The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-11-18
WILLIAM THE PILGRIM
People Who Guy Him Prose-
cuted for Lese Majeste.
TARIFF WAR PREDICTED
Germany's Latest Method for
Germanizing Poles.

les lntroQuced MIN &C pubic lie ana tt
a Hohenzollern's duties. 1t were for the
Emperor # he, TOO, had adopted the Iron
Chancellor's motto: Fert unda nee regi-
tur Self-willed and with an exaggerated
idea Of his own abilities. the Emperor is
but too much inclined to disregard the
opinions and wishes of the great majority
Of the nation he rules over, and in many
instances studiously attempts to coerce
public opinoin and to impress his own
will on the nation as a whole. His trip
to the Orient he undertook against the
advice of shrewd and conservative Prince
Hohenlohe and of the rest of the cabinet,
as well as against the intimated wishes
of the other princes of Germany. As for
the public, nine out of every ten here
were opposed TO the junketing tour, and
| there were any number Of voices raised
IN the German press intimating that moth
| ing but discord, jealousy, and strained
political relations would come of il at all
| irrespective of the probability that IN
! forseen events might occur either at home
! or abroad during the time.
But the Emperor had made up his
mind to so, and so he did, even after the
| discovery of that alleged anarchist plot,
| and the first thing ne did was to give TO
the world the entirely novel spectacle of
a ruler over great Christian nation ap-
pearing in the double role OF intimate
friend and honored guest of the head Of
Islam, and Of a devout pilgrim to the
shrines most sacred to Chris endom. OF
course, this contradiction in itself cid not
Of let
and writers of Germany ami other coun-
tries, and humorists everywhere COM
mented on these strange facts, but here
in Germany, at least, where liberty of
the press and of expression exists only
in theory but not in practice, the states
attorneys soon put a stop TO sarcasm or
irony. and all those funny papers which
had dared to say something in prose or
poetry not quite to the liking of the En-
peror's tools were proceeded against for
lese majestic. One of these papers, a
Munich publication called SimplicisSimus,
was seized by the police all over Germany,
even before it had reached the hands of
subscribers.
Nothing to my thinking, shows the un-
popularity of the present Emperor more
strikingly than the steady increase of
trials for lese majeste. Since the old En-
peror's death their number has quad
rupled. and in the Vorwarts, where a
regular standing place is reserved every
day for the record of the convictions had
under the lese majestic paragraph there
are days when six or seven cases are re-
ported from the different parts of the
empire for the preceding twenty-four
cd Nv
to watch their words very closely when
referring to the Emperor and his doings-
some of the leading German papers and
periodicals submit all such manuscript
before printing it to an expert lawyer
1t yet happens very often that even pa
pers of good standing get into the tolls
on the charge of les majeste, and the case
of Maximillian Harden, publisher and
editor of Die Zukunft. which Is being de-
clded by a Berlin court just now, while
more sensational than others, IS typical
of press conditions in the Germany of to-
day. Harden, it is true, was a bit more
outspoken than others in his comments
on some of the Emperor's queer PERFORM
ances, but then, he is a political adherent
of the conservative party, loyal mon
arcllist, and it was no less a parsonage
than the late Prof, Won Treitschke, the
historian. who said that nowadays even
the EXTREMIST loyalist is guilty OF lese
majestic at least once every month
But another feature of this lese majestic
business is even more despica bic than the
increasing prosecutions Of the papers and
periodicals, viz, the espionage encourag-
cd by the practice Of the reactionary
5r
habit of convicting persons charged with
.ese majestic on the unsupported evidence
Of a single witness, even when such wit
ness bears a VIGOROUSLY bad reputation,
and where the motive is shown to be re-
vense for real or imagined grievances. |
This practice, is tantamount TO an in
vaston of the family. and spiteful rela-
tives. former friends or divorced husbands
and wives cannot find a surer and easier
way of venting spite than by sending in
anonymous accommodations for lese ma
jeste. for on them every states attorney
in Germany today IS bound to proceed
against the person informed upon In
the Reichstag. where this horrible state
OF things was discussed last winter very
thoroughly. the spokesman OF the govern
ment admitted that there was something
morally rotten about il all. but the Min
lister Of Justice. SChoenscedt added that
nobody felt sorrier for l. than the En-
peTor himself. To which Bebel. the So
cialist leader. made the cutting reply. that
II was very strange that the Emperor had
never pardoned q single offender against
The lese majes,e paragraph. not by 50
much as an hour. while he had motor
iously pardoned such men as Brusewi.z.
and police officials who had atrociousIy
maltreated their prisoners.
The elections into the Prussian Diet are
now over. and they have resulted about
as expected. There viii be no great
changes n the makeup Of the House Of
Delegates. and what change there is Is for
the better. Observation-Disclosures marty
in the house as set in the last one and
the score Of decided liberals have grown
into about forty. thanks to the support
they received from the Socialists. who.
while powerful under the peculiar Diet
election law TO elect ;heir own men. could
AZ least exert considerable influence in
helping 70 elect taoSe nearest 10 them in
political views. The Diet. as 1 pointed
out before. has no power 70 legisIate
directly on German tariff matters. but
the strong Conservative and Asrarian
contingent in L comprising nearly one
aalf % the total membership shreNdly
uses the Diet Tor tie purpose OF exerting
moral and political pressure on the Prtls-
sian government in favor Of that pr0-
nouncedly p-otectioaistS and anti-Ameri
can tariff policy which they have n!tber-
70 tried in vain 70 make the Reichstsr
adop'- IN this they have been measure
ably successful and they VIII be prob
ably more 50 now. as NOT only che Prus-
sian government. but also the Bavarian
and several others OF the smaller Ger
nan states harA ~ la.s 49,. 49,. - =