rst year of our marriage.
I wonder whether the children and grandfather
Will have good beds to-night! my wife said pre-
sently. And whether they will be able to sleep.
Poor little Annie, indeed, was nearly asleep when the
man came to fetch her. I wonder, too, whether her
clothes have been delivered all right, and Whether
they have put her long night-gown on, so that
she won t take cold. The child has such a way of
kicking the coverlet off in her sleep. I had laid her
night-dress quite on the t0p of the other things, With
a. little note for the attendant.
I fear we shall, neither of us, be able to sleep a wink ,
to-night. It is only by degrees that one can get used
to these things.
CHAPTER X.
THE NEW CURRENCY.
TRADE is very brisk' with the photographers. All
persons between the ages of twenty-one and sixty- ve
years, that is to say, all those who are not inmates of
State establishments, have received instructions to
have their likenesses taken. This step is an essential
part of the Government plan for the introduction of
the new currency. The old system of bank-notes
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. V 35
and, coins is to be abolished, and so-called money
certi cates issued instead.
In a. leading article on this innovation, the Onward
very truly remarks that the Minister of Exchange
has displayed much sagacity and prudence in solving
the problem of procuring a means of exchange which
shall ful l all the legitimate duties of such a medium,
and at the same time not allow 0f the resuscitation of
a capitalist class. Unlike gold and silver, the new
currency possesses no intrinsic value, but it consists
simply of orders- or cheques drawn on thekState as
the sole possessor of all articles of sale.
Every labourer in theservice of the State receives
once a. fortnight a series of money certi cates in the
' form of a. coupon booklet. The name of each holder
is printed on the cover, and with a view to prevent-
ing the use of the coupons by other persons it is
enacted that- the photograph of every individual
holder be attached to his book of coupons. It is
evident that the Government orders regulating the
hours of labour for all persons alike, and prescribing
for all persons the same scale of remuneration, Will
prevent the return of social inequalities consequent
upon the gradations of faculty possessed by different
people, and the use made of these faculties. But, in
addition to this, care must be taken to prevent,
through inequalities in the scale of consumption, all
accumulations of value in the hands of such persone
as are of a thrifty turn, or Whose requirements are
small. This was. a. self evident danger, and, if disre-
garded, would in due time have the effect of produc-
ing a. capitalist class, which would, by degrees, bring
into subjection those less thrifty persons who were in
the habit of consuming all their income.
36 PICTURES OF
T0 obviate the misappropriation and misuse of
money certi cates, it is expressly understood that
coupons are not, under any circumstances, to be de-
tached by the holders, but that they only then have
their representative value when detached by the State
vendors or other similar of cials appointed for this
purpose.
All payments are to be made on the spot in coupons.
Thus, for instance, it is the business of the hall porter,
stationed in each house, to detach daily a dwelling s
coupon from the booklet of each person resident in
the house.
The new distributien of dwellings is to take place
immediately before the opening of the State cook-
shops, an arrangement by which the further necessity
for private kitchens will be obviated. When these
are opened, the equivalent for a dinner will be de-
tached by the Government o icial in the shape of a
dinner coupon; that for the allowance of bread (one
pound and a half daily, per head), in the shape of a
bread coupon, and so on. The several coupons in the
booklets represent, of course, different values, very
considerable latitude being left to the taste of each
holder as to how he likes to employ his coupons. All
purchases are to be made at the State magazines and
shops, and care is to be taken that the vendors in
every case detach none but coupons of exactly the
right value.
As each coupon bears the same number as the out-
side cover, and every holder is entered in the Govern-
ment registry, it is an easy matter at any time to
learn from the collected coupons the way in which
each person has expended his income. The Govern-
ment is thus, at any moment, in a. position to observe
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 37
whether persons spend their income on dress, or on
eating and drinking, or how they spend it ; and
knowledge of this kind must materially lessen the
dif culty of regulating production and consumption.
Every purchaser has the fullest liberty either to
apply to his own use such wares as he has obtained
in exchange for coupons, or to resign them to the use
of other persons. Nay, he may even bequeath things
to others. The calumny that has often been hurled
at Socialism, that it aims at the distinction of all
private property, is thus, as the Onward pointedly
shows, fully refuted, and refuted in a manner that
ought to make the enemies and calumniators of
Socialism blush With shame. Socialism never Wished
for more than to see such bounds set to individual
caprice as should prevent the formation of private
capital, and of a system of plundering.
Those persons Who, at the expiration of the fort-
night, have not used up all their coupons, get the
remnant entered to their credit in the new booklet.
But, of course, even there it is necessary to draw the
line somewhere, and to concert measures to prevent
these successive remnants heaping themselves up to
actual capital. A sum of sixty marks is regarded as
being more than suf cient to enable its possessor to
indulge himself in the grati cation of all reasonable
desires. Any more considerable savings than sixty
marks are forfeited to the State.
CHAPTER XI.
THE NEW DWELLINGS.
THE universal dwelling-house lottery has taken place,
and we are now in possession of our new home; but
38 PICTURES OF
I cannot exactly say that we have bette red our posi-
tion. We used to live S.W., at the front of the house,
on the third storey. Oddly enough, a dwelling has
fallen to our lot on the very same premises, only it
happens to be at the back of the house, and quite in
the back-yard, in fact. It is likewise on the third
storey. My wife s disappointment is considerable.
She had given up all thought of a. small villa, but she
still clung to the hope of getting a neat suite of rooms
on an elegant at.
I have always been rather choice in the .matter of
having a nice home. Hitherto we have had two
good-sized rooms, two smaller ones, and the kitchen,
for our family of six persons. True, the two smaller
chambers in which grandfather and the children used
to sleep can now be dispensed with, and the kitchen is
now no longer a necessary part of a dwelling, inasmuch
as the State cookshops are on the eve of being opened.
But I had none the less ventured to hope that at least
two or three neat and pretty rooms would fall to our
share; but instead of this, we have got only a small
room with one Window, and a little poky garret
similar to those in which servants used to sleep. The
rooms are, too, somewhat darker and lower than our
old ones. This is the whole extent of the accommoda- -
tion.
Not that I would by any means convey that there
has been the least unfairness. Our municipal body is
quite straightforward, and none but rogues can give
more than they are possessed of. It was set forth
only yesterday, at a meeting of the Council, that our
city has only one million rooms for its two millions of
inhabitants. But the demand for space for various
public and benevolent purposes has, in the socialistic
0 THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 39
Community, immensely increased, and the space
hitherto employed for such purposes only suf ces to
cover a. small, fraction of the present requirements.
In the rst place, room had to be found, in schools
and various houses of maintenance, for a. million of
people, young and old. Furthermore, accommodation
has been provided in hospitals for 80,000 people.
But it is clear that such public interests must take
precedence of private ones. Hence it is only natural
and right that the best and largest houses, more par-
ticularlx at the West End, have been appropriated to
these purposes. In the inner city, shops and maga-
.iines are crowded together, and many of the basements
of these are tted up as State cookshops for the
million inhabitants Who are not consigned to public
institutions. Back-yard premises in suitable situa- .
tions are being adapted as central wash-houses for
this million. It will thus be seen that the setting
apart of so much separate space for separate purposes
has had the effect of materially curtailing the accom-
modation for private dwellings.
At the commencement of the new regime it was
found, as already stated, that in round numbers one
million rooms were at the disposal of the authorities.
Of these, after deducting the requirements of the
various public institutions, some 600,000 more or less
smallish rooms remain, to which, however, must be
added several hundred thousand kitchens (now become
super uous), attics, and garrets. As there are one
million persons to provide for, it is at once seen that
the space allotted is about one room per head ;' and in
' order to observe the utmost impartiality inlthe disposal
of these rooms, they were assigned by lottery, each
person from the age of twenty-one to sixty- ve years,
40 PICTURES OF
irrespective of gender, receiving a. lottery ticket.
And, indeed, this system of ra iing is an excellent
means of regulating the principle of equality wher-
ever the essential features are disproportionate. The
social democrats in Berlin, even under the old regime,
had introduced this system of raf ing for seats at the
theatres.
Upon the completion of this casting lots for re-
sidences, exchanges of the rooms that had fallen to
the various ticket-holders were permissible. Those
persons Who desired to remain together, such as mar-
ried couples, for instance, but Who had got their
quarters in different streets, houses, or storeys, were.
allowed to exchange as best they could. For my
part, I had to put up with a tiny room, a mere cup-
board of a. place, adjoining the room which had fallen
to my wife s lot, and, in order to get this cupboard, I
had to give up my nice room in a neighbouring house
to a young man to Whom the cupboard had fallen;
but the main thing, after all, is that we do not get
separated.
Not that all married couples have, by any means,
yet been successful in obtaining a satisfactory ex-
change of rooms. There may be even some who do
not take any particular pains to secure this end.
Marriage is a private affair; and, therefore, of cially,
there can be no lotteries of larger dwellings for
married people, and of smaller ones for those Who are
p single. Vere such the case, then, the termination of
a marriage contract, for instance (which ought to be
attainable at any moment), might have to be put off
until single rooms for the individuals concerned were
procurable. As it now is, each compound dwelling
formed by the two halves to a marriage contract can,
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 41
at a moment s notice, on the, termination of the con-
tract, be resolved into its original halves. All you
have to do is to make a division of the furniture, and
the thing is settled.
Thus we see that everything in the new Com-
munity has been settled in a logical and sagacious
manner. All the arrangements guarantee full per-
sonal liberty to every man and every woman; and
how humiliated must those feel Who used to maintain
that Socialism meant the subjugation of the in-
dividual will.
Not that considerations of the above kind are per-
sonally of any moment to my better half and me;
whether happiness or sorrow comes we shall stick
together to the end of life s journey:
On our removal here we had, unfortunately, to
leave a. number of our things behind us. The new
quarters were too small to stow away even the
remnant that had been left to us after the day of the
furniture-vans. 'As a matter of course, we have
stuffed our little place as full as it will hold, so that
we can scarcely move about. But the fact is, this
old servant s closet of mine is so wretchedly small
that it is precious little that I can get into it. It has
fared no better With numerous persons. At the
general removal vast numbers of things were left
standing in the streets, for the simple reason that
their owners could nd no room for them in their new
dwellings. These things were collected and carted
away in order to augment as far as possible the still
sparse out t of the numerous public institutions.
However, we do not allow this to distress us in the
least. The problem is to supersede the old-fashioned
system of limited and meagre private existences, and
42 PICTURES OF
to organise, in the new society, the life of the general
public on such a vast and grand scale that all those
bodily and mental good things; which were once only
enjoyed by a favoured class, shall now be within the
leach of everybody. The opening of the State cook-
shops to morrow is to be followed by the opening of
the new popular theatres
CHAPTER XII.
THE NEW STATE COOKSHOPS.
IT was, indeed, a wonderful achievement that to-day,
in Berlin, one thousand State cookshops, each one
capable of accommodating 1,000 persons, should
have been opened at 'one stroke. True, those
persons Who had imagined that it would be like the
table d héte 0f the great hotels of the past days, where
a pampered upper class continually revelled in every
re nement of culinary art such persons, I say, must
feel some little disappointment. As a matter of
course, we have here likewise n0 trim, swallow-tailed
waiters, no bills of fare in yard long, and no such
paraphernalia.
In the State cookshops everything, even to the
smallest details, has been anticipated and settled
beforehand. No one person obtains the smallest
preference over others. The picking and choosing
amongst the various State cookshops cannot, of course,
be tolerated. Each person has the right to dine at
the cookshop 0f the district in Which his dwelling is
situated. The chief meal of the day is taken be-
tween 12 o clock and 6 in the evenings Everyone
has to report himself at the cookshop of his district,
A THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 43
either during the mid day rest or at the close of the
day.
I am sorry to say that I can now no longer take
my meals with my wife except on Sundays, as I have
been accustomed to do for the last twenty- ve years,
inasmuch as our hours of labour are now entirely
different. ,
Upon entering the dining-room an of cial detaches
the dinner coupon from your book of money certi -
cates, and hands you a number Which indicates your
turn. In the course of time others get up and go
away, and your turn comes, and you fetch your plate
of victuals from the serving tables. The strictest
order is maintained by a strong body .of police
present. The police t o-day their number has now
been augmented here to 12,000 rather gave them
selves airs of importance in the State cookshops, but
the fact is, the crowd was a very big one. It seems
to me that Berlin proves itself to be on too small a
scale for the vast undertakings of Socialism.
As each one takes his place just as he comes from
his work the groups sometimes have a somewhat
motley appearance. Opposite to me to-day sat a
miller, and his neighbour was a. sweep. The sweep '
laughed at this more heartily than the miller; The
room at the tables is very cramped, and the elbows
at each side hinder one much. However, it is not for
long, the minutes allowed fer eating being very
stingily measured. At the expiration of the meagrely
apportioned minutes~and a policeman With a watch in
his hand stands at the head of each table to see that
time is strictly keptmyou are remorselessly required
to make room for the next.
It' is an inspiring thought to re ect that in every
44 PICTURES OF
State cookshop in Berlin on one and the same day
exactly the same dishes are served. As each establish-
ment knows how many visitors it has to count upon,
and as these visitors are saved all the embarrassment
of having to choose from a lengthy bill of fare, it is
clear that no time is lost ; whilst there is also none of
that waste and loss consequent upon a lot of stuff
being left, Which circumstance used so much to en-
hance the price of dining at the restaurants of the
upper classes. Indeed, this saving may well be reck-
oned amongst the most signal triumphs of the socialistic
organisation.
From What a neighbour of ours, who is a cook, tells
us, it had originally been intended to serve up various
dishes on the same day. It soon appeared, however,
that there would be a manifest want of equality in
suchan arrangement; inasmuch as those persons Who,
from any reason, were prevented from coming in good
time would not have the chance of dining off such
dishes as were off, but would have to take whatever
was left.
All the portions served out are of the same size.
One insatiable fellow to day Who asked for more was
' rightly served by being heartily laughed at ; for what
more deadly blow could be levelled at one of the
fundamental principles of equality? For the same
reason the suggestion to serve out smaller portions to
women was at once indignantly rejected. Big, bulky
men have to put up With the same size(l portions, and
to do as best they can. But, then, for such amongst
them Who, in their former easy circumstances, used to
stuff themselves, this drawing in of their belt is quite
a good and Wholesome thing. For the rest people can
bring with them from their homes as much bread as
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 45
they like, and eat it with their meals. Furthermore,
any persons who nd their portions larger than they
care for are not prohibited from giving a. part to their
neighbours. '
According to What our neighbour thecook says, it
appears that the Ministry of Public Nourishment has
grounded its bill of fare on the experience gathered
by scienti c research as to the, number of grains of
nitrogenous matter and of hyer-carbonaceous matter
that it is necessary to introduce into the body in order
to keep the same intact. Each person s daily portion
is about one-third of a pound of meat, With either
rice, greats, or some vegetable or other, to Which is
generally added a plentiful supply of potatoes. On
Thursdays we get sauerkraut and peas. Posters an-
nounce what is to be cooked on each day, and these
posterso
(rive you the bill of fare for the whole week
just as they used to announce the plays at the theatzes
for the entire week.
Where, I should like to know, in the whole world,
has there ever been a people every individual of Which
was assured, day by day, of his portion of esh-meat,
as is now the case With us ? Even a king of France,
ruminating once on such matters, could form to him-
self 110 higher ideal than that on Sundays every
peasant should have his fowl in the steW-pan. Then,
too, we must remember that outside the system of
nourishment provided by the State it is left to the
taste of everybody to treat himself to whatever he
fancies both in the morning and evening that is to
say, provided. it be within the bounds of the money
certi cate.
i No more poor, starving, wretched,home1ess creatures!
For every man, as the day comes round, his portion of
46 PICTURES OF
beef! The thought of having attained such ends as
these is so inspiring that one can readily pardon any
tri ing inconveniences which the new system has
brought with it. True, the portions of meat would be
none the worse for being a little larger, but then our
circumspect GoVernment adopted the wise plan of not
dealing out, at the commencement, more meat than
had previously on an average been consumed here.
Later on these things will all be different, and in pro-
Cess of time, When the new arrangements shall have
more and more approached completion, and the period
of transition is past, we shall have everything on a
vaster and more magni cent scale.
But there is one thing Which hinders my pinions
t_iking the lofty ight they otherwise would, and that
is the concern Which my good wife shows. She is be
come very nervous, and her state gets worse day by
day. During all the twenty- ve years of our married
life we have never had so many painful scenes and
explanations as since the beginning of the new era.
