St. Paul daily globe., 1892-03-20
The KAISER THINKInG.
William of Germany Retires
to a Forest Retreat to
Mediate.
The Ministerial Crisis May Be
Sensationally Solved on
His Return.
Sober Reasoning Shows That
the Situation Is Not at
All Hopeless.
Caprivi's Resignation Not Ac-
cepted, but Offered in
Good Faith.

GOOQ fdlCQ.
BERLIN. March ia calmer view Of
the ministerial Situatiod prevails every
where tonight. 1t is positively known
that Chancellor Won Caprivi has not re-
signed, and that the retirement Of Count
Won Zedlitz. the Prussian minister of
ecclesiastical affairs, instruction and
medicinal affairs, is still undecided. 1t
depends on the result of Emporer Will
iam's deliberations in the solitude of
Hubertus Stock. Now that the nature
of the crisis is better understood, it is
seen that at no time had it been Of the
suddenly mOmentous character that
rumor gave to it.
Since the committee having in charge
the Prussian primary education bill be-
gun its sitting, Chancellor Won Caprivi
and Count Won Zeditz have been offer
ing vigorous opposition to the tentative
amendments to the measure. Only last
week the government seemed to be
seeking for an arrangement of the diff
Guilty that had arisen over the bill which
would be satisfactory to the National
Liberals and which would break up
threatened coalition with the Freisin-
nige party. Herr MIGUEL, the Prussian
minister Of finance, who, when the bill
was promoted, offered to resign his Of
fee, and was only induced to retain his
position by the
Promise of the Emperor
that satisfactory notifications should
be made, was empowered by Herr Won
Bennigsen, the National Liberal leader,
to inform the emperor that his party re-
tanned no hope that negotiations would
result successfully unless the bill
SHOULD be so altered as to deprive the
Catholic and Lutheran clergy of special
rights given them to control religious
teaching in the elementary schools.
The emperor therefore had to face
the loss of his aDlest minister, Herr
MIGUEL, and the intended popular agita-
Zedlitz to offer plausible compromise
on the basis OF the demands
which the National Liberals
made. Count Won Zedlitz consulted
with the chancellor, who urged that an
attempt be made to do the emperor's
wishes. Won Zedlitz found that an at
tempt to alter the bill in such way
that 1t would satisfy the National Lib
erals would involve such radical changes
as to make the measure impossible of
acceptance by the Conservative and
CenteriSt majority, and that his only
way out of the impasse was to resign,
and he will adhere to his resolution to
retire from the ministry if the emperor
persists in his feeling i'll regard to the
National Liberals.
Retired to Think.
In order to think over the difficulty in
complete seclusion, his majesty left
Berlin for his shooting seat, an hours
journey by rail from Berlin. The date
of his return is uncertain and depends
on the general state of his health and
the condition of the weather. Persons
who are acquainted with the emperor'S
moods will not be surprised to see him
in Berlin any day full of some solution
of the existing difficulty. reached by
him in his reflections among the forest
solitudes. Or his stay may be protracted
until public interest in the crisis shall
have waned. His majesty's habit of is
olating himself to brood alone over state
questions of great Importance has rare
ly failed to result i'll some new depart
ure.
Meanwhile the members of the Ma
are growing over their temporary sue
cess. The Post, however, admits that
the victory is doubtful. 1t is necessary
for the opposition to rest upon its arms,
says the Post. IF anything has been
won. it is due alone to the energy and
persistence of the protests made against
the bill. and we must continue the same
tactics in order to obtain solution of
the difficulty consistent with the inter-
ests of the country"
Caprivrs Position.
Gen. Caprivi could have done no less
than offer to resign. He has been an
uncompromising advocate of the edu-
cation bill. In the diet recently he said
that it was absurd to call the present
measure one which would bring about a
war of creeds. From all he had read
and heard, he was convinced that not
one in thousand from among their op-
ponents had ever read the bill. But the
charge of the radical party which most
surprised the government was that of
weakness. That party had learned
during the anti-c0rn law agitation and
would learn once again that the gov
ernment could swim against the stream,
though the current was stronger than
il was now.
The government, Count Caprivi de-
clared, had no desire to welcome or de-
clare war against the Liberals of any
shade of opinion. Six months ago the
government did not even know by whose
help the bill would be passed. The
government did not know that the
United Liberal party would at this
moment rise again into being. If
state of war existed it was because it
had been forced upon the government.
"The National Liberal party" said
Gen. Caprivi, chad from the beginning
showed its discomfort with the present
ministry. The bitter speeches of Herr
Hobrecht and Herr Voncihern had
Lifted the Veil.
The national liberals, he said, wanted
now to emphasize their liberalism, as
they did not seek to become national
conservatives. ITO alley their anxiety
on one point,I now declare that Prussia
will vote in the federal council against
the return of the Jesuits. The ques-
ton before us is not one of Protestant
tianlty against atheism" At these
words of the chancellor such storm
of protest broke forth from the left that
for several minutes he was unable to
continue.
"There is a spirit abroad which makes
itself daily more and more felt, and
which is peculiarly visible in the schools
of Berlin, the spirit of atheism. Pro
tests from the Left. With purely
moral education not founded on Chris
tian principles we would have but little
success with the children of the peo-
pie. We have before US a strug-
gle with the spirit Of unbelief,
which is not necessarily identical
with the social democracy. In