The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-10-04
I'm Prussia Night Begins When
the Police Order 1t.
Time Is Fixed at 80 Minutes
After Sunset.
WOULD CUT AMERICA IN TWO
German Diplomat Wants the
Monroe Doctrine Revised
To Give Europe a Free Hand
South of the Canal.

Berlin, Oct At is dark in Prussia
whenever the police say it is dark.
The mere fact that it may happen
still to be daylight in defiance of po-
lice orders is of no importance.
This is the decree of the Prussian
supreme court in an appeal taken by
a truck owner accused of driving at
ter dark without a lantern on his
wagon. The law prescribeS that a
lantern must be carried by such We
hicles after dark, and the police have
decided that it is dark thirty minutes
after the sun sets. The defendant adj
mitted that he had driven after the
prescribed time without a lantern, but
contended that it was still light. Two
lower courts permitted him to prove
his contention and acquitted him. The
police, the lower courts held, have no
power to set a certain time when 1t
shall be considered dark. The actual
conditions must govern in each case
The supreme court has reversed this
decision upon appeal by the prosecu-
tor and imposed fine on the often
der.
An analogous ruling has been made
in an action for damages, brought by
a tenant of an apartment house who
had fallen in a dark hallway and in
jured himself. The landlord pleaded
that the hour had not yet arrived
when, by police regulation, Railways
must be lighted. The plaintiff offer
ed proof that it was quite dark when
the accident happened. The proof
was excluded as irrelevant. The po-
lice, said the court, had decided that
it was dark at a specified hour, and
that settled it.
A decided check in the growth of
Germany'S population, most alarm
ing to the military apostles of the en-
pire, is shown by the statistics for 1911
which have just been published.
The surplus of births over deaths
ro11 70 in
1911, a shrinkage in the rate of
growth of $4,000, or over % per cent.
This marked retardation in the growth
of the nation was due both to re-
duction in the number of births and
an increase in the death rate. Despite
an increase in marriages from 496,396
to 512,S19 the total number of births
for the empire dropped from 1898
in 1910 to 1,927,039 in 1911, while on
the other hand. the number of deaths
rose from 1,103,723 to 1,1S7,094, an
increase of more than $4,000. This
increase in mortality is attributed
chiefly to the extraordinary heat and
drouth which prevailed during the
summer of 1911 and under which in
fants suffered with particular severity.
Almost a third of the deaths, 359,-
522, during the year were of children
under one year old some $4,000 ba-
bies more than in 1910 succumbing to
the heat. The death rate for child
rem in their first year rose from 1872 |
9.Z
death rate too, after a steady decline
for a number of years, rose to 1872
per 1000 as compared with III in
1910.
Summing up the statistics in anoth- |
er form the net surplus of births over
deaths per thousand of population |
was only 11.3 in 1911, as against 1876 |
in 1910 and 14.9 for 1906. These sta
tiStics bring out also the fact that al |
most 80 per cent of the illegitimate
children died before reaching their !
first birthday. |
A novel Interpretation of how the |
Monroe doctrine should be applied af- |
ter the completion of the Panama |
canal has just been voiced by a Ger |
man diplomat of authority and high |
position. In substance it is to give the |
United States full control as far south |
as the iSthmian waterway, but to let |
the countries of Europe, including |
Germany, have a free field from Pan |
anna to TERRA del Fuego.
The high standing of this diplomat |
may reasonably be expected to- iHfiu |
ence the standpoint of Germany in |
any future controversy involving the |
famous doctrine of American foreign /
relations; consequently his views arc
not without a certain interest. He |
would cut the American continent in |
two at the Panama canal and allow to |
the United states full and free hand |
as far south as that waterway, but |
eXCluue 1TOfIl the sphere Ol any WASH
ington supervision or control the re-
1ations of Germany. and the other
European powers, with the states of
South America. He believes Germany |
should refrain from any interference
whatsoever in Mexico, and that the
same rule should apply to all the Cen
trail American states. This would in
volve a virtual extension of the south |
ern boundary of the United States to
the canal, so far as the relations of |
these states to the European powers /
is concerned. This. it will be seen, is
the Monroe doctrine for Central I
America is an even stronger form
than is at present enforced.
But the European states must and |
should, this diplomat believes, be al
lowed to settle their controversies
with the countries south of this line
IN their own way and without refer
ence to Washington. The role of the
United States as guardian and pro-
tector 20 the whole continent is. he I