The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-07-14
Other European Powers Sig
nifty Willingness to
Participate.
ENLARGING THE KEEL CANAL.
It Has Been Found Necessary to
Widen and Deepen the Great
Waterway.

baron Won NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. L uooldH
Minister of Agricultural Domains and
Forests, vindicated the action of the Gov
eminent in carrying out the recommends
ton of the State Council in regard to the
promises made to the farmers that various
measures would be proposed and enacted
to relieve the prevailing distress. Not
withstanding this, the land-ownlng party,
distinct and exclusive class, has just
reason to be pleased with itself. Besides
getting proofs of the Governments appre-
citation of its power, it OVERRIDE the re-
newed opposition of DR.. MIGUEL, the Prus-
sian Minister Of Finance. Besides the con-
tcntion of their members for a repayment
of good part of the land taxes. they also
were able to defeat the Governments pro-
posal to appoint a committee to inquire
into the Ministry's scheme, the design of
which was to facilitate the division of the
great estates of the empire. many of which
comprise tillable land now devoted to
hunting preserves and the like.
Dr. Won Boetticher, the Vice-President
of the Council of Ministers and Imperial
Secretary of State for the Interior, prom
ised a few days ago, in the Upper House,
that immediate reference to the Bundles
rath would be made of the replies of the
Federal States to the proposal for an inter-
national monetary conference, received
since the ,Landtag adjourned. The nego-
tiations on this subject have, with two or
three exceptions, been distinctly in favor
of the proposed conference.
A conference was held yesterday by
Count Posadowsky-Weh Imperial Min
lister of the Treasury, with the Finance
Ministers of Wurtemberg and Bavaria, the
only German States that have held more or
less strongly against the idea of calling a
monetary conference. The result was that
Bavaria assented to the proposal and Wur-
temberg reluctantly promised to follow
Bavaria's lead. All the other States have
willingly, and some of them anxiously,
concurred.
Il is understood that the Emperor, hav-
ing conferred with the Ministers on the
subject, is heartily in favor of maintaining
gold standard; yet there is prevailing
opinion that Germany ought not to refuse
TO call currency conference in view of the
fact that several of the powers have in adj
vance signifed their Willingness to join
such a gathering.
Count Posadowsky and the Federal Min
listers also discussed scheme of financial
reform to be introduced in the Reichstag
at the coming session of that body.
Baron Won Hammerstein has at last been
definitely compelled to resign his post Of
editor-in-cbief of the Kreuz Zeitung news
paper, and at the same time he ceases to
be regarded as among the leaders of the
Right in the Reichstag and Landtag. His
final retirement after the hard and sue
cessful fight he made against those who
had persisted in their endeavors to force
him out is attributed to the advice of his
friends. The Baron did not want to retire
under fire, nor did he wish to evacuate his
present position, but it has long been
known that for personal reasons he desires
to be unfettered in his action and left per-
fectly free to conduct his journalistic cam
paign against his enemies just as he pleases,
whether in control of paper or not.
The actions for libel which he has
brought against the kleine Presse and the
Kleiner Journal are engaging his attention
to great extent, and it is believed that he
cares more for the prosecution of these
than he does for his position.
Outside of limited circle nobody be-
lieves, however, that the Baron will make
his temperance in politics. The import
ance of his family can hardly be overesti-
mated as influencing the policy of the
Conservatives. He has for many years ex-
ercised degree of despotism in the con-
duct of party tactics that almost invested
him with proprietary rights. His ten
dency has always been toward reaction.
He was the head and front of the
Agrarian party, led the Agrarian cam
paign and organized the agriculturist
movement against the Kaiser's policy and
led the movement in favor of sectarian
education, which led to the downfall of
Minister Won Zedlitz. In brief, he was the
soul of the reaction and the advocate of
every retrograde movement, including the
attempt to ally the party of Rector
Ahlwardt and other anti-Semitic factions,
now dead and gone, with the party of the
moderate Conservatives. When the latter
party came to the front he reverted to the
old policy of steadily supporting the
Government.
Better news has been received to-day in
regard to the Baltic-North Sea canal.
The chief engineers report that the work
of deepening the waterway is progressing
rapidly and that the canal will be soon
open to vessels of eight meters draft. The
traffic of the canal has greatly increased,
eighty vessels having been recorded as
passing through in single day.
They were chiefly steamers plying be-
tween German ports, but number of
large English steamers, including 2000-
ton ship, effected the passage, the latter
going through in eight and a half hours.
The Hamburg Neueste Nachricnten states
upon authority that as soon as the canal
is excavated to a mean depth of nine
meters, as it soon will be, the largest Ger
man warships will be able to make free
transit of the canal.
The Vossische Zeitung persists in the con-
tention that the depth of the canal will
never suffice to make the waterway secure
against blocks. The article, evidently
written by an expert, declares that the
canal must be widened and kept constantly
dredged and embarked, a work which will
involve great expense.
Prince Bismarck upon recent occasion
told party of visitors to Friedrichsruhe
that the attacks upon the canal made in
the newspapers and otherwise should be