The San Francisco call., 1896-02-09
An Endeavor Not Made to Enlist
Powers Independent Of
England.
COUNT Won MIRBACH's VIEWS.
This Country May Be Obliged to Resort
to the Exclusive Free Coinage
of Silver.

BERLIN, GERMANY, Feb. S.-The an
nouncemenJ made by Chancellor Won
Hohenlohe in the Relchstag to-day that
the Bundesrath had declined to approve
the idea of holding monetary conference,
in view of the fact that The invitations
sent to the Federal States asking an ex-
preston of opinion in regard to holding
such conference had had a negative re-
suit, has altogether failed to satisfy the BIZ
metallists in the Reichstag, and the Chan
cellor's statement has been the subject of
good deal of comment, ana does not win
the approval of the chamber. The talk
which it has occasioned III the lobbies has
disclosed the fact that one cause of discon-
tent Is the neglect on the part of the Gov
ernmept to endeavor to get the powers in
dependent of England to join in the pro-
posed conference.
Prince Hohenlohe's other statement
that the Bundesrath had disapproved the
proposal to issue invitations to the powers
to join in a conference because the pour
parlers with England had proven abortive,
is held to be very insufficient reason for
the cessation of overtures in the direction
of a conference to the other powers. In
asmuch as the opposition of England to
monetary conference is deemed certain,
the bimetalllsts are convinced that the
whole action of Prince Hohenlohe in the
matter has been pure evasion. If the
Chancellor had been really earnest in full
filling mis- pledge he would, the bimetal-
lists assert have pushed the question to a
decision by all of the states comprising
the Latin Monetary Union, and relied
up0n than for adhesion with Apoarico fo
get the question of international currency
again discussed. The sum of the truth is
that Prince Hohenlohe has never mooted
the question of a monetary conference to
the powers beyond sounding England upon
the subject.
Count Won Mirbach, the leader of the
bimetallists in the Reichstag, has just
issued pronunciamento in which he de-
clares that if the system of bimetallic
currency is not achieved the United States
will be ultimately obliged to resort to ex-
elusive free coinage of silver. The docu-
ment then proceeds to predict that this
will make imports into America from gold
currency countries in Europe impossible
and also secure for American exports pre-
miums of nearly so per cent, securing the
parity of American currency with that of
the silver paying countries, and thus OBJ
tain for the United States monopoly of
the dealings with those countries. Outside
of the circle of bimetallists Count Won Mir
bach's assertion in the matter has no
weight; still the Reichstag, as whole, is
in sympathy with bimetallism and is dis
appointed with the Chancellors state
ment, majority of the Deputies being of
the belief that Prince Hohenlohe ought to
have made a more genuine effort to bring
about a conference.
The special committee of twenty-one to
which the new civil code has been re-
ferred has long life before 1t as well as a
busy one. The Conservative and Reichs-
partei members of the Reichstag opposed
the reference of the code to the committee,
while the Centerists, Poles and Socialists
voted against the proposal giving the COM
mIttee power to accept certain sections of
the bill en- bloc without debate. The Ma
! tional Liberals, Free Conservatives, Frei-
| sinniges and Vereinigungs favored and
accepted the bill almost as a whole.
Though the measure is of the highest im-
portance, the Reichstag throughout the
| four days discussion prior to the reference
of the bill TO the committee rarely con-
tained more than hundred members.
The party objection may be summed up
something like this: The Conservatives
and Centerists oppose the provision of the
measure dealing with divorce, and the
Centerists are especially opposed to the
civil marriage clause.
The Socialists are of the opinion that the
code was conceived for the purpose of
maintaining the existing social structure
loo 4ha
touched, contending that the measures
give the employers powerful advantage
of the working people. What the code
will be like when it has been subjected to
the amendments with which it is threat
ened, it will be futile to predict
Baron Won Hohlenberg, in the course of
the discussion of the bill in the Reichstag.
voiced the honest sentiment of a consider
able section of the house by declaration
denying the necessity for the unification
of law of Germany and deploring the
tendency toward excessive Capitalization.
which was menacing the federal states.
The Government of the kingdom of
Saxony has struck the first blow which has
long been dreaded by the Freissinnigs
and Socialists, against popular suffrage.
A franchise bill has been introduced into
the Saxon Diet, which proposes to abolish
the electoral system at present in operation
and substitute therefore the Prussian
system of indirect election IN classes The
first or these classes comprises voters who
have an income of 10000 marks year and
upward, the second composed of those
having incomes of not less than $500
marks year and the third made up of
rate payers. each class electing one-third
of college of electors, which college Sc
lects the deputies composing the Landtag.
The result of the operation of this sys-
tenn in Saxony will be that the workmen
and ratepayers, all in the third class, will
be outvoted in the college of electors two
to one, and conseque ltly will have no
representatives in the Landtag at all. The
bill is recognized by all parties as step
toward the restriction of universal suffrage.
Prince Bismarck has congratulated the
Saxon Government upon its introduction
of the bill, and Herr Lebknecht and other
Socialist leaders are stumping Saxony in
opposition to 1t.
The obvious tension between the court