The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-10-19

the great socialist vote means vote of discontent
 This perhaps suggests key to the recent election. It will be borne in mind that this is the second general election since the coronation of the present emperor. His advent into power indeed marks a new era in Ger man politics. He has not, like Bis marck, worked with any political party, but he has never lost an opportunity to talk and has professed the most reac- tionary principles. He holds to the most medieval notion of the divine right of kings. His military principles and ideas in regard to protection are exactly those of the most extreme Junkers.
 A writer in Germany of high political authority says that the central point of the recent political contest can be summed up in the words for or against the Junkers.' The Junkers are the lesser nobility of Germany, who con- stitute greater part of the officers of the army and navy, portion of the highest officers of the state, and espec- ially the officers of the executive de- partment. This nobility regards itself as being close to the emperor, and as the special support of Prussan and German greatness. The nobility of Germany are naturally agrarian in their politics, as they are the owners of landed estates which are suffering from competition with the United States, and from the general change of Germany from agricultural to industrial people. Even during the short existence of the thn T,,p yI,i both the social and political power in Germany, have really ceased to be such, and so far as political power is concerned, the commercial classes have gradually taken their place. During the last political contest the nobility has been engaged in desperate strug- gle to maintain it's prestige. They have done great deal of political work among the peasantry. They have or sanized among them wide spread as- sociation called the Landwirtsbund, or the Landlords league. This league has been most powerful ally of the Junk CTS in their agrarian politics and in their war against commercial classes. The conservative party, to which the JunkerS and the Landlords league be- long, is favorable to high protective tariff, and to an increase of the army, and manifest a general opposition to parliamentary influence. The Anti Semetic party Is another device and creation of the Junkers. They have sought help not alone among the peas- antry, but in the cities, and there they stirred up what feeling they could against the commercial influence of the Jews. This Anti-Semetic party, which is one wing of the conservative party, lost largely in the recent election.
 Turning once more to the figures giv- en above, it will be seen that the losses in the last election were suffered by the conservatives and the center, and that gain of some 600,000 votes was di- vided between the national liberals and social democrats. There is but little
 doubt as to what this vast change of votes signifies, namely, hostility to Junkerism and that new programme of absolutiSm which came in with the reign of the present emperor.
 If we may believe the liberal German press, all the national liberals and all the liberal factions, together with the social democrats and a considerable portion of the center, which means majority of the reichstag, can be re- lied upon to vote against an increase of the army and navy. All the liberal factions and the social democrats may be likewise counted upon as opposed to agrarian laws and restrictions upon foreign trade. There is no doubt but that this election has given a decisive
 blow to the emperor's policy of inter-
 meddling with foreign politics. There is little or no hope of his obtaining the consent of the new reichstag for an in-
 crease in the navy. and this renders Germany's interference improbable l wherever naval warfare is essential Unfortunately the German reichstag
 possesses only negative power. It can
 negative appropriations for the army or the navy, or other objects, but it has practically no power to originate and
 carry through any legislation of it's own. The Bundesrath, or upper cham ber which is a council of the German states which form the empire, possesses almost unlimited power and nothing can become a law without it's sanction.
 Here Junkerdom is supreme, for the body is composed of delegates or repre- sentatives from the different German states appointed by their princes. Prussia has an absolute majority of | these representatives, so that the en- peror really controls the Bundesrath | There is no hope that the victorious | liberal parties in Germany can work | any positive reforms of importance; they can only prevent reactionary en- l croachments upon the constitution.