The daily sentinel., 1912-04-23

Another aspect of the social sit
uation here is the position of woman,
which is rather lower than in the
United States. There is ground for
the accusation that the German wife
/ is little more than her husbands 5
] housekeeper. Among the lower class
es the women literally do the work
/. e.: shovel the coal, hoe the corn,
etc. A German minister told me
that he would never dare push the
baby carriage when out walking with
his wife. To do so would brand him
as sissy and he would lose all
caste with his fellow ministers.
Then you should know about the
police AS soon as YOU arrive in a
town YOU have to sign up paper as
long as you are tall, telling where
YOU came from, when you were born,
what your fathers business was,
what yours is, how long you expect
to stay, what your religion is, etc,
etc. This the police check up. They
have you spotted all the time
These are few of the elements
in the social situation which strike
man when he first comes to Ger
many. They are the things which
tend to show the country OFF in
bad light. The positive elements that
make for truth and righteousness are
harder to find, but are none the less
there. The school and university sys-
tens, although they can learn much
from America, are nevertheless ad-
mirable.
Another positive contribution that
Germany is making to herself and
the world is along the line of the
public ownership and management OF
Ilri oh
in this line is simply great.
After one gets used to paying a
tip every time he turns around to
living eternally in the fumes of beer
and tobacco, and to making innumer-
able reports to the police, Germany
is not an uncomfortable place in
which to live; in fact. 1t is altogether
too comfortable to make any very vir-
lie Christian manhood.
AS regards the political situation,
| should like to inform you that there
is no such thing here in Germany.
But | hear you say: Didn't the So
cialists win 10 seats in the reich
stag last February Oh. yes; of
course they did; but what does that
n?-nothing particularly politi-
| cally. AS you know, about 30 par
ties have representatives in the reich
stag. Formerly the Catholic party
had the balance of power: now ii is
in the hands of the reactionary wing
OF the liberal party. But. does that
mean that the laws made will be es-
pecially different? Not so you could
notice.
"Bureaucracy sums up the political
situation in Germany in one word.
| The emperor and his ministers make
the policies of the nation as a whole.
IL the reichstag don't like it. they
find themselves dissolved. If the peo-
pie return a majority hostile to these
| policies again. the emperor simply
vetoes their bills and they have no
means of getting over the veto. He
has the largest army in the world
and the best trained one back of him.
"And, If in national affairs bu-
reaucracy is the form of government,
il is even more true that such is the
case in the governments of the indi-
vidual states and cities. where almost
universally the three-class suffrage
system is in vogue. According to
this. the electors of each district are
divided into three groups-first
group, those who have an income of
$4,000 a year or over: second group,
those who have an income between
81 SUI ana SO,UUU, ana tnlTu group,
those who have an income under ST.
500. ! am not sure about the num-
bers exactly; but the limits in gen.
eral are about as given. Each class
elects a representative, and these
three Representatives choose the man
who is to represent the district in
the Legislature or city council. The
power is thus seen to be safely vest
ed in the hands Of the upper classes
4 What the end will be no body knows
Whether public opinion will force
through a greater amount of democ-
racy, as in Belgium, without blood
shed. or whether there will be a rev.
olution cannot be said offhand. The
former possibility is the more proba-
BILE. One thing is certain: things
cannot remain as they are indefinitely
with the socialist vote increasing a
million every six years.
BEST regards to Rev. Edwards.
Prof, Allen and all the Grand june
tion friends. Let me hear from you
when you have time to write.
"Your old pal,
} paul BURGESS"