We need not, however, insist further on the details of Lassalle’s controversy with Schulze-Delitzsch. Much more important is it to recall the leading aspects of his teaching. What Lassalle contemplated and contended for was a democracy in which the claims of Might and Right should be reconciled, a democracy of working men, guided by science, and through universal suffrage constituting a State which would rise to the high level of its function as representative and promoter of freedom, culture, morality, and progress in the fullest and deepest significance of those great ideas. Above all, this democracy was to be a social democracy, in which the political idea should be subordinate to the social; hence the duty of the State at least to initiate the solution of the social question by granting credit for productive associations. But this was only to be a beginning; the solution of the social question must be ardently worked out for generations until labour should be entirely emancipated. With such an ideal, contrast the Prussian-German State as it actually is. The German State must still find its basis in the army and police, the most intelligent of the working class being in profound discontent. It is a fact worth considering by our economists and politicians, that the _élite_ of the working men of probably the best educated and most thoughtful nation in the world have gone over to the Social Democratic party. Nor can the German or any other State devote itself heartily to the solution of the social question, for Europe is like a vast camp, in which science and finance are strained to the uttermost in order to devise and provide instruments for the destruction of our fellow-men. Of this state of things the young Emperor who ascended the throne in 1888 is only the too willing representative; but even if he were inclined, he would be powerless to prevent it, as its causes are too deeply rooted in human nature and in the present stage of social development to be removed by anything less than a profound change in the motives and conditions of life. The historical antecedents and geographical position of Germany are such that it must long continue to be a military State; and most other nations have hindrances of their own. Reformers must therefore wait long and strive earnestly before they can hope to see such an ideal as that of Lassalle realised. That the ideal was a noble one, and that the gratitude of all lovers of progress is due to him for his energetic and eloquent advocacy of it, notwithstanding certain unworthy passages in his career, few will deny. ----- [1] _Bastiat-Schulze_, p. iii., Berlin 1878. [2] See _Working Men’s Programme_. [3] See _Open Letter_. [4] See _Open Letter_, passim. [5] See _Bastiat-Schulze_, p. 189. [6] _Bastiat-Schulze_, p. 188. [7] _Bastiat-Schulze_, p. 18. [8] _Bastiat-Schulze_, p. 186. [9] _Ibid._, p. 181. CHAPTER VI _RODBERTUS_