After being alarmed by an International of Workers, the world was agreeably startled by the project for an International of Governments. In 1889 the Swiss Government brought forward a proposal for an International Conference on Labour of the countries most interested in industrial competition. The question assumed a new aspect when, early in 1890, the young German Emperor issued rescripts, one of which contained the same proposal. Naturally, the matters presented for discussion by the Emperor covered only a small part of the ground occupied by the International of Workers. The protection of adult labour, except in mines, was excluded from the business of the conference. Sunday labour, the protection of women, children, and young persons, were the chief questions laid before the meeting. There can be no doubt that the conference gave a much-needed and a beneficial stimulus to legislation for the protection of labour in civilised countries, though it by no means realised the sanguine expectations that many formed regarding it. The main result of the conference has been the recognition by the Governments of the fact that there are labour questions of vast importance, and that these questions have international aspects which can no longer be ignored. Let us hope that it may be the beginning of better things. In the course of human improvement we may hope that the question of the needs and rights of labour will ever take a large place beside the concerns of war and diplomacy, and that it will eventually supersede them. The workers have a growing influence at the elections in civilised countries. It is their duty to press their just claims on the Governments, and so to bring about that desirable consummation. ----- [1] _Enthüllungen über den Communisten-Prozess zu Köln_, von Karl Marx, Einleitung von Fr. Engels, p. 3. [2] _Enthüllungen_, Introduction, p. 11. [3] P. 47. [4] For the official documents connected with the International, see R. Meyer’s _Emancipationskampf des vierten Standes_, vol. i. 2nd ed. [5] Oscar Testu, _L’Internationale_, p. 153. [6] _Der Bürgerkrieg in Frankreich_. CHAPTER IX THE GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRACY To understand the modern development of Germany, we must recall a few of the leading facts of its history. German history is largely a record of disunion, and this became chronic at the Reformation, which divided the country between two conflicting forms of religion. The religious struggle had its culmination and its catastrophe in the Thirty Years’ War.