The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-06-08
WILHELM II.'SROMAK JOURNEY
MES IT PRESAGE 4 BLOW AT
THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATS?

for the IIeg emory of Western Europe
scheme TO Put Down Universal
suffrage In Germany-A Hold Game
Ihat May Lead TO War Very soon.
ROME, May 2l.-Wilhelm II. S pompous
Journey to the Vatican and to Monte
Casino rikes everybodys imagination.
but creates no uneasiness. Governments
and public opinion seem to look on this
imperial Lohcngrin display as sort of
fanCifu historic dream or pathetic stage
setting. The Kaiser will never be taken
seriously until he has done something
great He is sphinx whom all study.
bu' whose secret none dares TO unriddle.
Will he turn out to be god, table or
tub
His Rome journey is the natural develop
MELT of his ecclesiastical policy, fastened
BY the folly and reckless spirit OF NJ
Combos. When three years ago in The
Sun | tried to trace the kaisers plan OF
rat.-tablishing the Empire of the West,
people who professed to be serious and
sane denounced the prophecy, the easy
foresight of the things that were to come,
as Il picturesque exercise OF the lmagl-
nation. The Lutheran Pope! The Holy
Roman Empire! The new empire putting
on the old helmet Of Charlemagne! What
Il confusion OF ideas!
To-day serious people, the professors
of reasoning reason, the htmorists who
understand facts only when they have a
historic form and have happened, ex-
pound to lis pedant caIy what the observer
had long been able to read in the clear
progress of affairs. My expectation seems
to have been surpassed even; the move
inent Is being hurried. The Kaiser de-
clares his intentions with Charemagne-
Ike gorgoousness that can be explained
adequately only by his state of mind, He
shows in its egotistical and hopeful bare
hess his Pan-German scheme and his dream
Of an Empire of the West he reveals pre-
ronriously to the world his firm intention
Of taking Frances place in the Orient and
a, Rome: he demonstrates, with brutal
ostentation, the almost dramatic contrast
between republican persecution and inn
peria, protection 1t is frank game with
the cards exposed that is dsconcerting
The Kaiser must be fully convinced that
j, ! IMPOSSIBLE for the republic to learn
what things mean for him to indulge in
such luxury of contradiction and in turning
things TO account to such an extent. Other
wise il would be pure madness to proclaim
a,tical policy in Germany and in France;
/, would warn the enemy and force him TO
back water. 1t seems that the Kaiser has
no more fears and anticipates no reversal
Of policy 1t is said in well-iniormed circles
that in his conversation with Cardinals
Cotti, Agaiardi and Rampolla at the Prus-
sian legation in Rome the Kaiser pitied the
lot of France. Il fear everything for that
IL
The Kaiser may he right, for there is
nothing TO show that NJ Combes and his
following have ever considered the possible
effects of their policy on the future and on
the safety Of the Republic. While its neigh
Dor concentrates and coordinates all his
forces and coordinates them everywhere to-
ward a single object in order to win the
hegemony of Europe, the Republic dissolves
and soatters all vital resources through civil
war and discord. On the one side Is union,
on the other weakness. On the one side
the subordination of all efforts to the pur-
suit OF the star on the other the absolute
praponderance Of a sectarian interest and
of thesis. a goometric theory. There
is the antthesis in all its splendor and
historical significance.
The imperial fervor on the subject of
gion draws it's sustenance, perhaps
from a source less high and more German
A friend who is closely connected with
the court, with Count BGlow and with
Wilhelm II. said to me in the middle Of last
winter "The Emperor knows that the
Socialists will make more gains at the
coming elections. He means TO profit by
the fear which these triumphs will arouse
In the middle classes to carry out coup
dttat. He will change the constitution
and will suppress universal suffrage"
That is the reason, from the standpoint
Of German internal politics, for the march
on the Vatican and the concentration of
religious and conservative forces. | doubt
whether the Pope favors this non-modern
AIM for his policy tends toward the gradual
organization of democracy and the alli-
anca of the Church with the people Re-
sistance on the part of the Centre seems
inevitable. When in 1891 Bismarck already
fascinated by the rising tide If social de-
mocracy, proposed to Herr Wndhorst to
r,,t an end to the kui,nrkdmpf in exchange
for the suppression of universal suffrage
the leader of the Centre waved away the
proposal, as Christ did those Of the tenpter
saving that the "impregnable tower" was
founded on the rock Of the people To-day
there has been no change in electoral condi-
lions, and in spite OF the Hohenzollern r
alluring invitations. the calculating Teuton
will decline to sell his hirthright for a mess
Of pottage.
Now, what is the play that We shall look
upon? The Kaiser has shown all his cards
Will he play them? If he were not sure of
his hand all of his adversaries, being fore
warned, would take their precautions
Wilhelm ri is either mere Caligua with an
admixtura of Nero. or else he must draw
his sword. lNNoMINATO.
RonTnS, NI,Ir rHIInPE\,S VnHE