The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1895-04-22
THE DOOn OF AUTOcRAcY

The returns are all in and it transpircs
that Prince Bismarck received IFS, 800
congratulatory missives in the shape of
letters, postal cards and kilograms. all
felicitating him upon the attainment of a
vigorous eightietn birthday. 1t is not
likely that the world furnishes a parallel
to this incident and in only the old
world would this one have occurred. In
Europe the conditions have been such
that personalities rather than principles at
tract and hold the peoples attention.
With people that has been governed in
stead of governing the man who possesses
the genius of plishment is
powerful quantity even though some of
his accomplishments be OF questionable
character. This genius Bismarck is en-
dowed with to a wonderful degree, il the
success attendant upon his plans is to be
it is potent still at this advanced period
to inspire admiration and adulation is tes-
titled to by a. the spoken. and written
messages of esteem and good willswe have
been told so much of. Bht5this last birth
day was marked by an event of more
significance even than the multitudinous
an event of more far-reach!ng importance
than the German Journals ts and public
men who bask in the light of imperial IA
vor are willing to admit. And that was
the refusal of the reichstag to adopt the
resolution of congratulation to the Man
of blood and IRON upon his arrival at
this good old ag.. The opposition thus
manifested to what was apparently moth
ing more than kindly greeting to one
outside the pale of power, meant that the
battle against apsolutism, as tyHitied in
the character and career OF the prince is
on; and that no opportunity is to be neg
lected for expressing enmity to those in
or out of official place who shall in any
way uphold it. The Iron chance lor''
from the outset of his political career in
1S47, when he declared in one of the most
sensational speeches OF his life that all
great cities should be swept from the face
of the earth, as they were the breeding
places of democracy and constitutional
ism, down to this day, has been a con-
sistent and tireless advocate of absolute
imperial power. The undiverted aim and
consuming ambition of his life has been
the strengthening and extending of impe-
rial authority. One might take up each and
every deed of the series that has made
his name notable among the men of the
world, and it would be found that the
inspiring motive and the ruling pas
sion was to spread the sway OF and
reflect glory upon the emperor of Ger
many. He played the game of European
and the prize to be won was the prestige
of royalty. 1t mattered not that soldiers
by the thousand filled trenches, women
were widowed, children orphaned. and
people back-broken with taxation, the
prize had to be won. The people for
whose benefit this government was origi-
nally instituted were of secondary conse-
quence. The filling OF stomachs. the
clothing of backs. the shelterng of forms
and the uplifting of the men, women and
children were incidental matters and the
subjects of this statesman's considera-
ton, only when wars were untimely and
it was cheaper to make concessions to
popular demands than to divert their
minds by pittins them against some
other subjugatel victims OF IN onarchial
government.
But the war on stltecraft OF he kind
represented by this relic of an oppressive
re ime. has opened. The people of Ger
many conservative aud phlegmatic as
they may be. are realizing that states
men Of the bismarck pattern are the