440 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
that in taking their part the best means were employed for putting the brakes upon the organizations.
In the following winter the government issued a secret cir- cular to all the administrative officers of the state and the police authorities, with the inquiry whether during the labor difficulties there were not so many excesses and crimes against those laborers who did not care to take part in the movement that it was wise to offer increased protection to the "voluntaries" through additional penalties for "misuse of the right of com- bination." Through some as yet unexplained source this circular, which was expressly designated " confidential," came into the hands of the editors of the central organ of the Social Democratic party, Vorwdrts. It was immediately published in this paper, and it was made a subject of discussion in the Reichstag. The government made the following explanation : "If there is any country- in which such combinations of laborers are less necessary than elsewhere, that country is Germany. In a country where there is direct universal suffrage the interests of the laborers will always find lively and efficient support through the weight of the fact that they constitute the great mass of the voters. Consequently such a representation of the laborers as exists in the labor organizations is among us nowhere near so necessary as in other countries with other modes of election."
From this it is manifest that the tendency of the circular, and of the law for which it was to prepare the way, was hostile to organizations of laborers in general, although in form it was only directed toward provisions for the " voluntaries." From this time people knew what to expect, although for six months the government gave no further signs of its intentions in the matter.
On September 6, 1898, the Kaiser made another speech at the small town of Oeynhausen, in Westphalia, and like a thunderbolt from a clear sky it illuminated the whole situation. He said: "The protection of German labor, protection of those who want to work, was promised by me during the last year in the town of Bielefeld. The bill is near its completion,
