318 



GERMANY. 



mission the most noted were Dr. Arendt, Herr 

 von Kardorff, Count Mirbach, and Baron von 

 Schorlemer-Alst, while among their opponents 

 were Dr. Bamberger and Dr. Hammacher. 

 Count Kahitz presented a draft of a coinage bill 

 by which the German Government was to declare 

 forthwith its adoption of bimetallism, and to un- 

 dertake to mint 3,750,000,000 of silver marks 

 without waiting for other countries of the world 

 to adopt the same system. 



Dr. Arendt's plan calls for an international 

 monetary conference, to meet at Berlin, at which 

 Great Britain, Germany, France, and the United 

 States shall agree to receive and keep, free of 

 charge, silver bars weighing 5 kilogrammes ; 

 that the respective governments shall issue cer- 

 tificates against these, which may be exchanged 

 at any time for the bars. The agreement is 

 to last five years, and representatives of the 

 different countries are to meet annually to fix 

 the price of the bars. At such meetings each 

 country is to have one vote for every million of 

 its inhabitants. The price of the bars for the 

 first year would be fixed on the basis of the aver- 

 age price of silver in London during three 

 months following the ratification of the treaty, 

 the price so fixed to constitute the minimum 

 during the period of the treaty. A proposal by 

 Herr Konig suggests retention of the free coin- 

 age of gold ; the reopening of the mints of India 

 to the free coinage of silver ; withdrawal of the 

 existing silver currency and its replacement by 

 new silver coinage related to the gold currency 

 in the proportion of 24 to 1 ; the new silver cur- 

 rency to be legal tender in the respective states 

 where it is coined, but no other state to be obliged 

 to permit its circulation or to receive it in pay- 

 ment, or exchange for gold; the levying of 'a 

 seigniorage of at least 10 per cent, on silver coin- 

 age by every state, which may be raised to 20 per 

 cent, or altered at will within these limits ; the 

 mints of each country to be required to coin silver 

 for private persons, but the amount not to exceed 

 1 mark per head of the population per annum. 



The proposal submitted by Prof. Lexis, which, 

 like Herr KSnig's proposition, presupposes the 

 retention of the gold currency, contends for the 

 co-operation of all important states, and sug- 

 gests a ratio of 1 to 21, the currency to be ac- 

 cepted by the state in payment of all dues, and 

 by private persons, in sums not exceeding 1.000 

 marks. Germany is to raise the amount of sil- 

 ver in circulation to 20 marks per head of the 

 population, instead of the present 10 marks per 

 head, and must annually purchase 195,000 kilo- 

 grammes of silver for that purpose. Other 

 states are to adopt similar measures, and Great 

 Britain is to reopen her mints in India to the 

 free coinage of silver. Prof. Lexis reckons that, 

 with the co-operation of Germany, Great Britain, 

 France, and the United States, between 1,100,000 

 and 1,300,000 kilogrammes of silver would be 

 bought, and that that would suffice to fix the 

 price of silver at a minimum price of 40d. 



At the closing session of the Commission 

 Count Posadowsky, Secretary of the Imperial 

 Treasury, declared' that the members were agreed 

 that the fluctuating value of silver entailed cer- 

 tain losses to the foreign as well as the do- 

 mestic co-nrnerce of Germany; that Germany 

 alone was not in a position to take measures to 



raise the price of silver ; and that it was imprac- 

 ticable to do so either by a system of monopoly, 

 by international agreement, or by regulating the 

 production of the metal; that, however, the 

 Government would examine the submitted pro- 

 posals, and would. make those which it regarded 

 as feasible a basis of further consideration. 



Legislation. The session of the German 

 Reichstag in 1894 was not productive of very 

 important legislation, with the single excep- 

 tion of the Russian commercial treaty. A new 

 trade-mark 'law was passed which 'went into 

 effect Oct. 1, 1894. It resembles the law gov- 

 erning trade-marks in England, and requires 

 manufacturers to have their trade-marks regis- 

 tered at the Patent Office, and with the Reichs- 

 gericht at Leipzig. A period of four years is 

 allowed in which to register. 



An attempt was made by the Clericals to re- 

 peal the laws of 1872 against the Jesuits, which 

 are the only laws remaining of the Kulturkampf 

 which Prince Bismarck led against the Catholic 

 Church. At the second reading of the motion 

 to repeal, this was carried by 172 votes against 

 136, and on the third reading the motion was 

 accepted by 168 votes against 145. So far as the 

 Reichstag was concerned the laws were repealed, 

 but the Bundesrath was of a dierent opinion, and 

 refused to sanction the repeal. It exempted, 

 however, from the operation of the law, the orders 

 of the Redemptorists and of the Holy Ghost. 



In the Prussian Landtag even less work was 

 accomplished than in the Reichstag. A bill 

 amending the Evangelical Church laws, one for 

 the construction of a ship canal to connect the 

 Elbe and the Trave, and thus form another wa- 

 ter-way from the Baltic to the North Sea, and 

 lastly a bill creating compulsory chambers of 

 agriculture in each province, were the only meas- 

 ures decided upon in this body of legislators. 



Reconciliation of Emperor Wilhelm and 

 Prince Bismarck. Ever since the quarrel be- 

 tween the Emperor and Prince Bismarck, in 

 March, 1890, which led to the dismissal of the 

 latter from his post as German Chancellor, there 

 have been rumors of an approaching reconcili- 

 ation of the two. For a time it seemed as if 

 this would never take place, for the attacks 

 against the new regime inspired by the " Old 

 Man of Friedrichsruh " were too bitter and 

 sharp not to be noticed by his monarch. Yet, 

 if the Emperor had hoped that after his retire- 

 ment Prince Bismarck would be politically dead, 

 he had counted without the German people, for 

 wherever the old Chancellor went he was en- 

 thusiastically received. Delegations numbering 

 several thousands went to visit him at Fried- 

 richsruh, Varan, and Kissingen, from all parts 

 of the country, and his speeches on those occa- 

 sions formed the basis of long discussions in the 

 press. In short, Prince Bismarck still remained 

 an important factor in German politics, although 

 he had retired from active life. It was therefore 

 a good political move on the part of the German 

 Emperor to effect a reconciliation with the man 

 who had made him German Emperor. The first 

 step was taken by the Kaiser in the fall of 1893, 

 when he placed one of his castles at the disposal 

 of the prince, where he might regain his strength, 

 which was materially impaired by an illness in- 

 curred at Bad Kissingen. Prince Bismarck 



