The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1897-12-19
The GOVERNMENT
ON THE DEFENSIVE
The Weeks SittinSS Of the ReiChStaS Of
Unusual Interest.
H0HENL0HE BROKE HIS WORD
He Did Not Secure For WOrkm0n the
Right Of Coalition.
CABINET COMPELLED TO REPLY
Ministers Of War; Commerce and Foreign Af-
fairs Defend the Governmental Vast
Amount Of Damage Done by
the Recent Floods.

Berlin, Dec. 1S.-The past weeks sittings
of the feiclstag were interesting The gov
ernment throughout was on the defensive,
and Herren Bebel, Richter Lieben and
other oppositionists, fiaunted the fact in
Prince Hohenlohe's face that he had broken
his word to the rechstag for not securing
for the workmen the right of coalition and
of failing to secure the right Of inter-
affilation for political clubs. The chancel-
lor's replies were decidedly lame. Herr
Richter's speeches, however, were devoid
of fire, while Herr Bebel's were so i'm
passoned that they compelled the cabinet
to reply. The admissions thus made are
variable.
Governments Replies
For instance, such as the statement of
Gen. Won GessIer, the minister for war;
on Tuesday, when replying to Herr Rich
ter's criticism of the army he declared the
government did not intend to change the
system of two years service nor increase
the infantry, adding, however, the reorgan-
ization of the field artillery was urgent.
And the statement of Count Podawaski,
the minister of commerce, who said that
negotiations between Germany, France and
Austria were deadlocked, though still pend
ing. Another statement by Baron Thiell-
man, minister of foreign affairs, was that
Germany was preparing an autonomous
tariff to allow her to Immediately retaliate
upon countries enacting tariffs unfavorable
to German industry and commerce This
announcement was greeted with wild cheer
ing and cries of delight from all the agra
rians and has been acclaimed by the con-
servative press The government announced
that measures were under way to relieve
the distress in Silesia caused by the floods
and to suard against a recurrence of such
disaster. The principal features will be
the construction of huge accumulation
tanks of a capacity of $4,000, 600 cubic me-
ters in the mountainous districts on the
rivers Lober Zaokar and Guess, costing
II 900 900 marks. 1t is proposed to utilize
the water power thus accumulated for in
dustrial purposes.
The damage done by the floods during
the mast summer in the above named dis
tricts is officially computed at 100000
marks.
Emperor's Doings
The emperor has been characterised
the whole week. Besides Kiel, he has at
tended a number of banquets and impor-
tant meetings. While at Hamburg and
Kiel his majesty made several noteworthy
remarks. For instance, while inspecting
the Deutschland he said he hoped the time
was not distant when Germany would have
such fine vessels afoat in every sea.
When dining with Admiral Won Konky,
the emperor said: China is like arti-
choke, 1t has to be eaten bit by bit"
The fight in the diet of Wurtemburg over
the revision of the constitution, which
hinges on the question of the representa-
tion of the various classes of the popula-
tion has assumed acute features An ap-
peal to the country means that at the new
elections 1t is probable that the lower
classes will want an increase of represent
atives in the lower chamber
Increase in Consuls
The government has decided to make a
considerable increase in the provisional
consus, especially in the United States,
the German colonies and South America.
A number of recent cases in these coun-
tries show the necessity of maintaining
trained consuls of diplomatic experience
in many places now covered by local resi-
dents.
A German railway official who was ain
eye witness of the facts tells the correspon-
dent here of the Associated Press an un-
published story of the car journey from
Darmstadt to Coburg in October last. In
formation reached Russia through the Sc
cret police of a plot of nihilists, studying
at German universities, to wreck the czar's
train, and most extraordinary precautions
were taken to protect his majesty. The
train Travelled only fifteen to twenty kio-
meters per hour instead of eighty, and the
whole trip consumed twelve hours. Twenty
Cossacks of the body guard, with rifles and
revolvers constantly patrolled the gang
ways of the train and the whole track
from Darmstadt to Coburg was guarded
by several thousands of German troops
under the special command of Russian Sc
cret service officers
The official North German Gazette refers
to the case of Monslgnior Schroeder of the
Catholic university at Washington as fur
nishing evidence of the American hatred
for everything German.