The morning call., 1894-10-28
CAPRIVPS RESIGNATION.

1t remains to be seen whether the resg-
nation of the Prime Minister of Germany
Is a mere Cabinet crisis, or the first NUT
tering of a political storm. Chancellor Won
Caprvi took Office on the forced retire
ment of Prince Bismarck, between whom
and the Emperor the friction had become
nueDdurable. He was supposed to be in
perfect accord with William III on all
measures of domestic policy, including the
measures OF repression which the Emp ror
regarded as the only cure for the growth
of socialism, and the legislation providing
for the increase of the army. To foreign
ers 1t has seemed strange that soldier Of
wide experience, and with reputation
for sagacity. should approve the harum-
scarum notions of the youthful sovereign.
But Caprivi seems to have done so; il is
only now that he has evinced symptoms
OF recalcitrance. The new measures of
repression which the Eulen burgs have
pressed on the Emperor's adoption seem
to have been more than he could stomach;
an alteration is said to have taken place
between him and Count Eulenburg, and
as the Emperor had been staying with the
latter, and might be regarded as RESPONSE
BILE for his utterances. the Chancellor took
the only course which was left open to
him, and rendered his resignation. In
order to relieve the Kaiser from embar-
rassment Count Eulenburg has also ten
dered his resignation.
Prince Hohenlohe. who has been sum-
moned to Berlin to accept the chancellor
ship, and with it The Office of Premier Of
Prussia as well, is the most enlightened of
the modern conservative school Of German
statesmen. He has never been soldier.
He was the leading man in Bavaria when
the Franco-German war broke out, and 1t
was mainly through his influence that Ba-
varia cast her lot with Prussia. Soon
after the war he was chosen for the deli
cate post of German ambassador to Paris.
and on the death of Count Manteuffel he
was appointed Governor of AIsace-LDr-
| raine. 1t is to his tact that the quiet acqui-
escence Of the Lorraineans in German
authority has been mainly due.
1t would seem that such man would
not lend himself at his time of life
| he is seventy-fv - to harsh measures
against the socialists which could not but
| lead to disorders and to further develop
ment of military ahsolutism. He Is sure
| TO be in favor of measures of Cancellation.
| If. therefore, the Emperor has resolved
| in his mulsh way to put down
socialism with the strong hand, it will
| follow that Hohenlohe's tenure of his
double office will be but brief one. and
some one else must be Chancellor. When
Bismarck retired William let it be known
that his successor would be soldier He
has no love for civilians; all that there is
of him is pipeclay. Caprivi was his ideal.
| He had served gallsntly in the wars with
| Austria and France; be had taken the
command of the navy after the peace and
| proved himself competent to handle fleet.
| He was soldier all through. accustomed to
handle men at the word of command, to
view differences of opinion as muriny and
| to regard the world as camp under mar
| tial law. 1t seems that a few years ex-
perience of power have convinced him that
the German people are not conscripts to be
! fogged into line by corporal.
In the ranks of his overgrown army,
however, William can find plenty of men
who will engage to put down socialism at
| the point of the bayonet. and who, in case
| of necessity, would treat the Reiehstag
| 10 an 18th Brumaire. 1t has been the
fate of the present Emperor, as il was
| that of his grandfather, to demoraiize
Prussia and other parts of Germany by
imbuing the people with the spirit of mil
| itarism. and though after time this
would engender in the peasant and arti-
san classes a spirit of totally different
kind. of which socialism is the outcrop,
an infinite amount of mischief might be
done and blood split before equilibrium
were restored. The Emperor is trying to
restore the eighteenth century at the close
of the nineteenth, which. as the mathe-
maticiaDs saw is absurd.