Untitled

214 VIOLENCE AND THE LABOR MOVEMENT
cialists were found on his person, a great clamor arose
for a coercive law to destroy the social democrats. The
question was immediately discussed in the Reichstag, but
the moderate forces prevailed, and the bill was rejected.
Hardly, however, had the discussion ended before a second
attempt was made on the life of the aged sovereign.
This time it was Dr. Karl Nobiling who, on June 2, 1878,
fired at the Emperor from an upper window in the main
was se-
street of Berlin. In this case, the Emperor
verely wounded, and, in the panic that ensued, even the
moderate elements agreed that social democracy must be
suppressed. Various suggestions were made. Some proposed
the blacklisting of all workmen who avowed socialist
principles, while others suggested that all socialists
should be expelled from the country. To exile half a
million voters was, however, a rather large undertaking,
and, in any case, Bismarck had his own plans. First he
precipitated a general election, giving the socialists no
time to prepare their campaign. As a result, their members
in the Reichstag were diminished in number, and
their vote throughout the country decreased by over fifty
thousand. When the Reichstag again assembled, Bismarck
laid before it his bill against "the publicly dangerous
endeavors of social-democracy." The statement
accompanying the bill sought to justify its repressive
measures by citing in the preamble the two attempts
made upon the Emperor, and by stating the conviction
of the Federal Government that extraordinary measures
must be taken. A battle royal occurred in the Reichstag
between Bismarck on the one side and Bebel and
Liebknecht on the other. Nevertheless, the bill became
a law in October of that year.
The anti-socialist law was intended to cut off every
legal and peaceable means of advancing
the socialist