Arizona republican., 1917-08-20

ties. The members or the ldtter are elected by a system of circle votes, by which the vote of one rich man voting in circle number one counts as much as thousands voting in circle number three. It is the recognition by Beth mann Hollweg that this vicious system must be changed which brought down on him the wrath of the Prussian country squires, who for so long have ruled the German empire, filling places civil and military with their children and relatives.
 The German Military Influence
 In considering Germany, the immense influence of the mi itary party must not be left out of account, and, with the development of the navy, that branch of the service also claimed a share in guiding the policy of the gov ernment.
 The administrative, executive and judicial officers of Prussia are not elected The country is governed and judged by men who enter this branch of the government service exactly as others the army or navy. These are gradually promoted through the vari- ous grades. This applies to judges clerks of courts, district attorneys and the officials who govern the political divisions of Prussia, for Prussia is di vided into circles presdencies and pro- vinces. For instance, a young man may enter the government service as assistant to the clerk of some court. He may then become distHct attorney in a small town, then clerk of a larger court, possibly attached to the police presidency of a larger city; he may then become a minor judge, etc, un- til finally he becomes a judge of one of the higher courts or an over presi dent of a provinces Virtually the only elective officers who have any power are members of the reichstag and the Prussian legislature, and there, as I have shown. the power is very small. Mayors and city councillors are elected in Prussia, but have little power and are eected by the vicious system of circle voting.
 Time and again during the course of the great war, when I made some complaint or request affecting the in terests of one of the various nations I represented. was met in the foreign office by the statement: We can do nothing with the military. Please read Bismarck's memoirs and you will see what difficulty we had with the mili- tary" Undoubtedly, owing to the fact that the chancellor seldom took strong ground, the influence which both the army and navy claimed in dictating the policy of the empire was greatly increased.
 Roughly speaking, there are three great political divisions or parties in the German reichstag. To to the right of the presiding officer sit the con- servatives. Most of these are members from the Prussian Junker or squire class. They are strong for the rights of the crown and against any exten- sion of the suffrage in Prussia or any where else. They form probably the most important body of conservatives now existing in any country in the world.
 Their leader, named Heydebrand, is known as the uncrowned king of Prussia.
 On the left side the social demo- crats sit. AS they evidently oppose the kingship and favor a republic no social democrat member has even been called into the government They rep resent the great industrial population of Germany. Roughly. they constitute about one third of the reichstag and would sit there in great numbers if Germany were again redistricted so that proper representation were given to the cities, to which there has been a great rush of population since the time when the reichstag districts were originally constituted.
 Creation of Centrum or Catholic
 Party
 In the center and holding the balance of power sit the members of the Cen trum or Catholic body. Among them are many priests. It is noteworthy that in this war Roman Catholic opin- ion in neutral countries, like Spain, inclines to the side of Germany, while in Germany, to protect their religious liberties, the Catholic population vote
 
 to the reichstag, and these sit and vote as Catholics alone.
 Germans high in rank in the gov ernment often told me that no pert of conquered Poland would ever be incorporated in Prussia or the empire, because it was not desirable to add to the Roman Catholic population; that they had troubles enough with the Catholics now in Germany and had no desire to add to their numbers. This and the desire to lure the Poles into the creation of a national army which could be utilized by the German ma chine were the reasons for the crea- tion by Germany (with the assent of Austria) of the new country of Poland:
 This Catholic party is the result in Germany of the Kulturkampf or war Bismarck, a contest dating from 1870 between the state in Germany and the Roman Catholic church.
 Prussia has always been the center of Professionalism in Germany, although there are many Roman Catholics in the Rhine provinces of Prussia, and in that part of Prussia inhabited prin- cipally by Poles, originally part of the kingdom of Poland.
 Baden and Bavaria, the two prin- cipal south German states, and others are Catholic. In 1870 on the with drawal of the French garrison from Rome, the temporal power of the Pope ended, and Bismarck, though appealed to by Catholics took no interest in