The State cookshops, too, are not a hit to her taste.
The food, she says, is barracks rations, and a poor sub-
stitute for the wholesome fare people used to have at
their own homes. She complains of the meat being
done too much, of the broth being watery, and so on.
She says, too. that she at once loses all appetite by
knowing beforehand what she has to eat during a
Whole week. And yet how often she had complained
to me that, with the high prices of things, she was at
her wits end to know what to cook. Formerly she
was rejoiced, When we now and then took a day s ex-
cursion, to think she was released for that day from
the bother of cooking anything. Well, this is the way
With women, and they always have something to say
THE SOCIALI STIC FUTURE. 47
against whatever they have not had a hand in cook-
ing. My hope is, however, as soon as my wife shall
have paid visits to the children and her father at the
Benevolent» Institutions, and have found them hearty
and pontented, that that equanimity Will be restored
to her Which in old times never deserted her even in
our severest trials.
CHAPTER XIII.
A VEXING INCIDENT.
OUR Chancellor is not made so much of as he used to
be. I am sorry to see this, because it is impossible to
nd anywhere at more capable, energetic, and active
State leader, or a more thorough and consistent
Socialist. But, then, it is not everybody who is as un-
biased as I am. There are a great many people who
don t quite care for the new order of things, or Who
are somewhat disappointed in their expectations; and
all these persons lay the blame on the Chancellor.
This is especially the case With women since the
universal removals and the introduction of the State
- cookshops. There is even talk of a party of re-aqtion
being formed amongst women, but I am thankful to
say my wife is not of this number, and I hope to
goodness that Agnes is not.
The report has been assiduously circulated against
the Chancellor that he is at heart an aristocrat. It is
even said that he does not clean his boots himself,
that he suffers a servant to brush and clean his
clothes, that he sends someone from the Treasury to
fetch his meals from the State cookshop of his
48 PICTURES OF
district, instead of going there himself. Such things
would, indeed, be grave o 'ences against the principle
of equality; but it is a question, after all, Whether the
charges are true. ' .
Anyhow, this dissatisfaction which has clearly
been nourished by the Younkers, apparty composed
mainly of ighty youths for Whom nothing is good
enough, has just culminated in an outburst of public
feeling which was manifested in a very blameworthy
and ugly spirit. The unveiling of the new allegorical
monument in commemoration of the great deeds of the
Paris Commune of 1871, took place yesterday in the
square, Which was formerly Palace Square. Since
then the square has been continually beset by crowds
anxious to view this magni cent monument. Re-
turning from a carriage-drive, the Chancellor had to
pass the square. He had. almost reached the entrance to
the Treasury, when all at once, from the neighbour-
hood of the Arsenal, hissing, shouts, and general tumult
ensued. In all probability the mounted police (which
is now re instated), had shown rather too great zeal
in procuring a passage for the Chancellor s carriage.
The tumult increased in fury, and there were cries:
Down with the aristocrat; down With the proud
upstart; pitch the carriage into the canal! The
crowd evidently felt greatly irritated at the now rare
spectacle of a private carriage.
The Chancellor, with i1Lconcea1ed anger, neverthe-
less bowed courteously in all directions, and gave
orders to drive on slowly. All at once, however, he
was saluted by a lot of mud and dirt Which emanated
seemingly from a group of women, and I saw him free
himself, as far as possible, from this dirt, and noticed,
too, that he forbade the police to attack the women
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 49
with their truncheons. Scenes such as this, and
which'are totally unworthy of Socialism, certainly
ought not to occur. And I have been glad to hear
to-day, from various quarters, that it is intended to
prepare great- ovations for the Chancellor.
CHAPTER XIV.
A MINISTERIAL CRISIS.
THE Chancellor has tendered his resignation. All
well-intentioned persons must sincerely regret this
step, especially after yesterday s event. But the
Chancellor is said to be in an overwrought and nervous
state. And, indeed, this can scarcely be wondered at.
for he has had a. hundred times more thought and work
than any chancellor under the old system had. The
ingratitude of the mob has deeply wounded him, and
the incident of yesterday was just the last drop which
has made the cup run over. V
It has come out, hoWever, that the boot cleaning
question was really at the bottom of the ministerial
crisis. It is now known that the Chancellor some
little time back handed over to the Cabinet an elabor-
ate memorandum, Which memorahdum, hoWever, the
other ministers always contrived to persistently shelve.
The Chancellor insists now on attention being paid to
his memorandum, and he has had it inserted in the
Onward. He demands that class differences be in-
stituted, and says that for his part he cannot possibly
dispense with the services of others. The maximum
eight hours day simply cannot and does not exist for
a chancellor, nor could otherwise exist than by hav-
D
50 PICTURES OF
ing three Chancellors to govern in shifts of eight
hours each of the twenty-four. He urges that he, as
Chancellor,10sta lot of valuable time each morning
over cleaning his boots, brushing his clothes, tidying
up his room, fetching his breakfast, and similar of ces;
and that, as a consequence, matters of grave State im-
port, which he alone was in a, position to attend to,
were subjected to vexing delay. He had no other
choice, he says, than either to appear occasionally be-
fore the ambassadors of friendly powers minus a.
button or two on his coat, or to, himself, (the Chan-
cellor, as is well known, is not married) do such small
repairs as were too pressingly urgent, or too tri ing,
to be sent to the great State repairing shops. He
argues further that by having a servant to perform
such little of ces much valuable time would have been
saved to the public. Then again the having to take
his meals at the one appointed State cookshop was
very irksome, by reason of the crowd of suppliants
who daily organised a hunt after him. As for his
carriage-drives, he never took them except when, from
the limited time at his disposal, it was otherwise quite
impossible to obtain a mouthful of fresh air.
All this sounds, of course, very plausible, but there
is no denying that a proposition of this kind is
diametrically opposed to the principle of social equal-
ity, and that it would only too strongly tend to intro-
duce the system of household slavery once more. That
which is demanded by the Chancellor for himself
others might with equal right demand, and we should
soon have his colleagues in the Cabinet, and others,
such, for instance, as heads of Government depart-
ments, directors of the numerous State institutions,
mayors of towns, etc etc., making the same preten-
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. SI
sions. On the other hand, however, it certainly does
seem a pity that the whole vast machinery of the
State, upon whose smooth working such mighty issues
depend, should now and then come to a. stop because
the Chancellor has to sew a. button on, or to polish
his boots before he can receive someone in audience.
This is a question of greater moment than is ap-
parent to everyone at rst sight. But that such an
excellent Chancellor, and such a. consistent Socialist
should in the course of' his career be tripped up by a
stumbling-block of this kind cannot be too much re-
gretted.
CHAPTER XV.
EMIGRATION.
THE ministerial crisis called forth by the boot-polish-
ing question is not yet over. Meantime, a. decree has
been issued against all emigration without the per-
mission of the authorities. Socialism is founded upon
the principle that it is the duty of all persons alike to
labour, just as under the old regime the duty to
become a soldier was a universally recognised one.
And just as in the old days young men who were ripe
for military service were never allowed to emigrate
without authority, so can our Government similarly
not permit the emigration from our shores of such
persons as are of the right age to labour. Old persons
who are beyond work, and infants, are at liberty to
go away, but the right to emigrate cannot be conceded
to robust people who are under obligations to the
State for, their education and culture, so long as they
are of working age.
At the beginning of the new order of things scarcely
52 PICTURES OF
any other persons than gentlemen of private means,
with their families, showed any desire to get across
the borders. True, the working powers of these
people had been originally taken account of as a
factor in the general sum; but it soon turned out
that the labour done by such persons as had never
been accustomed to harder work than cutting off
coupons, or signing receipts, was of such little value
that further assistance from these quarters could well
be dispensed with. These people were hence quite at
liberty to go. The main thing was to take care that
they did not take money or money s worth With them
over the frontier. Then again, the emigration of
nearly all the painters, sculptors, and authors was a.
thing that could be viewed with the most perfect
equanimity. The new system of working on a grand
scale, and more or less on one and the same pattern,
was not at all to the taste of these gentlemen. They
raised objections to working with others in the
great State workshops, for the good of the State in
general, and to being subjected to the supervision of
of cials. Let all such malcontents go! We shall
have no lack of poets, who, in their leisure hours, will
gladly sing the praises of Socialism. It had been
intimated to artists and sculptors that they would no
longer be able to lay their works of art at the feet of
insolent wealthy upstarts, but would have in future
to dedicate them to the nation at large. And that
does not at all suit these servants of Mammon.
There is, however, one unpleasant fact in connection
with the emigration of all the sculptors, and that is,
that the proposed erection of statues to many of the
departed heroes of our cause seems to be delayed
inde nitely. Not even the statues of those memor-
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 53
able pioneers Stadthagen and Liehknecht are com
pleted. On the other hand, the clearance of the salons
of the bourgeoisie has placed avast amount of sculpture
at our disposal for the decoration of our meeting-halls
and the like. .
A word as to authors. These gentlemen Who
criticise everything, and whose veriy business it is to
spread discontent amongst the people, may, in fact,
readily be dispensed With in a State Where the Will
of the masses is law. Long ago Liebknecht used those
memorable words: He who does not bend to the will
of the majority, he Who undermines discipline must be
bundled out.
If all such gentlemen go of their own accord so
much the better. _
If this had been all, no prohibition of emigration
, had ever been needed. But the incomprehensible part
of the business is that it was observed that useful
people, and people Who had really learnt something,
went away in eVer-increasing numbers to Switzer-
land, to England, to America, in Which countries
Socialism has not succeeded in getting itself estab-
lished. Architects, engineers, chemists, doctors,
teachers, managers of works and mills, and all kinds
of skilled workmen, emigrated in shoals. The main
cause of this would appear to be a. certain exaltation
of mind which is greatly to be regretted. These
people imagine themselves to be something better, and
they cannot hear the thought of getting only the
same guerdon as the simple honest day labourer.
Bebel very truly said: Whatever the individual man
may be, the Community has made him What he is;
Ideas are the product of the Zeitgeist in the minds of
individuals.
54 PICTURES OF
Unfortunately the Zeitgeist under the old system
long went wandering about, lost in the mazes of error.
Hence all these mad notions about the superiority of
one man over another.
As soon as our young people shall have received
proper training in our socialistic institutions, and shall
have become penetrated With the noble ambition to
devote all their energies to the service of the Com-
munity, so soon shall we be well able to do Without
all these snobs and aristocrats. Until such time,
however, it is only right and fair that they should
stay here with us.
Under these circumstances the Government is to be
commended for stringently carrying out its measures
to prevent emigration. In order to do so all the more
effectually, it has been deemed expedient to send strong
bodies of troops to the frontiers, and to the seaport
towns. The frontiers towards Switzerland have re-
ceived especial attention from the authorities. It is an-
nounced that the standing army will be increased by
many battalions 0f infantry and squadrons of cavalry.
The frontier patrols have strict instructions to un-
ceremoniously shoot down all fugitives.
Our Chancellor is an energetic man, and it is to be
hoped he Will long continue at the head of a 'airs.
CHAPTER XVI.
EETIREMENT OF THE CHANCELLOR.
MY ardent wish has not been ful lled. The Chan-
cellor s resignation has been accepted, and the Presi
dent of the Chamber has been nominated as his
successor. It seems the Cabinet was not able to come
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. - 55
to a unanimous determination to accept the respon-
sibility ofallowing the Chancellor to engage a few
servants for his private convenience. The chief
ground for this was, that such an infraction 0f the
principle of social equality would lead to altogether
incalculable consequences. Hence the necessity for
the reconstruction of the Cabinet. Let us hear in
mind the danger we should run of causing the Whole
socialistic edi ce to come tumbling about our ears if
only one single essential key-stone were once tampered
With. It was in reference to this very identical ques~
tion of boot-cleaning that Bebel once wrote: N0 man
is degraded by work, not even When that work con-
sists of cleaning boots. Many a. man of high birth has
had to nd this out in America.
The Government was strongly inplined to follow
the method proposed by Bebel for the solution of this
di iculty in practical life, by turning increased atten-
tion to the question of getting clothes brushed and
boots cleaned by means of machinery. But the pro-
spect of having to wait for suitable machinery to do
all'such of ces for him did not seem at all to the
Chancellor s taste, so he has retired from of ce.
His successor is stated to be of a more conciliatory,
but less energetic, character; a man Who is determined
not to be obnoxious in any quarter, but to make
matters pleasant all round.
With somewhat too much ostentation, the new
Chancellor appeared to-day at the State cookshop of
his district, duly taking his place in the long row, and
dining when it came to his turn. Afterwards he was
to be seen, Unter den Linden, with a. large bundle of
old clothes under his arm, which he was taking to the
district repairingTShop to have cleaned and repaired.
56 PICTURES OF
CHAPTER XVII.
IN AND ABOUT THE WORKSHOPS.
I AM very glad that I have now received the appoint-
ment as checker which my friend in of ce promised
me some time ago. I shall no longer have to be em
ployed in the workshop. I only wish Franz had the
same good luck, and could get away from his com-
positor s desk. Not for one moment that we are
above our trades, but I know that Franz feels exactly
as I do, and the style in Which work is now done
in all workshops does not suit Franz and me a. bit.
One does not work merely for the sake of a bit of
bread, and nothing more. Schiller was one of the
bourgeois, but notwithstanding this, I always liked
those lines of his:
Tis this indeed mankind doth grace,
(And hence the gift to understand,)
First in his inward self to trace
All that he fashions with his hand.
Unfortunately, our mates in the workshops nowa-
days are not conscious of any such feeling. So far is
this from being the case that anybody would think
workshops are simply places to kill time in, and
nothing more. The universal watchword is:
Don t push on too fast,
Lest the laggards be last.
Piece-work and working in gangs have ceased
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 7 57
This is only natural, as such styles of working could
never be brought into harmony with the ideas of
equality of wages and of working hours. But what
Franz does not quite like, as he writes me, is the way
they have now of spinning the work out so. In spite
A of sure and regular wages, they say:
If the job
is not nished to-
«lay it Will be nished
to-mmrow.
Diligence and zeal are looked upon as stupidity
and perversity. And indeed Why should one be
industrious? The most diligent comes off no better
than the laziest. No one is any longer, so writes Franz,
the forger of the links of his own happiness, but others
forge the links Which shall fetter you just as it pleases
them.
This is the strain in which Franz Writes, and this
,time he is not so much in the wrong as he usually
1s. ' .
There is no describing the amount of damage done
to material and tools through inattention and careless-
ness. It would have driven me crazy if, when I was
a. master, I had been plagued with such a. crew of work-,
men as I now have to work with. The other day it got
rather too much for me, and, my patience being ex-
hausted, I made a. little appeal to them in these
words:
Colleagues, the Co111munity expects every man to
do his duty. We have only eight hours work. You
are all old Socialists, and you will remember the hope
Bebel used to have that, when the new order of things
came, the pure moral atmosphere would stimulate every
man to excel his neighbour. Onlyjust re ect, comrades,
that we no longer toil for capitalists and plunderers,
but for the Community. And everyone of us gets back
58 PICTURES OF
a part of Whatever bene t the Community reaps as a
Whole.
Fine preaching! they said mockingiy. It is a
pity we have no longer occasion for persons. Bebe]
promised us a four hours day, and not an eight
hours one. The Community is a large affair. Shall
I work and slave for the 50 millions whilst the
other 49,999,999 take it easy? What could I buy
myself With this one fty-millionth part of the fruit
of my additional industry, supposing I were really to
get it back ?
And then they all sang in chorus :
Is our Community not to thy taste 2
Get thee gone to another with all possible haste.
Since that, I have, of course, not said another word.
Franz has had experiences similar to mine. The
newspaper in their of ce is hardly ever ready for
going to press at the right time, although they have
half as many compositors again on it as in old times.
The longer the night the greater the quantity of beer
Which is drunk during work, and the greater the
number of printers errors.
Lately the foreman was unwe11,and Franz had to
take his place for a day or two. Franz on one occe-
sion respectfully asked the others to make a little
less noise, and upon this the Whole body struck up
the Marseillaise, taking care to especially emphasize
the words, Down with despotism.
There are still masters and foremen in the work
shops just as there were formerly, only With this
difference, that they are now chosen by the workmen.
When no longer acceptable to the workmen they are
7
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 59
deposed. Hence they have to take care to keep in
with the leaders in a shop, and with the majority.
Those persOns who, like Franz and myself, do not
altogether go With the masses, are in rather a. bad
x At one time they get badly treated by the
masters, and at another by the mates. And the
worst of it is, you can no- more get away from such'a.
