Indeed, if we consider the matter with some measure of sympathy and impartiality, it would hardly have been natural had it been otherwise. Let us try to realise from what low estate the German working men were now endeavouring to rise. We must remember that the German workman had no share or experience in government, either local or national. The right of combination, of free speech in a free meeting, and even of free movement, had been denied him for generations. He could hardly turn to the right hand or the left without coming into collision with the police and the courts of law. He had no leaders whom he could trust. The German working men, it is scarcely an exaggeration to say, had in the sphere of social and political action everything to learn. Under conditions which were most trying and uncertain they had to shape out a policy which suited their interests and ideals; they had to learn to know each other and to work in union, and they had to find trustworthy and capable leaders. Nameless misery and degradation prevailed in too many of the industrial regions on the Rhine in Saxony and Silesia. Men, women, and children were worked for fifteen hours a day. Hand labour was disappearing with the wonted unspeakable suffering before the machinery brought in by the industrial revolution. Both the hand labour and the factory labour of Germany suffered under the pressure of the competition of the more advanced mechanical industry of England. In the lot of the German working man there had been neither light, leading, nor hope. The men who represented State and Church, law and learning, and who should have been responsible for his guidance, were too often found among his oppressors. In view of facts like these need we wonder that Lassalle, with all his eloquence and energy, found it difficult to rouse the German working men out of their apathy and hopelessness? Under such depressing circumstances it was no particular disgrace for an ordinary man like Bernhard Becker to fail. Becker’s tenure of the presidency was of short duration. He was succeeded by Tölcke, a man of ability and energy; but at his entrance into office the prospects of the Association were not bright. The funds in its treasury amounted to only six thalers or eighteen shillings. If finance be the test of success the Association founded by Lassalle was indeed at a very low ebb.