New Britain herald., 1925-02-28

ecutive mansion. Chancellor Luther will deliver the funeral address,
 At this mornings cabinet meeting, the chancellor made a brief address commenting the masterful manner in which Ebert had handled the eX- ecutive duties. He said all who had been thrown with the president were impressed by his patriotism and tho wholly objective manner in which he administered the affairs of state,
 The Bourse was closed today be- cause of the presidents death.
 The cabinet proclaimed eight days | of official mourning. It also decid- cd to prepare a law calling for the l election of Eberts successor. This law must have the approval of a federal council containing repre- scntatlves of all the German states, and then be submitted to the Reich stag.
 The constitution provides that the successor to the presidency must be | elected "as soon as possible" It is generally believed that an election cannot be arranged in less than Six weeks.
 Ridiculed at First
 Subjected 10 much ridicule, chief ly by monarchists when he headed the republic that succeeded the downfall of the Hohenzollern reign in Germany, Friedrich Ebert was regarded highly by the people gen. orally and, in his own country at least, was given the major portion of the credit for bringing order out of the chaos that followed the ab- dication of Emperor William.
 When the upheaval came on No- vember 9, 1918, Ebert assumed a leading role, becoming chancellor in succession to Prince Maximilian of ! Baden, who had been instrumental in negotiating the armistice. He was l in office only 36 hours, being forced l out when control of the government was taken over by the peoples commissaries. It was Ebert, it was said, who by skilful maneuvers at that time. prevented the radicals from gaining the upper hand in the turmoil created by the revolution. A few weeks later Ebert became one of the six commissaries who ar ranged for the first meeting of the German National Assembly at Weimar to form a provisional gov ernment of the republic. On Feb. II, 1919, he was elected provisional president, receiving 277 out of the 379 votes cast in the assembly. The constitution adopted by the national assembly provided that "the execu- tive power lies with the people"
 The provisional government func- tioned until August 23, when Ebert took the oath as Imperial president and two days later the national as sembly ceased to exist. being super scdcd by the new .Reichstag. Upon taking the oath President Ebert ! said: "The essence of our consti- tuition shall, above all, be freedom, but freedom must have law. This you have now established. We will jointly hold it. It will give us strength to testify for the new vital principle of the German nation, freedom and right"
 Question of Treaty
 During the first few months of the provisional government its founda-' tion was threatened by the crisis which arose over the question of signing the peace treaty. President Ebert and his first premier, Philip Scheidemann were opposed to yield ing to the demands of the Allies. With no other course left but to ac- cept, Scheidemann and his cabinet resigned and pro-treaty govern ment was formed, which included some of the ministers of the previ- ous cabinet. The new government, while denouncing the terms of the treaty, decided to accept 1t and in July. 1919, President Ebert signed the bill ratifying the treaty.
 With this phase of the treaty crisis over the Ebert government was con- fronted with the problem of getting delegates to go 10 Paris and shoulder the responsibility of signing the treaty. These were obtained after many declined what they regarded as an empty honor, because the opinion was practically unanimous in Germany that the terms Of the treaty were unjust and sought to disrupt Germany as a nation. Internal troubles were bObbing up nearly every day in all parts of the country, but President Ebert vigor- ously opposed the varied movements of Spartacists and Communists. He handled his difficult job so well that when it came time for the scheduled presidential election in 1922 he was requested by a coalition of several
 parties to remain in office until
 June, 1925, which he agreed to do.
 The election of 1922 was postponed
 because of the dangers of Bolshevist
 agitation and the general unsettled
 conditions and hard times that pre-
 vailed drought Germany.
 After new government had been
 transferred to Berlin one of the first
 announcements of President Ebert was that he did not intend to live ir the palaces of the former kaiser
 These, he characterized, as muse ums of dead epoch"
 No Easy Task
 It was no easy task to hold 'o gether the new republic because O the conditions that existed when i
 was born. And even after 1t wa formed and functioning the new government of the people was con
 fronted with one danger after an other. Scarcity of foood, clothn' . and fuel, riots in various parts o the country, frequent agitaticns an' l r,,overnap designed f0 overt hrOy