' workshop than a soldier can escape from the company
in which his drill-sergeant ill-treats him.
The late Chancellor foresaw all this well enough,
but he was unable to alter it. The list of penalties
enacted under his leadership against all infractions
of the duty of labour is to be seen in all workshops
where it has not yet been torn down. In this list
penalties are threatened against idleness, inattention,
disobedience, carelessness, impertinence t0 superiors,
and a host of offences. These penalties consistof the
withdrawal of the money-Certi cate, the reduction of
the meat rations, the deprivation of the entire mid-
day meal, and even of incarceration. But where there
is none to bring a. charge there is no need of a judge.
Directors and managers are chosen just in the same
way as masters and foremen, and they have to look
to it that they do not ruf e those who elect them.
In those rare cases Where denunciations do take
place, the judicial proceedings are tedious, and full
of detail. Recently, however, a number of builders
got denounced by passers-by, who had their patience
tired out by the lengthy intervals of rest taken, and
by the careful scrutiny applied to every individual
brick. On another occasion, the inmates of an entire
establishment were transferred to another part of
the country. But, as a. rule, this transference to other
parts only arises from political reasons. It is on
60 PICTURES OF
this account that the Younkers are now agitating to
obtain for all working-men the same hermanence
Which judges enjoy in their of ce.
This matter of removal to other places has its odd
side. The principle of social equality requires that
every man, no matter Where he he, nds everything
precisely as it was in the old place. He nds exactly
the same wages, the same food, the same dwelling,
and so on, as those he left behind him.
Well, Rome was not built in a day. And this very
spirit of sel shness which we see so much of in our
workshops, What is it other than the evil inheritance
left us by a state of society in Which every man
strove to gain an advantage over every other man?
Our new schools and institutions Will very soon
' , create that moral atmosphere in Which the tree of
Socialism will grow and ourish, and extend the wel-
come shadow of its branches to the Whole human
species.
CHAPTER XVIII.
FAMILY MATTERS.
SUNDAY was such a Sunday as I had never spent
before. My wife got permission at last to visit little
Annie. It seems that the observance of order in the
Children s Homes necessitates the regulation that par;
ents should only see their children in their due turn.
How my Wife had pictured to herself the meeting
With her child! All sorts of cakes, and sweetmeats,
and playthings had been got together to take to her.
But to mother s great distress she found she had to
leave all these things behind her at the entrance. It
was forbidden, she learned, for any of the children
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. . 61
to have any playthings Which were not common to
all, because this would not accord with their educa.
tion, which taught absolute social equality. The
same thing applied to sweetmeats. Such things were
only too apt to give rise to quarrels and vexations,
and to disturb the regular course of matters in the
Home.
My wife was in perfect ignorance of these new
regulations, as for some time past she has been en-
gaged in the kitchen of her Home, and not in at-
tending to the children.
Then again, my wife had expected that Annie
would show morelively and tender delight at meet-
ing with her mother. But in her new surroundings
the child was disposed to be less con ding than she
had always been. True, the separation had not been
a long one, but there is a good deal of truth in the
case of young children, in the words, Out of sight
out of mind. Then again, the idea of seeing her
mother had constantly been associated in Annie s
mind with the expectation of sweets and piaythings.
But now she beheld her mother come with empty
hands. Childlike, she soon wanted a change again,
and she quickly got away from the embraces of her
mother in order to rejoin the other children at play.
My wife found Annie looking somewhat pale and
changed. This is probably due to the different way
of living, and the different kind of nourishment.
Naturally, the strictest order is maintained .in the
Home. But (and the same intention pervades all
our institutions) there is no super uity 0f victuals,
and the large scale of the undertaking does not admit
of any pampering of individual children. Children s
looks vary so rapidly, and were Annie now at home
62 PICTURES OF
with us, her looks would hardly disquieten the ex-
perienced mother. But, of course, it is a different
thing altogether When separated, and mother new
pictures to herself the approach of some disease
Which she sees herself powerless to contend against.
A conversation my wife had with one of the
Kindergarten teachers of the Home threw her into
considerable agitation. My wife was lamenting the
separation of young children from their parents, When
this person cut short her complaint by the abrupt
remark:
Oh, we hear these doleful complaints here daily.
Even animals, devoid of reason, soon get over it when
their young are taken away. \Vith how much more
ease ought women to become reconciled to it, women
Who are reckoned amongst thinking beings.
My Wife wanted to complain to the governor of
this woman s unfeelingness, but I advised her not to
do so, because the woman would be sure to have her
revenge out of Annie. She does not know what it is
to be a mother. And she can t even get a husband,
although, as I am credibly informed, it is not for lack
of having, on several occasions, made use of the
equality now enjoyed by women of themselves pro-
posing.
Before my wife had returned from the long journey
to the Children s Home, grandfather came in. It was
with dif culty that the 01d gentleman had found his
way up the steep and dark staircase to our new home.
I was really thankful that my wife was not present,
because her father s complaints would only have
made her heart still heavier.
To say the truth, they were tri ing and external
matters he had to complain about. But then, 01d
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 63
people have this weakness of clinging to old habits
and little ways, and in the maintenance houses all
such little things are, With some harshness, broken
through and swept away. Grandfather fancies, too,
his health is not quite so good as it used to be. Now
he has a pain here, anon he feels a. pinching or. a.
pricking sensation there, and is often out of sorts.
Externally I saw no di 'erence in him, but the fact is,
grandfather has now a good deal more time to think
about himself than he had in our family circle, Where
' there was always something to interest him and dis-
tract his attention. He used to be a. good deal in the
workshop with me, and here he would try to,make
himself useful. What he did was of no great account
but then it occupied him. The doing nothing is not
at all a. good thing for old people, whereas any little
work, no matter how light, keeps up their interest in
life, holds them bound up with the present, and pre-
serves them from sudden bodily and mental decay.
The poor old man felt quite strange in our tiny,
little new place, and he was much touched, too, by
the absehce of most of the old furniture. I could not
let him go back alone, so I went with him.
It happened, unfortunately, whilst I was away, and
before my wife had returned, that Ernst came to pay
us a, visit. Of course, he found the door locked, but
he told a. neighbour s boy, an old playfellow of his,
that an invincible longing for home had made him
employ an hour s freedom in rushing off to see his
parents. He can t somehow at all get used to his
institution. The everlasting reading, writing, and
learning by heart in short, the Whole business of
study is not at all in his way. His wish is to be put
to some trade, and only to learn whatever has re«
V 64 PICTURES OF
ference to that. And I have no doubt Whatever Of
his making a good craftsman. But our Minister of
Instruction is of the same opinion that Bebel was of,
that all persons are born with about the same amount
of intelligence, and that, therefore, they must all alike,
up to their eighteenth year (when technical education
begins), have the same identical training, as a neces?
sary preparation for the social equality of their after
lives.
CHAPTER XIX.
RECREATIONS OF THE PEOPLE.
OPEN~AIR concerts are continually being given in the
various public squares of Berlin. The new Chancel
lor is going the right way to work to make himself
popular. In all the theatres there are two perfor-
mances on weekdays, and three on Sundays, and
these are 3.11 gratis. As a matter of course, the
theatres Which our busy, industrious Community in
herited from the bourgeoisie have proved very inade-
quate in point of number and size. It has hence been
found necessary to supplement them by the addition
of various other large buildings. Amongst others,
many of the churches are now appropriated to this
purpose. As regards the 1atter,there are still to he
found persons here and there who show some scruples,
and Who somehow do not seem to be able to cut them-
selves loose from old and deep-rooted superstitions.
But it is perfectly clear that the churches have be
come common property ; and it is equally clear, from
the provisions of the law framed at the Erfurt Con
ference of October, 1891, and subsequently adopted,
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 65
that no common property can be devoted to ecclesi-
astical or religious purposes.
Naturally, no other plays are given at the theatres
than such as represent the glories of the new order,
and Which keep the sordidness of past capitalists and
" plunderers in lively remembrance. For any consider
able length of time there is, it must be confessed, an
element of monotony in this. But, anyhow, it shows
up the rightness of our principles, and ,thisris some-
times very necessary.
At rst, everyone was at liberty to go to any
theatre, just wherever and however he liked. But
this senseless competition is now superceded by a
well-devised organisation of the people s diversions.
It was found that the representations of classic,
socialistic plays were made to rows ofempty seats,
whereas in places Where special artistes were en-
gaged, the spectators were packed like sardines.
They used to ght almost for the best places. Now
all that isdi 'erent, and the Town Council distributes
in rotation to the various theatrical managers the
pieces to be represented. The several managers dis-
pose of the seats by lottery to such spectators as
have been apportioned to them for that particular,
evening and play, thus following the plan introduced
in 1889 at the socialistic Popular Free Theatre.
V There is a saying, Good luck in love, bad luck at
play. And we have experienced the truth of this.
As luck would have it, my wife and I have lately, on
three successive occasions, got such bad places assigned
to us through this lottery system that she could hear
nothing, and I found it just as impossible to see any-
thing. She is a little hard of hearing, and I am very
shortusighted. Neither of these qualities is in perfect
E
66 PICTURES OF
1
harmony with the idea of social equality as illustrated
by the theatre.
Dancing is another of the diversions which are
arranged every evening by the city authorities. The
entrance is on the same principle as in the case of the
theatres, and young and old are all equally entitled to
appear. The reform of the etiquette of dancing
seemed, at rst, to present some few dif culties from
a socialistic point of view. This reform has, however,
been earried out, and the equality of the ladies is now
thereby asserted that the choice of partners made by
the ladies alternates regularly with the choice made
by the gentlemen. Bebel says, indeed, that women
have justthe same right to seek that men have to
seek them. But the attempt to apply this principle
to dancing, by leaving it optional to each sex, in every
single dance, to solicit partners, had soon to be aban-
doned, as it was found that the order of the dances
was in danger of becoming involved in inextricable
entanglement.
Various interesting letters have appeared in the
Onwamd, which discuss, in a very exhaustive and
subtle manner, the question whether, in a socialised
community, in the dance, such a thing is conceivable
as a right on the part of certain women to men;
or vice 'ue'r'sd, a ,right on the part of men to women ?
The equal obligation all round to labour, as one lady
points out in the Onward, clearly entitles all alike to
enjoy the same recompense. One part of this recom
pense is found in joining in those dances which have
been organised by the State. No lady could nd any
pleasure in the dance without a partner of the other
sex, whilst it is even more apparent that no gentle-
man would dance without a lady.
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 67
011 the part of this lady, the practical solution of
the dif culty was suggested in the Onwardythat for
V the future all partners at dancing, irrespective of age,
beauty, ugliness, and everything else, be chosen by
drawing lots. She contends that precisely -as in a
socialised community there are no persons Without
work, and without shelter, so in the same way there
must never be any ladies at a. dance Without their
proper partners.
. But a professor of Modern Natural Law has sent a
letter to the paper expressing the fear that, in process
of time, this method of organising the selection of
partners in the dance might have unforeseen results
of an unpleasant kind. He fears it might in tithe lead
to a demand for the redognition of a right of marriage,
to a. demand that the State take the regulation of
marriage into its own hands, by a. gigantic universal
raf e of men and women. He is strongly of opinion
that, precisely as a. marriage~tie is a. strictly private
contract, made without the intervention of any func-
tionary whatever, so in the same way must a tem-
porary union between a lady and a gentleman in the
dance preserve the character of a. private contract;
and he deprecates the idea, of any master of the
ceremonies meddling, either by lottery or in any other
way, With such engagements.
As a. matter of fact though, I understand that a.
large number of ladies take the View that a consistent
social equality demands the abolition of the differences
between married and unmarried. These ladies have
lately joined the party of the Younkers, although in
reality they themselves are for the most part of a
somewhat ripe age. Anyhow, the extension of the
right of voting to women may materially tend to
68 PICTURES OF
add strength to the Opposition at the approaching
election.
Preparations are now being made for a speedy
general election. The vast number of calls which the
preliminary arrangements for the new socialistic State
made upon the time and attention of the Government
did not admit of the elections taking place at an earlier
date. The right to vote is possessed by all persons of
both sexes who have passed their twentieth year. The
system of election decided upon is the so-called system
of proportional election, which was adopted by the
Erfurt Conference in October, 1891. According to
this system, large electoral divisions, with several
candidates, are constituted, and each political party re-
turns to Parliament a. number of representatives in
proportion to the votes recorded for that particular
party.
CHAPTER XX.
DISAGREEABLE EXPERIENCES.
MY Wife and Agnes sit up until far into the night,
busy With their dressmaking in secret. The work in
hand is a. new dress for Agnes.
As checker, I ought by rights to denounce the pair
of them to the proper authorities for over-production,
and for exceeding the maximum hours of labour.
Fortunately, however, they are not amongst the fty
persons forming the section which it is my business to
control.
The two are even more talkative than usual When
engaged in this work of dressmaking. As far as I can
make out, they have not been able to nd What they
TIIE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 69'
wanted at any of the magazines, and so they are alter-
ing and adapting some other garments to their fancy.
They vie with each other in girding at the new State
magazines. Show-Windows, pu ing, and advertising,
sending out lists of prices; all this sort of thing, it
seems, has entirely ceased. There is an end to all talk,
they'complain, oi? What novelties are to be hacl, and
also to all gossip about prices. The salesmen appointed
by the State are all as short in their manner as the
of cials on State railways always have been. A11 com-
petition between shops has naturally ceased, and for
any certain given article you have to go to one certain
magazine, and to no other. This is a, necessity of the
organisation of production and consumption.
It is, of course, a matter of the most perfect indiffer
ence to the salesman whether you buy anything or
not. Some of these salesmen scowl as soon as the
shop-door is opened, and they have to rise from some
thrilling book, or they get interrupted in some other
pleasant occupation. .The greater the variety of
goods you Wish to look at, the more questions you
ask as to their make and durability, the greater does
the ire of the salesman become. Rather than fetch
any article from another part of the magazine, he tells
you at once they have not got it in stock.
If you wish to purchase ready-made clothing (in
this connection I may remark that all private dress-
making and the like, at home, outside of the maximum
eight hours day, is prohibited), the outlook is generally
a very poor one. The trying-on reminds you of the
dressing-up of recruits in barracks, the tailor being
profuse in his assurances that the number which cor-
responds to your measurement must of necessity t
you well. If any garment Which has been made to
70 PICTURES OF
order turns out to be tight here, or baggy there, it
needs all the eloquence you are master of to convince
the tailor that the garment really is so. If you do
not succeed in convincing him, you have either to take
the article as it is and make the best of it, or to ght
the State in an action at law. ,
Going to law is now a very cheap affair. As re-
solved at the Conference of Erfurt in October, 1891,
all law is now gratis. As a. necessary result of this,
the number ofjudges and lawyers has had to be in-
creased tenfold. But even this large addition is far
from suf cing for the requirements, as the actions
brought against the State for the inferiority of the
goods it supplies, for the wretched condition of the
dwellings, the bad quality of the food, the abruptness
and rudeness of its salesmen and other of cials are as
the sand upon the sea shore.
With the limitations caused by the prescribed eight
hours, the courts nd it utterly impossible to get
through the cases set clown in the calendar. Not that
lawyers and barristers can be reproached with any
Wish to unduly prolong suits. So far from this being
the case, there are complaints that since the abolition
of all fees, and since their appointment as State
of cials, lawyers scarcely listen at all to What their
clients have to say. There would appear to be too
great a tendency to settle all differences summarily
and in batches. Hence, many persons who do not
nd an agreeable excitement in the mere fact of going
tolaw, prefer, even in spite of the law s gratuitousness,
to put up with any iujustice rather than subject them-
selves to all the running about, loss of time, and vexe-
tion of bringing an action.
It is very sad to have to notice that dishonesty is
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 71
on the increase, even though gold and silver have quite
disappeared. My of ce as checker lets me into many
a secret behind the scenes which I was formerly quite
ignorant of. The number of embezzlements is now
seven times greater than it used to be. Of cials of
all grades dispose of goods belonging to the State in
consideration of some private favour or service ren
dered to them personally ; or else they neglect, in the
due performance of their duties as salesmen, to ex-
tract 3. coupon 0f the right value from the money-
certi cates of buyers, in exchange for goods supplied.
In order to make good; any de ciency which a. lack of
coupons would betray, recourse is then had to short-
ness of weight and measurement, adulteration of
goods, and so on.
