an early date, cut
into by an increasing number of newly organized parties and groups.
Most important among these were the Clericals, or Centre, and the
Social Democrats. The origins of the Centre may be traced to the
project which was formulated in December, 1870, to found a new party,
a party which should be essentially Catholic, and which should have
for its purpose the defense of society against radicalism, of the
states against the central government, and of the schools against
secularization. A favorite saying of the founders was that "at the
birth of the Empire Justice was not present." The party, gaining
strength first in the Rhenish and Polish provinces of Prussia and in
Bavaria, was able in the elections of 1871 to win a total of sixty
seats. Employed by the Catholic clergy during the decade that followed
to maintain the cause of the papacy against the machinations of
Bismarck, the party early struck root deeply; and by reason of (p. 231)
the absolute identification in the public mind of its interests
with the interests of the Catholic Church, ensuring its preponderance
in the states of the south, and also by reason of the fact that it has
always been more successful than any of its rivals in maintaining
compactness of organization, it became, and has continued almost
uninterruptedly to the present time, the strongest numerically of all
political groups within the Reichstag.

*246. The Newer Groups: the Social Democrats.*--The Social Democratic
party was founded in 1869 under the leadership of Wilhelm Liebknecht
and August Bebel. In 1863 there had been organized at Leipzig, under
the inspiration of the eloquent Marxist Ferdinand Lassalle, a
Universal German Workingman's Association. Between the two bodies
there was for a time keen rivalry, but at a congress held at Gotha, in
May, 1875, they (together with a number of other socialistic
societies) were merged in one organization, which has continued to
this day to be known as the Social Democratic party. The development
of socialism in the Empire between 1870 and 1880, in respect to both
numbers and efficiency of organization, was phenomenal. At the
parliamentary elections of 1871 the Social Democratic vote was 124,655
(three per cent of the total) and two Social Democrats were chosen to
the Reichstag. In 1874 the popular vote was 351,952, and nine members
were elected; in 1877 it was 493,288, and the number of successful
candidates was twelve. By the Empe