officials. That is as true of America as of Germany. The fundamental
difference is that with us these official persons are executive
officers only, the real captain is the people; while in Germany these
official persons are the real governors of the people, subject to the
commands of one who repeatedly and publicly asserts that his
commission is from God and not from the people. This puts whole
classes of the community permanently into uniform, and the wearers of
these uniforms are almost afraid to laugh, and would consider it
sacrilege to romp.
Caution is a very puny form of morality. "He that observeth the wind
shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap." It is
as true politically as of other spheres of life that "he or she who
lets the world or his own portion of it choose his plan of life for
him has no need of any other faculty than the ape-like one of
imitation." Thus writes John Stuart Mill, and what else can be said of
the political activities of the Germans? What journalist or what
patriot indeed can take seriously a majority that has no power? What
people can call itself free to whom its rulers are not responsible?
The Social Democrats, at the moment of writing, have won one hundred
and ten seats in the Reichstag, but the army and navy estimates are
beyond their reach, the taxes are fixtures, a constitution is a dream,
and if they are cantankerous or truculent the Reichstag will be
dismissed by a wave of the hand. Say what one will, they are a
mammillary people politically, and the strongest party in the
Reichstag is merely an energetic political mangonel. Their leaders
moult opinions, they do not mould them, and could not translate them
into action if they did.
Not since 1874 has there been a Reichstag so strongly radical, but
nothing will come of it. The Reichskanzler, Doctor von Bethmann-Hollweg,
did not hesitate to take an early opportunity, after the
opening of the new Reichstag, to state boldly that the issue was
Authority versus Democratization, and that he had no fear of the
result. It is customary for the newly elected Praesidium, the
president and two vice-presidents of the Reichstag, to be received in
audience by the Emperor. On this occasion the Socialists forbade their
representative to go, and the Emperor, therefore, refused to receive
any of them. As usual, they played into his hands. Hans bleibt immer
Hans, and on this occasion his vulgar hack of good manners only
brought contumely upon the whole Reichstag, and left the Emperor as
the outstanding dignified figure in the controversy. Such behavior is
not calculated to invite confidence, and not likely to induce this
enemy-surrounded nation to put its destinies in such hands, not at any
rate for some time to come. "Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a
mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart
from him."
Intellectually Germany is a republic, and we Americans perhaps beyond
all other peoples have profited by her literature, her philosophy, her
music, her scientific and economic teaching. We have kneaded these
things into our political as well as into our intellectual life.
"Intellectual emancipation, if it does not give us at the same time
control over ourselves, is poisonous." And who writes thus? Goethe!
But the intellectual freedom of Germany has done next to nothing to
bring about political or, in the realm of journalism, personal
self-control.
It is a strange state of affairs. Intelligent men and women in Germany
do not realize it. Not once, but many times, I have been told: "You
foreigners are forever commenting upon our bureaucracy, our
officialdom, but it is not as all-powerful as you think. We have
plenty of freedom!" These people are often themselves officials,
nearly always related to, or of the society, of the ruling class. The
rulers and the ruling class have naturally no sense of oppression, no
feeling that they are unduly subject to others, since the others are
themselves. I am quite willing to believe of my own and of other
people's personal opinions that they are not dogmas merely because
they are baptized in intolerance. I must leave it to the reader to
judge from the facts, whether or no the Germans have a political
autonomy, which permits the exercise and development of political
power. A glance at the political parties themselves will make this
perhaps the more clear.
The official organization of the conservative party, may be said to
date back to the founding of the Neue Preussische Zeitung in 1848, and
the organization of the party in many parts of Germany. Earlier still,
Burke was the hero of the pioneers of this party, whose first
newspaper had for editor, no less a person than Heinrich von Kleist,
and whose first endeavors were to support God and the King, and to
throw off the yoke of foreign domination.
In 1876 was formed the Deutsch-Konservativ party supporting Bismarck.
"Koenigthum von Gottes Gnaden" is still their watchword, with
opposition to Social Democracy, support of imperialism, agrarian and
industrial protection, and Christian teaching in the schools, as the
planks of their platform. They also combat Jewish influence
everywhere, particularly in the schools. Allied to this party is the
Bund der Landwirte and the Deutscher Bauernbund. In the election of
1912 they elected forty-five representatives to the Reichstag, a
serious falling off from the sixty-three seats held previous to that
election. The Free Conservative portion of the Conservative party, is
composed of the less autocratic members of the landed nobility, but
there is little difference in their point of view.
