Evening star., 1926-03-06
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL ]. COLLINS.

popular vote NAV be taken on the
budget. tax laws and laws relating To
the classification and payment Of
public officers. only by authority of
the national president.
The procedure in connection with
the popular referendum and initiative
will be regulated by national law.
Article "A provides that the National
Council may veto any law passed by
the National Assembly, whereupOn II
may be reconsidered by the assembly
within three months, and II not again
passed shall be submitted to a popular
vote. Ii the National Assembly dis
approves the veto of the council by a
two-thirds vote. the law. as criGinanY
passed by the assembly. will he
promulgated without referendum Ia
the people.
Article 75 provides that IAN act of
the National Assembly may he an
nulled by a. popular vote, only II q
ma jority of those qualified to vote
take part in the vote"
III that last limI,aton appAcr- IN
the United States. of what value
would ever he article 70. since never
do one-half of our qualified voters eX-
ercise their dutyo
The present referendum in Germany
is under the provision of the third
paragraph of article 13. covering a
measure not submitted to the peopIe
by the assembly. but initiated by the
people themselves. There are about
40 900. 900 qualified voters in Germany
men and women-hence. before the
question can be finally submitted for
popular decision, 100000 must
register in favor of that submission
Under the statute. the proposal for
referendum test must he made over
1000 signatures. That has been ac.
cOmplished, and the registering of the
4 1000 900 is now in process. to he com.
pletod on March Il. There seems To
he no question as to sett tinc the
necessary 1000 900 for today there
are 100000 wage earners in GERMANY
out OF conference.-the number has
doubled since January l. These idle
hungry. desperate workers 'ook with
no favor upon their own sufferince
and the privations of the RIA sses he
cause of the Kaiser World War. and
see no reason for turning over the
hundreds of millions of dollars worth
OF wealth 10 the family whose amhi-
tion plunged Germany to It's ruin.
While absolute confiscation has
been advocated only b. the Com
munists, the other parties, less radi-
cal-the Democrats the Social Demo.
Gratis and the Left Center-are ready
TO support a compromise granting
settlement for the disputed property.
TheN oppose action under existing
laws. not through the courts, but
sfavor legislative compromise.
Germany is now suffering financial
ly as she has not suffered since tho
outbreak of the war. She has pans.
ed through her intoXication OF in
flation. under which all business
doomed. The Standa rdization Of her
money upon a gold basis punctured
the bubble imitation. and last Fall
business panic came with bankruptcv
widespread While the return 40
sound money, forced by the Dawes
plan, brought A SOLDERING To business.
that condition of retrenchment Mad
become unavoidahle-in fact. il forced
the acceptance Of the DE- ives plan.
Wages in Germany at no time
have been As high as in competing
countries, yet German producers have
found il impossible to maintain an
export market. because the exces-
sive organization of their enterprises
had so increased overhead" that .ha
ultimate costs more than covered the
advantage of the lower wages of the
producers.
During the war and subsequent In.
f1ation of money the old-tirne con
Servative Offices of business gave
place to ultra modern pretense Of
wealth. Now. bankruptcies have
brought a return of the humber of
fees, yet unemployment by the mil
lion has raced forward In the last
two months. Prior to January there
were thousands upon part-time sched-
ules today they are added to the
wholly unemployed. Unlike EngIa nd.
no industries III Germany are sub
sidized. but the doles for the idle are
alarming in their growth. These are
conditions which will control the vote
on donating property to the Hohsn-
Zollerns.
stCopyriEht. 1895. by Paul V. Collins,