of getting their education that the German people give
their pennies for parliamentary agitation. It is because, from hearing
it repeated each day by hundreds of 'agitators,' they come to believe
that truly by this method they will be able to realize, in part at
least, if not completely, their hopes. Acknowledge it for once,
politicians of to-day, formerly socialists, that we may say aloud what
you think in silence: 'You are liars!' Yes, liars, I insist upon the
word, since you lie to the people when you tell them that they will
better their lot by sending you to parliament. You lie, for you
yourselves, but a few years since, have maintained absolutely the
contrary."[13]

What infuriated the anarchists was the amazing growth of the socialist
political parties. It was only after The Hague congress that the
socialist movement was in reality free to begin its actual work. With
ideas diametrically opposed to those of the anarchists, the socialists
set out to build up their national movements by uniting the various
elements in the labor world. There were now devoted disciples of Marx in
every country of Europe, and in the next few years, in France, Belgium,
Holland, Norway, Sweden, and Germany, the foundations were laid for the
great national movements that exist to-day. In France, Jules Guesde,
Paul Lafargue, and Gabriel Deville launched a socialist labor party in
1878. A Danish socialist labor party was formed the same year by an
agreement with the trade unions. In the early eighties the
Social-Democratic Federation was founded in England, and in 1881 a
congress of various groups of radicals, socialists, and republicans
launched a political movement in Italy. In Germany the socialists had
already built up a great political organization. This had been done
directly under the guidance of Marx and Engels through Liebknecht and
Bebel. Marx's ideas were there perfectly worked out, and nothing so much
as that living, growing thing incensed the anarchists. Indeed, they
seemed to be convinced that there was more of menace to the working
class in these growing organizations of the socialists than in the power
of the bourgeoisie itself.

The controversial literature of this period is not pleasant reading. The
socialists and anarchists were literally at each other's throats, and
the spirit of malignity that actuated many of their assaults upon each
other is revolting to those of to-day who cannot appreciate the
intensity of this ba