The Code of Frederick the Great contained the words: "It is the duty of the State to provide for the sustenance and support of those of its citizens who cannot procure sustenance themselves"; and again, "work adapted to their strength and capacity shall be supplied to those who lack means and opportunity of earning a livelihood for themselves and those dependent on them." In the most public way the new policy was introduced by an Imperial message, on November 17, 1881, in which the Emperor expressed his conviction that the social difficulties could not be healed simply by the repression of the exaggerations of Social Democracy, but at the same time the welfare of the workmen must be advanced.

This new policy had the warm approval of both the Emperor and the Crown Prince; no one greeted more heartily the change than Windthorst.
"Allow me," he once said to Bismarck, "to speak openly: you have done me much evil in my life, but, as a German patriot, I must confess to you my gratitude that after all his political deeds you have persuaded our Imperial Master to turn to this path of Social Reform." There were, he said, difficulties to be met; he approved of the end, but not of all the details, "and," he continued, "something of the difficulty, if I may say so, you cause yourself.

You are often too stormy for us; you are always coming with something new and we cannot always follow you in it, but you must not take that amiss.

We are both old men and the Emperor is much older than we are, but we should like ourselves in our lifetime to see some of these reforms established.
That I wish for all of us and for our German country, and we will do our best to help in it." Opinions may differ as to the wisdom of Bismarck's social and financial policy; nobody can deny their admiration for the energy and patriotism which he displayed.

It was no small thing for him, at his age, to come out of his comparative retirement to bring forward proposals which would be sure to excite the bitterest opposition of the men with whom he had been working, to embark again on a Parliamentary conflict as keen as any of those which had so taxed his energies in his younger years.