346 



GERMANY. 



balance of power in the Reichstag. The com- 

 mittee on the Army bill finally rejected the im- 

 portant sections of the bill, and handed in its 

 report. Shortly before the second reading of the 

 bill, in the beginning of May, 1893, Freiherr von 

 Hiine, a member of the Centrum, arrived at an 

 agreement with Chancellor von Caprivi regard- 

 ing a compromise. The compromise as agreed 

 upon increases the army by 54,000 men for the 

 first year, and progressively in installments up 

 to 70,000 men, instead of the 83,000 which the 

 Government wanted to add in a more rapid man- 

 ner. The estimates of the additional expenses 

 would thereby be reduced to 60,000,000 marks. 

 The two-year term of service is legally fixed for 

 five years, during which the new bill will be in 

 force. 



The Government hoped by accepting this com- 

 promise to win over a number of the more mod- 

 erate members of all the opposing parties, and 

 relied also upon members from the Centrum fol- 

 lowing Freiherr von Hilne. The Government 

 was doomed to disappointment, however, as far 

 as the Centrum was concerned. In a meeting 

 held by the members of that party, on May 3, 

 the Hiine compromise was rejected by a large 

 majority. Count von Ballestrem, the leader of 

 that party, resigned his leadership, and Count 

 von Preysing-Lichtenegg-Moos, of Straubing, 

 was elected to succeed him. It was then decided 

 that the members should vote according to their 

 individual convictions. On May 6 the final vote 

 on the second reading of the bill was taken, and 

 the Reichstag rejected the measure by a vote of 

 210 to 162. The minority supporting the bill 

 was composed of the whole Conservative, Free 

 Conservative, and National Liberal parties, re- 

 enforced by the Polish group, by 12 dissident 

 members of the Centrum party, by 6 Radicals, 

 and by a few members belonging to no recog- 

 nized organization, among them the notorious 

 Ahlwardt and 2 other professed Anti-Semites. 

 Although the National Liberals had at first op- 

 posed the bill and their offer of compromise had 

 been rejected, yet when it came to a vote they 

 supported the Government to a man ; the Polish 

 group, consisting of 17 members who had for- 

 merly been identified with the Centrum, gave 

 their votes for the Government by reason of 

 certain concessions made to them in regard to 

 educational matters. The Opposition majority 

 was comprised of the whole Social Democratic 

 vote, the great bulk of the Clerical party, the 

 majority of the Radicals, 3 Anti-Semites, 4 

 clerical members from Alsace-Lorraine, and a 

 few other unattached members. 



As soon as the result of the vote was announced 

 in the Reichstag, Chancellor von Caprivi arose 

 from his seat and read an imperial message de- 

 creeing the dissolution of the Reichstag. New 

 elections were ordered to be held on June 15. 



The Elections. Although the dissolution of 

 the Reichstag was the result of the rejection of 

 the Army bill by that body, yet that fact was 

 largely lost sight of in the campaign. The dif- 

 ferent parties fought the election battles on 

 party lines and principles, taking up the ques- 

 tion of the Army bill only in cases where the 

 voters demanded an exposition of the candidate's 

 views. In their programme of elections, the 

 German Conservatives, National Liberals, and 



the Reichspartei favored the bill, while the Cler- 

 icals and the Freisinnige, or Radicals, expressly 

 declared against it. The large number of par- 

 ties was further augmented by a split in the 

 Radical party, and that in the Centrum or Cler- 

 ical party. On June 15, on which day the 

 elections took place, a decisive result was ob- 

 tained in only 217 districts, while in 180 districts 

 a second ballot became necessary, inasmuch as 

 no candidate had received the required absolute 

 majority of votes. The final distribution of 

 seats among the different parties was as follows : 

 Centrum, 100; German Conservatives, 68 ; Reichs- 

 partei, or Free Conservatives, 27 : German Re- 

 form party, or Anti-Semites, 17 ; Poles, 19 ; Na- 

 tional Liberals, 52 : Radical People's party, 22 ; 

 Radical Union, 13 ; Social Democrats, 43 ; South 

 German Volkspartei, 11 ; Alsatians, 8 ; Bavarian 

 Farmers' Alliance, 4 ; Guelphs, 2 : Danes, 1 ; and 

 5 members who are not connected with any 

 party. An interesting feature of the elections 

 was the decline of the Freisinnige or Radical 

 partv, which had split after the dissolution of 

 the Reichstag and formed the Volkspartei and 

 the Radical Union. Together the parties had 

 held 68 seats, but in the new elections they only 

 carried 35 seats together, of which 22 went to 

 the Volkspartei and 13 to the Radical Union. 

 Of the Volkspartei not a single candidate was 

 elected on the first ballot. The Social Demo- 

 crats gained 8 seats ; they worked harder than 

 any other party, and had their own candidate in 

 almost every district. Among the prominent 

 members of the old Reichstag who were defeated 

 were Freiherr von Hiine, the originator of the 

 compromise on the Army bill, and Dr. Stoeckcr, 

 the leader of the Anti-Semites. 



According to official statistics, the following 

 were the total polls of the different parliamen- 

 tary parties in the order of their aggregate nu- 

 merical strength : Social Democrats, 1,786,738 ; 

 Ultramontane Centre, 1,468,501 ; Conservatives, 

 1,038,353 ; National Liberals, 996,980 ; Advanced 

 Radicals, or Volkspartei, 666,439 ; Free Conserva- 

 tives, 438,435 ; the Anti-Semitic party of German 

 Reform, 263,861 ; Dissentient or Radical Union- 

 ists, 258,481 : Particularists, 234,927 ; Poles, 229.- 

 531; South German Democrats, 166,757. The 

 Social Democratic poll shows by far the largest 

 absolute increase since 1890, viz., 359.440. The 

 Center poll, after due allowance for the normal 

 increase of population, remains stationary. The 

 same condition exists as regards the Conserva- 

 tives, with the qualification that they are cred- 

 ited in these returns with at least 200,000 

 Anti-Semitic votes which were cast in favor of 

 candidates calling themselves Conservative Anti- 

 Semites. The Radicals of both sections show 

 an aggregate increase of 100,000, although the 

 split cost them nearly half their seats, while the 

 National Liberals have actually lost about 180,000 

 votes. A slight reduction is to be noted in the 

 Particularist and the South German Demo- 

 cratic vote. Next to the Social Democrats, the 

 Anti-Semites record the largest gains ; and if 

 the votes given to the Conservative Anti-Sem- 

 ites, as explained above, are added to those given 

 to the more Radical faction of the so-called Ger- 

 man Reformers, the Anti-Semitic vote will be 

 found to have multiplied almost tenfold within 

 the last three years. 



