Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-08-27
Kaiser's Declaration Of Divine
Right Resented by Press.
SPEECH WAS DELIBERATED
Believed to Have Been Carefully Re-
vised After It's Delivery.
PARLIAMENT EXPECTED TO ACT
Chancellor Also Is Being Asked If
He Knew Of Speech in
Advance.

BERLIN. August 21.-The now famous
speech Of Emperor William at Koenigs-
berg, with it's openly expressed belief in
the divine right Of the Prussian king and
his choice not by peoples assemblies. but
by God, continues to be the theme Of the
most excited discussion in the newspa-
pers. The monarchist organs of the press
are divided i'm their views of the en-
peror's utterances, some of them taking
stand in opposition to his view, so that
quite four-fifths OF the German press are
united in criticism Of the sovereign.
Every shade of disapproval is voiced
from mild regret to mockery of the al
legged absolutist pretentions of the en-
peror. The opinions expressed in the
minor German capitals appear to make
no distinction between the sovereign's
position as Emperor of Germany and
King Of Prussia, and they aver that his
responsibility to the empire as whole
precludes declarations asking OF Prussia
which are inconsistent with his headshtp
of the empire.
Parliament Expected to Act.
Inquiry is everywhere raised whether
the imperial chancellor, DIR. Won Beth
mann -Holweg, knew in advance of the
emperor's purpose to deliver a speech of
such a nature. The press generally COM
'ments also on the necessity of the Ger
man parliament taking some action upon
the subject when it meets.
The chancellor is at his country place
at Hohenfinow and the excitement over
the speech has not caused him TO break
silence. The emperor reviewed an army
corps at Danzg today and was cheered
by enormous crowds there.
Breaks His Promised Reserve.
This is the first time the kaiser has
broken the reserve which he promised
to maintain after the crisis In Novem-
ber. 1905. growing out of the publication
of the London Daily Telegraph's inter-
view. 1t is a coincidence that at Koe-
nigsberg so long ago as 1894 his majesty
announced his belief that he represented
monarchy by divine right. Last night at
a banquet in the same town he declared
again that he regarded himself as the
instrument Of the Master, and quoted
the words of his grandfather, who. he
said. proclaimed that the Prussian crown
was bestowed upon him by Gods grace
blages Of, people or resolutions of peo-
ple."
= The reports OF thursdays speech did
not reach here until yesterday, owing
to the fact that, like all his majestys
public utterances, it had to be revised
either by the kaiser himself or mem
ber of his suite deputed for that pur-
pose before il could be published. That
the passage declaring the imperial in
tention TO go his own way was
passed for publication is taken to mean
that the kaiser's harangue is no I'M
pulsiye expression of opinion, but a de-
liberate announcement and premedi-
tated challenge TO parliamentary gov
ernment.
Predicts Political Storm.
LONDON. August PA Berlin dis
patch to the Daily Mail says:
THE kaisers autocratic manifesto
has acted as a bombshell in the German
press. The newspapers find to their
CONSERVATION that the imperial volcano
was not extinct. Unanimous lamen-
tation goes up from journals OF all
shades of opinion that the kaiser has
once more shattered the bonds of reti-
cence which he laid upon himself two
years ago"
The strongly monarchist Tagcliche
Rundschau. the favorite journal of army
officers, says:
This speech means storm:
Never before has Emperor William set
into such relief his romantic. medieval
idea OF his non-responsibility to mans
Judgment, OF his not being bound by the
Constitutional cooperation of the people
and OF ruling by Gods grace. against all
those convictions and feeling which today
determine our existence as a state.
why" asks the Tageliche Rundschau.
'.should the emperor choose this moment
to emphasize his ruling by Gods grace
and his own right, when 1t will nourish
an anti-monarchical agitation. and good
monarchists he thrown into a condition
Of tragic disruption"
The organ Of the landed nobility, the
Deutsche Tageszeituns. thoroughly ap-
proves the declarations OF the emperor.
LONDON. August 27.-The Times in an
editorial today dealing with the speech of
Emperor William says:
History Is not likely to regard il as an
accident that the two figures whose elo-
quence reached furthest in the western
world of their day should have insisted in
language so similar in its directness and
force on the simple human obligations
which men and women were seeking to
escape.
Emperor William and Col Roosevelt
do not preach from the same text, but
A. 80 hair o-hs,x l. A.