356 



GERMANY. 



Chief among the other positive results of the 

 session was the agreement to the erection of a 

 monumental Parliament building in Berlin. 

 Among the treaties which were ratified pure- 

 ly a formal act was one affecting consular 

 relations with Greece, one supplementary to 

 the Danubian navigation convention, and an 

 international convention regarding precautions 

 for the extinction of the phylloxera.* 



The budget was voted with but slight altera- 

 tions. It showed a surplus of between 18,- 

 000,000 and 19,000,000 marks. Eugen Richter 

 carried a resolve in the last hours of the ses- 

 sion crediting something over 10,000,000 marks 

 of the surplus of 1881-'82 to the next year's 

 budget. The Federal Council accepted the 

 measure, which relieved Prussia from financial 

 difficulty by reducing her matricular contribu- 

 tions. This shrewd manoeuvre of the Liberal 

 leader confused the plans of the Government 

 by rendering unnecessary a loan of nearly 

 5,000,000 marks which had already been pro- 

 posed in the Prussian Diet. The session was 

 closed January 30th. 



Although the Chancellor had spoken of the 

 necessity of an extra session in the spring, 

 when the Government projects for social re- 

 form would be ready, there was great surprise, 

 since the regular session had passed off smooth- 

 ly. The prospects for the Chancellor's eco- 

 nomical plans had not improved, when the 

 Emperor called the Reichstag together again 

 on the 27th of April. The opening address 

 stated, as the objects of the session, the initia- 

 tion of social reforms, and the continuation of 

 tax reforms. The first measure proposed was 

 the laborers' accident - insurance bill. The 

 change in the scheme by which the adminis- 

 tration is to be intrusted to corporations and 

 trade associations instead of to state officials 

 was expected to win the approval of the Lib- 

 erals and the Ultramontanes for the project, 

 which was designed to secure the co-operation 

 of the industrial associations and of the work- 

 ing-men's societies in preventing accidents, to 

 localize the administration as much as possible, 

 and on the other hand to distribute the finan- 

 cial burdens over the broadest possible field. 

 The passage of the measure would necessitate 

 a change in the existing poor-laws, and would 

 entail the extension of the sick benefit provis- 

 ions. A change in the factory laws was also 

 announced in the direction of more efficient 



except linen. The intimate commercial relations which 

 sprang up between the Hamburgers and British manufac- 

 turers, the employment of their capital in English enterprises, 

 their preference for everything English, were a thorn in the 

 Bide of the struggling German industrial interests which 

 sprang up. The jealousies are not yet extinct, and no cor- 

 dial relations exist between the Hamburg middle-men and 

 the German manufacturers, whose stock complaint is that 

 the exporters will not pay living prices, and that they are 

 obliged to export on their own account; while the shipping- 

 merchants aver that, when they give an order for some trans- 

 atlantic place to a manufacturer, he will forestall them by 

 sending goods there himself, and spoil the trade by competing 

 with his own manufactures. 



* The disease has existed for some time on the Aar, where 

 the vines originally affected have died out, and the parasite 

 has reappeared in new centers of infection. 



regulations for public safety, order, and moral- 

 ity. The social projects were referred to com- 

 missions, in whose hands they remained during 

 the autumn sittings. They will probably en- 

 gross the attention of the Parliament in 1883, 

 and give to the session its character. 



The extra session was really called for the 

 purpose of settling the question of a tobacco 

 monopoly. In the royal address at the open- 

 ing of the regular session the abolition of the 

 burdensome direct taxes of the German states, 

 with the local taxes which add to the burden, 

 was described as an urgently needed reform in 

 the tax system. This object could only be ac- 

 complished by raising the indirect taxes of the 

 empire, so that the Federal Government could 

 do without the matricular contributions, or pay 

 over to the single states contributions which 

 will enable them to reduce the state and muni- 

 cipal taxes. Tobacco was designated as the 

 most suitable article of consumption with 

 which to commence the readjustment. All 

 parties were agreed as to the propriety of in- 

 creasing the tobacco-tax, but, regarding the 

 form of it, there were various opinions. The 

 Federal Council approved the form of a gov- 

 ernment monopoly, and would only consider 

 other projects when the impossibility of ob- 

 taining the agreement of the representative 

 Assembly became manifest. Bismarck has 

 pursued none of his other legislative projects 

 with such energy and tenacity. A ceaseless 

 agitation had been kept up by his organs of 

 the press. The Strasburg public tobacco fac- 

 tory had been continued by the Government, 

 and agencies were established in all large cities 

 of Germany ; but the people showed such re- 

 pugnance to see the royal arms on the pack- 

 ages that the shopkeepers were ruined and the 

 factory left without business. The Prussian 

 Economical Council, selected by Bismarck 

 himself, refused to approve the unpopular 

 measure. The failure to secure an alliance 

 with the Clericals, even at the price of the 

 revocation of the May laws, sealed the fate 

 of the measure. "When Parliament refused to 

 pass the monopoly bill in the regular session 

 the extra session was called in order to make a 

 last effort to secure the financial independence 

 which the tobacco monopoly would give to 

 the Government. The committee of the Reichs- 

 tag reported against the monopoly, and when 

 Bismarck arose and went over the arguments 

 again in two long speeches, it was only, as he 

 said, to accompany the monopoly project to 

 the grave. The vote, taken June 7th, was 276 

 against, to 43 for the bill. Certain vexatious 

 tariff regulations were repealed. Protective 

 duties were demanded on such articles as honey, 

 asbestus, and slate ; but both free-traders and 

 protectionists had agreed to a truce so as to 

 let the tariff have a " fair trial." The session 

 ended on June 16th with a simple adjournment, 

 so that the unfinished business might be taken 

 up in the regular session, which opened No- 

 vember 30th. 



