Cavalier County farmers press. (Langdon, N.D.) 1920-1921, 1921-01-13
Berlin
MUCH CHANGED
City Transformed Since Kaiser
Lost His Throne.
WRITER GIVES Pen PICTURE

Great Houses in WilheImstrasse Are
Occupied by Civil Servants and Hum
With the Tap Of Typewriters -
Legend Of kaiserism Not Only Lost
but Degraded by the lsnoble End
Of the Kaiser,s Reign.
Berlin, says Noel Buxton, writing
in the Manchester Guardian, is much
different from the Berlin Of thirty
years ago.
Eat my first visit, in 1899, Bismarck
had just fallen and the. hopes Of the
wilder spirits were set upon the young
man whose white plume flashed past
down the Linden and whose restless
personality was already attracting the
reverence Of the less reflective Sec
lions of German royalty" he says.
"The hopes of the warlike and the
autocrat were to find themselves only
too well fulfilled in this apt instru-
ment of their schemes. Six years
later the Jameson Raid furnished the
first opportunity to make Europe I'M
easy.
"From the Kruger telegram to AL
gerciras and Agadir the emperor sup
piled periodical food to the militarists
Of every country, till at last the mill
tary machine which had been fashioned
was set in motion to the devastation
of Europe and the jeopardizing of its
civilization. And now the whole of
this episode is closed, and no n can
visit Berlin without experiencing the
pleasant sensation of seeing the head
quarters of militarism cleared Of it's
evil genius. The reality, indeed, sur
passes the expectation.
"Consider how far militarism had
developed from its status at the be-
ginning of the episode of 1896 till it
reached it's elimination in 1914. The
doctrine Of divine right had taken firm
hold in spite Of the growth ofymodern
thought and the movements of labor.
The very burgomasters were not re-
sponsible to the people Of their towns
but to the autocracy. The reichstag
itself was powerless. The sole cur
tailment of Junker domination was
represented by a diminutive tax or
land, which was only conceded in order
to bargain for a great increase of the
army.
Change Is Desolating.
"From the conservative point Of.
view how desolating is the change !
The police and the soldiers with shin
ing helmets are no longer to be seen.
The safety police On rare occasions
are seen slouching along in pairs. The
walls of the chief buildings are spat-
tered with bullet marks, and the Pal
ace-from which in 1890 the emperor
had with a field glass successfully de-
tected the unfastened button Of a SEN
try of the guardroom 800 yards away
has it's doors in ruin, awhile the in
terror has been pillaged by a rabble.
'The great houses in the Wilhelm
~strasse, formerly the seats of the
mighty, are now occupied by civil
servants and hum with the tap of the
typewriter. The Palace, with lovely
gardens stretching out to the Thier-
garten, formerly the abode of the chief
of the emperor's household, now con-
tains Ebert, the ex-harness maker,
the unassuming and cheerful friend of
labor delegates at international con
ferences. Here, with the leaders Of
the Majority Socialist party, we en-
tered from the garden door, unchal-
lenged by any sentry from the guard
house. and enjoyed the charming hos
pitality of the saddler and his wife,
whose dignity as a hostess no empress
of the past has exceeded. At an
alfresco tea we discussed with So
cialist members of the Reichstag lin
Guiding women members concerned
with relief work for the hungry chill
dren) the immediate problems of So
cialist Germany.
In another of the palaces of Berlin,
the residence of the president of the
Reichstag, we dined with the new
President Loebe. who is so well known
in British labor quarters. The shades
of former %aristocratic presidents must
have experienced horror as they wit
messed the party of Socialist M. P.'s
talking Familiarity with the walters,
some of whom were delighted to show
off to English guests the English
which they learned in London hotels.
Women in Reichstag.
"a visit to the reichstag reveals
another revolution, displayed in the
presence of great numbers of women
members, forming a considerable per-
centage of the whole chanber-women
who in Germany We're until yesterday
held in subseryience, and who now
obtain from the electors a degree Of
confidence which is not yet the portion
of women in England.
''Titles and privileges mean, nothing.
The churches are disestablished, with
the happy result that even in the
Prussian Lutheran church genuine
movements sympathetic with labor are
growing up. The rich have to pay a
crushing capital levy, and In the
smartest restaurants princes who two
years ago We're reigning s~0yereigns
- - E.N WEE