Especially for the working classes are intended the following:  National and international protective legislation for workmen on the basis of a normal eight hours day, prohibition of child labour under fourteen years, prohibition of night work save rendered necessary by the nature of the work or the welfare of society, superintendence of labour and its relations by a Ministry of Labour, thorough workshop hygiene, equality of status between the agricultural labourer, servant class, and the artisan, right of association, and State insurance, as to which the working class should have an authoritative voice.

The programme contains nothing as to the practical consequences of the provisions it contains, but Herr Bebel, in his book on “Woman and Social Democracy,” gives some examples.  One is that the working time will be alike for men and women, another that domestic life will be limited to the cohabitation of man and woman, for children are to be brought up by society, and a third that cooking and washing will be the care of central public kitchens and washhouses.  Meanwhile, all these years, it may be noted, Herr Bebel and his millions of followers have been living exactly like everybody else.

The student of working-class conditions in Germany is unlikely to think clearly unless he distinguishes between such terms as Social Democracy, Socialism, Trade Unionism, and Labour party.  Social Democracy is a species of Socialism.  All Social Democrats are Socialists, but not all Socialists Social Democrats.  The latter, as an enrolled political party, paying annual subscriptions and looking forward to the future state as conceived by Marx, and now by Bebel, number something under a million; the remaining three millions who voted for Social Democratic candidates at the last general election may have included men who believe in Social Democratic ideals, but the vast majority of them, unless one does grave injustice to their common sense, voted for such candidates owing to dissatisfaction with the policy of the Government and present conditions generally—­the high cost of living, the pressure of taxation, the severity of class distinctions, and like grievances, real or imaginary.  These people are Socialists in the English or international sense of the word, not Social Democrats strictly speaking; and with these people the Emperor is most angry because he knows they form the element most capable of dangerous expansion.

Again, though the vast majority of German Socialists in the broader sense are Trade Unionists, not all Trade Unionists are Socialists.  Trade Unionism—­the organization of labour against capital—­is represented in Germany by two main bodies; the free or Socialist Unions containing about two million working men, and the “Christian” or loyal “National” Unions, which are anti-Social Democrat and anti-Socialist.  These have a membership of about 300,000.  The Hirsch-Duncker Unions, with 100,000 members, are Liberal,