GERMANY. 



. .lined to reintroduce. The tariff had to be re- 

 used in connection with the negotiation of new 

 commercial treaties, and the Agrarian party was 

 .strong enough to dictate the import duties on 

 agricultural products to be inserted in the new 

 tariff and provided for in the new treaties. Count 

 von Billow, who was expected to show more firm- 

 ness than his predecessor, capitulated, promising 

 adequate protection for products of German agri- 

 culture. He wished to carry the tariff bill through 

 in time to permit the conclusion of new treaties 

 before the expiration of the old ones. It would 

 be scarcely possible to prolong the existing 

 treaties for a further period of ten years or less, 

 because other governments were revising their 

 treaty relations, such revision being rendered 

 necessary by technical industrial improvements. 

 The commercial treaty with Great Britain, which 

 expired before most of the others, was prolonged 

 provisionally, and a further prolongation was 

 arranged until Dec. 31, 1903, the date on which 

 the treaties with Austria-Hungary, Italy, Rus- 

 sia, and other European states expire by limita- 

 tion. All British colonies were admitted to the 

 advantages of the treaty excepting Canada, which 

 has a tariff discriminating in favor of British 

 goods. 



In the spring session the Reichstag imposed a 

 duty of 80 marks a kilogram on saccharin, more 

 than five times the retail price of the article, 

 and prohibited the use of artificial sweetening 

 substances in manufactured food preparations. 

 This measure was intended to protect the German 

 beet-sugar industry against the competition of 

 chemical sweet stuffs. A copyright bill was passed 

 which embodies a thorough revision of the law 

 made in 1870. The international copyright con- 

 vention concluded at Bern in 1886 and the sup- 

 plementary articles and declaration signed at 

 Paris in 1896 led to a general demand for more 

 effective protection of rights of private property 

 in works of literature and music. The new law 

 strengthens the exclusive right of writers to au- 

 thorize translations of' their works, gives more 

 efficient protection to foreigners whose works are 

 published in Germany, forbids the republication 

 without giving credit of scientific, technical, or 

 literary articles appearing in the newspaper and 

 periodical press, but not of news of the day or 

 items of information. Some proposed to give the 

 measure a political application by creating a copy- 

 right in speeches, such as the Kaiser makes fre- 

 quently. Summaries of speeches which bear the 

 impress of the literary style of the reporter are 

 protected, and collections of speeches must not 

 be published without authority from the orator. 

 It is an infringement of copyright when melodies 

 are taken from a work of music and made the 

 basis of a new composition. Copyrighted music 

 may, however, be used in automatic and mechan- 

 ical and musical instruments, this being allowed in 

 order not to place German manufacturers of such 

 instruments at a disadvantage, but in general 

 musical compositions must not be produced in 

 public without the consent of the composer ex- 

 cept in concerts free to the public or given for 

 charitable objects. The duration of copyright in 

 literary, dramatic, or musical works is the life- 

 time of the author and thirty years after his 

 death. The international convention regarding 

 patent rights, designs, and trade-marks, signed at 

 Paris on March 20, 1883, did not receive the ad- 



esion of Germany because certain important 

 provisions of the treaty did not harmonize with 

 German patent laws. Accepting the principle of 

 the union, Germany sought to conform to the 

 treaty as far as was compatible with' her own 



laws in conventions made with Austria-Hungary, 

 Italy, Servia, and Switzerland. In the union a 

 disposition was shown to remove the provisions 

 that Germany would not accept, and in confer- 

 ences at Brussels in 1897 and 1900 a complete 

 agreement was reached, especially in regard to the 

 priority term within which patent rights can be 

 obtained, which the states of the union extended 

 twelve months to suit Germany, and in regard 

 to the compulsory execution of the treaty rights. 

 It was agreed that a period of three years from 

 the time of application should be allowed before 

 an inventor is bound to utilize his patent. The 

 amended international convention was signed by 

 Germany and the other powers on Dec. 14, 1900. 



The prorogation of the Reichstag from May 14 

 till Nov. 26 was announced on May 9. The ad- 

 journment for six months was due to the slim 

 attendance of members. When the Prussian 

 Landtag separates a great many of the Reichstag 

 members who are also Prussian Deputies, receiv- 

 ing pay for their attendance, return to their 

 homes. The Reichstag voted in favor of the pay- 

 ment of members, as it had done 11 times before, 

 but the Imperial Government gave no more heed 

 to the proposal than in former years. On the day 

 of adjournment the Agrarians tried to rush 

 through a measure for the benefit of the land- 

 owning distillers, an amendment to a bill pro- 

 visionally prolonging the law regulating the pro- 

 duction and the taxation of potato and other 

 German spirits which would increase 50 per cent, 

 the tax on distilling, out of which the distillers 

 of drinkable spirits receive a bounty. The Radi- 

 cals and Socialists blocked their design by de- 

 manding a roll-call when there was not quite 

 a quorum of members present. The result was 

 that the special duty on distilling lapsed on Sept. 

 30, and with it the special bounties of the dis- 

 tillers. A bill for seamen and one providing for 

 the construction of the railroad in East Africa, 

 by a syndicate which held its offer open only to 

 June 30, could not be passed. An epileptic boy 

 made an attempt on the life of the Emperor 

 Wilhelm at Bremen on March 23. 



The Rhine and Elbe Canal project was one that 

 the Kaiser made his own. The Agrarians on the 

 committee wasted its time and that of the Prus- 

 sian Chamber in empty discussion intended only 

 for the purpose of procrastination. Some of the 

 Prussian ministers, especially the Vice-President 

 of the Council, Dr. von Miquel, were but luke- 

 warm supporters of the scheme. The rejected bill 

 of 1899 was laid before the Landtag with sup- 

 plementary features by which all the great rivers 

 of north Germany would be united by a canal 

 system. It was proposed to connect by a canal 

 the Oder and the Vistula, to regulate the Warthe 

 from the mouth of the Netze as far as Posen, to 

 improve the current in the lower reaches of the 

 Oder and the Havel, to develop the canalization 

 of the Spree, and eventually to bring upper Silesia 

 into communication with Berlin by the regulation 

 of the Oder, and if economically desirable, to build 

 a canal to the Masurian lakes in east Prussia. 

 The finances of Prussia were flourishing, if those 

 of the empire were not. The railroads and the 

 state coal-mines produced an increased surplus, 

 but the commercial depression that was overtak- 

 ing Germany was likely to affect these revenues. 

 The Finance Minister, Dr. von Miquel, while debt- 

 ridden landowners were clamoring for state as- 

 sistance, was determined to maintain his policy 

 of economy except in non-recurring expenditures 

 on permanent improvements. The housing of 

 the poor was a question that demanded solution, 

 and the Prussian state intended to renovate the 



