4. PROGRAM OF THE GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY
Adopted at Erfurt, 1891
The economic development of bourgeois society leads by natural necessity to the downfall of the small industry, whose foundation is formed by the worker's private ownership of his means of production. It separates the worker from his means of production, and converts him into a propertyless proletarian, while the means of production become the monopoly of a relatively small number of capitalists and large landowners.
Hand-in-hand with this monopolization of the means of production goes the displacement of the dispersed small industries by colossal great industries, the development of the tool into the machine, and a gigantic growth in the productivity of human labor. But all the advantages of this transformation are monopolized by capitalists and large landowners. For the proletariat and the declining intermediate classes—petty bourgoisie and peasants—it means a growing augmentation of the insecurity of their existence, of misery, oppression, enslavement, debasement, and exploitation.
Ever greater grows the number of proletarians, ever more enormous the army of surplus workers, ever sharper the opposition between exploiters and exploited, ever bitterer the class-war between bourgeoisie and proletariat, which divides modern society into two hostile camps, and is the common hall-mark of all industrial countries.
The gulf between the propertied and the propertyless is further widened through the crises, founded in the essence of the capitalistic method of production, which constantly become more comprehensive and more devastating, which elevate general insecurity to the normal condition of society, and which prove that the powers of production of contemporary society have grown beyond measure, and that private ownership of the means of production has become incompatible with their application to their objects and their full development.
Private ownership of the means of production, which was formerly the means of securing to the producer the ownership of his product, has to-day become the means of expropriating peasants, manual workers, and small traders, and enabling the non-workers—capitalists and large landowners—to own the product of the workers. Only the transformation of capitalistic private ownership of the means of production—the soil, mines, raw materials, tools, machines, and means of transport—into social ownership and the transformation of production of goods for sale into Socialistic production managed for and through society, can bring it about, that the great industry and the steadily growing productive capacity of social labor shall for the hitherto exploited classes be changed from a source of misery and oppression to a source of the highest welfare and of all-round harmonious perfection.
This social transformation means the emancipation not only of the proletariat, but of the whole human race which suffers under the conditions of to-day. But it can only be the work of the working-class, because all the other classes, in spite of mutually conflicting interests, take their stand on the basis of private ownership of the means of production, and have as their common object the preservation of the principles of contemporary society.
The battle of the working-class against capitalistic exploitation is necessarily a political battle. The working-class cannot carry on its economic battles or develop its economic organization without political rights. It cannot effect the passing of the means of production into the ownership of the community without acquiring political power.
To shape this battle of the working-class into a conscious and united effort, and to show it its naturally necessary end, is the object of the Social Democratic Party.
The interests of the working-class are the same in all lands with capitalistic methods of production. With the expansion of world-transport and production for the world-market the state of the workers in any one country becomes constantly more dependent on the state of the workers in other countries. The emancipation of the working-class is thus a task in which the workers of all civilized countries are concerned in a like degree. Conscious of this, the Social Democratic Party of Germany feels and declares itself one with the class-conscious workers of all other lands.
The Social Democratic Party of Germany fights thus not for new class-privileges and exceptional rights, but for the abolition of class-domination and of the classes themselves, and for the equal rights and equal obligations of all, without distinction of sex and parentage. Setting out from these views, it combats in contemporary society not merely the exploitation and oppression of the wage-workers, but every kind of exploitation and oppression, whether directed against a class, a party, a sex, or a race.
Setting out from these principles the Social Democratic Party of Germany demands immediately—
1. Universal equal direct suffrage and franchise, with direct ballot, for all members of the Empire over twenty years of age, without distinction of sex, for all elections and acts of voting. Proportional representation; and until this is introduced, re-division of the constituencies by law according to the numbers of population. A new Legislature every two years. Fixing of elections and acts of voting for a legal holiday. Indemnity for the elected representatives. Removal of every curtailment of political rights except in case of tutelage.
2. Direct legislation by the people by means of the initiative and referendum. Self-determination and self-government of the people in empire, state, province, and commune. Authorities to be elected by the people; to be responsible and bound. Taxes to be voted annually.
3. Education of all to be capable of bearing arms. Armed nation instead of standing army. Decision of war and peace by the representatives of the people. Settlement of all international disputes by the method of arbitration.
