ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the story of the development and ultimate defeat of the anti-strike "Labor Regulation Bill". It demonstrates the energetic nature of political controversy in Wilhelmian Germany, and examines an especial opportunity to illustrate the vigorous and important role of political journalism. The chapter shows how the newspapers amplified and extended the dimensions of public understanding and frequently served as an effective popular counterweight to the partisan rigidity of the legislature. The Frankfurter Zeitung, the active voice of the democratic faction of southwestern Germany, led off the debate with a speculative analysis: the strongest sentences of the German penal code are death and imprisonment at hard labor. The Berliner Politische Nachrichten, voice of the influential Central Association of German Industrialists, piously regretted that loyal Germans felt the need to call for stronger controls. The Berlin Germania, representing the traditionally conservative Prussian wing of the party, implied that the proposed legislation was moderate and had merit.
