Fergus County Democrat., 1915-04-22
GERMAN DEBATE
IN RE|CHSTAG

COPENHAGEN, April 2l-(Cor-
respondence of the Associated Press).
The newspapers here have obtained
copies OF the official report OF the
debate in the German reichstag on
the imperial budget, including the
text OF the speech made by the so
cialist deputy, Stadthagen, which the
military censols refused to allow the
German newspapers to publish. This
speech deals entirely with the Ger
man press censorship.
Stadthagen said in part:
From all parts OF the country come
strong protests against the severity,
the inequality, the injustice, the in
efficiency OF the censorship. The
military censors have made the whole
OF the socialist press a target for
their malicious attacks. which are not
intended to preserve military secrets,
but to suppress the free discussion
of questions in regard to which the
people of Germany have the fullest
right to express their opinion. The
Volkszeitung, our local organ at
Danzig, was suppressed for saying
that there was no danger of famine
in Germany, but that the price of
many necessaries of life was too high
Tor the working classes and imposed
considerable hardships on them. At
Konigsberg our local daily paper was
suppressed for saying that the vic
tories won by the German army were
due to the fact that universal man.
hood suffrage exists in Germany and
to the right possessed by German
workmen to combine IN trade unions
or in political associations.
"At kattowitz our paper, the Freie
Presse, had always appeared at 3
o'clock in the afternoon. but the mill
tary censor there insisted on seeing
all the proofs before publication. and
then declared that he had no time
to read them before 8 o'clock, with
the result that the publication of the
paper had to be delayed until some
hour of the evening, sometimes later,
according to the ~him of the august
official who welded despotic sway in
! those regions.
'The Vorwaerts received warn
ing from the military authorities be-
cause it protested against wildly SEN
sational reports of English atrocities
on German prisoners on the ground
that such reports stimulated public
enthusiasm for the war, and hence
to discredit them meant diminishing
enthusiasm for the war When the
Vorwaerts protested against the pub
lication of a report that the German
! army had captured Belfort and seven
French army corps (about 100000
men) at one stroke, the military
authorities in Berlin warned the edi
tor that he was doing a public dis
service and exposed his paper to the
penalty OF suppression. The Vor-
waerts was not allowed to reply to
attacks made on it by another Berlin
paper, the Neueste Nachrichten
which is a conservative organ, al.
| though this journal had been per-
mitted to libel the Vorwaerts in the
grossest terms of abuse.
ION another occasion the Vor
waerts was not allowed to publish a
speech made in the Berlin town eoun
ell by Herr Wurum. in which the
authorities were urged to prevent the
prices OF necessary commodities o1
everyday life from being raised above
a certain level. The publication ol
the Vorwearts was temporarily sus
pended for declaring that the hostilit,
existing in other countries agains
Germany was due to the fact thai
the German method of government il
based on autocracv and militarism
which together had produced man.
undesirable features.
. Eve were even forbidden to reprin
an attack on the English censors pub
lished by the London weekly pape
Truth. The Vorwaerts was forbidden
. to publish an article saving that th'
destruction of the desrotism Of th
czar would be blessing to the Rus
sian people; doubtless our astut
censors thought this was an indirec
, hit at the German emperor The Vol
waerts was not allowed to publish
speech made by the English membe
/. of parliament Ramsay Macdonald, i
, which Macdonald spoke against tn
{. war. and other anti-war utterance
5 made in England were likewise SUI
4 pressed. Why?
8 These are only few cases 81
e lected from many of which we know
0 hut they suffice to show that the cer
s sorship is badly administered, ineff
h oientlv conducted nnd uniusti
y balanced, so that energetic measure
s should be taken by the supreme a,
t thorities to remedy What is really
Il grave danger to the welfare of tn
German nation"
--FA