The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-05-21
GOVERNMENT IS IN
 SERIOUS TROUBLE German Budget Is a C0m-
 plete Failure THE RUSSIAN MATTERS Most Important Question Is Whether Next Minister of Foreign Af-
 fairs Will Be Capa-
 ble Man
By FREDERICK WERNER


 that part of the press which has hitherto lloyally supported its policy now admits that the trouble, in part at least, is of the governments own making.
 l The budget made by the chancellor or the empire upon the lines indicated by the blue black block" that is to say the coalition between the reactionary clergy and ultra conservative large land owners, has proved a complete failure, the taxes having failed to realize anything like the amounts hoped for, and this in spite or Ithe fact that the fiscal year of 1910 has
 been a very prosperous one for German leommerce. The new taxes will never l again stand better chance; they
 brought all they possibly could bring. All.
 taxes on whisky beer, on Elimination
 matches and checks have realized only small percentage of what the chancellor
 had calculated on.
 l The large deficit thus created is not only
 fatal to the present reactionary majority in the reichstag but it also shows mat as
 a result of the governments reckless pol
 lev the purchasing power of the German neople has materially decreased. The neople simply cannot bear any more bur l dens. the limit was reached a year ago, and when new taxes were imposed in a mad effort on the part of the government ] to create a surplus in the treasury, to De used as a convincing election argument this year. the people, unable to refuse to pay the taxes, were forced to reduce tnelr | living expenses, which means that the whole nation as of one accord bought less, limiting their purchases to the absolute lnecessaries of life.
 The reactionary party now in power IS in, a hole. They admit this among them selves and consequently they are making the most strenuous efforts to turn the at tention of the voters away from the con- sequences of their selfish policy. This Is the only reason why they have persistent 1 ly been trying to make capital of every | insignificant diplomatic affair, as for in stance, during the time when France was ldeliberating as to what action to take Tn Morocco. In reality they did not even dare hope that their bluff would be sue cessful, for the German people have | shown plainly enough that they do not want to be mixed up in Moroccan affairs, as long as France keeps within the spirit of the Algeciras treaty, and nobody ever believed that France intended to violate 1 this at a time when it's new cabinet had all it could do to maintain order in the champagne districts.
 | Having failed here the German conser vatiyes threatened the liberals with the
 knife at the coming elections as they
 have repeatedly done, for instance, in
 Prussian local elections, with the disas- trous result that they have given the so-
 cialists P new "Wahlmaenner" and ere
 ated a strongly united liberal block"
 which at the coming reichstag elections will do away entirely with the power of the hitherto almighty "blue-black block" In Russia political interests are no longer centered around the prime minister. who is really dead politically. Now the all important question Is, will the man who must succeed M Sasanoff as minis ter of foreign affairs be capable of filling this exceedinly difficult position? Sasan- 1 off who is a comparatively unknown young man, took up a most difficult task after NJ Isvolsky. his predecessor, had been bounded to death by the press, showed from the very start signs, not of ldiplomatic genius, but of the strong inn pulse of youth towards lorty aims which | in wonderfully short time won the full confidence and even admiration of the Car But he was tripped up at the very outset of his career by the Potsdam in- tervew which, however, was an affair planned and prepared long before his
 time He was to have shown his real metal by visits to London and Paris just after Easter, but sickness overcame him and although h.s doctors hold out some l hope of his recovery they do so only on two conditions: First, he must spend considerable time in the south, and repair thither as soon as his physical condition will allow him. Secondly, he must avoid the indictment climate of St. Petersburg as much as possible ever after. That yer dict denotes the premature close of a career that might have been brilliant. I The question of his successor is more | momentous, more fateful, than any other | that has arisen since the royal interview. | Although in foreign affairs the Czar Is
 Russia, still very much depends upon the | personality of him who will translate the I Emperor's ideas and wishes into political | acts. And not only is there nobody in ev- Il idence as candidate yet, but the Rus sian corps diplomatique lacks single in- II dividual of whom it can be truly said that he is at once qualified and willing to ac- cept the invidious post Both Count lBenckendork and M. Iswolsky would de- cline on grounds which the Emperor would understand and respect. Tn the ranks of active diplomacy there is mo- body who is both able and willing.
 | Tn Paris a certain uneasiness is felt on the subject although neither formally nor Informally has any question been put, or allusion made to the topic. [. In Vienna and l Berlin keen interest is felt in diplomatic regions and displayed in the journalistic domain.
 | ,,o1a