4. Abolition of all laws which curtail or suppress the free expression of opinion and the right of association and assembly.
5. Abolition of all laws which are prejudicial to women in their relations to men in public or private law.
6. Declaration that religion is a private matter. Abolition of all contributions from public funds to ecclesiastical and religious objects. Ecclesiastical and religious communities are to be treated as private associations, which manage their affairs quite independently.
7. Secularization of education. Compulsory attendance of public primary schools. No charges to be made for instruction, school requisites, and maintenance, in the public primary schools; nor in the higher educational institutions for those students, male and female, who in virtue of their capacities are considered fit for further training.
8. No charge to be made for the administration of the law, or for legal assistance. Judgment by popularly elected judges. Appeal in criminal cases. Indemnification of innocent persons prosecuted, arrested, or condemned. Abolition of the death-penalty.
9. No charges to be made for medical attendance, including midwifery and medicine. No charges to be made for death certificates.
10. Graduated taxes on income and property, to meet all public expenses as far as these are to be covered by taxation. Obligatory self-assessment. A tax on inheritance, graduated according to the size of the inheritance and the degree of kinship. Abolition of all indirect taxes, customs, and other politico-economic measures which sacrifice the interests of the whole community to the interests of a favored minority.
For the protection of the working-class the Social Democratic Party of Germany demands immediately—
1. An effective national and international legislation for the protection of workmen on the following basis:
(a) Fixing of a normal working-day with a maximum of eight hours.
(b) Prohibition of industrial work for children under fourteen years.
(c) Prohibition of night-work, except for such branches of industry as, in accordance with their nature, require night-work, for technical reasons, or reasons of public welfare.
(d) An uninterrupted rest of at least thirty-six hours in every week for every worker.
(e) Prohibition of the truck system.
2. Inspection of all industrial businesses, investigation and regulation of labor relations in town and country by an Imperial Department of Labor, district labor departments, and chambers of labor. Thorough industrial hygiene.
3. Legal equalization of agricultural laborers and domestic servants with industrial workers; removal of the special regulations affecting servants.
4. Assurance of the right of combination.
5. Workmen's insurance to be taken over bodily by the Empire; and the workers to have an influential share in its administration.
6. Separation of the Churches and the State.
(a) Suppression of the grant for public worship.
(b) Philosophic or religious associations to be civil persons at law.
7. Revision of sections in the Civil Code concerning marriage and the paternal authority.
(a) Civil equality of the sexes, and of children, whether natural or legitimate.
(b) Revision of the divorce laws, maintaining the husband's liability to support the wife or the children.
(c) Inquiry into paternity to be legalized.
(d) Protective measures in favor of children materially or morally abandoned.
5. COMMUNAL PROGRAM OF THE BAVARIAN SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY
Inasmuch as our communes are hindered in the fulfilment of their economic and political duties by reactionary laws, we demand:
A.—Of the State:
1. A change of the municipal code, granting genuine local autonomy. A single representative chamber, a four-year term of office, one-half retiring every two years. Universal adult suffrage, secret ballot, the franchise not to be denied to those receiving public aid.
2. Radical tax reform, through the establishing of a uniform, progressive income and property tax, collected by the communes; local taxes to be assessed upon increment value; and prohibition of all taxes upon the necessaries of life.
3. A common-school law providing universal public education free from all religious bias, compulsory up to fourteen years of age. Obligatory secondary schools, the inclusion of social and political economy in their curricula; the defraying of expenses of pupils by the state. Substitution of professional supervision of schools for clerical supervision.
4. Enactment of a domiciliary law, in place of the present inadequate laws, providing for all the necessary sanitary and socio-political demands. Extending the municipalities' right of condemnation to the extent that towns may erect houses and schools, open streets, and make all necessary public improvements demanded by the public welfare.
5. Passage of a sanitary code. Regulation of sanitation in the public interests. Free medical attendance at births. Public nurseries.
6. The administration of public charities by the local authorities.
B.—Of the Commune We Demand:
1. Abolishing all taxes upon the rights of citizenship and of residence. Granting of full franchise rights after one year's residence.
