134

THE  SOCIALISM  OF  TO-DAY.

the  large  towns,  saw,  with  bitter  jealousy,  influence  and  money
passing  to  the  large  manufacturers,  bankers,  shareholders,  promoters ­
  of  joint-stock  companies,  and  all  those  Stock  Exchange
speculators  who  thenceforth,  throughout  “  industrialized  "
Germany,  began  to  take  the  lead.  The  denunciation  of  the
abuses  of  capital  was  much  to  the  taste  of  this  party  of
“  rurals,”  who  thus  imbibed  a  sort  of  reactionary  and  feudal
Socialism.  According  to  them,  not  a  line  that  Marx  had
written  against  capital  was  too  violent.  Of  course,  this
“Agrarian”  party  had  no  idea  of  an  Agrarian  law,  unless
it  could  be  applied  exclusively  to  the  funds  of  the  Stock
Exchange  and  to  the  Jews,  whom  they  especially  detested.
The  second  stratum  of  adherents  to  which  the  Ultramontane
Christlich-socialen  penetrated  was  composed  of  the  Catholic
peasantry.  The  generals  of  the  Kulturkampf,  who  persecuted
the  priests  and  the  beliefs  of  the  peasants,  were  Liberals  and
Economists.  The  Catholic  country  folk  were  therefore  pleased
to  see  Liberalism  and  Political  Economy  attacked.  They  found
the  burdens  of  taxation  and  military  service  overwhelming,
and  Canon  Moufang  had  inscribed  in  his  programme  that
they  must  be  largely  reduced.  As  to  the  “  iron  law  ”  and
Ricardo,  they  probably  accepted  their  bishop’s  teaching  on
trust.
We  shall  now  proceed  to  show  that  the  words  of  Canon
Moufang  and  Bishop  Ketteler  have  not  fallen  upon  stony
places,  but,  like  the  seed  that  fell  on  good  ground,  they  have
brought  forth  fruit  an  hundred-fold.  We  shall  principally
follow  the  information  collected  with  extreme  care  in  a  book,
replete  with  facts,  by  Ur.  Rudolf  Meyer,  “  The  Struggle  for
the  Emancipation  of  the  Fourth  Estate.”  *
The  first  reunion  of  the  Ultramontane  Socialist,  or—as
they  used  to  call  themselves—Christian  Social  (Christlichsociale) ­
  clubs,  took  place  at  Crefeld,  in  June,  1868.  Only
three  clubs  were  represented.  They  adopted  as  their  organ
a  journal  edited  with  considerable  skill  by  Herr  Schings,  a
clergyman  at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  Die  Christlich-sociale  Blaetter.
By  the  next  year  the  number  of  clubs  had  considerably
*  Der  EmancipcUionskavtpf  des  Vierten  Standes.