1022 GERMANY 



stock. Under the present legislation the importation of live cattle for slaughtering 

 purposes is allowed, with certain restrictions, from Russia, Austria-Hungary, Switzer- 

 land, Denmark and the United States. But no importation is permitted from France, 

 Holland and Belgium. To this general law certain modifications were introduced 

 in 1910 by several states, but only after the outcry against high prices became extremely 

 threatening. Prussia, however, declined to make any concessions; all that it agreed 

 to was to institute a lower railway rate for the transport of slaughtered meat, a con- 

 cession which was extended to December 1912. The outbreak of the foot-and-mouth 

 disease in many parts of Germany in 1910 only aggravated the situation, and popular 

 feeling became very threatening in view of the steady rise in the price of meat in 1911. 

 On October 23, 1911 the Chancellor replying to an interpellation on the question 

 gave it as his view that the agitation was unreal. His mistake was brought home to 

 him in September 1912, when the prevailing distress was sufficiently extensive to 

 extract a promise from him for an enquiry into possible ways and means for mitigating 

 the evil, which he termed " a heavy burden " on the public. On September 28, 191.2 

 the scheme for relief (expressly stated to be a temporary measure only) was published. 

 It consisted largely of a relaxation of the existing restrictions. A Bill was promoted 

 in the Reichstag embodying the measure, which was to be in operation from October 

 i, 1912 to March 31, 1914. Yet there was no great improvement, and in the latter 

 part of October (23rd and 24th) meat riots occurred in Berlin. When the 

 question came before Parliament once again, this time in the Prussian 

 Diet (Oct. 25, 1912) Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg at last laid bare his policy. It 

 was clearly the duty of the state, he held, to do all it could to improve matters, 

 and it had already gone as far as it was possible with due regard to veterinary pre- 

 cautions. (These excluded the importation of foreign meat.) But as a general propo- 

 sition, it ought to be the aim of Prussia to keep the home meat production independ- 

 ent of foreign countries, seeing that this was a most important factor in its economic 

 independence, with which its political existence was bound up. 



Some such idea must have actuated the Government in its oil scheme (Oct. 15, 

 1912), which was intended to counteract the influence of the Standard Oil Trust. 

 The proposal was for the establishment, not of an Imperial monopoly, 

 e. but of a joint stock company in which financiers and merchants will 

 organise the wholesale oil trade under Government controL The main 

 idea is to protect the public from foreign monopoly, and to secure for the Empire 

 any profits which the scheme can be made to yield without injury to the consumer. 

 The interesting feature of the plan is that these profits shall not be treated as general 

 revenue but shall be earmarked for social legislation. 



In the history of German education the most noteworthy event of the year 1909 

 was the admission of women students to all German universities on the same terms 

 as men. Before that women might be only " visitors " (Hospitantinnen); 

 universities, in the winter Semester 1908-9 they were registered as fully privileged 

 undergraduates. In that half year their number was 1,108; in the following 

 summer it rose to 1,432. The year 1909 is noteworthy also for the plan of a university 

 for Frankfort-on-Main (Dec. 15, 1900). The demand for academic teaching in 

 that city came from the locality itself, but the Government is somewhat averse 

 to the scheme and it has not yet been sanctioned. Several noteworthy anniversaries 

 should not be left unmentioned. The university of Leipzig celebrated the 5ooth year 

 University f its cx ' stcnce in 1QO 9 (J ul Y 3); Berlin recalled the looth year of its 

 centenaries foundation in 1911 (Oct. ro) as did Breslau (Aug. 1911). Further- 

 more Breslau won fame in another direction; on November 29, 1910 the 

 Eleventh Technical High School in Germany was opened there by the Kaiser. 



Obituary. During 1911 the following distinguished Germans died, concerning whom 

 (here are biographical articles in the E. B. FRIEDRICU HAASE (b. 1827), the actor (see E. B. 

 xii, 782), on March 17. REINHOLD BKGAS (b. 1831), the sculptor (sec E. B. iii, 652) on 

 August- 3. \\ILHKI.M JENSEN (b. 1837), the novelist and poet (see E. B. xv, 321), at 

 Munich on November 24. FELIX Morn. (b. i8$6)v the conductor and composer (see 