2. Elections to be held on a holiday or on Sunday.
3. Pensions for communal employees.
4. The cost of local administration to be borne by local property or from additions to the direct state taxes. Abolishing of all indirect taxes. Denial of all public aid to the Church.
5. All public services to be conducted by the commune; these to be considered as public conveniences and necessities, and not to serve a mere pecuniary interest, but to be run as the public welfare demands. Rational development of existing water-power, means of communication, etc.
6. Stipulating, in every contract for municipal work, the wages to be paid, and other conditions of labor, such arrangements to be made with the labor organizations; the right to organize into unions not to be denied to laborers and municipal employees and officers. Abolishing of strike clause in contracts for public works. Prohibition, of the sub-contractor system. Securing wages of workmen by bonds. Forbidding municipal officers participating in any business that will bring them into contract relations with the municipality.
7. Development of a public school system which shall be non-sectarian and free to all. Restricting the number of pupils in the classes as far as practical. Furnishing free meals and clothing to needy school children; such service not to be counted as public charity. Establishing continuation schools for both sexes, and schools for backward children. Establishing of public reading-rooms and free public libraries.
8. The advancement of public housing plans. The purchasing of large land areas by the municipality, to prevent speculation in building lots. Simplification of the procedure in examination of building plans, and the granting of building permits. Simplifying the regulations pertaining to the building of cottages and small residences. Municipal aid in the building of workingmen's homes. Providing cheaper homes in municipal houses and tenements. Providing loans of public moneys to building associations and agricultural associations. Leasing of land by the municipality. Municipal inspection of dwellings and of all buildings, the municipality to keep close scrutiny on all real estate developments. Establishment of a public bureau of homes, where information and aid can be secured, and where proper statistics can be gathered concerning building conditions.
9. Providing for cheap and wholesome food through the regulation and supervision of its importation and inspection.
10. Extension of sanitation. Conducting hospitals according to modern medical science. Establishing municipal lying-in hospitals. Free burials.
11. Public care for the poor and orphans. The bettering of the economic condition of women. The granting of aid out of public funds. Public inspection and control of all orphanages, hospitals for children, and nurseries.
12. The establishment of public labor bureaus, which are to act as employment agencies, information bureaus, gather labor statistics, and supervise the sociological activities of the municipality.
Providing work for those in need of employment, on the public works of the commune. Provision for the support of those out of work in co-operation, with the labor unions' efforts in the same direction. The extension of municipal factory inspection and labor laws, as far as the general laws permit. Appointment of laborers as building inspectors. The development of the industrial and commercial courts. Sunday as a day of rest.
13. Liberal wages to be paid workmen employed on public works. Fixing a minimum wage in accordance with the rules of the labor unions; formation of public loan and credit system; eight-hour day. Insuring public employees against sickness, accident, and old age. Making provision for widows and orphans of public employees. Right to organize not to be denied all municipal employees and officials. Recognition of the unions. Annual vacation, on full pay, to every municipal employee and official. Municipal employees to be given their wages during their attendance on military manœuvers, and the payment of the difference between their wages and their sick-benefits in case of illness.
14. Formation of a union of communes or towns, when isolated municipalities find themselves impotent in securing these demands.
6. ELECTION ADDRESS (WAHLRUF) OF THE GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRATS
FOR THE REICHSTAG ELECTIONS OF 1912
On the 12th of January, 1912, the general election for the Reichstag takes place. Rarely have the voters been called upon to participate in a more consequential election. This election will determine whether, in the succeeding years, the policy of oppression and plundering shall be carried still farther, or whether the German people shall finally achieve their rights.
In the Reichstag elections of 1907 the voters were deceived by the government and the so-called national parties: many millions of voters allowed themselves to be deluded. The Reichstag of the "National" bloc from Heydebrand down to Weimar and Nauman has made nugatory the laws pertaining to the rights of coalition; has restricted the use of the non-Germanic languages in public meetings; has virtually robbed the youth of the right of coalition, and has favored every measure for the increase of the army, navy, and colonial exploitation.
The result of their reactionaryism is an enormous increase of the burdens of taxation. In spite of the fact that in 1906 over 200,000,000 marks increase was voted, in stamp tax, tobacco tax, etc., in spite of the sacred promise of the government, through its official organ, that no new taxes were being contemplated, the government has, through its "financial reforms," increased our burden over five hundred millions.
