

GERMANY. 



379 



decrees, which were expected to lead to the con- 

 fusion and disintegration of the Socialist party, 

 made no difference in their numbers or disci- 

 pline. They and the Clericals were the only well- 

 organized parties. In 1881 the Socialist vote was 

 311,961. In 1884, polling 550,000 votes, they in- 

 creased their representation in the Reichstag 

 from 13 to 24 Deputies. In 1887 their popular 

 vote was 774,000, and yet only 11 members were 

 elected, because the Government parties made a 

 strong and united effort to defeat their candi- 

 dates in the final or test elections, and in many 

 districts Liberalists voted for Conservatives or 

 Conservatives for Liberalists in order to prevent 

 the return of Social-Democrats. In 1890, when 

 the Emperor vied with the Socialist leaders in 

 projects for the elevation and happiness of the 

 working people and when National Liberal pa- 

 pers joined the Progressist and Clerical press 

 in protesting that the masses of voters who held 

 Socialistic theories, however much in error, had 

 an equal right of representation with other parties, 

 the idea that it was a patriotic duty to sink all 

 differences in combating the Social-Democracy 

 no longer prevailed, except among the Old Con- 

 servatives whose zeal for the preservation of the 

 " Church, monarchy, and family " did not save 

 them from the Emperor's rebuke when they 

 raised the question in their organ of receding 

 from the Cartel. The anti-Socialist law was 

 vigorously applied by the Government in the 

 suppression of meetings and of campaign litera- 

 ture. The results of the election more then 

 realized the worst fears of the Government. The 

 Socialists obtained 20 seats in the first ballot, 

 with a chance of securing 33 more, a good num- 

 ber of which could not be wrested from them. 

 In Berlin they polled 125,000 votes out of 230,- 

 000. Singer, the Socialist leader, who had been 

 expelled from the capital, was re-elected by 79,- 

 000 votes, and Janezewski, a Polish book-binder, 

 who had suffered imprisonment, led Prof. Vir- 

 chow by 2,000 plurality. In Hamburg, which 

 like the capital has constantly had the minor 

 state of siege, they won every seat, and Leipsic, 

 Dresden, Magdeburg, Altona. Chemnitz, Munich, 

 Breslau, and nearly every town with a large in- 

 dustrial population they carried by large major- 

 ities. The Cartel parties, which had a working 

 majority of 23 in the last Reichstag, were in a 

 hopeless minority, and Prince Bismarck had no 

 means in sight for escaping a legislative deadlock 

 except by a possible combination with the Center, 

 involving a fresh pilgrimage to >k Canossa." The 

 Progressists, whom Bismarck had nicknamed 

 " Retrogressists," and had often denounced with 

 scathing invective as foes of the empire, showed 

 considerable gains, while the National Liberals 

 returned to the Reichstag with their ranks seri- 

 ously diminished, and of the Free and the Ger- 

 man Conservatives some of the leaders lost their 

 seats. The Alsatian Protest party largely ab- 

 stained from voting, and in consequence four 

 members favorable to German rule were elected. 

 The first ballots gave indecisive results in more 

 than 240 districts. In the second ballots the 

 Radicals or Liberalists, who had dwindled from 

 100 members in 1884, when the party was founded, 

 to 35 in the late Parliament, were aided by the 

 Cartel parties, electing Prof. Virchow and the 

 other three candidates in Berlin who disputed 



their seats with Socialists and wherever choice 

 lay ^between them and the revolutionary party. 



The following is a comparison of the popular 

 vote given for the various parties in 1887 and 

 1890 : Old Conservatives, 1.194,504 votes in 1887 

 and 919,546 in 1890, a loss of 274.958 ; Free Con- 

 servatives, 693,195 in 1887 and 457,936 in 1890, a 

 loss of 235,259 ; National Liberals, 1,658,158 in 

 1887 and 1,169,112 in 1890, a loss of 489,046; 

 Catholic Center, 1,627,095 votes in 1887 and 

 1,420,438 in 1890, a loss of 206,657 ; Progressists, 

 549,302 votes in 1887 and 1,147.863 in 1890, a 

 gain of 598,561 ; Democrats or Popularists, 109,- 

 372 in 1887 and 131.438 in 1890, a gain of 22,- 

 066; Poles, 213,626 in 18'87 and 245,852 in 1890, 

 a gain of 32,226 ; Alsace-Lorrainers, 347,654 in 

 1887 and 100,479 in 1890, a loss of 247,175 : In- 

 dependents, 25,903 in 1887 and 97,109 in 1890, 

 an increase of 71,206. The Government parties 

 in 1887 polled 3,545,857 and their opponents 

 3,647,080 out of a total of 7,192,937 popular 

 votes. In 1890 the whole vote of the country 

 was 7.031,360, or 161,577 less than in 1887, and 

 of this the' Cartel parties obtained only 2,546,- 

 594, or 999,263 less than in 1887, while the Op- 

 position parties received together 4,484,766 bal- 

 lots, a gain of 837,6^6. The strength of the 

 parties in the new Reichstag is as follows : Ger- 

 man Conservatives, 72 members, 6 less than in 

 the late Parliament ; Free Conservatives, 19 

 members. 20 less ; National Liberals, 43 mem- 

 bers, 50 less ; Liberalist, Radical, or Freisinnige 

 party, 67 members, 32 more : Ultramontanes or 

 Centrists, 107 members, 4 more : Poles, 16 mem- 

 bers, 3 more ; Alsace-Lorrainers, 10 members, 4 

 less; Social-Democrats. 35 members, 24 more; 

 Independents, 18 members, including 11 Guelphs, 

 1 Dane, and 5 Anti-Semites, against 11 altogether 

 in the last Parliament. 



The Retirement of Prince Bismarck. 

 The impetuous and a,mbitious young Emperor 

 in his attitude toward the coal strikers and in 

 his army decrees had shown that the advice of 

 Dr. Hinzpeter, his old tutor, and of Count Wal- 

 dersee, his chief of staff, was preferred to that 

 of Prince Bismarck, with whose indiscreet dis- 

 play of temper in connection with the Geffckeii 

 incident he was profoundly dissatisfied. The 

 Chancellor's views on the labor question were 

 not shared by Wilhelm II, who aimed to combine 

 the monarchical traditions of the Hohenzollerns 

 with advanced modern ideas. The idea of pro- 

 tection for laborers and of interference in the 

 conditions of work and wages was one that 

 Bismarck had openly condemned. In the field 

 of colonial politics also the Emperor had taken 

 the reins out of his hands, increasing the mili- 

 tary forces in East Africa by several thousand 

 men, appointing Emin Pasha Governor-General, 

 and involving the Government in further re- 

 sponsibilities in Southwest Africa. By publishing 

 without the indorsement of his chief minister the 

 rescripts of Feb. 4, he manifested a determina- 

 tion to be his own Chancellor that made Prince 

 Bismarck's continuance in office impossible, es- 

 pecially after the defeat of the Government par- 

 ties in the elections, which necessitated new 

 combinations in regard to which his opinions 

 and those of the monarch must inevitably clash. 

 At the time when the Emperor convened the 

 State Council he prepared the public for his early 



