The efforts of Bismarck against socialism apparently had a temporary success, for in 1881, the first election after the passing of the laws, the voting power of the party sank to about 312,000. But it was only temporary, and probably it was more apparent than real. The elections in 1884 showed a marked increase to 549,000, and in 1887 to 763,000. These symptoms of growth, however, were vastly exceeded by the results of the poll in 1890, when the number of Social Democratic votes swelled to 1,427,000. They were now the strongest single party of the Empire. In all the large towns of the Empire, and especially in the largest of all, such as Berlin, Hamburg, and Leipzig, where the minor state of siege had been proclaimed, the socialists could show an enormous increase of votes. Till about 1885 the Social Democrats had, by their own confession, made very little progress in country districts, or among the Catholic population either of town or country. At the election of 1890 there was evidence of a very considerable advance in both quarters. The election sounded the knell of Bismarck’s system of repression, and the anti-socialist laws were not renewed. The Social Democrats thus came out of the struggle against Bismarck with a voting power three times as great as it had been when the anti-socialist laws were passed. The struggle had proved the extraordinary vitality of the movement. The Social Democrats had shown a patience, resolution, discipline, and, in the absence of any formal organisation, a real and effective organisation of mind and purpose which are unexampled in the annals of the labour movement since the beginning of human society. They had made a steady and unflinching resistance to the most powerful statesman since the first Napoleon, who wielded all the resources of a great modern State, and who was supported by a press that used every available means to discredit the movement; and, as a party, they had never been provoked to acts of violence. In fact, they had given proof of all the high qualities which fit men and parties to play a great _rôle_ in history. The Social Democratic movement in Germany is one of the most notable phenomena of our time. After the anti-social legislation had ceased the Social Democratic party found that its first task was to set its house in order. At a party meeting at Halle in 1890 an organisation of the simplest kind was adopted. The annual meeting forms the highest representative body of the party. The party direction was to consist of two chairmen, two secretaries, one treasurer, and also of two assessors chosen by a Board of Control of seven members. The _Sozialdemokrat_, which, as we have seen, had for some time been published in London, was discontinued, and the _Vorwärts_ of Berlin was appointed the central organ of the party.