The Centrum, or Catholic party, is in theory not a religious party; in
practice it is, though it does not bar out Protestant members who hold
similar views to their own. Its political activity began in 1870, and
the first call for the formation of the party came from Reichensperger
in the Koelnischer Volkszeitung. The famous leader of the party, and a
politician who even held his own against Bismarck, was the Hanoverian
Justizminister, Doctor Ludwig Windthorst. The stormy time of the party
was from 1873 to 1878, when Bismarck attempted to oppose the growing
power of the Catholic Church, and more particularly of the Jesuits.
The so-called May laws of that year forbade Roman Catholic
intervention in civil affairs; obliged all ministers of religion to
pass the higher-schools examinations and to study theology three years
at a university; made all seminaries subject to state inspection; and
gave fuller protection to those of other creeds. In 1878 Bismarck
needed the support of the Centrum party to carry through the new
tariff, and the May laws, except that regarding civil marriage, were
repealed. The party stands for religious teaching in the primary
schools, Christian marriage, federal character of empire, protection,
and independence of the state. More than any other party it has kept
its representation in the Reichstag at about the same number. In 1903
they cast 1,875,300 votes and had 100 members. In 1907 they had 103
members, and in the last election of 1912 they won 93 seats. Even this
Catholic party is now divided. Count Oppersdorff leads the
"Only-Catholic" party, against the more liberal section which has its
head-quarters at Cologne, where the late Cardinal Fisher was the leader.
At the session of the Reichstag in 1913, when the question of the
readmission of the Jesuits was raised, the Centrum party even sided with
the Socialists in the matter of the expropriation law for Posen, in
order to annoy the chancellor for his opposition to themselves. Such
political miscegenation as this does not show a high level of faith or
of policy.
It may be of interest to the reader to know that in 1903 the
population of Germany was 58,629,000, and the number qualified to vote
12,531,000; in 1907 the population was 61,983,000, and the number
qualified to vote, 13,353,000; in 1912 the population was 65,407,000,
and the qualified voters numbered over 14,000,000, of whom 12,124,503
voted. In 1903 there were 9,496,000 votes cast; in 1907, 11,304,000.
The German Reichstag has 397 members, or 1 representative to every
156,000 inhabitants; the United States House of Representatives has
433 members, or 1 for every 212,000 inhabitants; England, 670 members,
or 1 for every 62,000; France, 584, or 1 for every 67,000; Italy, 508,
or 1 for every 64,000; Austria, 516, or 1 for every 51,000.
Despite the fact that the Conservative and the Catholic parties have
much in common, and are the parties of the Right and Centre: these
names are given the political parties in the Reichstag according to
their grouping on the right, centre, and left of the house, looking
from the tribune or speaker's platform, from which all set speeches
are delivered, they are often at odds among themselves, and Bismarck
and Buelow brought about tactical differences among them for their own
purposes. Their programme may be summed up as "As you were," which is
not inspiring either as an incentive or as a command.
The Liberal parties are the National liberale; Fortschrittspartei, or
Progressives; and the Freisinnige Volkspartei, or Liberal Democratic
party.
The National Liberal party was strongest during the days when
Prussia's efforts were directed mainly toward a federation and a
strengthening of the bonds which hold the states together; "unter dem
Donner der Kanonen von Koeniggratz ist der nationalliberale Gedanke
geboren." Loyalty to emperor and empire, country above party, a fleet
competent to protect the country and its overseas interests, are
watchwords of the party. The party is protectionist, and in matters of
school and church administration in accord with the Free
Conservatives.
The Liberal Democratic party demands electoral reform, no duties on
foodstuffs, and imperial insurance laws for the workingmen.
The Fortschrittspartei finds its intellectual beginnings, in the
condensing of the hazy clouds of revolution in 1848, in the persons of
Wilhelm von Humboldt and Freiherr von Stein. Politically, the party
came into being in 1861, and Waldeck, von Hoverbeck, and Virchow are
familiar names to students of German political history; later Eugen
Richter was the leader of the party in the Reichstag. This party is
still for free-trade, in opposition to military and bureaucratic
government, favorable to parliamentary government. Of the grouping and
regrouping of these parties; of their divisions for and against
Bismarck's policies; of their splits on the questions of free-trade
and protection; of their leanings now to the right, now to the left;
of their differences over details of taxation for purposes of defence;
of their attitudes toward a powerful fleet, and toward the Jesuits, it
would require a volume, and a large one, to describe. Though it is
dangerous to characterize them, they may be said without inaccuracy to
represent the democratic movement in Germany both in thought and
political action, and to hold a wavering place between the
Conservatives and the Social Democrats.