Thefts 0f money-certi cates are also of frequent -
occurrence. The photographs with which these are
all provided have, in practice, not proved a su icient
safeguard against the use of the certi cates by other
persons. The promises and presents of all kinds
made to persons in high positions, Who have nice and
easy work to give out, or who otherwise possess in-
uence, constitute an evil which extends to the very
highest spheres. We never hold a conference with
our head checker without our attention being called
to some fresh dodge or trick in reference to these
matters.
, Hitherto I had always consoled myself with the
sure belief that things would get better as soon as we
had survived the period of transition ; but now I can
scarcely conceal from myself the fact that they get
rapidly worse. One of my colleagues tried to explain
the cause of this to-day. His explanation is, that
since people nd the utter impossibility of improving,
72 PICTURES OF
by honest endeavour and in a legitimate way, that
position of equality which has been prescribed for all
persons alike, their whole effort is now directed to
get, in a dishonest way, that which is in no other way
attainable.
CHAPTER XXI.
FLIGHT.
WE have just passed through terrible days. On Sun-
day morning Franz arrived here unexpectedly on his
way to Stettin, to Which town, as I take it, he has
been transferred. My wife appeared not the least
surprised at his coming, but she showed all the more
emotion at his going away again. She sobbed aloud,
hung upon his neck, and seemed utterly incapable of
bearing the separation from her son. Franz parted
from me, too, as though it were a. matter of never
seeing each other more. Agnes was not about at the
time, but I heard that they intended to meet at the
railway station.
' On Wednesday I chanced to read to my wife some
intelligence in the Onwa'rd, that once more a, num-
ber of emigrants, in seeking to evade pursuit by the
frontier guards, had been shot down by the latter.
She became greatly excited at the news, and upon
my saying, in response to her inquiry, that this had
taken place in the roadstead 0f .Sa-ssnitz, she fainted.
It took me some considerable time to bring her back
to consciousness. Presently she narrated to me in
broken sentences that Franz and Agnes had gone off
together on Sunday, not, as I had supposed, to Stettin,
but to Sassnitz, With the intention of leaving Ger
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 73
many altogether. From the account in the paper, it
seems that, upon the arrival of the Danish mail-
steamer from Stettin, the frontier guards at once
boarded the vessel, and attempted to drag the fugitive
emigrants back by sheervforce. The emigrants offered
resistance, and there was a sanguinary encounter.
They were anxious hours we spent bei ore our fears
Were somewhat set at rest by the appearance of a
new number of the Onwa/rd, with a list of the killed
and arrested. Franz and Agnes were not in either of
the lists, but what can have become of them?
My wife now related to me the story of the young
people's resolve to get away from the country. It
seems that Franz had some time previously con ded
to her his xed determination to leave Germany as
soon as possible, as he found the state of affairs un-
bearable. Fearing that my well-known respect for
the law might lead me to oppose his intentions, he
earnestly begged his mother not to breathe a syllable
of his plans to me. All her'refforts to induce him to
give upthe idea were futile. Seeing his determina-
tion wa s unalterable, the good mother could no lenger
nd it in her heart to oppose it. In old days, and
quite unknown to me, my wife had laid'by sundry
gold pieces, and these she gave to Franz to make use
of as passage-money on a foreign ship. V
At rst, Agnes had opposed the plan. She was
ready, she said, to follow Franz t0 the end of the world
if needs be; but~ she could not see at present, she
added, What necessity there was for their leaving all
,else that- was dear to them. But in a short time her
own circumstances became so unpleasant that she
altered her opinion. All this I have only just'leamt.
In old days, in the stillness and purity of the ma-
74 PICTURES OF
ternal home, the young maiden used to carry on her
business as amilliner, selling her wares for the most
part to a house in a large way. Now she saw herself
obliged to work in a big sewing establishment, and to
spend the whole day with a number of women and
girls, many of Whom had habits and principles not at
all to her mind. Her chaste maidenliness was often
shocked at a good deal of the talk, and at the famili-
arities between the girls and the male managers.
Sundry complaints she made only tended to make her
position still more unpleasant. Her personal attrac-
tions likewise soon drew upon her an amount of
offensive attention from one of the head managers.
An abrupt repulse 0n the part of Agnes only subjected
.her to those petty annoyances and harassments in her
work by Which a mean nature seeks its revenge.
I make no manner of doubt that there was plenty
~ of this sort of thing under the old system. But at
least there was then this advantage, that people could
make a change if anything did not suit them. Now-
adays, however, many of the managers seem to look
upon their workgirls as little better than defenceless
slaves, who are delivered over to them. Many of the
higher placed of cials see all this well enough, but as
they themselves act not a whit differently as regards
the abuse of power, they are very lenient in respect
of all complaints made to them. Under such circum-
stances the near relations, or lovers of maidens whose
honour is thus menaced, have often no other resource
left than to take the law into their own hands. The
result of this state of things is, that cases of personal.
chastisement, manslaughter, and even murder are
frightfully on the increase.
Agnes, who only has her mother left, had no pro-
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. . 75
tector in Berlin. Her complaining letters to Franz
in Leipsig drove him to desperation, and ripened his
resolve to no longer delay the exeeution of his plans.
Agnes coincided heartily With his views, and latterly
she and my wife sat up half the night to get all
ready for the journey.
At length the decisive Sunday had been reached,
that Sunday which had given rise to semuch anxiety
and painful uncertainty to us. The suspense was
terrible, but, at last, at the expiration of nearly. a.
week, the arrival of a letter from the English coast
put an end to our fears.
According to this letter the pair were fortunately
not on board the Danish mail-steamer. The sher-
man at Sassnitz, to whose house they had gone on
their arrival there, is a. distant relation of my wife s.
The letter went on to say that the inhabitants of the
coast about there are greatly incensed against the
new order of things, because by it they have been
largely deprived of the comfortable living they made
oi1t of visitors to the different bathing-places. Per-
mission to go to watering-places and health resorts is
now only accorded to such persons as are duly recom-
mended by a properly constituted medical commission.
Our wary sherman strongly opposed all idea of
taking a. passage by one of the mail-steamers, because
a vigilant look-out had latterly been kept on these.
Watching his opportunity, and availing himself of
the attention of the authorities being engrossed by
the affair of the Danish steamer, he put Franz and
Agnes on board his shing smack, and made for the
open sea. He took them up as far as Stubbenkammer
-> Point, where he fell in with an English goods steamer
returning from Stettin, whose captain readily trans-
76 PICTURES OF
ferred the fugitives to his vessel. The English, whose
trade has been very seriously affected by the new
order of things, never lose an opportunity of having
a slap at our socialistic Government by giving all the
aid they can to persons desirous of leaving the
country.
So in a short time Franz and Agnes duly reached
England, and now they are already on their way to
New York.
Poor children! What a deal they must have gone
through! And my good Wife, above all; my Wife
Who kept all her cares and troubles so long locked
up in her bosom, quite unknown to me! HOW shall
I ever be able to recompense her for all the immense
- sacri ces she has made as a mother ?
CHAPTER XXII.
ANOTHER NEW CHANCELLOR.
THE discontent in the country has now reached its
culmination upon its becoming generally known that
all concerts, and theatres, and other amusements in
Berlin are free. The inhabitants of every little
insigni cant bit of a place demand that the national
purse provide them with the same diversions that we
have here 3 and they base their claim upon the ac
knowledged social equality of all, and upon the right
of all to enjoy the same identical recompense for the
same labours. They say that even under the best of
circumstances they are still placed at a great disad-
vantage, as every Village can t have gas or electric
lighting, heating by hot-air pipes, and the like. '
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 77
The Onward attempted to soothe the feelings of
the people in the country by graceful and appropriate
references to the advantages of country life, idyllic
remarks upon the enjoyment of nature, and the sweet
freshness of the air. This was looked upon as irony,
and they wanted to know what enjoyment of Nature
there was during heavy rains, or in the long Winter
evenings ? > _
What fresh air do we get in the cramped little
cottages in the country, or in the stables and
shippons ?
Thus they grumbled in letters to the paper.
It was pointed out to them that it had never been any
different. They admitted the truth of this, but then
went on to say that formerly everyone who did not care
to stay in the country was at liberty to remove into a
town. Now, however, it was very different, and the
countryman was tied to his clod of earth until it pleased
the authorities to dispose otherwise of him. And under
these circumstances they must look to the State to pro-
vide them with just the same amusements as the large
towns had. They merely asked for equal rights for all,
and no more.
The Chancellor did not at all know what to do. The
wise government of a people has unquestionably more
knotty points about it than the cleaning of boots and
the brushing of clothes. This scheme of planning re-
creations for the people has been about the only thing
he has carried through. But with the best will in the
world he could not possibly have a band of music, a
circus, and a company of specialists at every street-
crossing. Pondering upon this business, the happy
thought occurred tohim tohave afew hundred thousand
,Berliners transferred to the enjoyments of the country
78' PICTURES 01'?"
every Sunday, and a corresponding number of country
people brought up to the attractions of the town. But
unfortunatelyforthis social equalitythe weather proved
very unequal. InrainyweathertheBerlin peopleshowed
no great liking for damp excursions into the country.
But the country people, Who had arrived in great num-
bers, naturally expected those seats at the various
places of amusement Which the Berliners did not care to
relinquish.
After the Chancellor had succeeded in thus setting
the townspeople and the country people thoroughly at
loggerheads With each other, his retirement was deemed
expedient, in order that the feeling against him might
not unduly prejudice the coming general elections. In
Berlin, as might be expected, the disgust at the stoppage
of all further free recreations is universal. Henceforth
places at the theatres and similar entertainments can
only be had against payment in the coupons of the
money-certi cates.
The Secretary to the Treasury has been appointed
as the Chancellor s successor. He is known as a. man
who goes straight to the point, regardless of all con
siderations, and he also has the reputation of being a.
good nancier. This latter quality will be all the
more welcome, as there are all sorts of ugly whispers
abroad respecting the disproportion there is between
income and expenditure in the nances of the social-
ised Community.
CHAPTER XXIII.
FOREIGN COMPLICATIONS.
THE entire navy left by the late Government is to
be got ready for service With all possible speed. In
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 79
addition to this, the standing army, which had already
been increased to 500,000 men with a. view the better
to maintain order at home, and to keep a, good watch
on the frontiers, has been still further strengthened.
These are amongst the rst measures taken by the
new Chancellor to avert dangers which menace us
from abroad.
In the speech which the Foreign Secretary made
before the Committee of Gevernment, and in which
he unfolded the above measures, he calls attention to
the necessity there is for them, in consequence of the
deplorable growth of friction, of complications and
dissensions with foreign powers. But it must dis-
tinctly be understood that the Minister for Foreign
Affairs was in no way reSponsible for this unfortunate
state of things. In the socialised Community it was
the province of this Minister to arrange with foreign
powers for the barter of all goods between State and
State. It resulted from this arrangement that all
complaints in respect of inferiority of goods, or un-
punctuality in supplying them, had to be attended to in
the form of diplomatic notes. All that tension which
sometimes ensued from the breaking o of business
connections, from the jealousies of competition, or
from similar commercial causes, and which formerly
had only affected mercantile circles, was now trans-
ferred to the direct relations which one nation had
with another. This is in the nature of the new
arrangements. '
The Minister went on to say it» had been hoped
that the almost universal consciousness of having
adopted right principles, and the sentiment of the
brotherhood of all nations, Would play a di 'erent part
than had been found to be the case in actual practice,
80 PICTURES OF
toning down differences, and bringing universal peace.
He said it need occasion no surprise that the English,
that egotistical Manchester race, and their American
cousins, would have nothing at all to do With Social-
ism. They never could get over it that the socialistic
European continent, by the repudiation of all State
bonds, shares, and so on, had shaken off all slavish -
indebtedness to English holders of continental scrip.
But even these inveterate lovers of money ought to
see that Germany had lost unnumbered millions more
by the repudiation than it had gained. This was
evident, inasmuch as all the Russian, Austrian,
Italian and other bonds in German hands had also
been repudiated by the socialistic governments of .
those countries.
These various socialistic governments do not thank
us a bit for having, in our lofty consciousness of the
international value of Socialism, accepted Without a
murmur the abolition of all claims for interest on such
foreign bonds as were in our possession. Several of
these governments have latterly become so egotistical,
and they show such a want of regard for us, that they
positively go the length of refusing to let us have any
goods except against either money down, or an equiv-
alent value in such other goods as they may require.
Payment in money was no dif culty to our Govern-
ment so long as any of those stocks of coined and un
coined gold and silver which had become worthless to
us'were left. But now that we have by degrees got to
the end of our stock of noble metals, we are constantly
coming across all kinds of obstacles in the way of the
exchange of our goods for commodities which we need
from other countries, such as corn, timber, ax, cotton,
wool, petroleum, coffee, etc. These obstructions are
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 81
not con ned to the snohhish gentlemen of England
and America, but they are every bit as numerous on
the part of the neighbouring socialistic nations; Our
requirements for the articles just mentioned have not
diminished one atom under our socialistic form of
government. Quite the reverse. But the neighbour-
ing States, With similar views to our own, tell us that
since the introduction of the socialistic form of
government they nd no demand at all for German
goods, such as velvets, shawls, ribbons, mantles, em-
broideries, gloves, pianos, glass and similar wares.
They say that since the restoration of the precise
balance, of social equality, they produce more of these
goods themselves than there is a demand for.
The English and Americans, in their enmity to
Socialism, are everlastingly drumming it into us that
our manufactures, from ironware and textile goods
down to stockings and toys, have so deteriorated
under the new system of manufacture, that they can
no longer pay us the 01d prices; and they say that
unless ah improvement takes place they will have to
look to other sources of supply. But even as it is,
With the enhanced cost of production, we cannot make
our trade pay. All attempts to settle an international
maximum werking-day have failed, as the various
socialistic governments allow particular interests to
in uence them, and pretend that in this matter they
must be guided by such special features as climate,
national character, and the like.
What is our Government to do in this dilemma?
The fact that we, on our part, now require no more
silk, and no more expensive wines from abroad, is but
a meagre compensation for the loss of our export
tmde,am0unting to many millions. It can occasion
' F
82 PICTURES OF
no surprise that the exchange of diplomatic notes
partakes daily of an increasingly irritable character.
Already, both on the West and on the East, hints
have fallen that the right thing for Germany to do,
seeing she seems incapable of maintaining her popula-
tion, would be for her to cede slices of the country to
neighbouring States. Nay, the question is even de-
bated Whether it would not be advisable, as a. pre-
cautionary measure, to lay an attachment on these
border lands, as security for the bill Which Germany
had run up for goods supplied to her.
Foreign holders of German bonds Who feel them-
selves injured by our repudiation, take every oppor-
tunity 0f indemnifying themselves by laying an
embargo on German vessels and merchandise. Then
again, the assistance given by foreign ships to fugi-
tives from our country, is a permanent cause of angry
representations.
In short, the hope that the advent of Socialism
everywhere would prove synonymous with the reign
of eternal peace between the nations, was so far from
being realised that the very opposite threatened. The
Minister concluded his speech by saying that the
Committee of Government could hence hardly fail to
see the necessity there was for the navy being again
tted out for service; and. it would doubtless also
sanction the increase of the army to a million men.
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE ELECTION STIR.
THE general election is at last to take place, and next
Sunday is xed as the polling day. This choice of a. day
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 83
of rest and leisure deserves the highest commendation,
as nowadays a. hundred times more issues depend up-
on the result of an election than was formerly the
case. Laws are everything in a. socialistic State ; the
law has to prescribe to each separate individual how
long he must labour, how much he has to eat and
drink, how he must be dressed, housed and What not.
This is already very apparent in the addresses to
constituents, and in the election cries. The number
of parties which advocate particular interests is
legion. Many of the addresses issued by the candi-
dates bristle With proposals for the reform of the daily
bills of fare, for the increase of the meat rations, for
better beer, stronger coffee, (since the complications
with various foreign powers, we scarcely ever get any
coffee that is not made exclusively of chicory,) for
ner houses, better heating apparatus, more splendid
lighting, cheaper clothes, whiter underlinen, etc. etc.
Many women are extremely indignant at the re-
jection of their demand that one half of the repre-
sentatives in the various divisions be of their sex.
The ground for this rejection was that the demand
was a reactionary endeavour to split up the interests
of the whole Community into. separate interests. The
women, however, on their part, fear that, by throwing
in their lot With the men, and having divisions com~
mon to both, many of their voters will in the end go
over to the men s side. They fear that the result of
this, coupled with the other fact that the support of
women candidates by men is not at all to be relied
on, will be that they Will be able to carry but a limited
number of candidates.
