When the law against the Socialists was first passed, it
is said that Prince Bismarck burst out with, " Now, off we go for the pig-sticking !" (" Jetzt geht die Sauhatz los "). And apparently the chase has been tolerably active. For 187 clubs and societies, and 58 periodicals, as well as 210 non-periodical publications, have been suppressed. In addition to this, 62 persons have been banished. The belief in Germany is that the law has been really a success, in the sense of driving Socialism out of the field. And so, perhaps, it may have been. But discontent is not diminished by being denied its natural expression ; rather is it increased. If it were really pig-sticking, the case might be different ; but when the boar is allowed to run away with the knife in his body, and the wound is not fatal, his tusks become rather more formidable weapons than before, instead of less so.
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