Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-20
LID DOWN IN BERLIN
Political Excitement Grows Be-
fore the Elections.
GOVERNMENT KEEPING TAB
Police Closely Watch All Radical
Gatherings.
SOCIALISTS ARE CONFIDENT
Herr Bebel Says They Will Gain
From Ten to Twenty Seats in
the Reichstag.

BERLIN, January 19.-The political ex-
| element grows, particularly indoors after
shutdown. The great rooted gardens Of the
breweries, some of them with tables for
2,500 persons, are filled nightly with people
anxious to hear campaign oratory.
The socialist meetings especially are re-
markable for their contained enthusiasm.
At all these meetings a police lieutenant
with helmet off and a sheet of paper on a
table in front Of him sits next to the chair
| man. Should the lieutenant rise and put on
his helmet 1t would be the signal for the
meeting to be closed and the policemen sta
toned on the floor and in the galleries
would begin to clear the hall. The liberals
of Bremen have sent circulars to the MEM
bers of that party urging them to avoid
socialist meetings, fearing violence at the
hands of socialist partisans.
A radical meeting was broken up by the
friends of an independent candidate, and at
a radical meeting held in Berlin this week
socialist disturbers engaged their opponents
in a fist fight until the intruders were
elected.
Government is Cautious.
The interest taken in the political cam
pagn is languid in districts where the re-
suits are not doubtful. This is particularly
the case in parts of Bavaria and the Rhine
provinces, with their extensive Catholic
populations.
Although the government takes the deep
est interest in the election, it is combining
its active campaign mainly to correcting in
the semi official North German Gazette
what it regards as being m!sstatements in
the socialist and clerical newspapers. No
cabinet officer has spoken in public. Colo
NAL Director Dernburg being the only gov
eminent official who has made a public ad-
dress, and his speech was more economic
than political. being designed to awaken
interest in the German colonies and to per-
suade the commercial classes to participate
In colonial development Herr Dernburg
has suddenly become a prominent figure in
public life. There have been fifty thousand
apple ationS for tickts of admission to q
meeting at Munich on Monday next, where
he will address the commercial bodies of
that city on the colonies.
Forecasts Are Futile.
Owing to the extremely complicated situa-
ton forecasts of the result of the elections
are unsafe The socialists are confident of
making considerable gains, and even the
government expects this. Herr Bebel, the
socialist leader, says his party will gain ten
to twenty seats. The prospects of the cleri-
Gals are less reassuring. An independent
Catholic movement has sprung up and has
resulted In the nomination of candidates In
| fifteen districts in opposition to the noml-
nees of the clerical party The members
Of the new party call themselves national
Catholics.
A strongly worded official denial was is
| sued today of the statements made yester-
| day by the KreutZ Zeitung, organ of the
| conservative party, to the effect that the
| imperial government printing office has
| been used to printing enormous quantities
| of campaign literature in the interest OF the
| radical and liberal candidates for distribu-
| ton the same day in every part of the en-
pire.