

GERMANY. 



295 



taken in the electoral campaign, except by the 

 highly organized Clerical and Social. Democratic 

 parties. The Government was sure of having a 

 majority as long as it shaped legislation so as to 

 retain the support of the Center party, which had 

 come to be called the Government. Dr. Lieber, the 

 Clerical leader, said that it was not that, but was 

 the governing party, owing to the ability of its 

 members, the unskillfulness of its opponents, and 

 the determination of the Imperial Government to 

 carry on the affairs of the country by the aid of any 

 political party which from time to time may suit its 

 purpose. The Clericals stood ready to unite with 

 the Conservatives in carrying out positive legisla- 

 tion, in particular to promote the interests of all the 

 E reductive classes, or on occasion to join with the 

 eft in repelling assaults on the liberties of the peo- 

 ple or attempts to overburden the nation with 

 taxes. The campaign was suddenly quickened as 

 the elections approached by a letter of Graf Posa- 

 dowsky, which was taken to express the views of 

 the Government. This manifesto invited all the 

 parties of civil order to unite wherever possible in 

 combating the Social Democracy. It seemed to 

 countenance agrarianism and higher protection by 

 its reference to aiding the producers by the settle-^ 

 ment of difficult questions of international competi- 

 tion, and to promoting the prosperity of the classes 

 whose interests were most endangered agricultur- 

 ists and the middle classes. 



The National Liberal party was honeycombed 

 with agrarianism. The Agrarian League had also 

 made great gains among both Conservative parties 

 and had numerous Clerical members. The two 

 Radical parties, led by Richter and Rickert respec- 

 tively, were concerned with nothing but their mu- 

 tual rivalry. The Social Democrats, whose ideas 

 were making alarming headway among the rural 

 population, set up a candidate in every one of the 

 397 districts. As the result of the first ballots 

 there were elected 85 Clericals, 38 Conservatives, 34 

 Social Democrats, 13 Poles, 10 Free Conservatives, 

 10 National Liberals, 5 Anti-Semites, 3 members of 

 the Bavarian Peasants' League, 1 Moderate Radical, 

 1 member of the Radical Left, 1 mem her 'of the 

 Agrarian League, 1 Dane, and 9 unattached. In the 

 186 constituencies to be decided by the second 

 ballot, the Conservatives urged all adherents of the 

 Government parties to support the Radical candi- 

 dates against Social Democrats. The Radical Volks- 

 partei of Herr Richter won 29 seats in the second 

 balloting, which was held on June 24, and the Radi- 

 cal Left obtained 11, while the Socialists, who con- 

 tested 101, won 24. The strength of the various 

 parties in the new Reichstag was as follows: Cen- 

 ter, 108; Social Democrats, 58; Conservatives, 57; 

 National Liberals, 49 ; Radical People's party. 30; 

 Free Conservatives, 20; Poles, 14; Radical Left, 12; 

 South German Democrats, 11; Anti-Semites, 10; 

 Guelphs, 8; Agrarian League, 4; Dane, 1; Inde- 

 pendent, 15. Counting the candidates of the Na- 

 tional Liberal, Conservative, and Center parties 

 elected by the aid of the Agrarian League and 

 pledged to support its demands, this organization 

 commanded about 100 votes. 



Prussian Legislation. In the fifth and final 

 session of the Prussian Landtag, which was opened 

 on Jan. 11, 1898, the Government, which showed 

 one of Dr. Miquel's gratifying budgets, allowing a 

 large increase of expenditure in nearly all branches 

 of administration, brought forward a bill for regu- 

 lating the principles on which the revenue and ex- 

 penditure of the state are to be administered, a 

 measure which had long been demanded by the 

 Liberal parties. An increase in the number of rail- 

 roads was promised. Disastrous floods in Silesia 

 suggested a comprehensive scheme for the regula- 



tion of all rivers that are liable to inundation. The 

 abolition of bonds for Government officials was pro- 

 posed. A bill to increase the salaries of clergymen, 

 both Protestant and Catholic, met with considerable 

 opposition. In March, the Kaiser created a diffi- 

 cult situation in the Cabinet by appointing Baron 

 von Billow, Graf Posadowskyj and Admiral von 

 Tirpitz three Imperial Secretaries, to be Prussian 

 ministers without portfolios. 



Angry protests were uttered by the Poles against 

 the bill to double the fund of 100,000,000 marks, 

 granted originally in 1886, for buying out Polish 

 landowners in Posen and West Prussia in order to 

 settle German farmers on the land. The Poles had 

 increased rapidly in numbers, and advanced materi- 

 ally and intellectually as the result of the partition 

 of the great estates, but their improvement had 

 operated to the detriment of the German settlers, 

 who were unable to compete with them in the same 

 economic conditions, and were constantly emigrat- 

 ing to other parts of Germany. Even in the towns 

 they were getting the upper hand among the middle 

 classes. They held themselves aloof from the Ger- 

 man population, and were accused of placing the 

 intelligence that resulted from German civilization 

 at the service of the Polish national cause. Under 

 the act of 1886 2,200 German colonists had been 

 settled on 109,000 acres of land by the expendi- 

 ture of 80,000,000 marks. Prince Hohenlohe said 

 that hopes had arisen of the separation of Posen 

 from Prussia, or of a kind of federative union. The 

 object of the bill was to strengthen the German 

 element in order to counteract this federal tend- 

 ency. His plan for the Germanization of Poland 

 was obnoxious, not only to the Poles, but to the 

 Clericals, who regarded it as a Protestant propa- 

 ganda. The Polish leader, He.rr von Jazdzewski, 

 said that the Government, by aiding German set- 

 tlers with state funds and placing the Polish and 

 Catholic population at a disadvantage, only deep- 

 ened the differences of nationality and religion and 

 caused bitterness of feeling. 



The measure for disciplining Primtdocenten, or 

 university lecturers, roused a more general and not 

 less bitter resentment and alarm, impairing, as it 

 does, one of the most precious guarantees of the 

 Prussian Constitution, the liberty of science and its 

 teaching. Hence more than half of the professors 

 in Berlin University signed a remonstrance. The 

 occasion of the bill was the case of Dr. Arons, a 

 wealthy adherent of the Social Democratic party, 

 in which he was an active leader while retaining 

 his post as lecturer in the University of Berlin, re- 

 fusing to resign it after being warned by the fac- 

 ulty. The lecturers in the university are more free 

 from Government control than professors, not being 

 state officials. Lately there have been complaints 

 about lecture rooms of the universities being turned 

 into nurseries of socialism and anarchism. The 

 bill carried by the Government authorizes the uni- 

 versity authorities or the Minister of Education to 

 warn or reprimand a Privatdocent. His license 

 may also be taken away after a formal trial before 

 the governing body of the university, from which 

 appeal can be made to the Prussian ministry. 



The session and the legislative period came to an 

 end on May 18. Besides the measures passed in 

 this session, the Diet had authorized the conversion 

 of the 4-per-cent. loan, thus strengthening the 

 financial basis of Prussia, and had established 

 chambers of agriculture, securing a better repre- 

 sentation for the suffering agricultural interest. 

 The Government bill for restricting the rights of 

 association and of public meeting in Prussia was 

 defeated by Clerical Deputies joining the Liberal 

 Opposition. The ministry refused to introduce an 

 amendment to the laws regulating the union and 



