2i6 
THE SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY. 
of the insurgent Cantonalists. In Germany there have been 
repeated attempts at regicide ; finally, in Russia, where all 
freedom is suppressed, there have been unheard-of crimes and 
a situation worse than a revolution, for it is Society itself that 
is in a state of siege. 
In every country there exist two parties : that which wishes 
to conserve what is, or even to re-establish what has been ; 
and that which seeks to reform, and sometimes, in its im 
patience, to destroy everything. Just as the motion of the 
earth is the resultant of centripetal and centrifugal forces, so 
Society moves on under the combined action of the spirit of 
conservation and the spirit of reform. Try to suppress them, 
and you will provoke alternately revolutions and reactions. 
Give them free play, and progress will be fulfilled by means 
of a series of compromises and reforms, as in England, Belgium, 
and Switzerland. 
Switzerland seemed to present a soil admirably prepared for 
Socialism. As early as 1843 Weitling had preached Com 
munism there. The refugees of the insurrections of 1848 
had founded associations there, amongst others those of the 
“ German Brothers ” {Deutsche Brüder). The Grüíliverein, 
which had a newspaper, the Grüttianer, and sections in the 
majority of the cantons, was gained over to the ideas of 
the Socialist democrats. The Russians Bakunin and Utin, the 
Italians Rosetti and Ghalino, and agitators banished from all 
countries, arrived in Switzerland, the only asylum which remained 
to them on the Continent. Johann Philippe Becker, a friend 
of Marx, was here the apostle of the International. In 1864 
he succeeded in founding the first section of the Association, 
and soon sections were established in the majority of the towns 
and industrial centres. At one time there were thirty-two in 
Geneva alone. Becker also published a journal, der Vorbote, 
and attached to it a central committee whose action was not 
confined to Switzerland. 
In the French-speaking cantons the sections grouped them 
selves under the name of the Fédération de la Suisse romande ; 
but soon the contest between Marx and Bakunin found its 
echo among them. The sections of the Jura pronounced for