The sun., 1908-12-06
TIE REVOLT IN GERMANY
TMPEROR WILLIAM FACED BY
'"ANOTHER MASTER"
opening OF MOmentOus struggle Marked
by the Recent Outburst OF Public
0nini0n-Attempt TO Replace Divine
hight by . Formal Constitution,

hight by . Formal Constitution
BERLIN. Nov. 24.-The outburst Of feel
ing in Germany against the Kaiser marks
the opening Of . momentous struggle
In two months the Kaiser will be so; al.
ready no has reigned for more thar
twenty years. His personality Is no un.
known quantity. and he may we'll bt
sghast that 30 casual a thing as q news.
psrer interview should be seized by his
subjects to diminish his stature publicly
and forever. He, the heroic, tire!est
exponent of the old faith In the divinity
If his Office. the man who in the modern
world calls mankind to behold that he
is the absolute inheritor Of the glamoui
Of Charleinagne and the Cesars-he tc
he held answerable to the representatives
Of universal suffrage and threatened with
coercive conversion into a mere constitu-
tonal, limited king. king in prose
such a situation opens an era for the
German Empire.
Onookers from abroad should realize
that the fateful interview which dealt
with the Emperor's personal acts In
foreign affairs was launched into an in
,prnal situation laden with dangerous
factors, The violence Of the explosion
marked long accumulated discomfort on
which his words acted as fuse.
The country has suffered increasingly
from had economic conditions for the
last three years, from overproduction.
from the difficulty of finding markets and
the smalness of commercial profits, from
anxiety over the enormous and necessary
increase in taxation. Besides. there is
the certain survival of 'partioularst senti-
merit in the non-Prussian States of the
Federal Empire. as witness Bavaria 8
secession from the Imperial Navy League
because funds were used electorally to
aid Prince Bulow's bloc and to defeat
the south and the Catholic Centre,
Socialist propaganda and the fam
hovant pretensions of the pan-German
e5pansionists have had their share in
disturbing the productive community.
Most of all, and here has proved to be
the Kaiser's pitfall. there is brooding
anxiety over the manner OF managing
Germany's foreign policy.
That policy. all Germans agree, does
rot secure the results that the country's
strength and ambition might obtain; yet
the foreign policy has been the Emperor
himself. the first patriot Of them all. To
take it's control from his hands is to hold
him convicted of personal incompetence as
a statesman. Under a restricted con-
sttuton a personally incompetent mon
arch can be kept harmless. The parlia-
mentarians of the moderate parties are
straining their ingenuity to try how
sch an affront can be veiled to avoid
90 lsion with the Emperor's turbulent
,'li-esteem
The best understanding of the German
Constitution is to be gathered from the
words addressed by Prince Bismarck
10 the Prussian Diet when the Chancellor
first came into collision with the elected
leyis ature. He tod them: @1n case Of
oiscord between the three powers the
sovereign, the Federal Council and the
keichstagl which cooperate in the making
oi avs, the Constitution does not say which
o, them is to yield, The true solution
should be found in compromise. II the
compromise does not succeed there would
be a conflict and-as the life Of the State
must not be brought to a standstill-such
conflicts become questions of strength.
He whose hands are strong enough sue
ceeds in enforcing his view SO it is
to-day II the Reichstag challenges the
Kaiser on his responsibility to it for the
conduct OF German policy it is travelling
outside the Constitution and its only justi-
fcation would be the possession Of enough
national strength to enforce its will.
All parties to the struggle realize that
~ Araf
years ago, was made by Bismarck specifi-
cially for the needs OF mis- own time and
policy. He had to cope with the altruis-
tic Liberalism which had remained strong
IN the continent of Europe since the up
ri,ngs Of ls4s, and he had to ward against
lie growth of Separatist sentiment in the
non-Prussian States.
Thus he devised a Reichstag 10 consist
oi one chamber elected by all Germany
by universal suffrage. So far he satisfied
uational unity and democracy. but he
eh ectively gagged the latter by formally
depriving the Reichstag of all power Of
Initiative He meant 10 continue govern
ing by the army and the permanent
officials under the will OF the sovereign.
and as he did not weaken either OF these
Instruments he conferred no independent
pow er on the elected assembly.
The execu tive power belongs ex-
clsively to the sovereign declared
Bismarck, and he provided that the SOW
eregn should represent the entire en-
pire in its relations to foreign States
Tie Fe;.eral Council, it ia true, had to
give consent to declaration OF war,
but in his quality Of King Of Prussia the
Emperor remained master of the Council
All the Confeierated States send dele
gates to the Council-fifty- eight members
for twenty-five States. Prussia has
seventeen votes. and with the small States
that are appendages to Sher territory
controls the majority, The Imperial
Chancellor presides over the Federal
Council. one of whose chief rights is to
advise the dissolution OF the Reichstag
un1er the approval Of the Emperor
The Reichstag is elected bodily for three
wears II was at first arranged that there
should be one member for each 100000
nj population but although the German
Empire has now 90, 600 900 inhabitants the
Reichstag has only ss7 members. Nomi-
naIy the Reichstag is entitled topronounce
ia will on questions of taxation, railways,
"y,l and criminal legislation, army and
navy expenditure. The Constitution
states that every law OF the empire re-
qItres a decision nv the ReichstaR.