St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1918-01-26


marck, no friend Of liberalism, once
characterized this electoral system as
the worst ever created. It's shrek
ing injustice Is shown by the fact
that in 1900 the Social Democrats,
who actually cast a majority OF the
votes, got only Z seats out OF nearly
400. It is one of the most undemo-
cratic systems in existence.
The voters do not choose their
representatives directly. The suf-
frage is indirect and is, moreover, as
we have seer grossly unequal. AS
this system is in vogue for Prussian
city elections as well as for state cleo
lions, it throws power, whether in
the municipality or in the nation, in
to the hands of men Of wealth.
In 1908 there were $4,000 voters
in the first class, 1905 ,240 in the sec
ond, 6,324,079 in the third. The first
class represented 4 per cent, the sec
ond IA per cent, the third 80 per cent
of the population. In Cologne the
first class comprised 37O electors, the
second 1854, while the third had
22.324. The first class chose the
same number OF electors as the third.
Thus, $40 ri-h men had the same
voting capacity as 22,324 proletarians.
In Saarbrucken nthe Baron Won
Sturm formed the first class all by
himself and announced c~omplacently
that he did not suffer from his isola-
ion. IN ore of the Berlin districts
Herr Heffte, a manufacturer of saus-
ages, formed the first class.
This system would seem to be out
rageous enough by reason of its mon
strous plutocratic caste. But this is
not all. This reactionary edifice is
appropriately crowned by another de-
vice-oraI voting. Neither in the
primary nor the secondary voting is a
secret ballot used. Voting is not
even by a written or printed ballot
but by the spoken word. Thus every
one exercises his right publicly in
the presence of his superior or his pa
tron or employer or his equals or 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 manufacturers,
the state, can easily bring all the
pressure they desire to bear upon the
voter, exercising his wretched rudi-
ment of political power.
On February 10, 1910, Herr Won
Bethmann-Hollweg defended this
system in the Landtag with great
| frankness: eve are opposed to sec
ret voting because, instead OF develop
ing the sense of responsibility in the
voter. it, on the other hand, favors
the terrorism which Socialists exer
else over the bourgeois voters"
Az a matter OF tact, a large number
Of voters prefer to forego their miser-
able privilege entirely and stay at
home. In 1908, 23.6 per cent only of
them voted for the Prussian House Of
Representatives, while the same year
Is per cent voted in the elections for
the Reichstag, where the secret ballot
is used. OF those who failed to vote,
much the larger percentage is from
the third class, whose members evil
IDENTIFY feel the emptiness OF the priv
ileges they enjoy in this peoples
kingdom Of the Hohenzollern," as the
Kaiser alIuringly describes it.
An additional evidence as to the
perfection of the peoples kingdom
is this: With the exception of a thor
oughly insignificant measure passed
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 dispar-
tiles 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 9 representative while three
other million, divided among forty
smaller districts, return S.. Here
again the natural result of the change
Of the population owing to the econo-
mic evolution has inordinately in