The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-11-04
GERMANr.s FUTURE GREATNESS

While the unfriendIy rfdfeuIe and the
dfslnterested generally condemn, the pol
icy Of the young German emperor goes
on undisturbed He began by reversing
the imperial courses pursued under his
father and grandfather by the great
Iron Chancellor. He has abated but lit
tie the spirit of miitarism, which won
for the German empire in the first in
stance its unity and its power. But he
has added to it. The military system
which makes of every able-bodied sub
ject a trained soldier, ready to meet
the nations demand in time of peril. is
supplemented by something else, which
most thinkers regard as inconsistent with
the dominance Of the military influence in
society. Commerce and industry are the
two forces which beckon the young Ger
he sees the realization of true German
greatness. He resorts to none of the
sheer brutality which marked the proc
esSes OF Bismarck. and, aside from an
extreme sensitiveness to personal attack
and an inordinate desire to promote rever-
ence of the idea of personal sovereignty.
he works for the development of the en-
pire along lines which are now accepted
as the true ones by all the progressive
nations of the world
In no direction Is the change in the
German noJicv of tbo ,oroca,,4 fro.-. ~.
German policy of the past more marked
than in the treatment extended by the
present ruler to the Catholics of the en-
pire. Bismarck learned much toward
the close of his life of the futility of his
policy of repression. He learned it by
bitter experience. While history will
condemn him for the brutality of his
courses toward the authorities of the
Catholic church in Germany and for the
constituencies character of his policy
after he had practically conceded his in.
ability to control the church with the
iorn hand, it will none the less surely
record the completeness of his surrender
to a force which ne found he might
bend, but could not break.
William seeks the sustainment of his
policies by Catholic subjects through no
such influences. The recent Catholic
congress at Bon did much to strengthen
the bonds which the emperor has been
creating between himself as the head of
the empire and his Catholic subjects.
The tone of all the addresses delivered
at that gathering was indicative of the
unquestionable loyalty of the members
and authorities of that church: and TAX
ing them as text, there can be no
question whatever that in all his civil
policies. so far as they have thus far
been outlined, he will receive cordial
support. There is heard but one discor-
dant note. In his treatment of the So
cialists the emperor has never had COM
promise to offer. The church in Ger
many and elsewhere has never shown
any disposition to regard the teachings
of the Socialists otherwise than with dis
favor. But in the consideration at Bon
of the attitude of the congress toward
the socialistic propaganda the papal
nuneio to Bavaria declared that that
body should take up the questions relat-
ing to economic reforms and the i'm
provement of the material condition of
the workingmen. Considered apart from
the Socialist question such recommen-
dalton would be regarded, perhaps, as in
line with the avowed policy of. the
church. But in the light of the coca