Liberals and Conservatives were unanimous in declaring that four-fifths of this enormous sum should be raised through an increase in indirect taxes, the greater part of which is collected from laborers, clerks, shopkeepers, artisans, and farmers. Inasmuch as the parties to the Bülow-bloc could not agree upon the distribution of the property tax and the excise tax, the bloc was dissolved and a new coalition appeared—an alliance between the holy ones and the knights (Block der Ritter und der Heiligen). This new bloc rescued the distiller from the obligations of an excise tax, defeated the inheritance tax, which would have fallen upon the wealthy, and placed upon the shoulders of the working people a tax of hundreds of millions, which is paid through the consumption of beer, whiskey, tobacco, cigars, coffee, tea—yea, even of matches. This Conservative-Clerical bloc further showed its contempt for the working people in the way it amended the state insurance laws. It robbed the workingman of his rights and denied to mothers and their babes necessary protection and adequate care.
In this manner the gullibility of the voters who were responsible for the Hottentot elections of 1907 was revenged. Since that date every by-election for the Reichstag, as well as for the provincial legislatures and municipal councils, has shown remarkable gains in the Social Democratic vote. The reactionaries were consequently frightened, and now they resort to the usual election trick of diverting the attention of the voters from internal affairs to international conditions, and appeal to them under the guise of nationalism.
The Morocco incident gave welcome opportunity for this ruse. At home and abroad the capitalistic war interests and the nationalistic jingoes stirred the animosities of the peoples. They drove their dangerous play so far that even the Chancellor found himself forced to reprimand his junker colleagues for using their patriotism for partisan purposes. But the attempt to bolster up the interests of the reactionary parties with our international complications continues in spite of this.
Voters, be on your guard! Remember that on election day you have in your hand the power to choose between peace or war.
The outcome of this election is no less important in its bearing upon internal affairs.
Count Bülow declared, before the election of 1907, "the fewer the Social Democrats, the greater the social reforms." The opposite is true. The last few years conclusively demonstrate this. The socio-political mills have rattled, but they have produced very little flour.
In order to capture their votes for the "national" candidates, the state employees and officials were promised an increase in their pay. To the high-salaried officials the new Reichstag doled out the increase with spades, to the poorly paid humble employees with spoons. And this increase in pay was counterbalanced by an increase in taxes and the rising cost of living.
To the people the government refused to give any aid, in spite of their repeated requests for some relief against the constantly increasing prices of the necessities of life. And, while the Chancellor profoundly maintained that the press exaggerated the actual conditions of the rise in prices, the so-called saviors of the middle class—the Center, the Conservatives, the anti-Semites and their following—rejected every proposal of the Social Democrats for relieving the situation, and actually laid the blame for the rise in prices upon their own middle-class tradesmen and manufacturers.
New taxes, high cost of living, denial of justice, increasing danger of war—that is what the Reichstag of 1907, which was ushered in with such high-sounding "national" tom-toms, has brought you. And the day of reckoning is at hand. Voters of Germany, elect a different majority! The stronger you make the Social Democratic representation in the Reichstag, the firmer you anchor the world's peace and your country's welfare!
The Social Democracy seeks the conquest of political power, which is now in the hands of the property classes, and is mis-used by them to the detriment of the masses. They denounce us as "revolutionists." Foolish phraseology! The bourgeois-capitalistic society is no more eternal than have been the earlier forms of the state and preceding social orders. The present order will be replaced by a higher order, the Socialistic order, for which the Social Democracy is constantly striving. Then the solidarity of all peoples will be accomplished and life will be made more humane for all. The pathway to this new social order is being paved by our capitalistic development, which contains all the germs of the New Order within itself.
For us the duty is prescribed to use every means at hand for the amelioration of existing evils, and to create conditions that will raise the standard of living of the masses.
Therefore we demand:
1. The democratizing of the state in all of its activities. An open pathway to opportunity. A chance for every one to develop his aptitudes. Special privileges to none. The right person in the right place.
2. Universal, direct, equal, secret ballot for all persons twenty years of age without distinction of sex, and for all representative legislative bodies. Referendum for setting aside the present unjust election district apportionment and its attendant electoral abuses.
