As Scharnhorst once contrasted the duty of the citizen with the rights of man, so the Emperor William I.recognized the duty of the State towards those who were badly equipped with the necessaries of life.

The position of the worker was assured, so far as circumstances allowed, by social legislation.

No excuse, therefore, for revolutionary agitation now existed.
A vigorous opposition to all the encroachments of the social democrats indicated the only right way in which the justifiable efforts of the working class could be reconciled with the continuance of the existing State and of existing society, the two pillars of all civilization and progress.

This task is by no means completed.

The question still is, How to win back the working class to the ideals of State and country?
Willing workers must be still further protected against social democratic tyranny.
Germany, nevertheless, is in social-political respects at the head of all progress in culture.