Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-12-13
GERMAN CABINET
GROWS STRONGER
WITH POPULACE
Berlin Denies There Is to Be
Meeting of Reichstag to
Please Allies

= Berlin. Dec. 13.-official denial was
made late yesterday that the govern
>ent was considering the convening
- She Reichstag. The Tageblatt
earlier had reported that the cabinet
"N@s to convoke the Reichstag in
S&--Ser to give the government par
uamentary basis in dealing with the
Isf1ies. 1t added that the Reichstag
session probably would ~begin next
week.
The authority of the cabinet as a
whole appears to be greater than
it was last week. The executive COM
mittee of the Soldiers and Work.
mems Council which sent an invi-
tEtion to Adolph Joffe and NJ. Radek,
OF the Bolshevik embassy in Berlin
but who had left for Russia, to at
tend the Congress of the councils on
December Il, has been compelled to
second the request of the cabinet
that the Bolshevik diplomats abstain
from their proposed visit Joffe and
Radek already had reached OWNS on
their way back but were held up there
by German soldiers who refused to
permit them to continue their jour
ney.
There is no doubt that the execu-
tive committee technically his a right
to invite the Bolsheviki and to order
the cabinet to receive them. The fact
that the committee surrendered this
right is looked upon as significant.
The Spartacus organ, the Red Flag,
indeed, declares the executive COM
mittee of the Soldiers and Work
Ill 49,. -
its power. despite the fact that it
was originally planned that all
power should reside I'm its hands.
The newspaper says the committee
protested against the march of troops
into Berlin yesterday and to-day but
that it's protest like its demand that
the troops be disarmed, was ignored
by the cabinet. .
The Red Flag apparently 'eNagger-
ated the situation, but there seems no
doubt that the executive committee, !
which has been drifting steadily to-
ward the extreme radical side, no
longer occupies the dominating posi-
tion which it had in the first days of
the revolution.
While the authority of the cabinet
has been gaining in strength there
has been a serious shift of power
within the cabinet itself. The posi- |
tion of the Ebert -Scheidemann group !
has been especially strengthened as
against that of the Barth element by
various factors. Among these were !
the result of the Chemnitz elections, !
where the majority Socialists won
devisively; the sober attitude of the |
returning troops, and the accusations |
against the Barth- Haase faction by |
NJ. Joffe, Gin which the Bolshevik !
ambassador declared Russian Bolshe-
Wiki literature was circulated by help I
of the Independent Socialists and |
that a number of weapons were hard |
ed over to Herr Barth).
The three Independent socialist |
members of the cabinet have been |
noticeably quiet all the week. They |
took no part in the reception of the |
troops. In many quarters the belief
exists that Herr Scheidemann, with |
so many factors favoring him and |
his colleagues. shortly will take
decided step to alter the conditions
which he characterized last Sunday
as intolerable adding the threat that
he would leave the government in a
week If they were not changed,