Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1906-05-12
OTHER LANDS THAN ours.


OTHER LANDS THAN ours.
At the recent congress Of German his
torians at Stuttgart, Prof. Meinecke %
Freibure read a notable paper on Ger
many and Prussia in the Nineteenth Cen
tury." The gist Of his argument was that
the present position Of the Prusslan state
and its exceptional power within the frame
work OF the German empire had led to
grave evils. some Of which had been fore
seen by many Of the original advocates Of
German unity. For instance. the concur
rent existence Of a Prussian and an tm-
perial Parliament in Berlin had led to a
kind OF parliamentary hypertrophy."
which Treitschke predicated and which Bis
marck, who was no friend OF effective par
| ltamentary government, may in his heart Of
hearts, said the professor, have had no de-
| sire TO avert. The Bismarckian constitu-
! ton OF the empire, Prof. Meinecke urged,
! had undoubtedly left important problems
unsolved, and the dificulty which several
| Of the Bismarckian constitutionalists
had spprehended-the preponderance Of
Prussia. and particularly Of Prussia east
! of the Elbe-had become a grave feature
OF the situation Even stein himself did
not think that the permanent maintenance
Of Prussia, which had been described as
an artificial state" ought to stand in the
way Of the foundation OF a united Germany
Apparently, said the professor. the Prus-
sian incubus is still one OF the most Sc
rious drawbacks with which the oonstitu-
tional organism OF the empire has to con-
tend.
There is q revival I'm Cairo OF the old idea
once supported by Lord Dufferin Of having
an Egyptian Parliament formed along the
lines of the French Chamber Of Deputies
As 1t is now, the General Assembly, which
is nominally the legislative department OF
the Egyptian government, has no power TO
go beyond the veto OF the khedive and
the khedive is kept within the very narrow
limits laid down by the actual British vice
roy OF Egypt, who bears the modest Official
title of agent and consul general.
Three friends Of the khedive, Abbas
Hilmi, two Of whom are editors Of local
papers, have revived the agitation in favor
of home rule One is Sheikh All Yussuf
editor and proprietor Of the Mouawad, the
most widely read and influential paper in
the east: another is the editor of the Lewa
These three men, although bitterly hostile
to each other, are all self-proclaimed and
enlightened Egyptian patriots.
| The British contingent in Cairo is said to
desire local Parliament quite as much as
the Egyptians themselves. But it does not
| desire IL under such auspices And the
present agitation for home rule il generally
looked upon as a scheme for renewing the
old relations with the porte rather than
one giving the Egyptians autonomous gov
eminent under progressive British auspices
|
1T will probably surprise many people
| to know" says the Dundee Advertiser
that there are at least fifteen groups in
the House OF Commons which have sep,
| arate organizations. First of course, there
are the liberals with adjectives then
there are the conservatives, under Mr. Bal
! four's leadership; the liberal unionists, who
| follow Mr. Chamberlain; the free trade
unionists, who regard the duke OF Deven-
shire as their chief. and the Irish Orange
men, who have Colonel saunderson as
chairman. The Irish nstionalsts, of
course, follow Mr.. Redmond while the
Welsh members look to Sir A. Thomas
when they are acting together, and most
of the Scottish liberal members to Mr.
| Crombie, who was elected chairman only
few days ago. Leaving national groups
! we have the labor members under Mr.
Kerr Hardie, and then the trade union
members. led by Mr. Enoch Edwards. Very
shortly we may have a third labor party
| but this will concern itself with Scottish
| questions only. Besides all these we have
| advanced radicals, under the leadership of
! Sir Charles Dixie; a liberal agriculturist
group. under Mr.. Claiming; friends of In
| dia, under Mr.. SChwann; service members
under Colonel Long, and medical members.
under Sir W. Foster"
|
1t seems pretty plain that the old age
| pensions bill, which was adopted by the
| French Chamber. was passed simply as an
! electioneerlng measure and not with any
| idea Of its ever becoming law, at all events
in its present shape. The committee which
| drafted the bill estimated the necessary
capital at s6,O0OOOO,O0O. This was to be fur
nished, first, by the compulsory contribu-
ton of per cent OF the wages of all the
wsge-earning population, men and women:
second, by an equal sum to be contributed
by the employers, and, third. by a contribu-
tion from the state. When inquiry was
made as to the number OF waRe-earning
persons who would contribute. and the
amount Of their wages, and also how many
would be likely to reach the age of so
years, the pension age, no statistics could
be found to furnish even an approximate
answer. The committee OF the Chamber es-
! timated that the minimum number who
would live 10 receive pensions would be
] s6S, 900 and the maximum $4,000. This left
q margin Of no fewer than 2.44S, 600 persons.
| Taking the minimum figure. the annual
amount to be paid in pensions could not be
! lees than 3l2. $4,000 francs or about So, OOO-
| 0O0, while the maximum would be 1.1s3-
| 10000 francs, or about sac 900, 600. II Is
clear that no measure contemplating the
possibilities OF such enormous and meal
culable discrepancies in the expenses could
be deemed practical.
! A correspondent writes from Cairo that
Egypt is being visited by the greatest
land boom known TO its existence. Dur
! ing the last few months a feverish eX-
change of ownership in land has taken
place which has resulted in increased liti-
cation. owing to the fact that the land
agencies which have been most active were
unacquainted with the AIoslem law OF pre-
emption. An effort is now making to have
the law abrogated.
Not long ago the Mena House hotel was