Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1917-07-16
By Charles Downer Hazen, Professor
of European History, Columbia
University.

| The voters do not choose their rep
resentatiyes directly The suffrage is
indirect, and is, moreover, as we have
Sc en-, grossly unequal AS this system
is in vogue for municipal elections as
we'll os for State elections, it throws
power, whether in the municipality or
! in the nation, into the hands of men Of
wealth.
In 1908 there were 203, 900 voters in
the first class, 1,065240 in the second,
| G,324,079 in the third. The first class
represented 4 per cent of the popula-
ton. In Cologne the first class com
posed $40 electors, thes econd 1854
while the third had 22,324. The first
class chose the same number of elect
lors as the third. Thus, $40 rich men
had the same voting capacity as 1924
proletarians In Saarbrucken, the
Baron Won Sturm, formed the first class
all by himself and announced complac-
entity that he did not suffer from his
isolation In one of the eBrlin dis
tricts Herr Heffte, manufacturer of
sausages, formed the first class.
This system wiuld seem to me mon
strous enough by reason of the mon
strous plutocratic cast But this is not
all This reactionary edifice is appro-
!priately crowned by another device,
oral voting. Neither in the primary or
the secondary voting is secret bal
lot used. Voting is viva voce. Thus
every one exercises his right publicly
in the presence of his superior or his
patron or employer, or his equals of
the Official representative of the King
In such a country as Prussia, where
the police are VIGOROUSLY ubiquitous
what a weapon for absolutism! The
great landowners, the great manu-
facturers, the State, can easily bring
+ all the pressure they desire to bear
upon the voter, exercising his wretch
ed rudiment of political power
On Feb. 10, 1910, Herr Won Beth
mann Hollweg defended this system
in the Landtag with great frankness {:
I'VE are opposed to the secret vot-
ing because, instead of developing
the sense of responsibility in the vot,
er, it attenuates it and, on the other
hand, it favors the terrorism which
Socialists exercise over the bourgeois
voters
AS matter of fact, a large mum
Der of voters prefer to forego their
miserable privilege entirely and stay
at home In 1908, 23.6 per ceat only
, of them voted for the Prussian House
of Representatives while the same
year rs per cent voted in the cleo
tions for the Reichstag, where the
secret ballot is used. OF those who
, failed to vote, much the larger per
centage is from the third class, whose
members evidently feel the nuIlity of
the privileges they enjoy in this
peoples kingdom of the Hohenzol-
, lern," as the Kaiser alluringly de-
scribes it.
An additional evidence as to the
perfection of the peoples kingdom
, is this: With the exception of a
thoroughly insignificant measure pass
ed in June, 1906, there has been no
change in the electoral districts since
1858. No account has been taken
of the changes in the population, and
there are the same or worse dispari-
ties than there are in the case of
the Reichstag, as previously stated
1t thus happens that 100000 inhabi-
tants of four large Prussian districts
return nine representatives while
three other million, divided among
forty smaller districts, return &c.
Here again the natural result of the
change of the population owing TO
the economic evolution has inor1i-
lately increased the influence of the
rural districts, prevaiingly Conserya-
tive.
In 1903 under this system, 32l,l57
Conservative votes elected las repre-
sentatives; but 314,149 Social Demo ?
cratic votes did not secure the ele2.
ton of single member.
Princes Have The Veto.
Neither in the empire, nor in Prus-
STA nor any of the other States that
, compose the empire, does the elect
ed Chamber control the Government.
In every case the Prince has the
absolute veto. Where there are sec
ond Chambers, as in many of the
States, they are not elected, but
> nominated, and are bulwark of a
privileged class. And in Prussia
even the so-called popular House is