Norwich bulletin., 1918-12-18
FACTS AND COMMENT

FACTS AND COMMENT
 "The king is dead, long live the king" was ever the theory according to which .monarchies were supposed to maintain q continued existenee re- magistrate. With the coming of democracy careful provision was made to insure the orderly and lawful sue- cession in case of the death or disa- hility of the constituted head of the government. Thus in the United States by a law passed in 1886, in case of the death or disability of both president and vice president the chief magistracy passes successiyely to the secretary of state, the secretary of the treasury and so on down through all the cabinet, thus making it humaniy' impossible that the presidency shall ever lapse. In Germany the existence of the kaiser and his six sons had made it reasonably certain that the empire would never be without head, yet for over a month this has been the case. Apparently the only thing that has kept the country fEom the hor- TOTS of the Russian reg1uM has been the habit of obedience and the respect for authority which years of slSultuFe has made part of the nature of every Germany.
 In revolutionary times when all laws are in abeyance nobody knows to whom to look, and in a highly een- tralized government such as Germany endured, the sudden removal of the lawful head leaves a void especially hard to fill. Two methods are possi- ble for the construction of new gov- ernment. A military dictator may arise with preHlSe to attract, ability to guide and power to crush, or the people may under the leadership of the remnants of the old government elect representatives for the formation of new. In Germany the military is so thoroughly discredited that a dictator- ship seems improbable. but the rem- nants of the old regime are present on which to build. Prince Maximilian of Baden, the last chancellor appointed by the kaiser. took into his cabinet Ebert and Scheidemann. the leaders of the majority socialists who have supported the war from the first, and Groeber and ErZberger, the leaders Of the Catholic center. The socialists had before the war always opposed the government while the Catholics had been now with the government now with the socialists, as they saw | fit in order to gain their political ends, l The admission of these two parties ta l the cabinet was the first step toward revolution, the more so that the cons
 servative junkefs and the minority socialists were entirely left out.
 The socialists who had been merely l tolerated under the autoeratic rule ol | the HehenzolleFns suddenly found | themselves high in the inner govern
 nent circles. and this by imperial ap- pointment or at least acquieseence | Within 8 month. So fast did Foct
 move, the socialists in the reichstas
 through their renresentatives in the cabinet placed before Prince Max de-
 mands for relaxation of police con | tfel, freedom of assembly, a larger representation in the cabinet and ths
 abdication of The kaiser and the crewF ] prince, These demands were made rlder threat of withdrawal from thu ; cabinet, with which would have een. 1 refusal to support rile government j; fhe reiehstag. Win the army in tht field about to c9pitu'ate, there wa: nothing to do EHt yield and tfus co, incidenfiY with the defeat Of the ar ny, political control Da ssed from thi l Fohengollerrs. The chancellor founf himself subject 10 longer to the here 1 ditarY autocret who had appointed him but to the elected majority of th,
 Feichstag, the kaiser and crown prime | fed to Holland. tie reorhlie was pro
 claimed and tho re1 fag waved eye | the palaces of Berlin
 The next step in soeiaIizine the for
 mer empire was most natural. Tn
 imperial chancellor deprived of tn
 support of the emperor, handed on bi
 power to the party with the lafges
 representation in the reiehstag, an Wit.i the accession of the sociaiie
 Ebert to the first place in the cabine
 the last Yestige of Imperialism in tn
 government was gone. The non 50
 cia!ist members of the cabinet wer
 soon dropped and as now constitute
 there g not bourgeois in it. Tn government becomes, as Tn Russia, government of the working classes.
 The Sooialist cabinet is logically ih government of the empire but prac } tically it's authority does not eve } coveE Prussia. The reichstag to Whic , it owes it's existence represents a
 Germany, but the deep seated an long suppressed haired of Prussia ~ha : blazed forth in the kingdoms of -Ba varia, Saxeny and Wuerttemburg, an ? Independent socialist governments . these and other parts of Germany wi !, have naught to do with the Berli 7 government. In fact the empire dis l appeared with the departure of tf , kaiser The foundation of the entir : structure was the agreement of tf twenty odd kings aslles and prince as expressed by their nominees in Il t Rundesrath or upper house. Fro l this body of .royal appointees all lee 3 isl4tion proceeded, and the people
 representatives might merely discu
 and humbly assent on pain of sun z !. mary dismissal. Within two days a s ter the deperture of the king of Pru a sia, councils of worllingmen and So T diers had forced most of the oth monarchs to abdicate and have sin continued to run their respective go s ernments. The central authorit
 however. in the form in which the SC
 eral states yielded It their allegian
 no longer exists. It has vanished . 1