212
THE SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY.
The case was otherwise in America. The introduction
and the progress of militant Socialism there were due in great
part to the International. Long previously various systems
of social organization had been tried there, some proceeding
from Protestant sects, as the Mormons and the Communists
of Oneida; others from French sects of 1848, as the Icarians
of Cabet and the Phalansterians of Considérant. But these
attempts at reform aimed at giving an example of a more
equitable social order, and not at organizing the struggle of
labour against capital. This was what the International did.
A general federation of working men’s societies was formed
under the name of the “ National Labour Union.” It entered
into relations with the general council of the International,
and sent delegates to its congresses. German emigrants
spread the ideas of Lassalle and Marx throughout the States
of the Union, and created sections of the International at
San Francisco, Chicago, and other places. The National
Labour Union, in its fifth congress, held at Cincinnati on the
15th of April, 1870, resolved to adopt the principles of the
International; and the American federation of the section
of the International, which assembled in congress at Philadelphia
in April, 1874, declared that they accepted the
resolutions of the Hague.
Grievous strikes, the intensity of the industrial crisis, arid
above all personal disputes among the leaders, led to a rapid
Assessor in Germany (Berlin, 1884), an account is given of the two con
gresses held by the German Social Democrats since the passing of the
Anti-Socialist law. The first was held at Wyden, near Ossingen,
Switzerland, from the 20th to the 23rd of August, 1880, and is remarkab e
for the definitive schism which then occurred between the radical group»
represented by Johann Most and Hassehnann, and the so-called moderate
party, headed by Bebel and Liebknecht. The second congress assembled
at Copenhagen on the 29th of March, 1883, and was attended by sixty
delegates. They congratulated themselves that, in spite of the Lxccp"
tional Law and persecution of all kinds, they could look forward wit 1
hope and confidence to the future ; and they passed a resolution to the
effect that they had no confidence in the ruling classes, but were convince
that the so-called social reform was only a ruse to divert the working
classes from the right course. Dr. Zacher says that the Anti-Sociabs
legislation has entirely suppressed all overt agitation, and that the sccre
agitation which has taken its place “ can hardly be said to be really
formidable. ”— Tr. ]
