Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-05-07
AN ORIGINAL MONARCH.

The Young Emperor OF Germany, in his
speech opening the Reichstag yesterday,
gave a remarkable demonstration of the
| fact that he by no means intends to confne
himself to the prescriptiye lines of mon
archical policy. Instead of attending only
to the cornerstone laying and after-dinner
speeches, which form the ornamental part OF
royal business, and putting off the work Of
ruling on responsible ministers, he comes
before his parliament with the statement of
his own policy.
That policy is certainly of unique and
original character. 1t is full OF an active
and apparently sincere interest in the ad-
vancement of labor, which is to be cared for
in the most paternal manner. Workingmen
are to be given Sunday rest; the labor of
women and children is to be regulated; pro-
visions are to be improved guarding against
dangers to the "lives, health or morals" of
the workmen; parental authority is to be
enforced among the younger workmen, and
wages disputes are to be settled bv indus
trial courts of arbitration, whose findings
will be enforced. This sketch of the feat
ures of socialistic absolutism only needed to
complete it the declaration that the policy
of the German empire is for peace, and in
order to preserve that peace the army must
be increased
The young Emperor is getting to be a
more interesting figure every day. At first
his professions we're regarded as rather
funny; but he is showing himself to be so
original in his views, and SO completely in
earnest in his actions, that he compels the
respect and admiration of the world. If he
has perseverance in any degree proportion
ate to his enthusiasm and his original dis
position to cast aside the precedents and
foregone conclusions of courts, he NAV vet
become the leading figure of Europe, and in
future history may even overtop the fame of
the great chancellor whom he has dismissed.
In the development of his new ideas he has
certainly shown that he can rise above
rather than 60 below the stereotyped theories
of monarchs. 1t is far higher and wiser for
an Emperor to build his policy on paternal
care Tor the laboring masses than on the
policy of hoodwinking and oYertaxing them.
1t is a broader policy to suggest the preserva-
tion of international peace by giving up
conquests, than to seek to awe Europe by
holding on to the conquests with an iron
grip.
But are these original ideas merely the
conceptions of an enthusiastic and impul-
sive young man, or the settled projects of
mature and steadfast mind? The European
opinion is to the former effect; and that
opinion is to certain degree reflected
around the world. But the Emperor Will
lam has already shown that Europe mis-
judged him. At the outset it was expected
that his desire for fame would lead to mill
tary conquests; and his eccentricity was
made the basis for general prophecies of
war. All such preconceived ideas have been
set at naught by his settled labors in the in
terest of peace and his policy for the amelio-
ration Of labor. Perhaps the theory that his
present policy will hereafter be abandoned
as a vagary and that he may turn to the pur-
suit of some other object will be shown to be
equally unfounded.
At present William II. is an extremely
interesting and unique figure in European
1t is not impossible that he
may yet make himself one of the greatest
figures of the present or of the coming CEN
tury,