3. A parliamentary government. Responsible ministry. Establishment of a department for the control of foreign affairs. Giving the people's representatives in the Reichstag the power to declare war or maintain peace. Consent of the Reichstag to all state appropriations.
4. Organization of the national defense along democratic lines. Militia service for all able-bodied men. Reducing service in the standing army to the lowest terms consistent with safety. Training youth in the use of arms. Abolition of the privilege of one-year volunteer service. Abolition of all unnecessary expense for uniforms in army and navy.
5. Abolition of "class-justice" and of administrative injustice. Reform of the penal code, along lines of modern culture and jurisprudence. Abolition of all privileges pertaining to the administration of justice.
6. Security to all workingmen, employees, and officials in their right to combine, to meet, and to organize.
7. Establishment of a national Department of Labor, officials of this Department to be elected by the interests represented upon the basis of universal and equal suffrage. Extension of factory inspection by the participation of workingmen and workingwomen in the same. Legalized universal eight-hour day, shortening the hours of labor in industries that are detrimental to health.
8. Reform of industrial insurance, exemption of farm laborers and domestic servants from contributing to insurance funds. Direct election of representatives in the administration of the insurance funds; enlarging the representation of labor on the board of directors; increasing the amounts paid workingmen; lowering age for old-age pensions from 70 to 65 years; aid to expectant mothers; and free medical attendance.
9. Complete religious freedom. Separation of Church and State, and of school and Church. No support of any kind, from public funds, for religious purposes.
10. Universal, free schools as the basis of all education. Free text-books. Freedom for art and science.
11. Diminution and ultimate abolition of all indirect taxes, and abolition of all taxes on the necessities of life. Abolition of duties on foodstuffs. Limiting the restrictions upon the importation of cattle, fowl, and meat to the necessary sanitary measures. Reduction in the tariff, especially in those schedules which encourage the development of syndicates and pools, thereby enabling products of German manufacture to be sold cheaper abroad than at home.
12. The support of all measures that tend to develop commerce and trade. Abolition of tax on railway tickets. A stamp tax on bills of lading.
13. A graduated income, property, and inheritance tax; inasmuch as this is the most effective way of dampening the ardor of the rich for a constantly increasing army and navy.
14. Internal improvements and colonization; the transformation of great estates into communal holdings, thereby making possible a greater food supply and a corresponding lowering of prices. The establishment of public farms and agricultural schools. The reclamation of swamp-lands, moors, and dunes. The cessation of foreign colonization now done for the purpose of exploiting foreign peoples for the sake of gain.
Voters of Germany! New naval and military appropriations await you; these will increase the burdens of your taxes by hundreds of millions. As on former occasions, so now the ruling class will attempt to roll these heavy burdens upon the shoulders of the humble, and thereby increase the burden of existence of the family.
Therefore, let the women, upon whom the burden of the household primarily rests, and who are to-day without political rights, take active part in this work of emancipation and join themselves with determination to our cause, which is also their cause.
Voters of Germany! If you are in accord with these principles, then give your votes on the 12th of January to the Social Democratic Party. Help prepare the foundations for a new and better state whose motto shall be:
Death to Want and Idleness! Work, Bread, and Justice for all!
Let your battle-cry on election day resound: Long live the Social Democracy!
Executive Committee of the Social Democratic
Representation in the Reichstag.
Berlin, December 5, 1911.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Personal tax; tax on movables; tax on land; door and window tax.
[2] A license to trade is required for many businesses in France.
IV. BELGIUM
POLITICAL UNIONISM IN BELGIUM
The Catholic Church essayed to organize in Belgium a "Christian Socialist" movement, patterned after Bishop Kettler's movement in the Rhine provinces. The movement was called "Fédération des Sociétés Ouvriers Catholiques" and grew to considerable power. The federation soon, however, developed democratic tendencies that separated it from the Clerical Party, and the Abbé Daens, their first deputy in the Chamber of Representatives, provoked the hostility of the ecclesiastical authorities and was deprived of his clerical prerogatives.
The Catholic labor unions, which did not join in this democratic movement, have in the last few years developed some strength, and have now about 20,000 members.
