The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1918-08-10
BEHIND THE SCENES
IN THE REICHSTAG


Dead silence followed these decla-
rations of the prudent dipIomatist.
The committee broke up. Anxiety
could be read on every face. During
the plenary sitting, the members,
forming little animated groups, dis
cCssed with bated breath, in the
Hobbies, the declarations Of Prince
Won Bulow."
The next day the members who
had cried mot pfennig for this wild
enterprise" were unanimous about
the necessity of increasing the fight
ing units. This, unfortunately, is no
malicious caricature by an enemy.
Again and again since the beginning
OF the war false hopes have been
raised among the allies by alleged
crises in the reichstag. which have
invariably run the same course. Only
last week the reichstag was said to
be in angry revolt against the forced
resignation of Kuhlmann and the ap-
pointment to his place of the pam
German Hintze. But the leaders of
the groups conferred secretly with
tho chancellor, and within twenty
four hours Kuhlmann was forgotten
and Hintze accepted. These come
dies are curtailed or prolonged just
as may suit the book of the higher
authorities, which in wartime means
the great general staff. The Kuhl-
mann comedy was shut down just In
time for the renewal Of the offensive.
The able has many lively reeoliec-
tons of his old colleagues, and he
enables us to see vividly some of the
most notable or notorious OF these
heroes. He is not without malice,
~, Il vat i'm, cin Nh n 4
great many of them are enormously
fat. Erzberger, the center leader.
who figured so often in the affair of
the reichstag resolutions last year,
is "a big fellow with smart and
vulgar face = in every way rotund,
cheeks, body. arms, etc. On seeing
him for the first time nobody would
guess that this mass of unhealthy
looking fat enveloped a most head
strong mind He is, in fact, po-
litical adventurer of humble origin
and shady financial reputation, who
has turned his coat to the party he
considered most profitable, and got
his promotion by making himself
about equally obnoxious to the gov
eminent and to his own party lead
ers. Sheidemann. a compositor to
start with, acquired "a taste for high
rank and influential relations" which
somewhat cooled the ardors of his
socialism. A political accident caused
him for month to occupy the presi-
dental chair of the reichstag for
few hours a day, and the able thinks
he never got over 1t. who has not
heard him say with swelling throat,
I call upon his excellency the chan
cellor of the empire to speak Blu
low is in manners and appearance a
welcome contrast with most other
leaders, but he is presented in this
book as the image and embodiment
of refined duplicity, and the most
culpable of all German statesmen for
the course of events which led UP
to this war Hertling is described
as subtle, skillful, and ambitious, but
essentially a tool of the higher pow.
ers. Most of all, we get the impress
sion that the reichstag has no atmos-
phere, no historical tradition, no
corporate pride. The emperor could
insult it with complete impunity:
"a certain disagreement had arisen
between the government and the
majority apropos of a colonial credit.
At that time the Rheinish manufac-
turer Stumm belonged to the reich
stag, where he played the part of the
man behind the chancellor. Indeed,
Stumm, who was often received by
the emperor, was regarded as the in
spirer Of the reactionary policy of
Prussia. Now, whilst the parliament
tary battle was at it's height in the
Hobbies, Stumm, on his return from
the imperial palace, informed us that
William II, furious at the opposition
to the bill, had said to him, speaking
of the imperial parliament will
crush this herd of swine cdiese
Schweinebandeo. Elsewhere, this
vulgar insult would have provoked a
revolt But at the reichstag it pro-
duced an assuaging effect. A few
independents of the left doubtless
considered that the emperor had
gone too far; but the other members,
fearing a serious conflict, fastened
to give satisfaction to the irritated
sovereign"
The able traces it all back to the
simple fact that the German union
was not brought about, like the
French or Italian, by free consent,
but by force. Prussia has established
its hegemony by conquest; and today
recognizes no other methods of domi-
nation than those of brute force. The
other Germans reason that though
the Prussian is disagreeable mas
ter, he is master all the same, and
see no good in setting up useless
resistance "The man of the north
knows the temperament of the south
eIner. Therefore he puts on the
screw, and finds it pays very well.
Hence the unbelievable impertinence
of Prussian statesmen, who every
time there is slight opposition in
parliament Immediately crack the
whip, knowing full well beforehand
that they will at once obtain the
most passive obedience"
We begin now to understand what
Prince Bulow meant when he said
that the German people had no apti-
tude for politics. Not only is the
reichstag practically without power,
but, if we may believe the able, the
great majority of its members are
content that it should be So They
kiss the rod which is laid on their
backs by kaiser or bureaucrat. The
federal system, which brings n great