The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1918-08-10


recently issued volume written by
Able E. Wetterle, former member
Of the reichstag:
The Able Wetterle, the famous
Alsatian deputy Of the reichstag. who
at the critical moment stood true to
his colors and took his stand with
France, throws whitening dry light
upon German politics in the volume
of "reminiscences in which he recalls
his experiences in Berlin. He is not,
and does not pretend to be, friend
ly witness, but he appears to have
established a good-humored, if slight
ly satirical, relationship with his
German colleagues, and his witness
Is the more interesting because it
deals rather in the raillery that
pierces shams than in the customary
invective of the rebel. BY skillful
which is utterly remote from parlia-
mentarism, as understood by English
men or Frenchmen, and thus effec-
lively demolishes the sham facade
of democracy which German mill
tarism has built for itself in the par
lament house at Berlin. Let US at
tempt to summarize briefly what he
has to tell US.
The reichstag has practically no
over over the government and only
% much power over legislation as
the bundesrath and the government
choose to give it It does not rebel
against these conditions, but accepts
them with humility and servility. It's
attendance is normally quite small,
and the average member leaves to
his party committee the bargaining
with the government, which is the
principal business of politics. Mill
tary discipline and military organi-
cation perv~de parties like most
other things in Germany. The cleo
to a program, which is drawn up
by the committee of his district,
which in turn accepts it blind from
the central committee. Henceforth
the dependence of the member is alb
solute. If he does not yield absolute
submission he will almost certainly
lose his seat; If he does, his re-elec-
ton is certain. At general election
the parties or groups generally COM
pound with each other to divide the
seats, and, according as the liberal
parties ally themselves with the
right or left, the number of socialist
seats exceeds 100 or falls to fifty.
The proceedings are largely play
acting, and when the party leaders
have blown off steam in public they
bargain with the government in 2ri-
vate and agree upon a compromise"
which generally gives the govern
ment all it wants, since the govern.
ment is prudent enough to leave a
margin to give away. Bar the social.
lists OF the extreme left, most of the
party leaders and nearly all the
members are easily susceptible to
the favors and batteries of the chan
cellor, who, if he is a skillful man
like Bulow, can twist them round his
little finger. The reichstag is sup
posed to have power over finance,
but few members know how to de-
cipher the budget, and the majority
never even try. The budgets, in fact,
are faxed. as the cynical Muller
Fulda "a sort of Labouchere of the
reichstag) explained to the. able,
when he was new to the business:
Our budget" he said to me one
day, sis absolutely lacking in sim
cerity. Transfers of sums of money
abound in it, and you must be past
master in the art Of handling figures
to know where you are. The princi-
hide from the foreigner the credits
rations, and secondly, to propaganda
work, OF, If you like, to the intelli-
gence department, to espionage. In
our financial bill you will find but a
modest sum of three millions for our
secret service. Now, in all the chap
tiers OF the budget are other credits
which, under the most varied titles,
are devoted to the same use. More
over, we put our hands deeply into
the secret funds of the other states"
Would you like an instance ne
further said to me, "of the way they
proceed in our country? A few years
ago the French artillery was consid-
erably in advance. of ours. Their new
field gun was much superior to that
of the German army. What was to
be done? The transformation Of our
light artillery might have driven the
French to profit by their advantage
Immediately. So the chancellor called
together the leaders of the groups
and addressed them as follows: We
have a model of remarkable gun.
To provide our troops with it we
must dispose of a credit of 400 mil
lions. The transformation, however,
must take place in the deepest Sc
crecy. Will you authorize me to
spend that sum of money without
setting it down in the budget? With
your consent l will arrange the mat
ter by means Of skillful entries No
sooner said than done! ! will defy
you to find a trace of those 400 mill
lions in the four budgets in question,
where, however, they are indeed hid
den. Apart from the few conspira-
tors, our colleagues noticed nothing,
and the majority are still in ignor-
ance of the fact that they voted
faxed budgets"
Similarly, when the reichstag at
first objected to the navy laws,
Prince Bulow summoned a secret
meeting of the budget committee:
81 was there. The discussion was
at first harsh and violent Admiral
Tirpitz vigorously defended his plan;
but they hardly listened to his tech
nical developments. All eyes were
fixed on Prince Won Bulow, then Sec
retary of state at the foreign office