A large number of women, quite irrespective of age,
have now thrown in their lot with the Younkers,
84 PICTURES OF
end this party, the better to render the new alliance
permanent, hes inscribed upon its banner the right of
all women to marriage. These politicians are now
constantly appealing to Bebel s hook on woman, and
they want to make out that they are the real genuine
Bebelites. Their programme is A four hours maxi-
mum working-day; four weeks holiday in the year
for everybody, with a. sojourn at the sea-side or in the
country; the re-introduetion of free amusements ;
weekly change in the kind of labour to be performed ;
and lastly, the monthly duration of all appointments
to high of ces and of ces of State (including the of ce
of Chancellor), all such appointments to be held in
rotation by all persons in the State, Without distinc-
tion. The Government party shows considerable
con dence, although, in reality, the programme it has
issued does not go beyond ordinary commonplace ;
but it calls upon all other parties, as true patriots, to
forget their differences, and to unite and form a grand
Party of Order, in opposition to the party of negation
and demolition, which was stealthily increasing, and
which, under the enticing name of a Party of Free-
dom, sought to ingratiate itself With the nation. This
so-called party of freedom demands the re-recognition
of the right of parents to bring up their children,
abolition of the State cookshops, free choice of trades
and professions, entire liberty to move about as one
pleases, and a better recompense for the higher kinds
of labour. Now, it is abundantly clear that the con-
cession of demands such as these must of necessity
upset all equality, and be eminently calculated to sap
the very foundations of Socialism. The candidates of
the Government party very properly point out in their
addresses to constituents that the granting of such
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 85
demands would inevitably open the door to the re-
turn of personal possessions, the doctrine of inheritance,
.the sovereignty of wealth, and the plundering system
of bygone days.
But, after all, the amount of excitement shown at
the present election is strangely out of proportion to
the number and many sidedness of the election cries.
In old days people took a good deal more interest in
an election. People can now say what they think.
Following the resolutions passed at the Erfurt Con-
ference, in October, 1891, all such laws as tended to
limit freedom of speech and the right of combination
are now abrogated; but what is the good of a. free
press so long as the Government is in possession of
every printing establishment? What is the right of
public meeting worth when every single meeting hall
belongs to the Government? True, the public halls,
When not already engaged, may be taken by parties
of all shades of politics for purposes of public meeting.
Only, as it chances, it is just the various Opposition
parties that invariably have such ill-luck in this way.
As often as they want a hell or a room, they nd it
has been previously engaged, so they are unable to
hold a meeting. The press organs of the Government
are in duty bound to insert such election notices from
all parties as are paid for as advertisements ; but by
an unfortunate oversight at the issue of the money-
certi cates, there were no coupons supplied for such
particular purposes. The unpleasant result of this
emission is a total lack of all funds with Which to
pay the expenses of an election. In this respect the
Socialists were vastly better o " under the old style.
They then had large sums at their disposal, and it must
be admitted they knew how to apply them judiciously.
86 PICTURES OF
The Opposition parties complain bitterly 0f the
scarcity of persons Who, when it comes to the test, have
the requisite courage to boldly face the Government
as 0pp0nents,,either as candidates for Parliament or
as speakers at election meetings. The fact that every
obnoxious person may be unceremoniously told off by
the Government to some other occupation, or sent
away to a distant part of the country, may have
something to do with this hanging back. Such sud-
den changes involve frequently the endurance of
many unpleasantnesses and hardships, particularly to
people of riper years. Of course everybody has the
right to protest against a transfer which looks like
mere caprice on the part of the Government. But
how can an individual undertake to prove that the
transfer was not a well-advised step, and not justi ed
by other alterations elsewhere in the general labour
scheme, Which rendered this particular appointment
necessary?
The daily conferences which we controllers have
together, make it more and more clear that the minds
of men, both in the towns and in the country, are in a
bad ferment. It is impossible to resist the conviction
that the most tri ing cause might, at any moment,
suf ce to call forth a. violent eruption of popular feel
ing in favour of a restoration of the 01d order of
things. From all parts of the country reports are
constantly coming in, detailing violent collisions be-
tween civilians and the troops Which were sent out to
establish Sociaiism. The Government is not even
quite sure of the troops. This is the reason why
Berlin, in spite of the great augmentation of the army,
has not received any garrison. But our police force,
on the other hand, which has been picked from the
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTUREI 87
ranks of perfectly reliable Socialists throughout the
Whole country, has been increased to 30,000 men. In '
addition to mounted police, the police force is now
further strengthened by the addition of artillery and
pioneers.
The voting takes place by means of voting-papers,
Which bear the of cial stamp, and Which are handed
in in sealed envelopes. But in view of the system of
espionage in the hands of the Government, Which
penetrates into everyone s most private alfairs; in
view of the publicity Which everybody s life now has,
and the system of control that all are subject to; in
view of these things, many persons seem to mistrust
the apparent security and secrecy of the voting-papers,
and not to vote according to their inmost convictions.
In former times, somewhat of this sort of thing pre-
vailed in small electoral districts. Now, however,
every single individual is a spy on his neighbour.
There is, hence, a great deal of uncertainty as to
the result of the elections. If the nation gives eX-
pression to its real wishes, we shall see the return of
a majority bent upon a restoration of the 01d order of
things. But if these wishes are kept in check by fear,
we shall get a parliament which is a mere tool in the
hands of the Government.
I do not yet at all know, for my part, how I shall
vote. I fancy, somehow, that through my son s ight
a. sharp eye is being kept on me. I shall moet likely
end by giving in a. blank voting paper.
88 PICTURES OF
CHAPTER XXV.
SAD NEWS.
ANNIE, our dear, precious, little Annie, is dead! It
seems impossible to actually realise that the pretty,
little creature that used to frolic about, so full of life
and joy, is now all at once cold and lifeless; that
those young lips Which prattled away so sweetly are
110W for ever dumb; that those laughing eyes that
used to shine so brightly are now closed in the still-
ness of death.
And to-day, too, is her birthday. My wife had
gone in the morning to the Children s Home in the
hope of, at least, being able to see the child for a few
minutes. With a smile on her face, and her heart
brimful of joy, she inquired for Annie. A pause
ensued, and then she was asked again for her name
and address. Presently the news was broken to her
that the child had died during the night, of quinsy,
and that a. message to this effect was now on its way
to the parents.
My wife sank down on a. chair perfectly stupe ed.
But the mother s love for her child soon brought her
strength back again. She refused to credit such a
thing, to believe that her Annie, her child, could be
dead; there must be a strange mistake somewhere.
She hastily followed the attendant to the death-room.
Ah! there had been no mistake. There lay Annie,
our dear little Annie, in that still long sleep from
which no calling, and no kissing, and n0 bitter agony
of the poor mother will ever awaken her.
What avails it to enter into a long account of the
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 89
suddenness With which this malignant disease had
attacked her? It began with a cold which she had
probably caught at night. At home the child always
had a way of kicking off the bed-clothes in her sleep-
But yonder there is no mother s eye to watch tenderly
at the bedside of each little one amongst so many
hundreds. Then again, the prescribed ventilation
always causes more or less draught in the bedrooms.
Or possibly the child had not been properly dried
after a bath. In all these great establishments a
good part of the work must unavoidably be done in a
summary manner. It is likely enough, too, that the
different style of living had made the child a little
weaker, and therefore more susceptible than she had
been at home. But What avails now inquiry on
speculation? All that Will never bring our Annie
back to life again. '
How will my poor wife be able to stand allthis
sorrow upon sorrow ? The shock had such a. serious
effect upon her that she had to be taken in a cab
straight from the Children s Home to the hospital.
Later on they fetched. me. Annie had been the pet
of the family, the only girl, born some time after the
lads. How many had been our hopes, our dreams, for
her welfare, When she should be once grown up?
I must break the news to-morrow to Ernst as best
I can. It will not do for grandfather to get to hear
it at a . He can never more tell her stories as she
sits on his lap, as she so often used to, andesk again and
again to be told about Little Red Riding Hood and
the Wolf.
Franz and Agnes in America, have as yet no sus-
picion of our sorrow, and they won t get my letter
before nine or ten days. Franz loved his little sister
90 PICTURES OF
tenderly, and it was rarely that he omitted to bring
her some tri e When coming home from work. The
little rogue knew this well enough, and used to run to
meet him on the stairs as soon as there was any sign
of his coming.
And now there is an end to all these things ; an
end to these and to so many other things in a few
short months.
CHAPTER. XXVI.
THE RESULT OF THE ELECTIONS.
WITH heaviness such as this in the heart, all political
matters seem so immaterial and idle to one. The sor-
rows of the present moment make one regard all con-
siderations for the future with indifference.
Franz has proved to be right in his forecast of the
results of the elections. In his last letter he expressed
his belief that, in a community in Which there was no
longer any personal or commercial freedom, even the
freest form of government would fail to restore any
political independence. He considered that those
subjects Who are so dependent upon the Government,
even in the most ordinary affairs of life, as is now the
case with us, would only in very rare instances have the
courage to vote, no matter how secret that voting
might be, in opposition to the known Wishes of those
in power. The right of voting, Franz wrote, could
have no more serious signi cance in our socialistic
State of society than such a right has for soldiers in
barracks, or for prisoners in gaol.
The result of the elections shows that the Govern-
ment party, in spite of all the wide-spread discontent
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 91
there is,.has secured two thirds of the votes recorded.
And this triumph, moreover, has been obtained with-
out any special efforts on their part. The- only ex-
ception which must be made in this connection was
the transfer of a few leaders of the party of freedom,
and 0f the Younkers, which transfers were obvi-
ously made for political reasons,a.nd intended to act
as warnings.
Weighed down by the load of adversity which has
befallen us as a family, I relinquished my original
intention of giving an adverse vote, and sided with
~idle Government. Whatever would have become of
my Wife and me if, in our present frame of mind, I
had been sent away to some far-o little place in the
provinces ?
It seems somewhat odd that in the country, where
the discontent is at its height, the Government has
scored the best results. The only explanation is, that
as people in the country are even more underIlsur-
veillance than is the case in thickly-populated towns,
they are still more reticent in giving expression to
opposition views than townspeople are. In addition
to this, the recent increase of the army has sent some
terror into men s hearts in the disaffected districts;
In Berlin, the Government party is in a. minority.
And as, according to the system of proportional
election now adopted, Berlin forms only one electoral
division, the vote of our city is on the side of the
Party of Freedom. .
The Younkers have come off very badly, and, in
spite of the strong support given them by the
'Woman s Universal Wedlock League, have only suc-
ceeded in returning one candidate. It seems pretty
clear that the nation has no desire to see any addi-
92 PICTURES OF
tions made to the socialistic edi ce now erected.
And even this one candidate would scarcely have
been returned but for the help of friends belonging to
the Party of Freedom, Who supported his election
because of the vigorous attacks he made on the
Government.
The Party of Freedom, or the Friends of Freedom,
as they also style themselves, have obtained nearly
one-third of the total number of votes recorded
throughout the whole country. And this result has
been obtained in spite of all the efforts made by the
Government side to brand them as a party of demoli-
tion, and one that sought only to undermine the
established order of society.
The relative measure of success which this party
has obtained is largely owing to the support given by
women voters, and, indeed, these latter have shown a,
good deal more activity in the elections than the
voters of the rougher sex. They have made no secret
of the bitterness they feel at the present state of
things, and of their chagrin at the restrictions placed
upon private and domestic affairs.
In particular, the regulation rendering it possible
at any moment to give notice of the dissolution of
marriage, had the effect of making a large number of
deserted Wives specially active in the distribution of
voting-papers, and in bringing dilatory voters up to
the poll.
Of lady candidates only one has been returned to
Parliament, this one being the wife of the new
Chancellor. This lady is not an adherent of the
Government party, but calls herself an entirely in-
dependent member. In her election speeches she has
repeatedly assured her hearers that she would, in
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 93
Parliament, follow exactly the same course she had
always adopted at home, both towards her present
husband, and towards the husbands she has had
before, and plainly speak out her mind whenever the
welfare of the nation seemed to require it. The
Government party did not care to oppose the election
of this lady, partly out of courtesy to the Chancellor,
and partly in order that her return might serve as an
illustration of the equality of women s rights with
» those of'men.
CHAPTER XXVII.
A LARGE DEFICIT.
A DEFICIT of a milliard per month 1. A thousand
~million marks expenditure over income per month!
That was the disagreeable message with which the
Chancellor greeted the assembling of the new Parlia-
ment. The only wonder is that this could be kept
secret until after the elections. But it is now high
time to look into this matter, and see that some im-
provement
18 made.
For a long time past there have been signs in all
directions that something or other was wrong. When
going to make purchases you were told, only too
often, that such and such an article had just run out
of stock, and that a. fresh supply would not come in
for some little time. It now comes out, however, that
this was due, not to an increase in the demand, but to
a decrease in the supply. Things got so bad that
there was often the greatest dif culty experienced in
obtaining. the most indispensable articles of clothing.
y
94 PICTURES OF
In the case of other' articles of daily use you had
frequently either to go without, or to put up with
the most old fashioned and antiquated things which
had been left on hand ever so long. All import
goods, such as coffee, petroleum, farinaceous foods,
and so on, were so high in price as to be scarcely
procurable.
Indeed, in no respects can it be said that the
people have lived in luxury and riot. At dinner, the
meat rations have remained nominally the same as at
rst, viz. one-third of a pound per head. But,
latterly, there have been unpleasant innovations in
respect of including bone, gristle, fat and similar un-
pro table matter in the gross weight of the rations.
The vegetable part of the bill of fare has been also
much simpli ed, and is now restricted to potatoes,
peas, beans, and lentils. On Bebel day the increased
meat ration and the free glass of beer which had been
looked for were conspicuous by their absence. The
strictest economy extends even to the matter of
pepper, salt, and spices. On all hands there are com-
plaints that the tastelessness and sameness of the
dishes are such as to produce nausea, even in those
who have the most robust appetites. What little
conversation there is at meal times tends more and
more in the direction of talk about sickness and
internal complaints.
So far as appearances seem to indicate, our popu-
lation, in spite of the considerable emigration which
has taken place, may count upon a rapid increase as
a result of the undertaking on the part of the State to
bring up all children free of cost. But notwithstand-
ing this, no measures are taken to meet the demand,
and even here in Berlin there is scarcely any building
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 95
going on. Even the most indispensable repairs are
constantly being postponed. No longer is there a
syllable dropped about alterations and improvements
anywhere; about the renewal of machinery and stores ;
about the building of mew mills, or works, or the
enlargement of old ones ; or about the construction of
new railways.
All stores for daily consumption seem to have
dwindled down to a minimum. The only stocks we
have are of such things that there is little or no de-
mand for. What other stocks there are consist of
such goods as we formerly sent abroad, but which
there is now, especially in socialistic countries, no
longer any sale for. These goods are gloves, silks,
velvets, pianos, Wines, embroidered and fancy goods,
etc. etc. All such articles may now be had in the
home-markets at less than cost price, for the mere
sake of getting rid of them.
From month to month the de cit seems to grow
greater instead of less, in spite of all attempts to
grapple With the di culty. Even the stocks of raw
material and auxiliary material begin to show signs
of not being long able to keep the various works fully
going. Foreign merchants everywhere have ceased
sending any goods to Germany on credit, or otherwise
than against an immediate exehange of goods to the
same value.
Unpromising as this state of affairs looks, the Gov-
ernment cannot really be reproached With having re-
gulated consumption without a. due amount of previous
forethought. From the statement made at the open-
ing of the new Parliament, it seems that, from pretty
accurate calculations made, the value of the entire
productivity of the country, immediately anterior to y
96 PICTURES OF
the Revolution, had been from 17 to 18 emilliards of
marks annually. The GoVernment took this as a.
basis, and did not even calculate on' any possible in~
crease in the value of the nation s productivity under
a new system of things. It simply went on the
assumption that this value would remain at least the
same, and would not diminish through the maximum
working-day being xed at eight hours. The calcu-
lation of the amount of consumption per head of the
population was based upon this assumption. But
even if the Government had proved right, it is quite
evident that the majority of the nation has so far not
been placed on a better footing, but on a. worse one,
than it was in before the great Revolution, to say
nothing of all the restrictions placed upon personal
and commercial liberty.
A short time, however, su iced' to show that the
value of the nation s productiveness sank down to
one-third of what it had formerly been. From 18
milliard marks a year it went down to six milliards,
or from one and a. half milliards per month to half a.
milliard. In this way we have a de cit of a milliard
per month. In four months this amounts to a loss
equal to the war contribution Which France had to
pay to Germany in the great war of past days.
