Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-07-10
CONSTITUTION FETE
AC|TATES GERMANY
National Holiday Question
Debated, With Major Party
Opposing Suggestions.
BY MAMMALIAN HARDEN

| By Radio to The Star.
| BERLIN, July Slight years after
the German constitution was pro-
claimed a heated discussion is pro
ceeding as to whether. when or how
the birthday of this fundamental law
should be celebrated.
| Did anybody ever see anything like
| it? And can any celebration which
is opposed by the least one-third of
| the people, and for which at most only
10 per cent are at heart enthusiastic,
ever become a national holiday?
The Nationalist parties declare that
August II, lis for us a most detest-
able day; we know and desire no other
national holidays than January IS
on which date in 1901 the Prussian
Kingdom, and in 1871 the German
| Empire, were created-and January
! y, which is the birthday of our
Kaiser"
Two Holidays Demanded.
The Nationalist, together with the
| Bavarians, also declare that the Ger
, man Republic has no right to introduce
a Constitution day, but that this is a
matter for the various states, whose
sovereignty may not be infringed in
| favor of an intolerabls centralism.
The Peoples party. whose leader Is
| Foreign Minister Stresemann, de-
mands two national holidays-January
| IS and August II. In other words, it
wants the republic to celebrate the
birthday Of the empire. which itself
/ ~. Y -
| The Catholic Center party proposes
that August IL shall be Constitution
| day, when it falls on Sunday; other
wise the following Sunday should be
| Constitution day, and the sixth Sun.
day before Easter should be Memorial
day for the fallen.
| Thus vary the proposals OF the three
| great parties that constitute the gov
| eminent today.
August ii Objections.
The opposition, consisting Of the
| Socialists and the tiny Democratic
| party, unites in demand that August
| IL be national holiday and that if
this comes during school vacation,
| special exercises shall be held after
| the schools resume. But it will al
most always come during vacation
at a time when the schools and uni.
verSities are closed. the heads of the
government and high officials are on
leave, the cities are depopulated, and
| residents of the country Whose In
habitants, at least, do not love the
republican form of state and at best
merely tolerate it, are thinking only
Of harvest work.
A law forbidding work on that date
would be roundly cursed and circum-
vented. And it is obvious that in the
hot cities the duty Of listening to long
| official speeches would evoke no en-
tertainment. The only people who
could really wish such celebration"
would be the monarchists.
Not even the Socialists dare suggest
making holiday of November 8, our
Bastille day, on which, in 1918. they
proclaimed the republic. And they
will not accept May ! as Constitution
! day because this would mean nation
alizing the international working
mems labor day.
| Amounts to Nothing.
In the Reichsrat, our House of
! States, the majority was only II
| votes for August IL and the de-
termined minority against that date
| included Bavaria. Wurttemberg, Thu
ringia. Brunswick and four Of the
! biggest Prussian provinces.
Since neither in the government
nor among the parties of the confed-
eracy of republics into which the Ger
man Empire metamorphosed itself
| eight wears ago, is there any power
| full group warmly in favor of a holt
| day, the whole action amounts to
| nothing. For this is matter of in
| most feelings, not of decreed forms
An independence day has a genuine
! significance only II it is a day on
which nation gratefully and joy
| fully recalls the moral and political
| value Of its independence, and of its
/ free right of Standardization.