The Progressists or Radicals have from the first been favorable to labor and have in their ranks many workmen from the industries "de luxe," such as bronze workers, jewelers, art craftsmen, etc.
The Liberals have a trades-union organization which does not flourish. It has about 2,000 members. The Liberals have, however, together with the Progressists, some influence over the independent unions, with their 32,000 members.
The Socialist labor unions are the largest and most powerful. Their average yearly membership in the years 1885-90 was 40,234; in 1899 it was 61,451; in 1909 it had increased to 103,451.
STATISTICAL TABLES
Table Showing the Development of Co-operative Societies in Belgium
| Year | No. of Societies | Sales—Francs | Profits—Francs | No. of Members | No. of Employees | Value of Realty Francs | Paid-up Capital Francs |
| 1904 | 168 | 26,936,873 | 3,140,210 | 103,349 | 1785 | 10,302,059 | 1,146,651 |
| 1905 | 161 | 28,174,563 | 3,035,941 | 119,581 | 1752 | 12,091,300 | 1,655,061 |
| 1906 | 162 | 33,569,359 | 3,493,586 | 126,993 | 1809 | 12,844,976 | 1,694,878 |
| 1907 | 166 | 39,103,673 | 3,843,568 | 134,694 | 2093 | 14,280,955 | 1,940,175 |
| 1908 | 175 | 40,655,359 | 3,855,444 | 140,730 | 2128 | 14,837,114 | 1,942,266 |
| 1909 | 199 | 43,288,867 | 4,678,559 | 148,042 | 2223 | 15,850,158 | 1,893,616 |
Table Showing the Growth of the Wholesale Co-operative Movement in
Belgium from the Date of Its Beginning in 1901
| Year | Amount of Business Done—Francs |
| 1901 | 760,356 |
| 1902 | 1,211,439 |
| 1903 | 1,485,573 |
| 1904 | 1,608,475 |
| 1905 | 2,219,842 |
| 1906 | 2,416,372 |
| 1907 | 2,796,196 |
| 1908 | 2,995,615 |
| 1909 | 3,221,849 |
| 1910 | 4,489,996 |
PROGRAM OF THE BELGIAN LABOR PARTY
Adopted at Brussels in 1893
Declaration of Principles
1. The constituents of wealth in general, and in particular the means of production, are either natural agencies or the fruit of the labor—manual and mental—of previous generations besides the present; consequently they must be considered the common heritage of mankind.
2. The right of individuals or groups to enjoy this heritage can be based only on social utility, and aimed only at securing for every human being the greatest possible sum of freedom and well-being.
3. The realization of this ideal is incompatible with the maintenance of the capitalistic régime, which divides society into two necessarily antagonistic classes—the one able to enjoy property without working, the other obliged to relinquish a part of its product to the possessing class.
4. The workers can only expect their complete emancipation from the suppression of classes and a radical transformation of existing society.
This transformation will be in favor, not only of the proletariat, but of mankind as a whole; nevertheless, as it is contrary to the immediate interests of the possessing class, the emancipation of the workers will be essentially the work of the workers themselves.
5. In economic matters their aim must be to secure the free use, without charge, of all the means of production. This result can only be attained, in a society where collective labor is more and more replacing individual labor, by the collective appropriation of natural agencies and the instruments of labor.
6. The transformation of the capitalistic régime into a collectivist régime must necessarily be accompanied by correlative transformations—
(a) In morals, by the development of altruistic feelings and the practice of solidarity.
(b) In politics, by the transformation of the State into a business management (administration des choses).
7. Socialism must, therefore, pursue simultaneously the economic, moral, and political emancipation of the proletariat. Nevertheless, the economic point of view must be paramount, for the concentration of capital in the hands of a single class forms the basis of all the other forms of its domination.
To realize its principles the Labor Party declares—
(1) That it considers itself as the representative, not only of the working-class, but of all the oppressed, without distinction of nationality, worship, race, or sex.
(2) That the Socialists of all countries must make common cause (être solidaires), the emancipation of the workers being not a national, but an international work.
(3) That in their struggle against the capitalist class the workers must fight by every means in their power, and particularly by political action, by the development of free associations, and by the ceaseless propagation of Socialistic principles.
