The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1902-01-09
THE KAISER MUST BIZ HONORED.
To SIT When He is Toasted May Il

/ volve Six Months Imprisonment.
When Napoleon / was at the zenith
of his power, he gave 1t az his opinion
that the emperor was to be honored as
God. A hundred years later there la a
large body of respectable persons who
claim the same for the German kaiser
They speak of his sacred person. They
protect against mixing up the sacred
person of his majesty in the political
debates in the Reichstag. 1t is worth
noticing how the German law regards
the matter. One paragraph of the PEN
al code prescribes punishment for those
who insult the kaiser, the famous 'lese
majestic" laws Another paragraph sets
forth the puniehment of those offenders
who give offense by disappearing God.
The law takes no notice of crime
against God analogous to "lese ma
jeste;" but the punishment for the Of
Tense Of blasphemy and that of 'lese
majestic Is theoretically the same, and
in practice offenders against the kaiser
are more severely punished,
During the past few months good
deal of indignation has been caused by
a recrudescence of these ''lese majestic
cases. Every fw days tn radical and
socialist newspapers report one or two
of them. The constitutional and con-
sentative organs decline to notice them.
Against unripe youths, against old wo-
men and intoxicated men, who have in
advertently used some foolish express
sion against the kaiser the police pro-
coed with a severity which is as I'M
wise as it Is unnecessary. And the
worst of it all is that these prosecutions
are usually initiated by informers out of
revenge or some other equally unwor-
thy motive. The police authorities
should not leave out Of sight the fact
that the kaiser practically invites hos
tile criticism. A man of tremendous
energy and many-sided, he is interested
in every public question, and expresses
his opinions in language which is al /.
ways picturesque, but often more than
irritating to persons who do not share
his views. He has more than once, for
instance, spoken of the social demo-
Gratis as GROWERS" as crowd of fell
lows without fatherland," as "rab-
ble" Is 1t any wonder that the social
lists have an ardent desire to pay him
out In his own coin? Is, it any wonder
that the enemies Of his house have, by
long practice, developed skill in grid
ing at the kaiser, in satire and badi-
mage, which while sending a barbed ar
row right to the aim, leaves the archer
perfectly immune. have often mar ,
veled at the nearness to "1ese majests''
in numerous satirical writings and |
drawings, at the knowledge displayed |
by anti-court writer's in sailing so near |
to the wind.
1t is not pleasant to think that the |
kaiser, who is by far the ab1est and /
most accomplished of the twenty three
German rulers, who IL certainly a man
of much magnaminity and fine chival-
rous feeling, is precisely the one Ger
man prince against whom the worst |
cases of ''lese majestic are committed.
There are kings in Wurtemburg, Saxo-
ny and Bavaria, as well as in Prussia,
that one never hears that they consider
themselves insulted by the foolish va
porings of socialist demagog or the
senseless iapes of an intoxicated public
house politician. The radical and So
cialist deputies In the Reichstag have
repeatedly sought to pass bill for the
hepeal of the law about "lese majestic"
but in vain. They are met by a hostile
phalanX of conservatives and a united
government who will not abate one jot
or little of their almost Byzantine rev.
erence for their king.
During the reign of the old Emperor
William I respectable old Berlin cit
izen was indicted for 'lese majestic"
because he used the words following
vi, ioJ ;r, |