[14] "It has been truthfully said that in Germany a Social Democrat cannot even become a night-watchman."—Prof. Bernhard Harms (University of Kiel), Ferdinand Lassalle und Seine Bedeutung für die Sozial-Demokratie, 1909, p. 103.

[15] "Do you enjoy freedom from political interference?" I asked a high official in the civil service. "Absolutely. We think as we please, talk as we please, and do as we please. But we must let the Social Democrats alone."

[16] See Appendix, p. 293, for synopsis of this law.

[17] The vote for the Saxon legislature at this time was as follows:

PartyVotersVotes
Social Democrats341,396492,522
Conservatives103,517281,804
National Liberal125,157236,541
Independents (Freisinnige)41,857100,804
Anti-Semites20,24855,502

The Social Democrats included over one-half of the voters, cast about one-third of the votes, and elected only one-fourth of the members.

[18] Some curious instances of inequality appear in the cities. In Berlin in one precinct one man paid one-third of the taxes and consequently possessed one-third of the legislative influence in that precinct. In another precinct the president of a large bank paid one-third of the taxes, and two of his associates paid another third. These three men named the member of the Diet from that precinct.

[19] For the struggle for ballot reform in Bavaria, see Der Kampf um die Wahlreform in Bayern, issued in 1905 by the Bavarian Social Democratic Party Executive Committee.

[20] February 13, 1910, was set aside as a day for suffrage demonstration throughout the empire. In Berlin alone forty-two meetings were announced. These provoked the following edict: "Notice! The 'right to the streets' is hereby proclaimed. The streets serve primarily for traffic. Resistance to state authority will be met by the force of arms. I warn the curious. Berlin, February 13, 1910. Police-president, Von Iagow." The Social Democratic papers called attention to the fact that these notices were printed on the same forms that the Police-president often used to announce that the streets would be closed to all traffic on account of military parades.

[21] Protokoll, 1890, pp. 119-120.