What will this land. us in? and Where are we to
100k for help? The next sitting of Parliament is
awaited With considerable excitement and interest, as
the Chancellor intends then to go into the reasons of
- the de cit.
~_ THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 97
CHAPTER XXVIII.
DOMEsi ie AFFAIRS.
I FIND myself still quite solitary athome, a thing I
have never known since I was a single young man.
My poor Wife still lingers on at the hospital, and
the doctor lately asked me to make as few visits as I
possibly could to her, so that she might be kept from
all excitement. - For she no sooner sees me than she
throws her arms passionately round my neck, as
though I had just 'been rescued from some alarming.
danger. When I have to leave her there is a renewal
of these agitating scenes, and it is long before she can
reconcile her selfto the idea of my going. After the
conversations we have had together, her thoughts
. naturally wander back to me and the other members
of the family; and the more she suffers them to run
in» this groove the more anxiety and uncertainty does
she feel on our account. She is constantly fancying
us exposed to all kinds of dreadful persecutions and
perils, and is afraid of never seeing us more. The
shook her system sustained through the death of our
little daughter, and through the events connected
With/the ight of Franz and Agnes, still affects her
most severely.
My Wish was to consultkour former doctor on her
case.~ He knows her system thoroughly well, as he
has attended her, when occasion required, ever Since
our marriage. When I called upon him he had just
returned from a youthful suicide, Whom he had in
vain endeavoured to call back to life. He told me
he was extremely sorry to say that his eight hours
a
98 PICTURES OF
maximum working day had just expired, and that
such being the case, he was unable, although much
against his Will, and in spite of the friendship be-
tween us, to give any more medical advice on that
day. He told me that he had already, on two
occasions, been denounced by a younger colleague,
who was not able to render a su icient number of
coupons to the State Book-keeping Department, to
prove that he had been engaged professionally for
eight hours each day. This young man had laid an
information against him for exceeding the hours of
labour, and he had been heavily ned for over-
production.
Commenting upon the case he had just returned
from, the 01d gentleman enlarged upon the frightful
increase in the number of suicides in the socialistic
Community. I asked him whether this one had been
a case of unrequited love. He replied in the negative,
but went on to say that such cases did sometimes
occur, precisely as formerly, as it would scarcely do
to prohibit women by act of Parliament from reject-
ing proposals which were not agreeable to them.
The old gentleman who, in his younger days, had
been an army surgeon, attributed the increase in the
number of suicides to other causes. He told me he
had frequently observed that a considerable number
of such suicides as took place in the army arose from
the simple fact that many young men, although they
felt perfectly content in all other respects, found the
unaccustomed restraints of military life utterly un-
bearable. These young men found life under such
circumstances unendurable, even although they knew
that in the course of two or three years they would
return to their accustomed freedom. Hence, it was
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 99
no wonder, he continued, that the irksome and life-
long restrictions of personal freedom which have re-
sulted from, the new organisation of production and
consumption, together with the idea of the absolute
social equality of all, should have had the effect with
many persons, and those by no means of an inferior
/ order, of so far robbing life of all its charms, that at
last they had recourse to suicide as the only way of
escape from the restraints of a dreary and monotonous
existence, which all their efforts were powerless to
alter. It is very possible the old gentleman is not
altogether in the wrong.
' It is cheering to re ect that we have good news
from Franz and Agnes in America. This is the only
ray of sunshine in my life. They write that they have
already left the boarding house in New York, in which
they stayed immediately after their marriage, and
have managed to get a humble little home together.
Through being an excellent hand at his trade, and
throughhis honourable character, Franz has become
foreman in a rst-class printing concern. Agnes
works for a large millinery establishment, and it
seems that the wages in this branch have gone up
considerably in America. since the competition on the
part of Germany has fallen so seriously in arrears.
Thus, by economy, they are enabled to buy one thing
after another for their cosy home. Franz was terribly
upset by the news of his little sister s death, and he
much wants me to send Ernst over to him, and pro
mises to provide for his future.
No words could describe how sorry I feel for
Ernst at his school. And, in fact, as a general thing,
one hears nothing but unfavourable accounts of these
schools, more particularly of those which are occupied
IOO PICTURES OF
by young men of from eighteen to twenty-One years
of age. These young men all know that upon the
completion of their twenty- rst year, irrespective of
what they have learnt, or Whether they have learnt
much or little, precisely the same fate awaits them all.
They know they will nd exactly the same course
prescribed for them that is prescribed for all alike,
and that no efforts 0r talents Will ever avail to enable
them to pass beyond that prescribed course. They
know, further, that the fact of their tastes lying in
this or that particular direction, affords not the
slightest guarantee of their receiving an appointment
in accordance With those tastes, or even in any ap-
proximate accordance With them. The result is, that
almost without exception they run into all sorts of
extravagance and excess, so that lately such ,severe
measures had to be taken for keeping; them within
bounds as could scarcely be surpassed in reformatories.
But in spite of all this, I dare not yet venture to
Whisper a word to Ernst about ight. Even if I
could devise a sure way of getting the young fellow
on board a foreign vessel, and supposing I had any
means of recouping Franz for the expense of the
journey, I should still feel incapable of taking such a
decisive step for Ernst s future, Without his mother s
full acquiescence. And to talk to her of such a thing,
in her present frame of mind, might be her death.
CHAPTER XXIX.
A STORMY PARLIAMENTARY SITTING.
I HAVE not been in the House since the debate on the
savings bank question. It will be remembered that
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 101
this was prior to the recent general election, and that
the House, or as it was styled, the Committee of G0-
vernment, was then composed exclusively of those
members of the Socialist party who had sat before the
Revolution, the seats of all the members of the various
other parties having been declared vacant, in con-
sideration of the fact that all such members had been
returned through the in uence of capital. To-day,
however, the newly elected opponents of Socialism
sat in their places, occupying the entire left side of the
House, and numbering about one-third of the seats.
The only lady member who has been returned, the
Chancellor s wife, set in the middle of the front Op-
position bench. She is a ne, dashing woman, with
plenty of energy: to my thinking she was perhaps a
tri e coquettishly attired for the occasion. She fol-
lowed her husband s speech with marked attention, at
one time nodding approval, and at another shaking her
head she wore ringlets, and had red ribbons in her
hair to denote dissent.
The Government side of the House lay under a very
apparent cloud of depression, resulting from the news
of the large de cit. The Opposition, V on the other
hand, was very lively in its sallies. The strangers
galleries were densely packed, the number of women
present being especially large, and the excitement
everywhere considerable.
A debate on the condition of the national nances
was down for the order of the day, and I will endeav-
our to reproduce here the main points of the debate
as to the causes of the great de cit. The rst speaker
was
The Chaneellor The fact of a considerable dimi-
nution in productive values having taken place in our
I 02 PICTURES OF
country, a diminution so great that those values are
now only one-third of what they were before the great
Revolution, is a, fact that it ill becomes us either to
be-laugh or to be~weep, but which we must all endeav-
our to grasp and to comprehend. Prominent amongst»
the causes of that retrogression are the opponents of
our socialistic system.
The Member for Hagen, 0n the Left Oh, oh.
The Chancellor I need scarcely remind the Mem-
ber for Hagen that in order to establish Socialism in
the country, we have been under the necessity of in-
creasing the police force more than tenfold. In addition
to this, we have seen the expediency of doubling the
strength of the navy, and of the standing army, so
that these forces might be in a position to render
adequate support to the police in their work of main-
taining order and preventing emigration, and might
also constitute a suf cient bulwark against dangers
from abroad. Furthermore, the declaring void all
State bonds and values on the part of the various
socialistic governments of Europe, has necessarily
affected whatever German capital was invested in those
countries, and in this way greatly tended to lessen our
income. Our export trade has fallen Off to an alarm
ing extent, partly owing to the Socialist order of
things which now reigns supreme in many countries,
and partly to the aversion which the bourgeois nations
show to our manufacturing system. In respect of
these various causes it can hardly be anticipated that
there will be much alteration in the future.
A fruitful cause, in our view, of the great falling-o '
in the nation s productive power has been the release
of young and old persons from the obligation to labour
(hear, hear, from the Left), and the shortening of the
THE SOCIALISTIC F UTURE. 103
hours of labour. (Uproar) We are also further of
opinion that the abolition of all piece~work has, un-
doubtedly, contributed to a diminution of manufacture.
(Hear, hear, from the Left). One result of the de-
moralising e 'ects 0f the former state of society is,
that, unfortunately, the consciousness of the indispens-
alole necessity that is laid upon all persons alike, in a
socialistic community, to labour, has not even yet
penetrated the bulk of the people to such an extent
(dissent from the Right), that we should feel justi ed
in not laying before you the measure we are about to
introduce, viz. a. hill to extend the maximum working-
day to twelve hours. (Sensation) In addition to
this, we propose at least as a. provisional measure,
and until such time as a. satisfactory balance shall
have been restored to extend the obligation to work
to all persons between the ages of fourteen and seventy-
ve, instead of, as hitherto, to those between the ages
of twenty-one and sixty ve. (Hear, hear, from the
Left.) We shall, however, in these arrangements,
make provision for affording facilities to talented
young persons for their further culture, and shall also
take care that decrepit persons are engaged in a kind
of labour that shall not militate against their state of
health.
In the next place, we are strongly of opinion that
a plainer and less expensive system of national nourish-
ment than has hitherto been adopted (dissent from the
Right) would very materially aid in reducing the
de cit. Carefully conducted investigations which we
have recently made have fully established the fact
that, providing the rations of potatoes and vegetables
be increased in a proportionate degree, the customary
one-third of a pound of meat is by no means a, requis-
104 ' PICTURES OF
ite ingredient of the chief meal of the day, but that
Ione-tenth of a pound of meat, or fat, is abundantly
suf cient.
The Member for Hagen In Ploezensee ! 1
The President I must request the Member for
Hagen to discontinue these interruptions. (Applause
from the Right.)
The Chancellor It is a well-known fact that
there are many estimable persons I allude to those
persons who are styled vegetarians who hold not only
that meat may very well be dispensed with altogether,
but that it is positively injurious to the human system.
(Uproar from the Right.)
One of the main sources, however, from which we
calculate upon effecting economy, is the placing of
narrower bounds to individual caprice as manifested
in the purchase of articles. A measure of this nature
is a necessary and logical step in the direction of social
equality, and we hope, by its means, to put an end to
the irrational rule of supply and demand which even
nowadays to a great extent obtains, and which so
much tends to place obstacles in the way of production,
and to raise the price of things correspondingly. The
Community produces, let us say, articles of consump-
tion, furniture, clothes, and so on. But the demand.
for these articles is regulated by the merest freak or
caprice call it fashion, taste, or whatever you like.
The Chancellor s 1ady- Oh, 0h.
The Chancellor hesitated a moment, and sought by
means of a glass of water to calm his evident irritation
at this interruption. He then continued
I repeat, the caprice of fashion is directed only
too frequently, not to those articles which are already
1 Ploezensee is a house of correction in Berlin.
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. V 105
in stock, but to some new-fangled thing which takes the
fancy of the moment. As a result of this, those goods
which are manufactured and exposed for sale by the
Community become often so-called shop-veterans, or
they spoilnin short, fail to ful l the purpose for which
they were produced; and all this, forsooth, just be-
cause these goods do not quite take the fancy of Mr.
and Mrs. X. Y. Z. Now I put the question to you: are
we justi ed in so far yielding to the caprices of such
persons, that we offer them a choice of various goods
to one and the same identical end such as nourish-
ment, furnishing, and attire in order that Mr. and
Mrs. X. may live, and dress, and furnish their house
differently from Mr. and Mrs. Y.? Just re ect how
vastly all processes of manufacture would be cheapened
if, in place of having any variety in goods which are
destined to ful l the same purpose, all such articles
were limited to a. few patterns, or, better still, if they
were all made on one single pattern. All losses arising
from goods being left on hand as unsaleable, would be
avoided if it were, once for all, de nitely understood
that Mr. and Mrs. X. Y. Z. had to dine, and attire
themselves, and furnish their houses in that manner
Which had been prescribed by the State.
Hence, lady and gentlemen, the Government con-
templates shortly submitting to your consideration
plans for regulating your other meals in a manner
similar to that which was adopted from the rst for
the regulation of the chief meal of the day. It Will
also tend to promote more real social equality if all
household goods and chattels, such 'as bedding, tables,
chairs, wardrobes, linen, etc. etc., be declared the pro-
perty of the State. By means of each separate dwelling
being furnished by the State with these various requis-
105 , PICTURES OF
ites, all after one identical pattern, and all remaining as
a permanent part of each dwelling, the trouble and ex-
pense of removal are done away with. And only then,
when we shall have advanced thus far, shall we be in a
position to approach, at least approximately, the prin-
ciple of equality as respects the question of dwelling~
houses, no matter how di 'erent their situations and
I advantages. This problem we propose to solve by
a universal fresh drawing of lots from quarter to
quarter. In this way, the chances which everybody
has to win a nice suite of apartments on the rst oor
front are renewed every quarter of a year. (Laughter
from the Left. Applause here and there from the Right.)
As an additional aid to the promotion of equality,
we propose that in future all persons shall attire them-
selves in garments whose cut, material, and colour, it
Will be the province of this House to determine be-
forehand. The length of time during Which all gar-
ments are to be worn will also be xed with precision.
The Chancellor s lady Never, never.
The dissent shown by this member was taken up
by various ladies in the strangers galleries.
The President All marks of approval or disap-
proval from the strangers galleries are strictly pro-
hibited.
The Chancellor I wish not to be misunderstood.
We do not contemplate carrying equality in dress to
such a length that all diversities will be entirely
abolished. On the contrary, we suggest the wearing,
of' various badges as marks whereby the ladies and
gentlemen of the different- provinces, towns, and
trades, may readily be distinguished from each other
at a glance. An arrangement of this kind will materi-
ally facilitate the surveillance of individual persons on
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 107
the part of the checkers appointed by the State for
that purpose (hear, hear, from the Left) and will thus
render the present unavoidable increase in the num-
ber of those checkers less large than would otherwise
have been the case. As you are aware, the number
of checkers hitherto has been in the ratio of one to
fty of the population; But with the aid of the ar-
rangement just proposed, the Government is of opinion
that the appointment of one checker to every thirty 0f
the population Will abundantly suf ce to make our
country an orderly one in the truest sense of the word,
(disturbance and cries of Tyranny from the Left;
the President touched his gong and requested order,)
and to ensure on the part of all a rigorous observance
of the laws and regulations respecting the taking of
meals, style of dress, manner of living, and so on.
This is our programme. Should it meet with your
approval, we doubt not that a vigorous carrying out
of the same Will soon have the effect of doing away
With the de cit, and of leading the country, on the
basis of social equality, to unimagined heights of pro-
sperity and happiness, proportionate to the degree in
Which, in the course of time, it shakes off and triumphs
over the demoralising effects of a former state of
society. (Applause from the Right; groans and
hisses from the Left.)
The President Before proceeding to discuss the
measures which have been unfolded by the Chancellor,
it would be well for such members as may desire
fuller information on any of the points noticed, to
avail themselves of the present opportunity to direct
short queries to the Chancellor.
The Chancellor said he was prepared to answer at
once any questions which might be addressed to him.
108 PICTURES OF
A member of the Government party Wished the
Chancellor to be more explicit respecting the form it
was proposed to give to the morning and evening
meals; and he further asked Whether the measures
contemplated would have any retrogressive e 'ect upon
the value of the coupons composing the money-certi -
cates.
The Chancellor I am thankful to the last speaker
for having called my attention to several omissions in
my statement. With a view to preventing all over-
loading of the digestive organs, we propose to reduce
the bread rations for adults from one pound and a
half per diem to one pound. The large amount of
starch Which is a constituent part of Wheat is particu-
larly liable to fermentation, which, as experience has
shown, frequently results in unpleasant internal dis-
orders. In addition to this bread ration, and Which,
as a matter of course, serves for the whole day, each
person Will receive one hundred and fty grains of
unroasted coffee, and a quarter of a. pint of skimmed
milk for breakfast. This will yield one pint of coffee.
The Government is fully convinced that a conscienti-
ous adherence to these proportions will result in the
production of a, compound which will be free from
those heating and deleterious effects Which frequently
accompany the use Of co ee as a beverage. (Laughter
from the Left.)
The evening meal Will be composed of a, pint and a
half of soup for each adult, care being taken to secure
due variety, so that these soups may not pall upon the
taste. Rice soup, meal soup, barley soup, bread soup,
and potato soup will alternate With each other ; and
in order to obtain still more variety, half a pint of
skimmed milk will occasionally be substituted for the
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 'IOC)
soup ration. On the three chief political holidays 0f
the year the birthdays of Bebel, Lassalle, and Lieb-
knecht each adult person will receive half a. pound
of meat, and a, pint of beer for dinner.
