Norwich bulletin., 1916-11-18
TRIUMPH OF NEW DEMOCRACY
World Will Have Just Cause for Rejoicing if Victory Crowns the Allies Said Rev. J. H. Selden-Was Speaker at An nua Business Meeting of Mems Club of Park Church :. Robert C. Johnson Elected President for the Coming Year.

 pirations and sacrifices of many gen. erations of liberty loving Englishmen. The supreme law of the land is the will of the people. Germany is in form constitutional monarchy. but it is not a democracy, for in framing tn estatutes the peo- pie had no part. The story can be outlined in dozen sentences. The William III in 1914. The star of Ma poleon had begun to wane. A coali- tion of European powers was formed to accomplish his overthrow. Freder- ic William. who in earlier campaigns had shown himself a craven, welcom- ing Napoleon to Berlin, and joining him in the attack on Russia, desired a place beside England, Austria, and Russia in this coalition. But his peo- pie, whose lands had been ravaged and whose numbers had been decimated 1 by the French armies, were very slow l to respond to his call. To win the allegiance of his dispirited subjects. Frederic William promised that their I fidelity in this crisis of the fatherland l should be rewarded by a constitution guaranteeing to them that participa- | tion in the conduct of the state they i had so long craved.
 l Waterloo soon followed and you will remember the honorable part in that great victory played by German troops | But Frederic William III. proved as | false as he was weak His solemn I pledges were broken, the gift of con- | stitution was denied, and the scholars i and statesmen and patriots who pro- | tested against this breech of trust I were driven into exile.
 l A constitution was granted to Prus- | sia by Frederic William ", under the pressure of the revolutionary move ! ment of 1S48, a year before this half demented king was displaced. and his | brother William. whom we know as | William the First, was appointed re- gent in his stead ..r | However incompetent to manage l affairs of state he may have been,
 Frederic William ". was a Prussian l of the PrOssianS, and this document, . which set forth the fundamental law l of the land, and which later furnished | the model for the imperial constitu- ton, while it quieted the agitation of | the liberal party by providing a leg | islature to which members might be elected by the ballots of the people, | was so framed as to involve no sur- | render of royal authority.
 Distinctly Undemoeratie
 l The constitution is distinctly un- l democratic in it's provisions; never l theless, our distrust is based not up- on the German system of government, for in the hands of soverefgns, en- frightened, fair-minded, sincerely de-
 voted to the best interests of the peo- pie, it might serve the ends of jus Il tice and further the we'll being of the ma tion. Jo The basis of our distrust. is the ineradicable weakness of the
 Hohenzollern kings. Since the con-
 stitutlon was granted-and 1t must
 never be forgotten it did not have it's
 source in the heart and life of the 1 German people-since It was granted
 two masterful personalities have been
 dominant in that realm, Prince Bis
 marck and the Emperor William II.
 The first has been called the Maker | n Mndnrr1 HoT,T1onU
 is to be said that Bismarck made
 Modern Germany possible.
 The famous cartoon published ir Punch in 1889. which bore the cap
 with humorous fidelity the astonish- ment and dismay with which the
 world learned of the dismissal of Bis
 marck by the young Prince, then SC
 recently crowned emperor. The un' pleasant impression made by thi. rash and graceless act was deepenec
 by i'll advised. utterances apearing il the public addresses of William tht Indiscrete." But again the maxim
 'othing succeeds like success has
 been vindicated. Under his rule Ger
 many has prospered from year tt
 year, attaining an unquestioned
 place among the world powers. No , where have expenditures for public welfare been so lavish. Meanwhile
 William has proclaimed himself witt | f fender of the peace of Europe, and on the whole, the world has been in
 clined to take hi mat his word. Il A man of exceptional gifts, held fas , in the grip of unswerving purpose, tn : emperor has had his way. Even tn most beneficient of his undertaking f have been so planned and so directed as to reinforce his dominating in l fluence over the life and thought O 2 the German people. Granted that h. 7 is a religious man. according to hi lights, he has compelled the church t bow to his will and to lend her sane ton to the Hohenzollern claims. DseIy interested In Education. The emperor Is deeply interested il the education of the people, but D, a his express eommand, whatever els 2 may be taught, the schools, from tn . earliest years te the university, mus ] | press home with reiterated and in 2 sistant emphasis a conception of tn 1 power and mission of Germany that . absolutely false. The writer of ai :, article in q recent Outlook" name |. this as ''The Crime Sf Gernany;. th Perhzps the Indictment is not too Sc n we're. Here I have found the explan ! ation of the amazing, all but incredi e ble brutality displayed by the invad l. ing hosts; they have been trained t s it, they and their fathers before then | n that the destruction of those who with r stand the German advance, whateve e means may be found necessary to at s tain this end. is a religious duty e Their fanaticism is as blind. perhap e we may be compelled to say. as crue n as that of the Moslems.
 n Since August, 1914, we have follow s ed with profound interest the shift f ing phases of the great conflict. l would seem that now the war has en I. tered on it's final stage. The plan I so carefully framed by rne Wa 'i Lords and pressed by them with re
 lent1ess vigor have failed. The Cen . tral Empires are in state of siegt beset on every frontier by the hosts c the allies, more numerous, not les II well equipped. possessed of greate !. !. after day upheld by confident ex resources, who press the, battle da
 pectation of victory ror the cause C
 democracy. It is to be feared tn e end is not near. At best anothe = twelve months of this unspeakabl = horror must be endured, but, unles d we utterly misread the signs, Ger e many is facing the threat of an ov = erwhe1ming defeat