Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1912-01-12
SOCIALISTS Make
GREAT | Fight FOR
GERMAN ELECTION
Party Has Had Wonderful
Growth in Recent Years
Government Always Opposed
Work Of Organization
Expected Number Of Changes
viii Be Made This Year

viii Be Made This Year
BERLIN, Jan. ia general elec-
ton will be held throughout the
German Empire Friday, January II,
to choose members of the Reich
stag. Rarely has an election excited
more interest since the founding OF
modern Germany and rarely has
greater importance attached to the
result.
Tn widespread dissatisfaction ov-
er the policy of the government IN
the Moroccan negotiations, a dassat-
isfaction which left is apparently
without a single friend in the Reich
stag, and the great increase in the
, cost of the necessaries of life, which
bears most heavily upon the wage
workers and all persons Of small in
comes, have created situation IN
which the most acute political pro-
phets find themselves at a loss to
predict the probable result at the
polls.
It seems to be conceded that the
parties of the Left-the liberal
groups and the Socialists-will make
gains, but their probable extent is
uncertain.
The Reichstag just dissolved was
elected in January, 1907, and sat for
the five years term provided in the
constitution. 1t was constituted, fol.
lowing the elections of 1907, as fol.
lows:
Right conservatives, FREE COM
servatives, Agrarian associa-
Center Catholics, Poles) ...... 129
Left (National Liberals IS, Rad
tcab 6a) ......... 1Uo
Social Democrats (Socialisxs).. 43
Scattering (particularistic par4
The great growth Of the cities at
the expense Of the rural districts
has worked especially against the
Socialists, whose chief strength in
Germany, as elsewhere, is mainly In
the great centers of population. Five
of Berlin's six delegates to the late
Reichstag were Socialists, as were
all three of Hamburg's delegates.
The original two parties of fifty
and more years ago-the royalists
and democrats-have developed
since the erection of the modern
empire into no less than forty par
ties. OF these thirteen had repre-
sentatives in the late Reichstag and
and seven delegates moreover were
without any nominal party allegi-
ance Disregarding, however, all
but the essential points of variance
between these various parties, five
great groups can be named which
comprehend fairly the concrete
views of all but the particularistic|
voters of the empire. These groups
are the Conservatives, Center, Ma.
tional Liberals, Radicals (or Pro-
gressives) and Socialists.
The conservatives are, above all,
a government party and the repre-.
sentatives of the great landed pro-
prietors of North Germany, espe-
cially Prussia, the eastern provinces
Of which form their stronghold. |
They are strongly monarchistic,
opposed to every step that may lead
to a more direct particularition of the
common people in governmental af- |
fairs and opposed to the general
franchise, favoring instead "a fran.
chise based upon the organic groups !
of the people"
The Center or Catholic party is |
the strongest party numerically in
the Reichstag and has been the
strongest almost without exception
since 1874. From this it comes that
the Center has always held the de-
cisive vote on all questions and the
government has always had to reck-
on with it. Its moving principle is
the protection of the interests of the
Roman Catholic Church and it's
equality before the law with the
Evangelical or state church 1t sup
ports high tariff and since 1898 has
been a government party, allied WITH
the Conservatives on all important
questions and building thus what is
called the "black-blue block"
The National Liberals, since the
formation of the black-blue block,
may be said to constitute middle
party, midway between the extreme
monarchists and the extreme demo-
Gratis. Once the all-powerful party
of Germany, which. supporting Bis
marck, played an important role in
the formation of the modern empire,
the National Liberals have fallen
from a high estate.
The Radicals, who term them
selves the Progressive Peoples
Party" are made up of three pre-
viously existing radical factions
the Radical Peoples party, the Rad
ical League and the German Peo-
ple's party, all of which had dele
gates in the last Reichstag. I'M