326 



GERMANY. 



amended to admit of an action on their part for 

 wrongful dismissal, as well as an action against 

 them for breach of contract. The section deal- 

 ing with juvenile labor provides that no child 

 under thirteen years of age may be employed in 

 any workshop or factory, nor any child above 

 that age if his parents have failed to keep him 

 in school for the period required by the law of 

 obligatory education. Employers are obliged to 

 grant juvenile laborers intervals of rest, and 

 make other special provisions for their health 

 and welfare. The part relating to women em- 

 ployed in factories makes eleven hours a maxi-* 

 mum day's work for them, interdicts night work 

 for women, and extends the period of compulsory 

 rest for mothers after confinement from three to 

 six weeks, or four weeks if they bring a medical 

 certificate. The penalties for violations of the 

 trade laws have been heightened, and the powers 

 of the factory inspectors enlarged. 



The next most important measure was the 

 sugar-tax bill, which was passed on the closing 

 day, after long debates and many changes of 

 votes, by a majority of 150 to 126. It provides 

 for the gradual diminution of the export bounties 

 from Aug. 1, 1892, until they cease entirely in 

 1897. and also abolishes the existing duty of 80 

 pfennigs per double centner on raw beets, while 

 increasing the excise duty on sugar from 12 to 

 18 marks per double centner. One of the chief 

 legislative acts of the session was the bill ratify- 

 ing the new railroad conventions that had been 

 concluded with much labor with Austria and 

 Hungary. The revision of the commercial 

 treaties with the neighboring countries could 

 not be proceeded with until the freight tariffs 

 and other traffic arrangements were settled. 



Liquor Legislation. The Emperor became 

 sponsor for a project of law intended to check 

 the spread of intemperance, that was similar in 

 its provisions to one that was proposed ten years 

 before, but which failed to survive the criticism 

 to which it was subjected before passing the com- 

 mittee stage. The proposed new law was pub- 

 lished in the ' Reichsanzeiger," on Aug. 27, 

 1891, and evoked a flood of adverse criticism 

 from the Progressists, Socialists, and other up- 

 holders of personal liberty, and the silent resist- 

 ance of classes whose interests were menaced. 

 When the bill was laid before the Bundesrath, 

 the governments of one or two of the great 

 south German states offered objections. Under 

 the existing trade law the governments of the 

 Federal states retain the full right to grant or 

 withhold licenses. The new measure declares 

 that licenses shall be granted only where need is 

 shown for a retail liquor shop The bill does not 

 deal with the sale of beer or wine, but only of 

 strong spirits. No person can have a license, 

 unless he is of approved respectability, and can 

 not be suspected of allowing his place to be used 

 for immorality or gambling. Retailers of liquors 

 to be carried away are forbidden to sell a less 

 quantity than half a litre, and in towns of over 

 5,000 inhabitants persons licensed as retailers of 

 liquor are not permitted to carry on any other 

 business or to store liquor with other merchan- 

 dise. Keepers of saloons must serve his custom- 

 ers with eatables, or with non-spirituous liquors, 

 if they are called for; they must keep strict 

 order in their places, and prevent anything that 



may lead to the abuse of alcohol ; they are for- 

 bidden to serve liquor to minors under sixteen 

 years of age, or to any person who is intoxicated, 

 or to one who has within three years been pun- 

 ished as a confirmed drunkard ; they must see 

 that drunken persons who enter their premises 

 are conducted to their homes, or are handed 

 over to the charge of the police ; they are for- 

 bidden to sell liquor on credit, except with 

 meals, and no debt incurred in contravention of 

 this provision can be collected with the aid of 

 the law. The matter of employing female waiters 

 is left to be dealt with by the governments of 

 the individual states. The selling of liquor be- 

 fore eight o'clock in the morning may be pro- 

 hibited by police regulations. 



Habitual .drunkards, and all persons who 

 through addiction to drink are unable to manage 

 their affairs with prudence, or are likely to en- 

 danger the safety of others, or threaten to bring 

 their families to want, may be placed under 

 guardians, and the guardian may, with consent 

 of the court, place his ward in an asylum for in- 

 ebriates, or in default of such action the court 

 may intervene and order the drunkard's com- 

 mittal to an asylum. For violations of the pro- 

 visions of the law fines of from 30 to 60 marks 

 may be imposed, as well as imprisonment up to 

 fourteen days. Persons who become intoxicated 

 while engaged in work connected with saving 

 life, preventing fires, and the like, or who under- 

 take such work while intoxicated, may be fined 

 100 marks and imprisoned for four weeks. The 

 same paragraph applies to persons employed in 

 caring for the health of others, such as physicians 

 and nurses. It was stated, to prove the need of 

 the measure, that 4'64 litres of distilled liquor 

 per capita were consumed in Germany in 1889-'90, 

 in addition to 6'44 litres of wine and 90 litres of 

 beer ; that cases of chronic alcoholism and de- 

 lirium tremens increased between 1877 and 1885 

 from 4,272 to 10,300; that cases of alcoholism 

 had so increased as to form 20 per cent, of the 

 cases treated in public hospitals, and caused a 

 rapidly increasing percentage of insanity ; that 

 19 per cent, of the prisoners in the penitentiaries 

 were habitual drunkards ; that 63 per cent, of 

 the homicides were committed by drinkers, and 

 from 40 to 68 per cent, of other crimes. 



The Prussian Landtag. -The new Prussian 

 ministry presented a comprehensive scheme of 

 legislation to the Diet, which began its session on 

 Nov. 21, 1890, and was closed on June 20, 1891. A 

 new income-tax law, passed in 1890 and going into 

 operation in 1892, forms part (*f a scheme of tax 

 reform elaborated by Dr. Miguel, which aims, in 

 the words of the royal message, to achieve "a 

 just distribution of public burdens according to 

 ttoe ability to bear them." The proposed re- 

 forms were too sweeping to secure the adhesion 

 of a majority of the Deputies, who refused to 

 pass the bill placing a tax on inheritances and 

 modified the income-tax measure materially, 

 voting only the correlative tax on trades and in- 

 dustries with slight alterations. Under the new 

 provisions relating to the income tax, the com- 

 munal magistrate first makes a list of all per- 

 -sons having taxable incomes, and states the 

 amounts as nearly as he can ; then a board of 

 assessors, of which he is chairman, consisting of 

 persons elected by the townspeople and a minor- 