The Social Democratic party, the party of the wage-earners only
assumed recognizable outlines after the appeal of Ferdinand Lassalle
for a workingman's congress at Leipsic in 1863. In 1877 they mustered
493,000 voters. Bismarck and the monarchy looked askance at their
growing power. It was attempted to pass a law, punishing with fine and
imprisonment: "wer in einer den oeffentlichen Frieden gefaehrdenden
Weise verschiedene Klassen der Bevoelkerung gegeneinander oeffentlich
aufreizt oder wer in gleicher Weise die Institute der Ehe, der Familie
und des Eigentums oeffentlich durch Rede oder Schrift angreift." This
was a direct attack upon the Socialists, but the Reichstag refused to
pass the law. In May, 1878, and shortly after in June, two attempts
were made upon the life of the Kaiser. Bismarck then easily and
quickly forced through the new law against the Socialists.
Under this law newspapers were suppressed, organizations dissolved,
meetings forbidden, and certain leaders banished. For twelve years the
party was kept under the watchful restraint of the police, and their
propaganda made difficult and in many places impossible. After the
repeal of this law, and for the last twenty years, the party has
increased with surprising rapidity. In 1893 the Social Democrats cast
1,787,000 votes; in 1898, 2,107,000; in 1903, more than 3,000,000; and
in the last election, 1912, 4,238,919; and they have just returned 110
delegates to the Reichstag out of a total of 397 members.
It is noteworthy that in America there is one Socialist member of the
House of Representatives; while in Germany, which combines autocratic
methods of government, with something more nearly approaching state
ownership and control, than any other country in the world, the most
numerous party in the present Reichstag is that of the Social
Democrats.
Freedom is the only medicine for discontent. There is no rope for the
hanging of a demagogue like free speech; no such disastrous gift for
the socialist as freedom of action. Imagine what would have happened
in America if we had attempted to suppress Bryan! The result of giving
him free play and a fair hearing, the result of allowing the people to
judge for themselves, has been a prolonged spectacle of political
hari-kiri which has had a wholesome though negative educational
influence. The most accomplished oratorical Pierrot of our day, who
changes his political philosophy as easily as he changes his costume,
has seen one hundred and sixty cities and towns in America turn to
government by commission, and has kept the heraldic donkey always just
out of reach of the political carrots, until the Republican party
itself fairly pushed the donkey into the carrot-field, but even then
with another leader. No autocrat could have done so much.
As early as 1887 Auer, Bebel, and Liebknecht outlined the programme of
the party, and this programme, again revised at Erfurt in 1891, stands
as the expression of their demands. They claim that: "Die
Arbeiterklasse kann ihre oekonomischen Kaempfe nicht fuehren und ihre
oekonomische Organisation nicht entwickeln ohne politisehe Rechte."
Roughly they demand: the right to form unions and to hold public
meetings; separation of church and state; education free and secular,
and the feeding of school-children; state expenditure to be met
exclusively by taxes on incomes, property, and inheritance; people to
decide on peace and war; direct system of voting, one adult one vote;
citizen army for defence; referendum; international court of
arbitration. Their leader in the Reichstag to-day is Bebel, and from
what I have heard of the debates in that assembly I should judge that
they have not only a majority over any other party in numbers, but
also in speaking ability. The members of the Socialist party always
leave the house in a body, at the end of each session, just before the
cheers are called for, for the Emperor. They have become more and more
daring of late in their outspoken criticism of both the Emperor and
his ministers. In consequence, they are replied to with
ever-increasing dislike and bitterness by their opponents. At a recent
banquet of old university students in Berlin, Freiherr von Zedlitz,
presiding, quoted Barth and Richter: "The victory of Social Democracy
means the destruction of German civilization, and a Social Democratic
state would be nothing more than a gigantic house of correction."
In addition to the four important political divisions in the
Reichstag, the Conservative, Liberal, Clerical, and Socialist, there
are many subdivisions of these. Since 1871 there have been some forty
different parties represented, eleven conservative, fourteen liberal,
two clerical, nine national-particularist, and five socialist. To-day,
besides four small groups and certain representatives acknowledging no
party, there are some eleven different factions.
1871 1881 1893 1907 1912
Right, or Conservative. 895,000 1,210,000 1,806,000 2,141,000 1,149,916
Liberal................ 1,884,000 1,948,000 2,102,000 3,078,000 3,227,846
Clerical............... 973,000 1,618,000 1,920,000 2,779,000 2,012,990
Social Democrats....... 124,000 312,000 1,787,000 3,259,000 4,238,919
So far as one may so divide them, the voters have aligned themselves
as follows: In the last elections, in 1912, the Conservatives and
their allies elected 75 members; the Clericals, 93; the Poles, 18; and
the Guelphs, 5; and these come roughly under the heading of the party
of the Right. Under the heading Left, the National Liberals and
Progressive party elected 88, and the Social Democrats 110 members to
the Reichstag. The parties stand therefore roughly divided at the
moment of writing as 191 Conservative, and 200 Radical, with 6 members
unaccounted for. The Poles with 18 seats, the Alsatians with 5, the
Guelphs and Lorrainers and Danes with 8 seats, and the no-party with 2
seats, are also represented, but are here placed with the party of the
Right. To divide the parties into two camps gives the result that,
roughly, four and a half millions voted that they were satisfied, and
seven and a half millions that they were not.
