New-York tribune., 1918-01-14
By Gustav Miller

Like the monster Calgula the present
Kaiser Wilhelm II, drunk with the mad idea
Of divine right, the German rulers, kings and
electors margraves and dukes. counts and
knights, with relatively few exceptions, We'd
with one another in the "art" Of overtaxing
and maltreating their subjects.
Nearly all Of these states extended over n
very small area. The nearer the tyrnnt, the
worse the oppression. The people lived prac-
tically under the very eyes OF their absolute
masters. The dog of courtier,. even of
public official of lowly. station, was regarded
as Of higher value than the peasant; men
were drafted and sold like cattle to foreign
countries engaged in war to replen1sh the
royal treasures empticd by eccentric ex-
travagance and to satisfy the desires of
rrofigate princes and their mistrcsses. The
rule of the sovereign was absolute, even the
JUS prime noctis was freely exercised.
Tyranny grew harsher end harsher rs the
subjects become more and more submissive
History repeated itself. The Caesars Of the
Roman Empire would never have become
wolves without the Roman people having be-
come a flock of sheep
There was only one large state, Prussia,
and there the population maltrcated even
worse than In the German miniature father
lands In spite of their victory over the
Qutzows, the Hohenzollerns had to make
deal with the majority of the Junkers TO
ruled from Berlin; but the landed nobility
was, each member in his Gutsbezirk (estate(
rs absolute as the sovcreigns in other states
They chafed under the rule imposed, and
showed their resentment in the treatment OF
their Leibeigene (bondsmen). Up to the
present time the Junker ENJOYS through the
Gcsindeordnung Ca Prussian law regulating
the relations between the employer on the
one hand and the domestic help and farm
bop Ot orl tbn q
ing his employees And it is still worse in
other German states, for instance in the
grand duches of Mecklenburg -Schwerin and
Mecklenburg- -Streitz, which are still even
without the semblance of a constitution.
Nlitaristc State
Since the days of the Great Elector-who,
except in title, was not great at all-Prussla
has been militarstic state, where military
considerations are the deciding factor in all
public affairs, with iron discipline that
transforms human beings into mere ma
chimes.
Only in times of stress were the German
people approached by their sovereigns in a
human way. Then they were promised re-
forms and liberties, only to learn how empty
these promises were when the danger to the
throne was over. The pledge given by Fred
erick William III Of Prussia to grant con-
stitution in of the defeat of Napoleon,
1915, was kept IN the most Shameless mall
ner, the Karlsbad Protocol and the system
Metternich because, the perjured Hohen-
zolern said, II don't want sheet Of paper
to be placed between Me and Ny people.
Frederick William " threw the Prussian
constitution, which he had granted during
the revolution of 1913, on the scrap heap anu
forced upon Prussia the present reactonary
election law. The German Empires liberal
cra' inaugurated by the Kuturkampf,
this relentless persecution Of the Catholic
Church, the ant-Socialist law, the stigmatiz-