Page:American Historical Review, Vol. 23.djvu/107

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German Socialism Reconsidered
97

It was out of the Balkan conflicts of 1912-1913 and the resulting upset of the balance of power as between Russia and Austria-Hungary, it must be remembered, that the gigantic "preparedness" movement of 1913, common to all Europe, proceeded. Against the German Army Bill of 1913, providing for an increase of 19,000 officers and 117,000 men in the peace establishment, the Social Democrats in the Reichstag voted en bloc; but when it came to the question of furnishing funds to render the Army Bill operative, the same Social Democrats discovered "principles" whereby they were enabled for the first time in their history to vote in favor of increased taxes for military purposes.[1] The "principles" were discoverable in the fact that the government proposed to raise the required funds mainly by direct progressive taxation of the rich.[2] In effect, the party was inverting the old maxim and proclaiming that "the means justify the end".

The "tactics" of the Reichstag group were exposed to the Jena Congress of 1913:

The existing situation in the Reichstag forced us to vote in favor of these laws. Even if by chance the special levy should be passed without our votes, it would hardly be so with the property-tax law. In fact it is highly probable that the Conservatives, the Poles, and a part of the Centrists would vote against the property tax, which would mean its defeat. Then there would be two possibilities: either the dissolution of the Reichstag, or the postponement of the question of taxation until autumn. To be sure, every one of us would gladly [!] go to the country for election to a new Reichstag. But we should enter the campaign under very unfavorable conditions. We should be rightly accused of having defeated national direct taxes although we had always demanded them. It is likely that the group would suffer a noteworthy shrinkage, — an eventuality which could not be risked in view of the approaching revision of the tariff.[3]

The caucus of the Reichstag group had adopted this view by a vote of 52 to 37, with seven abstentions; and at the congress it was endorsed by a vote of 336 to 140, the majority including Bernstein,

  1. The question of voting any budget proposed by a non-Socialist government had long been a mooted one with the German Social Democrats. Acceptance of such budgets had been advocated particularly by Vollmar and Anton Fendrich ("Zur Frage der Budgetbewilligung" in Socialistische Monatshefte, vol. V., pt. II., pp. 649–661, September, 1901), and opposed by Bebel and Rosa Luxemburg ("Die Badische Budgetabstimmung" in Die Neue Zeit, vol. XIX.. pt. II., pp. 14–20, April 6, 1901), and debated in the congresses of 1894 and 1901. At Lübeck in 1901 it was resolved to vote against budgets in order to express "lack of confidence", but to admit of occasional exceptions.
  2. See the apology of Hermann Wendel, a Socialist deputy for Saxony in the Reichstag, in the New Review, I. 765–771 (1913).
  3. Bericht der Reichstagsfraktion an den Parteitag zu Jena 1913 in Protokoll, pp. 169–70.