New-York tribune., 1878-07-23


share neither his sympatllies nor his apprehen-
sons In his sight Germany is a leaky ship
in which the flames are raging while a craze
has fallen upon passengers and crew.
As the same vessel appears to us,
she has not ceased to be seawoIthy; there
are leaks, but they can easily be stopped as
soon as discipline is restored = and the oflcers
are making, possibly high-handed, but cer-
tainly necessary efforts to quell dangerous
mutiny between decks. While we dissent from
his views we commend his letter to our read
ers His sincerity we do not question. de Is
straight in his facts but crooked III his
logic He gives us faithful PIC
ture OF Germany as he sees 1t, ana
as Americans we ought to sean 1t
closely, for there are many analogies between
the political conditions of his country and our
own. There is social restessness and pot
house philosophy here az well as there We
too, have political demaeogues and insub-
ordinate classes. Universal suffrage is on
trial here as well as in the Fatherland, and
some of it's tendencies are fraught with dam
ger.
We have spoken of the efforts which
the German Cabinet is making to suppress
Socialist excesses as possibly high-handed,
but certainly necessary. The reprcssiye
measures which the Government introduced
and the Parliament voted down after HOdels
attempt to assassinate the Emperor were
clearly inGuitous. They were. laws that
would have made the police absolute. The
Federal Council was empowered to fine and
arrest Socialists, and to suppress their writ
ings aad publications. bat Socialism, with the
thousand questions that may be grouped under
II. WAS nowhere defined 1t was legisla-
ton after the Russian pattern, and the marvel
is tlIat the Chancellor ever gave his sanction
to it. But when the second assassin leyelied
his pistol at the Emperor, the necessity OF
adopting repIcssiye measures oil some kind
against Socialism was manifest. 1t would have
been fog to cOnVoSc a Parliament that had
already turned against the Government with
so united n front. In going before the conn-
thy and asking the return of new deputies who
would be i'm sympathy with a vigorous policy III
dealing with assassins and reyolutionists, the
Cabinet acted wisely. That the electors have
been subjected to unnecessary pressure and
that the police have already more power than
thcy ought 10 have, our correspondent shows
concusiyely, for we have no reason to believe
that his account OF their arbitrary methods Is
exaggerated. On the other hand, his appre-
tensions in regard to the ultimate results OF
a reactionary policy are strained. The assas-
sinatious occurred at a crisis when the
Chancellor and the Liberals, who have
supported his domestic measures since
1896, were estanged. He would not be
a Minister, much less Bismarck, if he did
not prefer having working majority in the
Parliament to hmping along with a factious
and helpless minority lie has been con-
stsIntly hampertd of late years. He has been
lrIitated and worried at every turn of legisla-
ton by his allies az well as by his foes.
He has been compared very happily by
The Saturday R6UieU to Il man who
lays out for himself fine park "and
" then finds that he has TO pass his life in
"spudding thistles." lie naturally wishes to
put IN end to such exasperating work. But
what proof have we that he is plotting against
the Empire The man who united Germany
is not the man to undo his work.