The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-04-18

this being fight between democracy and autocracy," said one or the two men in. the seat back of me Tn the train, where they were enjoying the great National pastime of finding fault with Uncle Sam. "And here we are joining hands with King George to overthrow the Kaiser!"
 "Yes," the other added, and with the King of Italy. too!'
 "All crowned heads look alike to me-" said American No. l.
 "It takes a lot of cheek for us to tell the Kaiser how to run Germany, said American No. 2. Better send for him to come over here and show us how to run this country. In my opinion, Germany has the best gov- ernment in the world"
 What I'd like to know Is l.. .'
 But never mind. What we all would like to know is what we are talking about in the strange situation in which we suddenly find ourselves.
 American public opinion is the lar gest single moral factor in this world crisis. That 1t may do it's ful duty and put forth it's full force, mental preparedness is needed by Us all. We must, first of all mobilize the facts
 
 What is the bottom fact of the posi- tion that the United States has taken in it's arraignment of the Kaiser? Not that he wears a crown; his millinery Is none of our business We have ir- dicted him as an irresponsible mon arch who does not have to answer to the world or to his people for what he does and whose lack of restraint is peril to all the neighborhood.
 It is not a question of good gov ernment but of free government. Not that it is any of our affair how Ger many Is governed. But all the neigh bors have right to insist and most Of them are insisting that if the Ger man people want to keep the Kaiser, they must at least control him in his relations with the rest of us.
 No boss of an American city ever set up a political machine so 1ngen- iously contrived as the imperial ma- chine which enables the Kaiser to run Germany Into. almost every section of the constitution, the Hohenzollerns have slipped joker that turns the laugh on the people. The German government is a palace of illusion, where things are not what they seem and where almost every theory Is contradicted by the fact.
 In the first place, there is neither an Emperor nor an Empire of Ger many, but a German Emperor who is at the head of a German Empire. Some may fail to see the difference 3twixt this tweedledum and tweedle- dee, but in the German Constitution 1t purports to be very real.
 1 Theoretically there is no sovereign of all Germany. The King of Prus- sia, who is also the Kaiser or Emper- or, is supposed to be only the first among 26 German sovereigns, several of whom, in fact, look upon the Ho- as boorish, upstart par- venus in royal society.
 This is all the authority the Kaiser has-on paper!
 As Kaiser, he recesves neither com pensation nor roof for his head. He has neither crown nor a throne. He has neither a voice in making the laws of Germany, nor a hand in ad- ministering them. He has no Cabin ct, and he neither confers titles of mo- bility, nor appoints the imperial ju- dietary, nor controls a vast civil ser vice. No postmasters, no custom col lectors, no tax gatherers-they are all under the control of the various states.
 It is not as the German Emperor, but as the King of Prussia, that Will liam IT. is master of all Germany. The Prussian machine is the real gem orator of his power, just as Tammany Hall, in the palmy, yes, palmy days of Croker, was the true, but hidden source of government in New York city.
 In Prussia lay 134,000 of the 20S,- 900 square miles of Germany and live 40,000,000 of the 64,0O0,00 Germans These are the figures of the latest census, taken in 1910. Of the other 25 states, IT are smaller in territory than Rhode Island. Some have no more acreage than bonanza farm out West and one has only 46,000 people.
 The only states outside of Prussia, worthy of the name, are the King dom of Bavaria, with the area of South Carolina and the population of Pennsylvania; the Kingdom of Wurt- temberg, with less than the area and population of Massachusetts; the Kingdom of Saxony and the Grand Duchy of Badep, each of which is a little larger terrtorially than Connec- ticut and with about the same popu- lation as Kentucky, and the annexed which is of like pro- portions The rest of the empire Is a more or less negligible fraction in the problem.
 In the Imperial Parliament, Prus- sian modestly refrained from claiming her full share of seats. Of the 3s7 seats in the popular house--the Reichstag-she holds only 236 and she has only IT of the 61 in the up- per chamber-the Bundesrath.
 Yet Prussia and her King are in almost complete control of the em- pire. How is it done? By some very clever little ljokers.
 Take the Reichstag, first of all. Here you have very. imposing. inn portant legislative body-in appear ance. It's members are elected by the people of all Germany, who are in the full enjoyment of the blessing of manhood suffrage, only German 21 years.
 In reality. the Reichstag is tied hand and foot. Only it's mouth is free, and unquestionably 1t is the most vocal debating club left in Europe now that the CZar's Duma has broken the chains that so long made 1t pow erless to do anything but talk.
 After Bismarck bad taken in hand the old German Diet at Frankfort. before the formation of the present empire, he wrote to his sister, 'I flat ter YnvSeIf that have pradI1al1v