48 



REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



March 1, 1913. 



THE GERMANS-AN INTIMATE SKETCH. 



PARTIES AND PRESS IN GER- 

 MANY. 

 Mr. Price Collier is contributing a 

 series of articles on Germany and the 

 Germans from an American point of 

 view to Scribner. 



A PRESS WITHOUT INFLUENCE. 



The first contribution deals with Ger- 

 man Political Parties and the Press. 

 During Bismarck's reign, 1 862-1890, the 

 German Press was kept well in hand 

 by those who reigned ; it is only lately 

 that caricature, criticism and opposition 

 have had freer play. Herr Maximilian 

 Harden's journalistic work alone shows 

 how the German Press has escaped from 

 certain leading strings. There are, we 

 are told, some 4000 dailies and more 

 than 3000 weeklies in Germany, but the 

 German Press as a whole does not exert 

 the influence on society or politics which 

 the Press in America and the British 

 Empire does. That a correspondent or 

 editor of a newspaper should find his 

 way into Cabinet circles, or into high 

 office, is impossible in Germany. Several 

 of the more popular newspapers are 

 owned and controlled bv Jews, and the 

 American finds it difficult to understand 

 the German suspicion and dislike of the 

 Jews. 



A NATION OF DREAMERS. 



At heart the Germans are anything 

 but bus ness men. There are more eyes 

 with dreams in them in Germany than 

 in all the world besides, asserts Mr. Col- 

 lier. The Germans, not being traders 

 at heart, fall an easy prey to the Jew. 

 They are philosophers, musicians, 

 dreamers, and only industrial and com- 

 mercial by force of circumstances. They 

 have given the world lyric poetry, 

 music, philosophy, and these are still 

 their souls' darlings. They are easily 

 governed, because their ideals are spiri- 

 tual, not material. The American seeks 

 w^ealth, the Briton power, the French- 

 man notoriety, but the German is satis- 

 fied w^ith the peaceful enjoyment of the 

 arts and friendly intercourse with his 

 fellows. He is, therefore, jealous or 

 contemptuous of the cosmopolitan ex- 



changer of the world, the Jew, and sees ■ 

 no patriotism or originality in him. So 

 far, therefore, as the Press is Jew-con- 

 trolled, it is apt to be suspected as being 

 not German. All the same, the writer 

 points out, Germany would not be in 

 the foremost place she occupies to-day 

 had she not had the backing of her bet- 

 ter-class Jewish citizens. As the Ger- 

 mans are not yet political animals, their 

 newspapers reflect only artificial politi- 

 cal enthusiasm. The parties themselves 

 are not real, and the Press betrays in its 

 political writing that it is dealing with 

 shadows rather than realities. 



THE PEOPLE FOR THE NATION. 



The German people, Mr. Collier con- 

 tinues, have not developed into a nation, 

 they have been squeezed into the mould 

 of a nation. The nation is not for the 

 l)eople, the people are for the nation, 

 as he puts it. What people can call it- 

 self free to whom its rulers are not re- 

 sponsible? he asks. The Social Demo- 

 crats have no seats in the Reichstag, 

 but the war estimates are beyond their 

 reach, and a Constitution is a dream. 

 Nothing will come of the present Radi- 

 cal Reichstag. In addition to the four 

 important parties — Conservative, 

 Liberal, Clerical and Socialist— there 

 are many sub-divisions of these, and 

 various groups acknowledging no party. 

 The Social Democrats are not all 

 Socialists or Democrats. As a body of 

 voters they are united in the expression 

 of their discontent with a Government 

 of officials, chosen and kept in power 

 over their heads. 



POLITICAL EMANCIPATION NOT YET WON. 



In 191 2 the population of Germany 

 was over 65 millions ; the qualified 

 voters numbered 14 millions, and of 

 these over 12 millions voted. The 

 Reichstag has 397 members, or one re- 

 presentative to every 156,000 inhabit- 

 ants ; the American House of Repre- 

 sentatives has 433 members, or one for 

 every 212,000 inhabitants ; England 6;o 

 members, or one for every 62,000 ; 

 France 584, or one for every 67,000; 



