258 



GERMANY. 



is consumed enormously in northern Germany, 

 and to a less extent English ale and porter. A 

 stamp duty of 10 pfennigs was levied on bills of 

 lading, trade between German ports being ex- 

 empted. The navy bill passed the final reading 

 as the last act of the session by the vote of 201 

 National Liberals, Moderate Radicals, Clericals, 

 and Conservatives against 103 Social Democrats, 

 Extreme Radicals, and South German Democrats, 

 with 17 Clericals and 2 Conservatives. 



After the prorogation of the Reichstag the crisis 

 in China led to the organization of an expedition 

 to the far East. The Emperor in his public utter- 

 ances assumed for Germany a leading part in the 

 political adjustment of the Chinese question since 

 German activity in Shantung had precipitated the 

 troubles and the German minister to China had 

 paid for it with his life, and as Germany was 

 willing to send out a powerful expedition the 

 other powers accepted as commander in chief of 

 the allied forces in the Chinese imperial province 

 of Chih-Li, the German Field-Marshal Graf Wal- 

 dersee. The strength of the expedition was 582 

 officers, 188 officials, 120 surgeons, and 18,712 men, 

 with 5,579 horses, and the cost was estimated at 

 152,770,000 marks up to March 31, 1901. The 

 Reichstag was not summoned to vote supplies as 

 the Constitution requires, the Government pre- 

 suming that the country approved the expedition 

 and being unable to present preliminary estimates 

 of sufficient accuracy. When the first soldiers de- 

 parted the Emperor enjoined them to take no pris- 

 oners and give no quarter, and to make the name 

 of German a terror in China that would be re- 

 membered like that of Attila and his Huns for a 

 thousand years. Such vindictive utterances jarred 

 on the ears of the public, and when soldiers wrote 

 home about unmilitary barbarities appropriate to 

 Huns, saying they were obeying the Emperor's 

 orders, satirical strictures in the newspapers di- 

 rected against the Emperor were plainer and 

 sharper than they ever were before. The prose- 

 cutions for ttse-majest multiplied at an alarming 

 rate, and noted journalists were among the persons 

 convicted. When the Reichstag met, the utter- 

 ances and acts of the Emperor were openly dis- 

 cussed for the first time without the ministers or 

 the president intervening to stop the discussion. 

 The principle was asserted in the press and ac- 

 cepted in the Reichstag that when the Emperor 

 acts as his own chancellor and takes the direction 

 of affairs into his own hands the immunity of his 

 acts from public or legislative discussion which 

 custom hitherto prescribed must cease forthwith. 

 I'rince von Hohenlohe was absent and apparently 

 hud no part in shaping the Chinese policy of the 

 Government, and before the autumn session of the 

 Reichstag began he offered his resignation. The 

 Emperor accepted it on Oct. 17, and appointed 

 Graf Billow to succeed him as German Imperial 

 Chancellor, Prussian Minister President, and Min- 

 ister of Foreign Affairs. 



The new session was opened on Nov. 14. Among 

 measures foreshadowed were one to regulate the 

 legal status of sailors, a reform in the system of 

 state insurance against accidents, fresh taxation 

 of the wine trade, and a bill dealing with insur- 

 ance companies. The long-pending difference be- 

 tween the German and United States governments 

 Hoarding the right of American insurance com- 

 panies to do business in Prussia had been amicably 

 settled. The companies that formerly had their 

 agencies in that country were expelled because 

 they were foreign corporations which invested the 

 money received for premiums elsewhere beyond 

 German jurisdiction and supervision. Under the 

 new arrangement they are required to keep a cer- 



tain reserve in Germany, and the opportunity 

 arose when the German Government required ad- 

 vances in September for the Chinese expedition 

 for an advantageous investment in imperial treas- 

 ury bonds which, owing to the tightness of the 

 Berlin market, the Government disliked to offer 

 in Germany because the best rates obtainable 

 would compare unfavorably with the high showing 

 for German public credit made when the last loan 

 was emitted, and would furnish a bad precedent for 

 future credit operations. Nevertheless there were 

 bitter criticisms from Agrarians, Clericals, Radicals, 

 and Socialists when the issue of 80,000,000 marks 

 of treasury bonds was placed in the United States, 

 thus demonstrating the financial difficulties of Ger- 

 many at the very moment when a new develop- 

 ment of German world politics was boastingly pro- 

 claimed. 



Increased estimates for the Workmen's Insur- 

 ance fund and for the defenses of the country 

 were hinted at in the speech from the throne. 

 The treasury statement made the estimate of ex- 

 penditure for 1902 2,240,947,301 marks, 174,303,289 

 marks increase upon the estimate for the previous 

 year. The estimated revenue is 2,137.192.(>OG 

 marks, 103,754,695 marks less than the estimated 

 income, the deficit to be met by a loan. The prin- 

 cipal measure to be considered by the Reichstag 

 was the new autonomous tariff, or general tariff, 

 which is the scale of maximum duties to be levied 

 on imports coming from countries that do not 

 enjoy the most-favored-nation treatment, and is 

 to be taken as the basis on which the new com- 

 mercial treaties will be negotiated. In framing the 

 new tariff the views of all the agricultural, in- 

 dustrial, and commercial interests have been care- 

 fully ascertained and considered, and the Minister 

 of the Interior has been in constant consultation 

 with experts. The provisional tariff agreement 

 with England was continued by vote of the Reich- 

 stag for one year longer. 



The Prussian Diet. Although the ministry, in 

 spite of the personal efforts of the Emperor-King, 

 failed to obtain the assent of the Diet to the 

 construction of a ship canal from the Rhine to the 

 Elbe in 1899, the project w r as brought before the 

 Diet af^ain in 1900 and urged as a necessary meas- 

 ure for the relief of the state railroads and the 

 development of inland commerce. The bill was 

 even extended so as to include other proposed ship 

 canals and the improvement of natural water ways 

 in the interests of traffic and of the amelioration 

 of land, notably a ship canal between Berlin and 

 Stettin, the provision of a sufficient quantity of 

 water in the Oder Bruch, the improvement of the 

 state of the lower Oder, the Spree, and the Havel, 

 the development of the water ways between the 

 Oder and the Vistula, and a Masurian lake canal; 

 also the deepening of the harbor of Emden for 

 the accommodation of transatlantic steamers, so 

 as to provide a German port for Westphalia. The 

 Diet was asked further to vote considerable .sum- 

 to extend and complete the railroad system. A 

 special tax on great department stores was pro- 

 posed, with the object of strengthening the posi- 

 tion of the middle classes in commerce and indus- 

 try. A store may deal in groceries, provisions, 

 tobacco, and drugs ; in dry goods and clothing : iii 

 household utensils, crockery, glass, and furniture : 

 or in jewelry, fancy articles, art goods, stationery 

 tools and instruments, hardware, and arms. If ib 

 business is confined to one of these department 

 it pays no tax except the existing trade tax. Any 

 firm or corporation doing a retail business com 

 bining two or more of these departments mn-! 

 pay an extra tax, varying in proportion to tint 

 extent of its turnover from 1A per cent, on salea 



