Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-12-30
CRISIS IN GERMANY
Political Future of Empire Is
Staked on Election.
PRESENT REGIME MAY GO
Social Democratic Party Holding
Center Of Interest.
PEOPLE RESENT TAX POLICY
Prince Of Wales Expected to Visit
Berlin Next Year-Naval
Base Transfer.
PRESENT REGIME MAY GO
PEOPLE RESENT TAX POLICY
Special Csbleeram 10 The Star.

BERLIN. December 30--An American
happening to travel through Germany and
not reading German newspapers would
find it very hard to believe that the
whole country Is in tho throes of the
greatest political struggle ii has ever
known and that In less than two weeks
the voters of the whole empire are to
cast their votes in an election which will
determine the course of German politics
for years to come, and which is most
likely To take the form of Il political
landslide that viii snow under the pres
ent government
y German general election. however, Is
very much different from a similar po
itiCa1 struggle i'll the United States be-
ing conducted on far more severe lines.
Owing TO the excellent schools the voters
are OH the average far more intelligent
and better educated than American voters;
they read considerably moro and the
quality of their reading is much higher.
The result is that they are more indie
pendent political bosses are absolutely
unknown), and form their own opinions
about politics. For this reason German
votes are not to be caught by brass
bands. treW orkS stump speakers or hi ed
spellbinders, and any party or candidate
who would try to introduce these pecul-
lar transatlantic methods would surely
be mobbed by tho voters, who would con-
slider such cheap vote-catching devices
an insult TO their intelligence.
Social Democrats in Limelight.
The election campaign is conducted
principally in tho political newspapers
and magazines but even the influence of
these is small, for the majority Of voters
have thought the matter over seriously
in their own minds, and it would take
very sensational statements proved by in
disputable facts to bring about a change.
Popular interest in the campaign centerS
almost exclusively Ola the extent to which
social democracy will increase it's power.
1t is freely Predicted that Herr Bebei's
followers will advance from their present
parliamentary strength Of Of seats to 80
or 10O or even 10 All the other parties
are engaged in rolling back the red
flood" But the socialists enter the fray
full of confidence, undaunted by the on
siaught of their enemies. The ned mani
festo declares that the government Will
submit fresh military and naval bills to
the next reichstag, and the electorate Is
asked to oppose the burden OF new taxes
which must follow.
The demands of the socialists, four
teen in number, are too numerous for
complete enumeration, but the prin-
cipal are follows: Democratization
of the state, universal suffrage, male
and female, from the twentieth year;
parliamentary government, establish
ment Of a ministry Of labor, reform of
the insurance laws. abolition of indi-
rect taxation. progressive income tax,
opposition to fresh taxes for increase
of the army and navy. These are the
main parts of the party parole" The
chief arguments for their support are
drawn from the burdens imposed on
the country by the finance reform law
of last year. with its $125.OOO.0 900 new
taxes; the Morocco policy. with its pO-
litical dangers, and the ever-rising
cost Of living.
People Resent Overtaxation.
II the socialists win heavily in the
forthcoming elections their triumph
will be due. in large measure. to the
disgust Of the Overtaxed German
elector. The German mind has a pc
culiar gift for inventing taxes. The
municipal authorities Of Munich have
conceived the idea Of placing a tax on
foot ball games.
Many towns in Germany have for
long time levied a tax on amusements.
Sport has. indeed a hard row to hoe
in Germany One can hardly imagine d
more effective way of checking its
progress than by placing taxes on such
things as foot ball.
Germany. Prof. Won Wilamowitz- Noel
lendorf Of Berlin University, sets
Alright in a recent lecture the popular
notion to the character and attri-
butes of the Greek divinities. His
main object is to show that while in
the popular conception these divini-
ties are still seen through the specta-
cles of the Roman poets and are still
the conventional types brought into
fashion by the art of the renaissance
and the rocco period, to the Greeks
themselves they were real and living
powers, whose favor they courted and
whose wrath they feared
AS an example, he takes the god
dess Athene, in whom, under the name
Minerva, we have come TO see the wise
and chaste goddess. patroness Of the
spinning wheel and the embroidery
frame, and generally the Olympian
model of unwedded femininity. To
the Greeks she was in truth the en-
bOdiment of all manly qualities. Her
crest, the OWL points to the primeval
worship of the gods in the form of
birds; then came the period when she.
as tutelary divinity of the city, be-
came the symbol of all the military
qualities which raised Athens to
power. and lastly, as the might of
Athens declined and the cultivation of
art, philosophy and poetry extended
the warlike figure with the shield and
spear, which one sees on the frieze of
the Parthenon. from the chisel Of Prax-
iteles, was transformed into the pa