Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-08-07
London Comment on Won Bue-
lows Retirement.
NEW GERMAN CHANCELLOR
Not Brilliant Nor Snowy, But An
swers the Bill.
LORD LANsD0WNE'S FAILURE
Speculation Over Sequel to Break
With ollowers-Romance of
Ripon's Yorkshire Estate.

Ripon's Yorkshire Estate.
Special Correspondence Of The Star.
LONDON. July -. 1909.
G.rmanv's fifth chancellor is one OF
those politicians who are usually describ-
cd as ..eminently respectable" He is
MOI brilliant even in the SNOWY style
of Prince Buelow: he has never done
ANYTHING bold or original, and he has no
large following, either in the reichstaS
or in the country.
His appointment may be explained in
two ways In the first place German
public life has lost all its men of the
first rank, and in the kingdom of medic
critics the eminently respectable person
is easily king. In the second place
the emperor is rather anxious to resume
his personal activity in public affairs, and
consequently, he is rather glad TO have
q comparative nonentity for chancellor
Herr Won Bethmann Hollweg WILL in a
word. be sort of head clerk, rather
than a chancellor.
| hear, on very good authority, tina,
one OF the conditions of his appoint
ment Is LDat ne VIII not play any ldl
part in foreign affairs. His role Will be
chiefly confined 10 the reichstag and the
Prussian diet, and there he Will GER
tainly find his hands very fun. The
political prophets in Berlin do not give
MIN d long lease of official life. Ii he
does not soon succumb To the same diff
culties which brought about the fan OF
Prince Buelow. he will probably lind
more compromising emba ssment in the
Embarrassed political activity of his I'M
perial master
The position Of chancellor in Germany
is an extremely hard one. He has always
before him the problem of keeping conf
dence of an utterly impracticable sover-
eign and al the same time keeping the
support of an utterly lmpracticabie par
lament. Tie impracticability o. the
sovereign lies in his temperament, the
imprac licability of the parliament in the
fact that it has the chancellor and minis
tiers absolutely dependent upon its good
will without being ahle To hold them
responsible, 10 appoint them OF to secure
their removal
Holds Kaiser's Confidence.
Buelow accomplished one of these aims
where Bismarck. Caprivi and Hohenlohe
failed He has kept and keeps the con
fidence of Wilhelm Ii today. Probably il
is because he is everything the kaiser
is not, and supplies his masters de-
fects The kaiser is quixotic, mystica
and transcendentai Buelow is easy-So
ing. void of principles in politics ant
economics, humorous, and, above all, IN
! tellectual, which Wilhelm III is MOI.
Bernard Won Buelow is much 100 re
| fined and many-sided 10 tilt at wind
mills At home in, speaking most of th'
languages of and familiar with the
ways of Paris. Vienna, Rome, ST. Peters
burg, Athens and Bucharest, and totally
I yOahi q
ism, he was exactly the right counter
agent to his narrow, exalted and apps
toiocaly earnest master.
A biographer OF the chancellor say!
that his favorite quotation is taken from
a letter of Frederick the Great writer
Slesia-.A happy quietism must be gu
policy for some years to come 1t ha
been the function OF Buelow to impress
sometimes in vain-the need for a happ,
quietism on Wilhelm II.
AS far as kaiser and chancellor go, thu
policy has succeeded. Wilhelm III ha!
been loyal and friendly. In his persona
relations he has treated the chancellor
rather as an elderly uncle than as mer,
minister, and studied his personal con
venence in way few monarchs do. In
deed much of Germany's history has beer
made not at the palace, but in the shady
back garden of the ReichskanZler palais
in the KoeniggratZarstrasse, whittier, un
til lately Wilhelm II drove almost every
day to walk and talk with his minister
Reichstag Cause Of Fall.
1t is not Prince Buelows dealings witt
the kaiser which have brought about
his fall, but his dealings with the reich
stag. Here, at first, the diplomatic man
ner succeeded. This method has now
failed because Prince Buelow did not real
ize that though there may be no princi
pies In German politics, there are very
strong interests, interests which are per-
manently irreconcilable. The German
government is essentially conservative. its
financial system is highly reactionary
and, knowing this. 1t relied until Prince
Buelows day upon the support of the
conservative parties in the reichstag
that is of the catholic center and of the
conservatives properly so-called. while the
radicals and the socialists were in op
position. Until two and half years age
this party division was regarded by every
one i'll Germany as natural law.
To the amazement of every observer
Prince BueIoW two years ago quarreleC
with his chief supporters. the center, anc
boldly announced that he would hence
forth rule without them. Experts pro
nounced that to be Impossible. The chan
cellor discovered that between the liberia Il
and conservatives. hitherto irreconcila BILE
there were strong bonds of union, and he
proceeded to negotiate what he regarded
as his masterpiece, an alliance between
the two really inimical parties. RELOCATING
his former supporters, the center, to op
position with the socialists. 1t was
deal which only diplomat used to such
anomalies, such as, for instance, the al
lance between republican France anC
autocratc Russia, would think Of
Incredible Happens.
The reactionary agfrarian junkers anC
the radical industrial liberals anc
"freisinn were yoked to the same catr
The general election of 1907 was fough
on this basis. Success seemed assured
The center and the socialists were peater
the chancellor had his liberal-conserv.
alive majority, and the incredible had
happened. The German government was
freed from clerical domination.
Despite his final failure, his country
will probably remember BueIow with
gratitude. Germany flourished under
him. He kept the kaiser out of serious
mischief. He bought the Caroline and
Marianne Islands. He settled the great
canal and the greater tariff question His
wise opportunism did quite as much as
the kaisers prophetic zeal to create
Germanys new feet If he has proved
no Bismarck he is infinitely more Of a
statesman than his other two predeces-
sors. the incompetent Caprivi and the
I'll, l~1,1