The sole result of a special act would be to make the Socialists practically outlaws in their own country.

That would constitute not only a terrible severity against a large class of their fellow-citizens, but a frightful danger to the State.

In hundreds and thousands of hearts it would destroy the sense of fellowship with the community in which they lived; they would look upon themselves as outcasts, and become the enemies of their pursuers.
It would be exactly as if some thousands of Frenchmen were set down in the midst of the German population--in the army, in the cities, the factories, the arsenals and railways, where they would only wait for a favorable opportunity to revenge themselves on their conquerors.

That would be the inevitable result if the Socialists were deprived of the security of the common law.

He considered the Socialist doctrines false and mischievous, and their aims senseless and--fortunately--unattainable, and for that very reason he did not fear them.