on" has been misunderstood, and the socialist members of
the Reichstag have been reproved because they are not revolutionary. As
a matter of fact, every socialist is a revolutionist, but one must not
understand by revolution the expression of violence. The tactics of
desperation, as the Nihilists practice them, do not serve the purpose of
Germany.[31] As a result of the Wyden congress, Most and Hasselmann were
ejected from the party, and the tactics of Bebel and Liebknecht were
adopted.

After 1880 there developed an underground socialist movement that was
most baffling and disconcerting to the police. Socialist papers, printed
in other countries, were being circulated by the thousands in all parts
of Germany. Funds were being raised in some mysterious manner to support
a large body of trusted men in all parts of the country who were
devoting all their time to secret organization and to the carrying on of
propaganda. The socialist organizations, which had been broken up,
seemed somehow or other to maintain their relations. And, despite all
that could be done by the authorities, socialist agitation seemed to be
going on even more successfully than ever before. There was one loophole
which Bismarck had not been able to close, and this of course was
developed to the extreme by the socialists. Private citizens could not
say what they pleased, nor was it allowed to newspapers to print
anything on socialist lines. Nevertheless, parliamentary speeches were
privileged matter, and they could be sent anywhere and be published
anywhere. Bismarck of course tried to suppress even this form of
propaganda, and two of the deputies were arrested on the ground that
they were violating the new law. However, the Reichstag could not be
induced to sanction this interference with the freedom of deputies.
Bismarck then introduced a bill into the Reichstag asking for power to
punish any member who abused his parliamentary position. There was to be
a court established consisting of thirteen deputies, and this was to
have power to punish refractory delegates by censuring them, by obliging
them to apologize to the House, and by excluding them from the House. It
was also proposed that the Reichstag should in certain instances prevent
the publicity of its proceedings. This bill of Bismarck's aroused
immense opposition. It was called "the Muzzle Bill," and, despite all
his efforts, it was defeated.

The anti-socialist law had been passed as an excep