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

have no control over the Government
not only Is it blocked and immensely
outweighed by the Emperor, by the
B~undesrat, and by the army, but it Is
itself, even within the sacred circle
OF its impotence, a very inaccurate
representation Of the people. The
electoral districts as laid out in 1871
were equal, each representing approx
imately 100,O 900 inhabitants. But
since that day there has been practi.
calIy no change, although population
has increased in some, decreased in
others, SO that here now exists a glar-
ing inequality between the districts.
The result is very much as though
the present American Congress had
been elected upon the basis of the dis
trict lines and population of 46 years
ago, There are some members of the
Reichstag elected by a few thousand
voters. others by the hundreds OF
thousands. The voter in some dis"
tricts counts for only a thirtieth Of
the voter in certain other districts.
The large inadeqnately represented
districts are naturally progressive
cities. the small ones the conservative
country regions. A Berlin deputy
represents on the average 125,0OO
voters; a deputy OF east Prussia,
home of the far-famed Junkers, an
average of $4,000.
But the fundamental evil Is that
the elections to the Reichstag result
in the creation Of an assembly politi-
caIly impotent, which does mot control
the executive and whose powers OF
legislation are subject to IN absolute
veto by the Bundesrat, thsf is, by the
reigning princes, big ands little. Ger.
man Government is government by
the Emperor and the ~dynasties, with
the consent Of the Reichsag, a con
sent which in practice can be forced,
If not given voluntarily, for the
Bundesrat has the power of dissolving
the Reichstag whenever it wishes to,
a power always ef1cacious thus far,
The German governing classes, the
princes, the bureaucracy, agree with
Moltke, who said that the real ballot
was the cartridge which the German
soldier carried in his cartridge box
that the real representative of the
nation was the army.
For all practical purposes the
Reichstag is merely a debating club,
and a debating club that has no pow.
er of seeing that its will is carried
out. AS late as January, 1914, DR.
Friedrich Naumann, of Middle Eu
rope" fame, described the humiliat
ing position OF the body OF which he
was a member in the following
words:
w on the Left are altogether il
favor Of the parliamentary regime, by
which we mean that the Reichstag can
not forever remain in a position oil
subordination Why does the Reichstae
sit at all, why does it pass resolutions,
If behind it is a Waste-paper basket
into which these resolutions arc
thrown? The problem is to change
the impotence Of the Reichstag into
some sort Of power" He added
"The man who compared this House
to q hall OF echoes was not far
wrong. To those who are accustomed
o do practical work in life it ap-
lpears a mere waste OF time to devote
themselves to this difficult and mon
otonous mechanism. When one
asks the question. What part has the
Reichstag in German history as a
whole? it will be seen that the part
Is q very limited one"
Many millions among US" said
DR.. Frank in the Reichstag on Jan
uary %, 1914, feel it a burning shame
that while Germans achieve great
things in trade and industry, in pol
itics they are deprived of rights"
In the determination of national
policy the German Nation has, there
fore, no way of enforcing its wishes
through the only agency it possess $.
In other words, the nation does not
govern itself. The handspring Of
power lies not in the Reichstag, bus
in the Bundesrat, the organ of the
rrircos avarv one Of whom claims to