[39] In 1900 Bebel proposed the necessity of a working coalition with other parties in Prussia to gain electoral reform. He said: "We cannot stand alone. We must attempt to go hand in hand with certain elements in the bourgeois parties--without, however, endangering our identity." But the party was not willing to go as far as the veteran, and a resolution was adopted limiting such co-operation strictly to Prussia and giving the central committee full power to veto the acts any electoral district might take in this direction. [40] _Protokoll_, 1910, p. 249. [41] _Protokoll_, 1910, p. 272. [42] In November, 1911, Berlin's new city hall was dedicated. The members of the city council were invited to be present. The Social Democrats cast a large majority of all the votes in Berlin. But the Social Democrats refused to attend the ceremonies. The program, as published, called for a "Hoch!" to the Kaiser, and the Social Democrats never joined in public approval of the government. _Vorwärts_, the leading Social Democratic daily, said that Social Democrats have nothing to do with such a display of "Byzantinism." "If any one thought it necessary to shout 'Hoch!' he could shout 'Hoch!' to the working population of Berlin." [43] _Protokoll_, 1907, pp. 227-8. [44] Amongst the business people of Mannheim, Munich, and other cities in Baden, Bavaria, and Hesse, there are many who support the Social Democratic candidates, because, they say, there is no genuinely liberal party. It should, however, be borne in mind that the Social Democrats of these southern districts are liberal and progressive, not the unbending, orthodox variety of Prussia. [45] VON VOLLMAR, _Über die Aufgaben der Deutschen Social-Demokratie_. [46] The _Hansa Bund_ (Hanseatic League), organized a few years ago, may be the nucleus of such a party. It is composed of smaller manufacturers and business men opposed to tariffs and the trusts, and in favor of a more liberal government. [47] _Protokoll_, Social Democratic Party, 1907, p. 228. [48] _Protokoll_, 1892, p. 132. [49] _Protokoll_, 1907, p. 255. [50] See _Die Sozial-Demokratie im Münchener Rathaus_, issued by the Bavarian party executive committee, 1908. Also _Die Sozial-Demokratie im Bayerischen Landtag, 1888-1905_, 3 vols., issued by the Party Press in Munich; and E. AUER, _Arbeiterpolitik im Bayerischen Landtag_. CHAPTER IX THE ENGLISH LABOR PARTY I We come now to the land of the industrial revolution--that colossal upheaval which changed the face of society, as the vast continental uplifts of past geological epochs changed the face of the earth. And just as the continents were centuries in settling themselves to their new conditions, so human society is now slowly adjusting itself to the conditions wrought by this violent change. One of the evidences of this gradual readjustment is Socialism. For to Socialism machine industry is a condition precedent. In this sense England has produced modern Socialism.