and socialists in China were occupied in preventing the return of the monarchy, and in endeavoring to keep China out of war. In the Summer of 1919, it was reported that the Japanese Socialist Party had been reorganized, and had ceased to be a mere secret society. In South Africa the Labor Party split on the question of militarism, the seceding group forming an anti-militarist international league.

BELGIUM

Triple Character of Belgian Movement. The distinctive feature of Belgian socialism prior to the war was the close integration between the political, the trade union and the coöperative branches of the labor movement.

The socialist movement in Belgium came into prominence during the days of the first International. With the death of this organization, the Belgian section lapsed, to be revived again in the early eighties by the weaver Anseele and others. The modern Belgian Labor Party was founded in 1885.

Fight for Suffrage. Following its organization, the party immediately began its fight for universal suffrage. It held great demonstrations in Brussels and elsewhere in 1886, and again in 1890, when 40,000 paraders took a solemn oath, the "oath of August 10," not to give up the fight "until the Belgian people, through universal suffrage, should regain their fatherland.” 4

In 1893 the demonstration for the suffrage was in the form of a general strike involving 200,000 workers. Although the strike lasted but a few days, it had its effect. A limited franchise was granted. The socialist vote in the following elections rose to 345,959, and the socialist representatives, to 29. A further general strike, participated in by nearly two-thirds of the industrial workers of Belgium, was carried out in 1913 for a still further extension of the suffrage, and was effective in securing from the governmental commission a statement that the question of universal suffrage would be considered.

Pre-War Strength.- In 1912 the party possessed 30 4 Orth, Socialism and Democracy in Europe, p. 128.

representatives in the Chamber of Deputies and 7 in the Senate. Socialist municipal councilors totaled 850, and the popular vote was estimated at 600,000.

HOLLAND

The organized socialist movement in Holland was launched in 1878, at the formation of the Social Democratic Union. Ten years later, Niewenhuis, its founder, was elected to the Dutch Parliament as the first socialist representative. Niewenhuis finally became discouraged with the slowness of parliamentary action, and joined the anarchists. In 1894 the anarchist group definitely separated from the socialists, and the Social Democratic Labor Party was founded, with Pieter J. Troelstra as its most prominent leader. From that time to the outbreak of the war, the vote steadily increased. In 1897, it totaled 13,000, with three deputies, and, in 1913, 144,000 voters, with 18 deputies. In 1908 a small Marxist party was formed as a protest against the action of the socialist deputies in throwing their weight in favor of the more liberal of the two factions in Parliament.

The

Shortly before the war, the socialists were asked to cooperate with the government in a coalition government, but, after heated discussion, replied in the negative. The membership of the party, in 1912, was 13,968. Their representation in Parliament was one-fifth of the total. party has made considerable headway among the intellectuals and has close connections with the coöperative movement, although not with the somewhat anarchistic trade union movement.

Denmark.

SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES

The history prior to the war of the Social Democratic Party of Denmark, founded in 1878, has been

in 1896, in Paris in 1900, in Amsterdam in 1904, in Stuttgart in 1907, in Copenhagen in 1910 and in Basel in 1912. Vienna was selected for 1914, but the war prevented the convocation of this gathering. Chief among the problems discussed at these conferences, as is shown elsewhere in this book, was that of militarism.

GERMANY

Organization of Party.-The German Social Democratic Movement may be said to have been definitely organized on May 23, 1863, a year before the formation of the first International, at the foundation in Leipsic of the Universal German Workingmen's Association. Foremost among its organizers was Ferdinand Lassalle, one of the most remarkable and picturesque characters in Europe.2 The association was composed chiefly of workingmen from Prussia. Workers of Saxony and South Germany united in Frankfort about the same time into a movement of a less radical nature. Under the guidance of Wilhelm Liebknecht and August Bebel, this movement in 1868 proclaimed its adherence to the principles of the International, and, the following year, at Eisenach, founded the Social Democratic Workingmen's Party. In 1875, at the Gotha Congress, the Lassallian and Liebknecht-Bebel groups (Lassalle had long since died), merged into the Socialistic Workingmen's Party, with a membership of 25,000.

The Anti-Socialist Laws. In 1877 the socialists secured about a half million votes and sent a dozen members to the Reichstag. This increase alarmed the Emperor, and, the following year, the Reichstag, influenced by Bismarck, passed the famous anti-socialist laws, which placed 2 See Brandes, Ferdinand Lassalle,

the ban on socialist meetings and literature. Free speech was enjoyed only in the Reichstag.

Increase in Vote.- Despite this ban, the socialist vote continued to mount. In 1881 it had reached 312,000; in 1890, 1,427,000, an increase of 300 per cent. The antisocialist laws were thus seen to be ineffective, and were thereupon withdrawn. In 1912, the number of socialists in the Reichstag was 110, while the party obtained 4,250,329 votes or 34 per cent. of the vote of the country. Throughout its history it did effective work in behalf of social legislation and political reform. Its dues paying membership in 1913 was 962,850; its press included 93 dailies with a circulation of 1,800,000, while it conducted an extensive educational work. It worked in close cooperation with the trade union, and, later, with the consumers' coöperative movement.

FRANCE

Organization of Movement.- France was the home of the utopian socialists in the early part of the nineteenth century, and, later, served as the headquarters of many revolutionary leaders exiled from other lands. The Commune of 1871 put a temporary quietus on the activities of the French movement, and it was not until the early eighties that the socialist movement began to revive, through the efforts of Jules Guesde and others. The history of socialism during the next generation was a history of schisms. In 1882 the movement divided into the "Possibilists" and the " Impossibilists." Five years later, after a temporary reconciliation of the groups, the party secured its first representation in the French Chamber of Deputies. In 1891 a further split occurred in the ranks of the "Possibilists." In 1893 forty socialists were elected to the Chamber of Deputies under the standard of various