I.—Political Program
1. Electoral reform.
(a) Universal suffrage without distinction of sex for all ranks (age-limit, twenty-one; residence, six months).
(b) Proportional representation.
(c) Election expenses to be charged on the public authorities.
(d) Payment of elected persons.
(e) Elected persons to be bound by pledges, according to law.
(f) Electorates to have the right of unseating elected persons.
2. Decentralization of political power.
(a) Suppression of the Senate.
(b) Creation of Legislative Councils, representing the different functions of society (industry, commerce, agriculture, education, etc.); such Councils to be autonomous, within the limits of their competence and excepting the veto of Parliament; such Councils to be federated, for the study and defense of their common interests.
3. Communal autonomy.
(a) Mayors to be appointed by the electorate.
(b) Small communes to be fused or federated.
(c) Creation of elected committees corresponding to the different branches of communal administration.
4. Direct legislation.
Right of popular initiative and referendum in legislative, provincial, and communal matters.
5. Reform of education.
(a) Primary, all-round, free, secular, compulsory instruction at the expense of the State. Maintenance of children attending the schools by the public authorities. Intermediate and higher instruction to be free, secular, and at the expense of the State.
(b) Administration of the schools by the public authorities, under the control of School Committees elected by universal suffrage of both sexes, with representatives of the teaching staff and the State.
(c) Assimilation of communal teachers to the State's educational officials.
(d) Creation of a Superior Council of Education, elected by the School Committees, who are to organize the inspection and control of free schools and of official schools.
(e) Organization of trade education, and obligation of all children to learn manual work.
(f) Autonomy of the State Universities, and legal recognition of the Free Universities. University Extension to be organized at the expense of the public authorities.
6. Separation of the Churches and the State.
(a) Suppression of the grant for public worship.
(b) Philosophic or religious associations to be civil persons at law.
7. Revision of Sections in the Civil Code concerning marriage and the paternal authority.
(a) Civil equality of the sexes, and of children, whether natural or legitimate.
(b) Revision of the divorce laws, maintaining the husband's liability to support the wife or the children.
(c) Inquiry into paternity to be legalized.
(d) Protective measures in favor of children materially or morally abandoned.
8. Extension of liberties.
Suppression of measures restricting any of the liberties.
9. Judicial reform.
(a) Application of the elective principle to all jurisdictions. Reduction of the number of magistrates.
(b) Justice without fees; State-payment of advocates and officials of the Courts.
(c) Magisterial examination in penal cases to be public. Persons prosecuted to be medically examined. Victims of judicial errors to be indemnified.
10. Suppression of armies.
Provisionally; organization of a national militia.
11. Suppression of hereditary offices, and establishment of a Republic.
II.—Economic Program
A.—General Measures
1. Organization of statistics.
(a) Creation of a Ministry of Labor.
(b) Pecuniary aid from the public authorities for the organization of labor secretariates by workmen and employers.
2. Legal recognition of associations, especially—
(a) Legal recognition of trade-unions.
(b) Reform of the law on friendly societies and co-operative societies and subsidy from the public authorities.
(c) Repression of infringements of the right of combination.
3. Legal regulation of the contract of employment.
Extension of laws protecting labor to all industries, and especially to agriculture, shipping, and fishing. Fixing of a minimum wage and maximum of hours of labor for workers, industrial or agricultural, employed by the State, the Communes, the Provinces, or the contractors for public works.
Intervention of workers, and especially of workers' unions, in the framing of rules. Suppression of fines. Suppression of savings-banks and benefit clubs in workshops. Fixing of a maximum of 6,000 francs for public servants and managers.
4. Transformation of public charity into a general insurance of all citizens—
(a) against unemployment;
(b) against disablement (sickness, accident, old age);
(c) against death (widows and orphans).
5. Reorganization of public finances.
(a) Abolition of indirect taxes, especially taxes on food and customs tariffs.
(b) Monopoly of alcohol and tobacco.
(c) Progressive income-tax. Taxes on legacies and gifts between the living (excepting gifts to works of public utility).
(d) Suppression of intestate succession, except in the direct line and within limits to be determined by law.
6. Progressive extension of public property.
The State to take over the National Bank. Social organization of loans, at interest to cover costs only, to individuals and to associations of workers.
i. Industrial property.