In the spring of 1908 there were agrarian strikes at Parma; the labor contracts had pressed hardly on the peasantry, who had cause for complaint; but while some improvement had been effected in the new contracts, certain unscrupulous demagogues, of whom Alceste De Ambris, representing the syndacalist wing of the Socialist party, was the chief, organized a widespread agitation.
In war they trembled at the sound of a trumpet, in peace they quaked before the shouting of their own demagogues; and during the assault of Philip II.
But he unfortunately associated himself with the demagogues Saturninus (q.v.) and Glaucia, in order to secure the consulship for the sixth time (100).
But a dispute between the king and the parliament concerning the form of the royal oath having arisen, a group of demagogues with criminal folly provoked disturbances and erected barricades (May 14th).
Among other things, Phillips contended, during his later years, for prohibition, woman suffrage and various penal and administrative reforms. He was not always the best judge of character, and was sometimes allied in these movements with men who were little more than demagogues.
