world, getting from the famous Humboldt the sobriquet of Wunderkind - Wonderful child. His prospects were of the brightest; all avenues to distinction lay open before him. Nevertheless he joined the revolutionists of 1848, or got mixed up with them; and even after the collapse of their movement in Berlin, being at Düsseldorf, he advised the citizens not to give up the contest. For this he was seized and thrown into jail charged with treason. Himself a trained lawyer, he managed his own case in court, boldly declaring that he was a Social Democrat, and that what he wanted to see was a Socialist Democratic Republic; that as for resisting the State when the State is in the wrong, he held that to be no crime, but the citizen's right and duty. He was acquitted of treason, but, on a charge of resisting arrest, another tribunal sent him to prison for six months. When at the expiration of that period he would return to his friends in Berlin, he found the way blocked by royal decree. After seven years of ineffectual attempts to procure a revocation of this banishment from the place he most loved, he resolved to disregard it; he would return under another name and in some menial occupation rather than live in luxury elsewhere. So one day in 1857 he appeared in the capital attired as a cartman, somewhat to the dismay of his friends. The king, however, seems to have thought it rather amusing, and on the intercession of an influential friend suffered the audacious democrat to remain.

A cold reaction from revolutionary days was on, and Lassalle accommodated himself to it; plunged into literary activity, producing numerous philosophical pamphlets, satires, essays on current politics, uncertainly biding his hour. Years passed in this way, until it began to seem that this "lion of the tribe of Judah" was really tamed. Then it happened that he was called on to deliver a lecture to the Working-men's Society in Berlin on "The Connection between the Present Epoch of History and the Idea of the Working Class." This subject led him out again upon dangerous ground, and he treated it with such boldness that there followed another prosecution by the government, and another term of imprisonment. These events brought him prominently into view as the champion of the proletariat, and on his release from prison led to his being invited to address a General Working-men's Congress at Leipzig in February, 1863. The address which was sent, and which took the form of a letter, sketched a political programme for the working class; and this was the beginning of the Social Democratic movement in Germany.

At that time considerable effort was being made to better the condition of the German workers and soothe the rising agitation among them by organizing co-operative associations in various branches of production. The leader of this movement, a man of means and generous impulses, and a few others, were doing what they could to erect the buildings required

and to procure the necessary implements; but as the workers forming the associations had nothing, adequate funds were constantly lacking, and results were generally unsatisfactory. Lassalle set himself firmly against the plan, pointing out that it must inevitably fail, since the co-operative establishments, poorly equipped from lack of means, must come into competition with great concerns furnished with the very best facilities for production. This disadvantage must first of all be disposed of; help must come from some more efficient source; it must come from the State. And to bring this about there must be a great political agitation; the working-men and their friends must form themselves into a party and fight as best they can for universal suffrage. That obtained, all they will have to do is to speak with one voice, and every reasonable demand will be granted by the government. The first crying need of the people is relief from the iron and cruel wage-system by which capital is taking to itself an ever-increasing share of the results of production. He contended that the only real relief from this monstrous wrong must come through co-operative production, associated labor in the place of hired labor; which, to be fairly established and given an even chance of success, must be introduced by State help and on State credit. The State grants subsidies to start railways, to encourage steamship lines, to develop agriculture, to promote manufactures; where then is the harm if the State do a similar service to the great working class, who

are in fact not a class but almost the State itself, being more than nine-tenths of the whole population, and much more deserving of an uplift, a bonus, than any railway or steamship line. Being themselves practically the State, there is no beggary in their calling on the State for assistance. State help in such a case would be self-help. He concluded his letter with an appeal to all laborers to work tooth and nail for universal suffrage, for they must have the right to vote before they could exert any direct influence on the government. For them universal suffrage was a question of subsistence, appealing directly to the stomach.

Strong an utterance as this was, there was at the time little response. The Leipzig committee to which it was addressed approved, as did here and there an advanced thinker about the country; but the press generally denounced it, and, strange to say, the working-men too. In Leipzig alone they were with him; and so overwhelmingly that when, a little later, he went there to address them and get their expression, only seven out of an audience of thirteen hundred voted against him. Thus encouraged, he set out upon a regular propaganda. In May, 1863, he founded the General Working-men's Association, whose avowed object was the promotion of universal suffrage by peaceful agitation. He was himself the soul of the organization, and pushed it with a determination and a tireless energy all his own. He traveled the country over, speaking wherever an audience could be

assembled, trying to organize branch associations; he wrote and published much, circulating also with a free hand the writings of other socialist leaders. It took endless repetition to get the new ideas into the heads of the slow German laborers, but once a thought was lodged, it took root and spread. As commonly happens in work for so general a principle, it was found necessary to tolerate all manner of disagreement in secondary matters for the sake of unity on the main purpose. Vagaries of the wildest description cropped out everywhere to try the patience of a broadly educated, clear-headed leader, but he bore with them, demanding agreement only on one thingthe necessity of universal suffrage. That gained, he trusted time and reflection to take care of the rest.

For even the first step in this enterprise there was needed a strong organization, strong at least in numbers. Lassalle thought that with the support of one hundred thousand voices his request for so just a concession to the working-men might get the ear of the government. But this preliminary organization proved a very difficult undertaking. With all the labor he put upon it and all he could get others to put upon it, it went discouragingly slow. After three months of unremitting solicitation only one thousand members were obtained, provoking his reproachful outcry: "When will this foolish people cast aside their lethargy?" But he would not be turned from his purpose by the aggravating indifference of those he sought to serve; the harder the task the more