LASKER. 793 known expert Blac'kl)urn, lie visited the United States, where he met most of the leading play- ers and won the American championship from Showalter. On May 24, 18'J4, he won the cham- pionship of the world by defeatiii;,' the veteran Steinitz. His other successes were at the Haslin;,'s touniamenl in 1^115. the Saint Petershurj.' tourna- ment in 1S9U. and the tournaments of Nuremberg (18'Jti), London (ISyj), and Paris (UlOO). In 1902 he acted as assistant lecturer in mathemat- ics at the Victoria University of ilanchester, England. Lasker has published a collection of letters, under the title Common Sense in Chess. LASKI, l-i^'Ur*^. Jax. See A Lasco, Jouax.nes. LAS PALMAS, las piil'mas. The capital of the island of Gran Canaria and the largest city of the Canary Islands (Jlap: Africa, C 2). It is beautifully situated on the northeastern shore of the island in a fertile valley dotted with palms. It has a magnificent harbor, capacious and deep enough for the largest ships. It is a bay formed by the island or peninsula called La Isfeta, connected with the mainland by a narrow- bar. Enormous amounts of coal are stored here, and the number of ships annually visiting this har- bor exceeds that of any other Spanish port. There is regular steamship communication with the west coast of Africa, the Cape. Australia, Xew Zealand, and America, besides European ports. The harbor, which bears the name of La Luz. and which is protected by two forts and several bat- teries, is connected by railroad with the city it- self, which lies four miles to the south. LasPalmas is built on two sides of a stream, which is crossed by two bridges. The streets in the older portion are narrow and irregular, but the new quarters are well built, mostly with two-story houses. The cathedral, which was begun in the sixteenth cen- tury and not finished till the beginning of the nineteenth, has a facade of harmonious propor- tions of the Ionic order. There are also sev- eral other churches, a large city hall, a college and seminary, a library, an art academy, an athenaeum and museum, and a large new theatre, seating 1400 persons. Fishing is still one of the chief occupations of the iidiabitants. but ship- building is rapidly developing, and is becoming the principal industry. There are also manufac- tures of glass, leather goods, and hats, an<l a famous brand of wine is exported. Pop- ulation, in 18S7. 21.018; in 1807. 34.770: in 1900, 43,960. Las Palmas is said to have been founded in 147S liy Juan Uejon at the time of his conquest of the island. Almost from the first until 1833 it was the capital of the Province of the Canaries. In that year the seat of govern- ment was transferred to Santa Cruz de Tenerife. LASPEYRES, hVsp.lr'. Etikxxe (1834—). . (lerman statistician, born at Halle. He .stud- ied at the universities of Berlin, Gottingen, Tiihingen, Halle, and Heidelberg. In lSfi4 he was appointed professor of political econoniy in the I'niversity of Basel. He subsequently held simi- lar chairs at Riga. Dorpat. and Karlsruhe, and from 1874 to 1900 was professor at Giessen. La- speyres is best known by his Gesrhichte drr volkxiHrtschnftlwhcii Aiischiniiinpen dcr yic- derliinder (1SG3). and Drr Einfluss der Wohnting auf die Siltllrhl-eit (1869). LASSA. The capital of Tibet. See Lhasa. LASSALLE. li'i'sAl'. FKRniNAxn (182.5-64). A celebrated Socialistic agitator, born at Breslau in LASSBERG. 1825. His father, a Jewish silk merchant, planned a commercial career for him, and sent him at sixteen to the commercial high school at Leipzig. But Lassalle conceived an antipathy for trade, left the college after two years, and en- tered upon philosophical, philological, and archa;- ological studies at Breslau and Berlin. His extraordinary brilliancy won him many ad- mirers at the university, among them Alexan- der von Humboldt. At the university he began a philosophical work on Heraclitus the Obscure, but, becoming interested in the ease of the mis- used wife of Count von llatzfeldt, he spent his best energies for eight years in conducting her suit for separation, and won a brilliant victory. Die Philosojihic Herakleitos des Oiinkeln ap- peared in 18.58 and was received with great favor in Berlin. In 1801 Lassalle published Das Sys- tetn der eniorhcncn Rechle, pronounced by Savi- gny to be the ablest legal work written since the si.xteenth century. As early as 1S48 Lassalle had become a radieaf disciple of Marx. In that year he was arrested for his bold denunciations of the reactionary party and after a long trial was condenmed to six months' imprisonment. In 18G'2 he broke with the Progressists CFortschrittspartei') , and appeared as the champion of the working classes. He published several pamphlets, the circulation of which was prohibited. Xevertheless. copies of them were widely circulated and created a gen- eral interest in Socialism among the working classes. His main theory was that there was no satisfactory prospect for the working classes under the wage system. He proposed to found coiiperative associations for production, employ- ing imblic credit to secure capital. In 1803 he founded Dcr all'icmeine deiit.tche Arbeitervcrcin, the object of which was to secure to the workers political power, to be employed for the overthrow of the existing economic order. While the society was still in its infancy. Lassalle was killed in a duel, the result of a love affair. Lassalle must be regarded as the virtual founder of the German Social Democratic Party (q.v. ), although the present leaders of the party reptidiate his ideas as antiquated. Lassalle's socialistic writings added practically nothing to the teaching of Marx, but his learn- ing and eloquence and his fascinating personality gave the labor movement a ])owerful impulse. Mod- ern Socialism as a political movement owes more to Lassalle than to any other man. The best edition of Lassalle's works is that of Bernstein, Ferdinand LnssaUr.t lirdrn und Xehriften (3 vols., Berlin. 1892-03). which includes a biography. A new edition of his (lesamticerke is by Blum. vols, i.-xiv. Several volumes of Lassalle's letters have been published: to Hans von Billow, 1802-64 (Dresden. 1885); to Karl Rodliertus (Berlin, 1878): to Georg Herwegh (Zurich. 1896): to Karl :Marx and Friedrich Engel (Stuttgart, 1902). Consult, also: Aaln^rg. Ferdinand Las- salle (T^-ipzig. 1883) : Bernstein. Lassale nx a Socio/ Reformer (Eng. trans. London. 1893) ; Kohiit. Ferdinand Lassalle (Leipzig. 1899). For a brief account of his life and work, consult Ely, French and German Socialism (Xew York. 1883). LASSBERG, lasTierK. .Joseph. Baron (1770- ISn.i). A German antiquary, bom at Donaues- chingen. In 1817 he gave up the olTue of PriT Councilor to the Prince of Fiirstenberg, which he had held since 1806, and devoted him-
