The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-05-08
Blame Chancellor at Home for
Longtime War.
DilatOry Use of U-BOats Also
Laid at His Door. ~.
MANY FACTIONS AFTER HIM
Growing BOlder i'm Demand
Premier Be Retired.
New RuctiOn Presaged by Con-
stitutiOnal Reform Board.

Copenhagen, via London, May s.
The Conservatives and Pan Germans
have now brought up their heavy
artillery in the battle against Chancel-
lor Won -Hollweg and boldly
lay the blame for the long duration
of the war at his door. The conserva-
tive Deutsche Tages Zeitung explains
that three or four days delay in Ger
man mobilization at the outset of the
war, due to the chancellor's hesitant
policy, caused the loss of the battle
of the Marine.
The paper holds that the troops that
were detached to stem the Russian
invasion of East Prussia would have
been sufficient to change the defeat
of General Won Kluck's army into a
victory and, in that case, the war
would have ended in a decisive Ger
man triumph. The Tages Zeitung de-
clares the chancellcl threw away a
second chance of terminating the war
by opposing ruthless submarine war
fare 1t cites Field Marshal Conrad
Won Hoetzendorf, Austrian commander
in chief, as having said recently:
War Over Long Ago If
1.-THE war would have been over
long ago if the submarine campaign
had begun year earlier.
The Pan-Germans and annexation
lists are also comparing the chancellor
to Bismarck and demanding his re-
tirement because he does not measure
up to Germany's Iron Man" The
agitation for the downfall of Won
-Hollweg is unconcealed
in press and parliament and is rein
forced by mass meetings for peace,
organized by 1mperialist leagues and
the independent committee.
The bitterness increases as the
chances grow for a reform of political
conditions in Germany The chan
cellor's opponents couple their attacks
the Austro- Hungarian government for
it's declarations in favor of moderate
peace terms.
To Re-district the Empire.
Copenha gen, May 8.-The reich
stag committee on constitutional re-
form which will take up this week
the question of re-districting the Cen
Socialists, who carried the previous
reforms over the opposition Of the
conservatives, according to a Berlin
dispatch will vote for a general re-
districting of the empire.
The proposals, long among the
chief demands of the liberals and rad
icals are a blow at conservative in
fluence, as the present districting ia
vors the country sections at the ex-
pense of the municipalities and in
dustrial regions. The great increase
in population has had TO correspond
ing growth in representation so that
one vote in some backward district
outweighs 20 or even 80 in some of
the big industrial centers.
The committee seems to be going
forward with its reform plan con-
sistently and earnestly. the majority
standing together with a firmness
which must be the despair of the con-
sentative obstructionists and is per-
haps not entirely agreeable to the gov
eminent The committees proposals
| in oT-d n eff he
root of an important source of the
emperor's power. At present all ap-
pointments in the army and navy and
even the higher civil lists are in the
hands of the responsible heads of the
emperor's military and civil cabinets
The celebrated blue letters" asking
for the retirement of officers eman-
ated from the military cabinet