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56 VIOLENCE AND THE LABOR MOVEMENT
majority of the employers. Henceforth our opponents
spoke of us exclusively as the party of assassins, or the
'Ruin all'
party— a party that wished to rob the masses
of their faith in God, the monarchy, the family, marriage,
and property." (n) The attempt to destroy the
German socialist organization was only one of the many
repressive measures that were taken by the governments
of Europe in the midst of the panic. To the terrorism
of the anarchists the governments responded by a terrorism
of repression, and this in itself helped to establish
murderous assaults as a method of propaganda.
Up to this time Germany had been comparatively free
from anarchist teachings. A number of the Lassalleans
had advocated violent methods. Hasselmann had several
years before launched the Red Flag, which advocated
much that was not in
harmony with socialism, and eventually
the German socialist congress requested him to
cease the publication of his paper. A few individuals
without great influence had endeavored at various times
to import Bakounin's philosophy and methods into Germany,
but their propaganda bore no fruit whatever. It
was only when the German Government began to imitate
the terrorism of the Russian bureaucracy that a momentary
passion for retaliation arose among the socialists.
In fact, a few notable socialists went over to anarchism,
frankly declaring
their belief in terrorist tactics.
And one of the most striking characters in the
history of terrorism, Johann Most, was a product of Bismarck's
man-hunting policies and legal tyranny. Nevertheless,
those policies failed utterly to provoke the extensive
retaliation which Bismarck expected, although
it
was a German who, after five attempts had been made
on the life of Czar Alexander II. of Russia— the last being
successful — proposed at an anarchist congress in