"(4) Abolition of laws which restrict or sup press free expression of opinion and the right of meeting or association.
"(5) Abolition of all laws which place the woman, whether in a private or a public capa city, at a disadvantage as compared with the man.
"(6) Declaration that religion is a private matter; abolition of all appropriations from pub lic funds for ecclesiastical and religious objects; ecclesiastical and religious bodies are to be re garded as private associations which order their affairs independently.
"(7) Secularization of education; compulsory attendance at public national schools; free edu cation. free supply of educational apparatus, and free maintenance to children in schools, and to such pupils, male and female, in higher educa tional institutions, as are judged to be fitted for further education.
"(8) Free administration of the law and free legal assistance; administration of the law by judges elected by the people; appeal in criminal eases; compensation to persons accused, impris oned, or condemned unjustly; abolition of capi tal punishment.
"(9) Free medical assistance, and freo supply of remedies; free burial of the dead.
"(10) A graduated income and property tax to meet all public expenses which are to be raised by taxation; self-assessment; succession duties, graduated according to the extent of the in heritance and the degree of relationship; aboli tion of all indirect taxation, customs duties, and other economic measures which sacrifice the in terests of the community to the interests of a privileged minority.
"For the protection of labor, the German Social Democrats also demand, to begin with: "(1) An effective national and international system of protective legislation on the following principles: "(a) The fixing of a normal working day, which shall not exceed eight hours.
"(b) Prohibition of the employment of children under fourteen.
"(e) Prohibition of night work, except in those branches of industry which, from their nature and for technical reasons or for reasons of public welfare, require night, work.
"(d) An unbroken rest of at least thirty-six hours for every workman every week.
"(e) Prohibition of tOe truck system.
"(2) Supervision of all industrial establish ments, together with the investigation and regu lation of the conditions of labor in the town and country by an Imperial labor department, district labor bureaus, and chambers of labor; a thor ough system of industrial sanitary regulation.
"(3) Legal equality of agricultural laborers and domestic servants with industrial laborers; repeal of the laws concerning masters and servants.
"(4) Confirmation of the rights of association.
"(5) The taking over by the Imperial Govern ment of the whole system of workmen's insur ance, though giving the workmen a certain share in its administration." This is printed in the annual reports of the Proceedings of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, office of the Vortviirts, Berlin. The present translation is taken from the 'Blue Book,' giving the report of the Royal Commission on Labor in Germany, published in London, 1893. For the sake of greater accuracy, however, a few changes have been made by the author.
It is possible to state in a very few words the most essential facts in the history of social de mocracy in Germany, since the adoption of the Erfurt Programme. One of the main subjects which have agitated the party has been the atti tude toward the peasant proprietors, the small farmers, and this same question has agitated social democracy in France and the United States. The support of the small proprietor is essential to the success of social democracy. A programme of confiscation of all land would arouse the hostil ity of the farmer. The most conservative wing of the party, therefore, advocates conces sions to small farmers, proposing to permit them to hold landed property even under socialism. 0. 11. von Vollmar, member of the Reichstag and a leader among the Bavarian Social Democrats, is foremost among those who advocate concessions of this sort. This conservative programme, how ever, has never been officially adopted. Eduard Bernstein, who has already been mentioned as a leader of the conservative Socialists, was elected to the Reichstag from Breslau in February, 1902.