The Republican journal., 1917-11-01
THE GERMAN AUTOCRACY

The government of the German En-
pre- is not only an autocracy but is at the
same time despotism, where the ruler
is absolute and supreme. The foundation
of this autocratic despotism was care
fully planned many years ago When
the constitution was promulgated the
&c rman people had nothing whatever to
DO with making the supreme law under
Whi Oh they were to live suffer, and mil
lions of them to die by shot and shell.
Their constitution was written by Bis
mark and approved by the king of Prus-
STA and some 20 or 25 subservient poten-
tates who ruled the several lesser states
OF provinces of the empire. The people
were not consulted nor were they inform
ed concerning the text of the constitution
thus dictatorily established. The next
development of the autocratic machine
was the Bundesrat. This body is made I'D
OF I'll members, and is spoken of as being
the higher parliamentary house, the Reich
stag being the lower house Members of
The Bundesrat are not elected, but are ap-
pointed by the king of Prussia and the
potentates above mentioned OF their sue
cesSorS. Prussia has more than twice
the territory and more than twice the
population of all the other German States
combined, and therefore appoints more
than two-thlrds of the members of the
Bundesrat and let it be remembered that
the Kaiser makes the appointment of the
Prussian members His tools thew are
and have power to enact or veto as their
master wills. All the meetings of the
Bundesrat are held in secret and the peo-
pie of the empire are informed of what
they are allowed to know about these
meetings by the issuing of an edict or
proclamation by the Kaiser
Under the constitution the Emperor
may declare war or make peace with the
approval of the Bundesrat, but he is not
required to consult that body if the war
is defensive and he may determine
whether it is offensive or defensive. In
the present conflict he decided that Ger
Enany was on the defense and declared
war. Three days later he condescended
to inform the Bundesrat what he had
done. The Reichstag, or lower house
was designed to be and has been par
liamentary joke. 1t is powerless to do
much more than to talk and pass resolu-
tons, to which the real governing power !
pays little attention but it is sometimes
consulted in levying taxes and making
apr OPERATIONS. The Reichstag was es-
tab lished in 1871 and is an elective body
chosen by suffrage of men more that Is
years old, and was created for the pur-
pose of making the lower classes believe
that they had some part in governing the |
country. For the purpose of establishing
the supremacy of Prussia for all time in |
the affairs of the empire, Bismark wrote
into the constitution a provision that the |
voters of that most populous and domi-
nant portion of the empire, should be
divided into three classes, the noblemen,
the rich men and the laborers. The latter
were not to be allowed to vote by print
ed ballot but only by "word of mouth"
and in the presence of a nobleman, a
landlord or an employer, and the vote of
nobleman or rich man was given about
20 times the value in counting as was
that of the laborer. Prussia elected two
thirds of members of the Reichstag and
the Kaiser controlled the Prussian fran
chise. Thus was the ENABLED fist" ar
mored by Bismark As years ago, and
never once, till now, have the rivets of
that armor been loosened. A short time