I omitted to mention, too, that once a week there
will be an augmentation of each adult person s ration
by the addition of a. herring. Those persons who pre-
fer to consume their herring at the evening meal are
at liberty to do so; and, indeed, this plan has much
to commend it, seeing that the mid-day meal is already
enriched by one-tenth of a. pound of meat.
Such are the proposals Which we submit to Parlia-
ment for its sanction. In attempting to formulate
the nourishment of the people on simple and natural
principles, we have been guided by the consideration
that such a, system would place us in a. position to ex~
port all our most valuable products, such as game and
poultry, hams, highly esteemed vegetables, the choicer
kinds of sh, wine, and so forth. By this means we
calculate upon paying the bill for such imports as we
require for the sustenance of thepeople, more par-
ticularly corn and co 'ee.
As regards the money-certi cates, it goes without
saying that an extended application of the plan of
supplying the people with goods must of necessity.
have an e' ect 0n the value of the coupons correspond-
ing to such application. It is also contemplated in
future to supply every dwelling with ring and
lighting at a, xed rate, Which will be deducted from
the money-certi cates. Similarly, all washing
naturally up to a. certain maximum limit will be
done at the State Washing establishments without
any direct charge being made.
Under these circumstances, 'and seeing that people
I IO PICTURES OF
will have everything found for them, the Government
turned its attention to a consideration of the amount
it would be judicious and prudent to x for each per-
son s private expenses, for what, in fact, is familiarly
designated pocket-money, and it appeared to us that
for such sundry outlays as would be involved in the
purchase of an occasional little extra in the way of
eating and drinking, of tobacco, soap, in amusements
or occasional trips ; in short, in procuring all that the
heart could wish, we should not be wrong in going to
the extent of a mark per head for every ten days.
(Laughter from the Left.) It must be understood
that the application of this mark is not to be subject
to the slightest limitation, or to any sort of of cial
control. It will thus be apparent that we are far
from desiring to unduly restrict individual freedom
when moving in legitimate spheres.
A member of the Party of Freedom wished to
know the intentions of the Government in regard to
the greater dilatoriness and lassitude in the perform-
ance of labour, which would presumably ensue upon
the lengthening of the working-day to twelve hours.
He also asked for an expression of the Government s
views on the question of an increase of the population.
The Chancellor As regards offences against the
Obligation to work, the Government recognises the
fact that the extension of the hours of labour to
twelve hours renders a further elaboration of the
system of penalties imperatively necessary; and it
proposes to effect this elaboration through a variety
of means. Amongst others, I mention the removal of
the bed for slighter transgressions; arrest, incarcera-
tion in the dark cell, and the lash for repeated offences.
(Hisses from the strangers galleries.)
TI-IE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. III
The President threatened to have the galleries
cleared forthwith if his warnings were again dis-
regarded. ,
The Chancellor Let me not be misunderstood as
regards the lash. We should not be disposed to re-
commend the application of more than thirty strokes.
The end which the Government seeks by these means
to attain is to develop the recognition of the necessity
of labour, even in those who constitutionally rebel
against the doctrine.
As respects an increase of the population, we hold
rmly to Bebel e principle in the main, that the State
must regard the advent of every child as a. welcome _
addition to the cause of Socialism. (Applause from
the Right.) But even here it will be necessary to
draw the line somewhere, and we can never again
allow an unreasonable increase of population to upset
the delicater adjusted equilibrium which will be
established by the passage of the proposed measures.
Hence, as we shall have an opportunity of more
clearly showing when the debate on the budget comes
on, we reckon upon largely using the system employed
for nourishing the people as an instrument for re-
gulating population. Herein we shall be following a.
hint we are grateful to Bebel for. Bebel said, with
no less beauty than truth, that Socialism is a science
which is applied'with unwavering purpose and in-
exible steadfastness of aim to every sphere of
human activity. (Loud applause from the Right.)
The President As no member seems desirous of
asking any more questio s of the Chancellor, we can
at once proceed to discuss the matters before the
House. I shall follow the plan of nominating alter-
nately speakers from the two great parties, the Right
I 12 PICTURES OF
and the Left, and shall begin With the Left. I call
upon the Member for Hagen.
The Member for Hagen I feel little desire to
closely interrogate the Chancellor upon the details of
his programme. The fruits of the socialistic order
(so-called) of things which we have hitherto seen, and
still more those Which we may expect from the
various measures in prospect, are quite enough to ll
the soul With loathing and disgust at the condition of
affairs which Socialism has brought about in Germany.
(Great uproar from the Right ; loud applause from
the Left.) Experience shows that the miserable reali-
ties even transcend what my departed predecessor
predicted would be the condition of things if the
socialistic programme were ever actually realised.
(Cries from the Right: Aha, theFalsities man ; the
Slayer of Socialists. ) I notice that the gentlemen of
the Right have never been quite able to get over the
Falsities of Socialism, by the departed member,
Eugene Richter.1 It is only to be regretted that these
gentlemen did not suffer themselves to be converted
from their errors, so that they could now with un-
clouded vision see the connection that all matters of
national and international economy have with each
other. This annual de cit of twelve milliard marks
which we are now face to face with, means the bank-
ruptcy of the social democracy. (Great uproar from
the Right.) The Chancellor is entirely on the wrong
track when he endeavours to make the opponents of
Socialism in any way responsible for the de cit.
Germany already bristles with soldiers and with
police in a way that has never been the case before.
1 Falsities of Socialism, by Eugene Richter. Berlin, 1890.
THE» SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. I 13
But when all the affairs of life, large and small, with-
out exception, shall be subject to the management of
the State, you will have to reckon with an additional
host'of servants appointed to see that the State s
bidding be duly carried out. It is, unfortunately, but
too true that our export trade is in a wretched plight,
but this is attributable solely to the utter turning
topsy-turvy of production and consumption Which has
taken place both here, at home, and in the neighbour-
ing socialistic countries. But even this is far from
adequately accounting for a. de cit amounting to so
many milliards. The Chancellor considers that a part
of the blame attaches to the shortening of the hours
. of labour. But before-the Revolution took place, the
hours of labour were on an average less than ten
hours, and in the course of time this working-day
would, in the smooth progress of events, have become
gradually shorter in an easy and natural way, and
without doing any sudden violence to supply. We
must seek the cause of the retrogression in all our
manufactures, not so much in a. shortening of the
working-day as in the inferior quality of our goods
now; in Short, in the style of loa ng about (Oh, oh,
from the Right) which has become so general. As in
feudal times, labour is now again regarded as a. kind
of villanage, a. slavish toil. The system of giving the
same remuneration for labours of the most diverse
values; the absence of all prospect of bettering one s
condition, no matter how great one s industry and
skill; these are elements which are inimical to real
love of work for its own sake. .
Another reason Why manufacture is no longer. pro-
A ductive is, that with the cessation of all private enter-
prise there has been a disappearance of those careful
H
o
I I4 PICTURES OF
circumspect leaders in the eld of labour who took
care that a judicious use was made of all materials,
and who more or less regulated supply according to
demand. Your managers of to-day lack all real and
deep interest in their work; they lack the stimulus
Which, in bygone days, even the heads of Government
establishments received from the competition of
private rms. This vast de cit teaches us plainly
enough that the men of private enterprise was no
plunderer, and no super uous drone, and that even
painstaking labour, when not conducted in an in-
telligent manner, may turn out to be but a mere waste
of force and of material. Then again, your system
of working everywhere on a. big scale, even in cases
to which this system does not in the least adapt itself,
operates to retard production.
What have we come to ? In endeavouring to get
rid of the disadvantages of the socialistie method of
manufacture, you place such restrictions on the freedom
of the person, and of commerce, that you, turn Germany
into one gigantic prison. (Great uproar from the Right;
applause from the Left and from the galleries. The
President threatened to have the galleries cleared at
once if there were any more manifestations of feeling.)
The compelling of all alike to work; the equality of
the working hours for all; the forcing of persons to
certain kinds of labour utterly regardless of their
wishes and tastes ; these are things which we had
hitherto had no experience of outside the walls of
penitentiaries. And even in those institutions, the
more industrious and skilful inmates had the oppor-
tunity given them of earning a tri e in the way of
something extra. The similarity to prison life is
further maintained through the system of each per-
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. , IIS
son s having to occupy a. certain dWelling, just as .
prisoners have their cells apportioned to them. The
xtures which are to form an inseparable portion of ,
each dwelling still further enhance the resemblance to
gaol life. Families are torn asunder. And if it were
not for the fear of Socialism dying out, you would a1-
together separate husband and wife, as is done in the
lock-up.
And as it is in respect of labour so is it in regard
to rest; and every member of this socialistic Com
munity is tied down to the same prescribed nourish-
ment. I was justi ed in calling out Ploezensee, as
the Chancellor enlightened us as to his bill of fare. I
Will almost venture to say that the food dispensed in
former times to the inmates of the prison was better
than that which it is now proposed to feed the nation
on. In order that nothing may be wanting to com-
plete the resemblance to a gaol, we have now the
same uniform clothes proposed. Overseers are al-
ready provided in the persons of the numerous
checkers; sentinelsz too, are posted to see that those
who are condemned to Socialism shall not escape
across the frontiers. In our prisons the working-day
was a ten hours one, not a twelve hours one. Punish-
ment by the lash, which you have to introduce as
an aid in establishing the twelve hours working-day,
was no longer resorted to in many prisons, because it
was felt it could be dispensed with. To those in
gaol' there was, at least, the possibility of an act of
pardon, which might some day open a path to liberty,
even to those who had been condemned to life-long
imprisonment. But those who are handed over to
your socialistic prison are sentenced for life without
I 16 PICTURES OF
hope of escape; the only escape thence is suicide.
(Sensation)
Your explanation of all this is, that we are at
present in a state of transition. Nothing of the sort.
Things will get worse and worse the longer the
present system lasts. Hitherto you have only
descended the topmost steps of those which lead to
the abyss. The light of day still reaches you on
those upper steps, but you turn away from it. What-
ever culture is now extant, whatever schooling, and
practice, and skill, are all due to former systems of
society. ' But in our socialistic schools of to day, both
elementary, advanced, and technical, our young people
make no progress at all, not from any lack of time, or
means of instruction, but merely because no one feels
that he is absolutely bound to acquire certain things
as stepping stones to future success in life.
You live upon the capital of culture and of
wealth which descended to you as the result of
former arrangements of society. So far are you,
however, from putting by anything, and from pro-
viding for improvements and additions, that you
cannot even properly maintain such possessions as we
have, but suffer them to fall into decay. There are
now no means to keep all these things intact, because
in destroying the hope of pro t, Which induced
capitalists to engage in enterprises, you simultane-
ously prevented all further formation of capital,
"which in its turn would again have led to new
undertakings.
All higher development of the faculties, no less
than all material progress, is at a stand-still since the
abolition of free competition. Self-interest used to
sharpen the wits of individuals, and bring out their
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. II7
inventiveness. But the emulation of the many
Who strove in the same eld of labour, constantly
operated to make common property of the achieve
ments of individuals.
All the proposals of the Chancellor will prove as
powerless in making good the vast de cit, as our
attempted organisation, some years ago, of production
and consumption in our prisons proved powerless to
cover even a third part of the current expenses of
those places. In a very short time, in spite of the
7; Chancellor s programme, you will nd yourselves face
to face with a new and a greater de cit. Hence I
counsel you not to be too greatly elated at the advent
of children as being welcome additions to Socialism.
On the contrary, consider rather how you may best
promote a diminution of population. For it is quite
certain that, even with the beggarly style of nourish-
ment Which the Chancellor is compelled to place in
prospect for us, Germany, on the basis of the present
order of things, will be able permanently to support
but a. very thin and sparse population. The same
applies, of course, to the neighbouring Socialist coun-
tries. The inexorable law of self-preservation will
hence compel the Socialists on this side, and on that
side, to engage in a deadly struggle, Which Will last
until that super uity of population, Which can only
be supported by such forms and systems as you have
uprooted, shall have succumbed.
So far as I am aware, the hope that Bebel once
expressed is not yet any nearer its accomplishment~
the hope, namely, that in the course of time the
desert of Sahara would, by means of irrigation, be
turned into fruitful districts, and prove a favourable
colonising ground to Which to draft off the surplus
118 PICTURES OF
Socialist population of Europe. I take it, too, that
there is as yet no great liking on the part of those
of your side in politics who are super uous here, to
follow the other proposition which Bebe] was once
good enough to suggest as an outlet for surplus
population. That suggestion was the settling in the
north of Norway, and in Siberia. (Laughter from
the Left.)
Whether or not it is possible to make a halt in the
path of progress to destruction, which we have entered
upon, I should scarcely care to venture to say. Many
milliards in value have already been destroyed by
the Revolution, and it would again require the
sacri ce of milliards to restore something like order
to the present disorganised condition of affairs.
\Vhilst we in old Europe, thanks to your efforts,
are fast hastening to ruin and destruction, there
arises 0n the other side of the ocean, ever mightier
and wealthier, a power that is settled on the rm basis
of personal property and free competition, and whose
citizens have never seriously entertained the falsities
of Socialism.
Every day that we delay the extrication of our
country from the wretched maze into which an
aberration of mind. has led it, takes us nearer and
nearer to the abyss. Hence I say, Down with the
socialistic gaol regime! Long live Liberty. (Loud
applause from the Left and from the galleries. Hiss-
ing and uproar from the Right.)
The President called the last speaker to order for
the concluding remarks contained in his speech, and
gave instructions to clear the galleries immediately,
by reason of the repeated manifestations of opinion
by the occupants.
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 119
The clearance of the galleries occasioned no small
amount of trouble. As I had to go With the others, I,
unfortunately, can say no more as to the further pro-
gress of the sitting. But as the Govfernment has a
slavish majority at its back, there Gang hardly be any
doubt as to the passing of the varioué measures pro-
posed by the Chancellor. Not even the indignation
of the Chancellor s lady at the proposed Regulation of
Dress Bill will have ahy effect in altering it.
CHAPTER XXX.
THREATENED STRIKE.
THE Chancellor s new proposals for getting rid of the
great de cit have been received on all sides in Berlin
With mockery and derision. To What lengths this
dissatisfaction may yet go there is no foretelling.
For a long time past there has been a great spirit of
discontent amongst the arti cers in metals, and more
particularly amongst engineers. These men claim to
have had a large share in bringing about the Revolu-
tion, and they complain that they are now shamefully
cheated out of what Socialism had always promised
them. It certainly cannot be denied that before the
great Revolution they had over and over again been,
promised the full rrewwrol of their labours. This, as
they maintain, had expressly and repeatedly appeared
in black and' white in the columns of the Onward.
And shall they now put up with it, that they only
receive the same wages as all the others ?
They say that if they were to receive the full value
120 PICTURES OF
'of the machines and tools which are turned out of
their shops, after deducting the cost of raw material
and auxiliary material, they would get, at least, four
times as much as they do now.
It is in vain that the Onward has endeavoured
to point out to them that their interpretation is an
entirely false one. Socialism, says this organ, never
contemplated giving to each labourer in his special
eld the full reward of his work in that particular
sphere of labour. It promised the nation as a Whole
the full reward of the labours effected by the whole
people. Whatever these mechanics might turn out
of their shops and mills, it was quite clear that the
things turned out were not the result purely and
simply of hand labour. Expensive machines and
tools were equally necessary to their production. In
a no less degree were large buildings and considerable
means indispensable. All these accessories had not
been produced by the workmen actually engaged at
the time being. Seeing then that the Community
nds all these buildings, plans, and means, it was
assuredly only just that the Community should
appropriate Whatever remained after paying a certain
wage calculated at one uniform rate for all persons in
the country.
But these mechanics, somehow, cannot be brought
to View the thing in this light. They say that if the
State, or the Community, or Whatever you like to call
it, is now to take those pro ts Which formerly were
paid to shareholders for the loan of their capital, it
comes to much the same thing to them in the long
run. If this was to be the end of the affair, the great
Revolution might just as well never have taken place
at all.
THE VSOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 121
, The prospect of the lengthening of the working-
day to twelve hours has made these workmen in the
different metal trades more bitter than ever. Twelve.
hours a day at a, roaring re, and at work on hard.
metals, is a. different thing from twelve hours behind a
counter waiting for customers, or twelve hours looking
after children. I
In short, these men demand the full reward of their
labour as they understand the term, the working-day
being limited to ten hours at the very outside.
Several large meetings of the men have already taken
place at night on Jungfern Common and Wuhl
Common, to debate upon the question of a resort to
force should their demands not he conceded. There
is talk of the threatened strike embracing 40,000 men,
. Who are engaged in Berlin in the different metal
branches.
CHAPTER XXXI.
MENACING DIPLOMATIC NOTES.
THE socialistic Governments of Russia. and France are
quite as much at their Wits ends as we are to know
how to overcome the dif culties that are constantly
arising. Hence they try to appease the ill-humours
of their populations by directing attention to foreign
affairs. One of the rst acts of the socialistic govern?
ments had been to dissolve the Triple Alliance.
Austria sees herself threatened at the present moment
by Italy, in Istria. and the Italian Tyrol. The oppor-
tunity- of Austria s being thus engaged on another
122 PICTURES OF
side appears a. favourable one to Russia and France
for their adopting a, high tone towards Germany.
Accordingly, both powers have addressed simultaneous
notes to our Foreign Of ce, requesting that within
ten days, payment be made of the amount due for
goods supplied.
Now, how is it that France comes to be in the posi-
tion of a creditor of ours? As a matter of fact, we
have drawn nothing whatever from France except a.
few million bottles of champagne Which were emptied
in the rst intoxication of delight at the success of
the great Revolution, and before the State had taken
the regulation of consumption into its own hands.
Russia, however, has had the per dy to cede a part of
her claims on us to France, in order to construct a
common basis of operations against us. Our indebted-
ness to Russia. has now run up to over a milliard, al-
though ourimports of corn, wood, ax, hemp, etc., from
that country have only been the same as they were in
former times. These are imports which we absolutely
cannot do without. But the unfortunate part of the
business is, that those manufactures which we had
been in the habit of sending to France and Russia, in
the way of exchange for imports, have of late nearly
all been returned to us, on the pretence of their not
being at all up to the mark, of the price being too
high, and so forth. If such a thing had happened to
us in former times, we should simply have paid the
Russians in Russian bonds or their coupons, of which
there was then no scarcity in Germany. But having
now no bonds, and no stock of noble metals to fall
back upon, we are rather bothered by the lack of a
convenient means of exchange.
Our good neighbours are only too well aware of
THE SOCIALIST IC FUTURE. 123
this. Hence they take no great pains in their diplo-
matic notes to conceal 'the threat, that in case the
claims are not promptly settled, they Will be com-
pelled to take possession of parts of Posen and Eastern
Prussia, and of Alsace and Lorraine as pledges. Both
powers expressed their readiness to waive their claims
for payment, provided Germany were disposed to
yield up possession of these provinces. ' Is not that a
piece of unparalleled impudence ?
There is no lack. of well-drilled men, of muskets,
powder, and shot in Germany. The former regime
took good care to provide an abundance of these
materials. ' But in other respects we are not so well
prepared; and it seems that in consequence of the
diminution in the out-put of coal, and 0f the dwindling
away of the stocks, there is a scarcity of this material
Which would most seriously hamper the transport of
troops by rail. Great complaints are also made by the
military authorities as to the scarcity of meat, our,
oats, and similar stores.
Meantime, France has annexed Luxemburg. At the
dissolution of the Custom s Union, this Duchy had been,
so to say, out quite adrift. One party in the Duchy
took advantage of the ill humour at the severance of
the 01d commercial relations with Germany to call in
the French. The latter last no time in responding to
the call, and they soon reached the territory by way
of Longwy. It is said that French cavalry has already
been seen on the Germano-Luxemburg frontier close
to Treves.
124 PICTURES OF
CHAPTER XXXII.
GREAT STRIKE AND SIMULTANEOUS OUTBREAK OF WAR.
ALL the iron-workers in Berlin and the neighbourhood
came out on strike this morning, upon the refusal of
their demands to receive the full reward of their labour.
The Government met the strike With a prompt order
to at once stop the dinners and suppers of all those on
strike. In all the State cookshops the of cials have
the strictest instructions not to honour the coupons of
the iron-workers. The same suspension of the coupons
applies to all restaurants, and all shops whence, in
accordance With the Government regulations, these
persons in ordinary times derive their supplies. The
various shops and places in question are closely
watched by strong detachments of police. By these
means it is hoped that those on strike Will, in a very
short time, be starved into submission, inasmuch as the
few crumbs and parings Which their wives and friends
will be able to give them from their rations will be of
very little avail.
There is more bad news to follow. An order has
just been issued to reduce the bread rations of the en-
tire population by one half, and to do away with the
meat rations altogether. It is hoped by these measures
to effect such a. saving as Will enable the Government
to, at least to some extent, provision the frontier
fortresses. For, in the meantime, the threatened dis~
traints in Germany have actually begun to take place.
From the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg, French cavalry
has advanced across the German frontier, passed the
TI-IE SOCIALISTVIC FUTURE. 125
Moselle, and interrupted the traf c on the Treves ands
Diedenhofen, and Treves and Saarlouis lines. Other
divisions of the French army, With Longyon, Con ans,
Pont a Mousson, Nancy, and Lunéville as their bases
of action, have crossed the Lorraine frontier with the
intention of besieging Metz and Diedenhofen, and
making a demonstration in the direction of Morchingen.
Both of these fortresses are stated to have but one
week s provisions at the outside. ,The same may be
said of Koenigsberg, Thorn, and Greudenz, against
Which points Russian columns are now on the march,
With a View to selzing territory as security for their
claims. The tactics appear to be, to attack Eastern
' Prussia on the East, and on the South at the same
moment, so that upon its subjugation the eastern line
of attack upon Germany may be much shortened on
the one hand, whilst on the other hand the supplies
of horses for the German army from Eastern Prussia
Will be cut off. 'As far as possible, the reserves hasten
to the frontier. But it has unfortunately transpired
that there is a great lack of even necessary articles of
clothing for many of the reserves. In consequence of
the great falling o in manufacture in many branches,
after the Revolution, large quantities of underclothing,
boots, and other articles intended for the army, had to
be diverted to the civilians, seeing that the regular
supply did not keep pace With the demand.
But enough of this. I. nd I shall henceforth be
no longer able to give the same full account of events
as they happen. The twelve hours day comes into
force to-morrow, so I shall then not have much time
for writing. I propose, therefore, to nish off this
narrative as soon as possible, and to send it to Franz
and Agnes in the New World. May it long remind
126 PICTURES OF
them, and their children, and children s children, of
me and of the present stormy times, and, indeed, I
must get it off with all possible speed, or it may be too
late. I notice that I am regarded with such in
creasing suspicion that a search might be made, and
my papers con scated at any moment.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION BEGINS.
THE iron workers en strike have no intention of
being starved out. Paying a. visit to my father-in-
law, I discovered on the way home that a. number of
these men were about attempting to storm the bread
magazine. Grandfather is located at the Refuge for
Elderly People, into which Bellevue Castle has been
turned. The bread magazine is just opposite Bellevue
Castle, on the other side of the Spree, and between
the river and the railway embankment. Finding all
the entrances well secured, the men on strike set
about climbing over the high wall which surrounds
the magazine. But as soon as any of them reached
the top of the Wall, they were picked off by the sen-
tinels stationed inside, and had thus to pay for their
temerity with their lives.
The men next took to the railway embankment,
Which commands a. View of the grounds round the
magazine. They commenced tearing up the rails, and
cutting the telegraph wires, but the musketry re
from the magazine in a short time killed and wounded
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 127
so many that the besieging force was soon dislodged
from this position.
Their next move was to make for the houses in
Luneburg Street, behind the embankment. Having
established themselves in the top storeys of those
houses, a rattling re soon began from the top windows
on the one hand, and from the magazine on the other.
But it soon became clear that the besieged, though
small in point of number, were possessed both of
better weapons and more ammunition. ,
Presently fresh detachments of the iioters at-
tempted from Heligoland quay to make a. breach in
the walls surrounding the magazine. In the mean?
time, however, and quite unperceived, police rein-
forcements had been promptly brought up through
the grounds of Bellevue Castle. These reinforce-
ments took possession of the foot-bridge, which
is almost concealed by the railway bridge, and from
this position opened 5i murderous re upon the mass
of mostly unarmed persons on Heligoland quay.
Uttéring wild cries of vengeance, and leaving great
numbers of killed and wounded behind them, the mob
dispersed in all directions. It is said that artillery
has been sent for to cannonade Luneburg Street from
the other side of the Spree.
Leaving this scene of carnage, I entered the Zoo-
logical Gardens with the intention of making for the
south-west side of the city by a. circuitous route.
The streets in all directions were full of people in the
wildest state of excitement N0 outrages have so far
been committed in the south-west portion of Berlin,
but from what they say here it seems that the iron-
workers have been more successful in their attacks
on the bread stores in Temple Yard and in Kopenick
128- ' PICTURES OF
Street than was the case with the Bellevue magazine.
They say, too, that numerous ri es and stores of
ammunition have fallen into their hands. It is very
dif cult to get hold of any really reliable news, but
from all accounts the riot 0n the right side of .the
Spree seems to be getting rapidly general.
The police force has of late been xed at 30,000
men. None but fanatical Socialists may serve, and
these are chosen from all parts of the country. The
force is also supported by strong detachments of
artillery and cavalry. But they are dispersed all
over the city, and what can they, after all, effect if the
two million inhabitants really rise in a general revolt ?
The smokeless powder of nowadays greatly facilitates
the taking of a true aim from an ambuscade, whilst
the modern form of ri e is singularly calculated to
prove serviceable to those indoors when used under
cover of the houses.
Detachments of police, some on foot and some
mounted, are continually hurrying with all possible
speed towards the centre of the city. From all ap-
pearance the whole of the armed force available is
being drawn together in the neighbourhood of the
palace and unter den Linden. What will be the end
of it all ?
And poor old grandfather? I found him very
dull and apathetic. In the entire absence of a family
circle and of surroundings to call forth his interest,
his faculties show a very marked decay. He told me
the same things several times over, and repeatedly
put the same questions to me which I had just before
answered. He even mixed up the persons and genera-
tions of his own family. A cheerless old age indeed I
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. 129
CHAPTER XXXIV.
DISHEARTENING NEWS.
To DAY has been the saddest day of all my life. On
going to see my wife I found that she talked inco-
herently and wildly, and did not recognise me. The
doctor said he must convey the sad intelligence to me
that the death of her child and the severe shocks of the
last'few months had so deeply affected her mind as to
leave now no prospect of recovery. She fancies herself
constantlyexposed to the persecutions of all kinds of
demons. It has been held advisable to send her to the
Asylum for Incurables, and she is to be taken there
today.
For ve and twenty long years we have shared all
our joys and sorrows with each other, and have lived -
together in the closest af nity, both of heart and mind.
And now to behold the partner of my life, all dazed
and bewildered, the deer, kindly eyes not even recog- ,
nising me, is worse than death s separation.
On all sides the storm of revolt lncreases in fury.
But what are all such things to me now, with my
load of grief and sorrow? There has been some ght-
ing in Eastern Prussia, and also in Alsace and Let -
raine, and our side has everywhere had the worst of
it. Our troops had to contend with many disadvan-
tages. They were badly clothed, and insuf ciently
nourished; and when, after wearisome forced marches,
they came face to face with the enemy, they were
unable, in spite of all their bravery, to make a per-
manent stand.
I
I 30 PICTURES OF
In Berlin, the riot continues to spread. The entire
region on the right bank of the Spree, and many
other parts of the city and suburbs are quite in the
hands of the rioters. The latter are reinforced by an
uninterrupted stream of people from the provinces,
and it is also said that portions of the army fraternise
with the people.
It is hence evident that the revolution was not long
in spreading beyond the limits of the iron-Workers
and their particular demands. It aims now at the
abolition of Socialism. And the more I re ect, the
more I feel inclined to anathematise myself for having,
for so many years, aided in bringing about such a
state of affairs as we have experienced during the last
few months. My only motive was the sincere belief
that Socialism would cauSe a better order of things for
future generations. I believed so then, but I now see
that I did not comprehend the whole question. But
how can my boys ever forgive me for having helped
to bring about those events Which have deprived them
of their mother and their sister, and utterly destroyed
our happiness as a family ?
But now I must speak to Ernst, be the conse-
quences What they may. I feel myself impelled to
him, so that I may warn him against going out at all
just now. Young lads like he is are only too apt to
go forth and to mingle in the sin and excitement of a
time like this. I have leisure enough now to visit
Ernst even in the day-time. Suspected of no longer
being sound in politics, I have been deprived of my
place as a checker, and told off as a night-scavenger.
I only hope my work there Will not turn out to be of
a horrible nature.
THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE. L 131
CHAPTER XXXV.
THE LAST CHAPTER.
To Mr. Franz Schmidt, New York.
MY DEAR. FRANz, Be a man, and prepare your-
self to bear with fortitudethe sad news this letter
conveys. Our dear father is no longer amongst the
living. Like many other innocent victims, he has
fallen a. sacri ce to the great rising which has raged
for the last few days
111 Berlin.
Father had left home with the intention of calling
upon me, and waining me to 011, no account mix my-
self up with the commotion in the streets Close to
our school there had shortly efore been a. ght
between the police and the riot rs, and some of the
police had taken refuge
111 our school All this was of
course quite unknown to father. A party of the
rioters lay in concealment, and in all probability one
of these, on seeing him, took him for a government
messenger; anyhow, a. shot red from an upper win-
dow struck him, and he expired in the course of a few
minutes. You may fancy my horror when they
brought him into our house, and I found it was my
own father.
He fell a. victim to the solicitude he felt for the
welfare of his family. In the hope of seeing a, better
future for those dear to him, he had allied himself
with the Socialists, but recent events had entirely
cured him of his errors.
Respecting the sad state of our dear mother, father
wrote you lately himself, and also mentioned about
I32 PICTURES OF THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE.
poor old grandfather. In all my wretchedness and
loneliness, my thoughts are continually turning to you,
Franz, across the ocean, as my only human refuge.
By the time I post this letter I shall, I hope, have
already crossed the German frontier. Towards Holland
they say the frontier is pretty open. When once there,
I shall be able to make use of the money you sent me.
Things here are in a. frightful condition. Sanguin-
ary defeats on the elds of battle towards the frontiers,
and in the country nothing but anarchy and threatened
dissolution. How all these things have come about,
and got into such a, muddle, you will best gather from
the diary Which father kept down to the very day
before his death, and Which I Will bring with me.
With best love to you both,
Your lonely brother,
ERNST.
POSTSCRIPT.
IF it be true that good Wine needs no bush, it is
true that a. good play needs no epilogue. Yet to good
Wine they do use good bushes ; and good plays prove
the better for the help of good epilogues. What a.
case am I in then, that am neither a, good epilogue,
nor cannot insinuate with you in behalf of a good
play.
Amongst the various writers who of recent years
have painted, for the world s bene t, pictures of the
state of society which they conceive would result
from a Widely extended Socialism, Bellamy and
Morris take prominent rank. Perhaps by the. time,
in the twentieth century, that Socialism is realised,
human nature Will have undergone such an extra-
ordinary and phenomenal transformation that the
views of above-named sanguine gentlemen will prove
to have been justi ed. Let us hope such will be
the case. , '
Meanwhile the talented and clear-sighted Member
of Parliament for Hagen, Eugene Richter, pictures to
himself a somewhat di erent state of things as the
result of the establishment of Socialism. And his
little book may be read, perhaps not quite Without
advantage, as a slight contribution to the literature of
this subject, as presenting the consummation in a.
different light, and as an expression of what some Will
doubtless regard as eccentric and extreme Views.
In treating a. prosy subject of this kind, the mind
I34 POSTSCRIPT.
has a natural craving to get away now and then from
the dry detail of statistics and political economy, and
to escape, if only for occasional moments, into an
atmosphere of lightness and laughter. So far as
English readers are concerned, it is to be regretted
that Richter did not see t to arrange his matter in a
less dry and ponderous way, and to introduce an
element of fun and ridicule into his treatment of the
subject. The English are rmly persuaded that the
Germans quite lack all sense of humour. It need
hence occasion no surprise that this nation, with that
stolidity conventionally ascribed to it by the English,
ha.ve,neverthe1ess, read this little book with avidity
in editions of hundreds of thousands.
THE TRANSLATOR.
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS
ON THE
SOCIAL SCIENCE SERIES.
:Jél:
" The Principles of State Interference is another of ' Messrs. Swen Sonnen-
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