No doubt any chancellor, including Doctor von Bethmann-Hollweg, would
be glad to divide the Reichstag as definitely and easily as I have
done. Theoretically these divisions may be useful to the reader, but
practically to the leader they are useless. Bebel, the leader of the
Social Democrats, declares himself ready to shoulder a musket to
defend the country; Heydebrandt, the leader of the Conservatives, and
possibly the most effective speaker in the Reichstag, has spoken
warmly in favor of social reform laws; the Clericals are for peace,
almost at any price; the Agrarians or Junkers for a tariff on
foodstuffs and cattle, and one might continue analyzing the parties
until one would be left bewildered at their refining of the political
issues at stake. Back to God and the Emperor; and forward to a
constitutional monarchy with the chancellor responsible to the
Reichstag, and perhaps later a republic, represent the two extremes.
Between the two everything and anything. It is hard to put together a
team out of these diverse elements that a chancellor can drive with
safety, and with the confidence that he will finally arrive with his
load at his destination. In addition to these parties there are the
frankly disaffected representatives of conquered Poland, of conquered
Holstein, of conquered Alsace-Lorraine, and of conquered Hanover, this
last known as the Guelph party; all of them anti-Prussian.
It is not to be wondered at that the comments, deductions, and
prophecies of foreigners are wildly astray when dealing with German
politics. In America, religious differences and racial differences
play a small role at Washington; but the 220 Protestants, the 141
Catholics, the 3 Jews, the 5 free-thinkers, and so on, in the last
Reichstag are in a way parties as well. In that same assembly 2
members were over 80, 78 over 60, 271 between 40 and 60, 42 under 40,
and 3 under 30 years of age. One hundred and six members were landed
proprietors; 220 were of the liberal professions, including 37
authors, 35 judges or magistrates, 21 clericals, 7 doctors, and 1
artist; 13 merchants; 21 manufacturers; and 20 shopkeepers and
laborers. Seventy-two members were of the nobility, a decided falling
off from 1878, when they numbered 162. Two hundred and fifty members
were educated at a university, and practically all may be said to have
had an education equal if not superior to that given in our smaller
colleges.
In the American Congress, in the House of Representatives, we have 212
lawyers, though there are only 135,000 lawyers in our population of
90,000,000. We have in that same assembly 50 business men,
representing the 15,000,000 of our people engaged in trade and
industry. Perhaps the German Reichstag is as fairly representative as
our own House of Representatives, though both assemblies show the
babyhood of civilization which still votes for flashing eyes, thumping
fists, hollering patriotism, and smooth phrases. The surprising
feature of elective assemblies is that here and there Messrs. Self-Control,
Ability, Dignity, and Independence find seats at all. The
members are paid, since 1906, a salary of 3,000 marks, with a
deduction of 20 marks for each day's absence. They have free passes
over German railways during the session. The Reichstag is elected
every five years.
The appearance of the Reichstag to the stranger is notable for the
presence of military, naval, and clerical uniforms. It is, as one
looks down upon them, an assembly where at least one-fourth are bald
or thin-haired, and together they give the impression of being big in
the waist, careless in costume, slovenly in carriage, and lacking
proper feeding, grooming, and exercise. It is clearly an assemblage,
not of men of action, but of men of theories. Not only their
appearance betrays this, but their debates as well, and what one knows
of their individual training and preferences goes to substantiate this
judgment of them. There are no soldiers, sailors, explorers, governors
of alien people; no men, in short, who have solved practical problems
dealing with men, but only theorists. Such men as Goetzen, Solf, and
others, who have had actual experience of dealing with men, are rare
exceptions. Probably the best men in Germany wish, and wish heartily,
that there were more such men; indeed, I betray no secret when I
declare that the most intelligent and patriotic criticism in Germany
coincides with my own.
The electoral divisions of Germany, as we have noted elsewhere, have
not been changed for forty years, with a consequent disproportionate
representation from the rural, as over against the enormously
increased population, of the urban and industrial districts. The
Conservatives, for example, in 1907 gained 1 seat for every 18,232
votes; the Clericals or Centrum, 1 seat for every 20,626 votes; the
National Liberals, 1 for every 30,635 votes; and the Social Democrats,
1 for every 75,781 votes. It may be seen from this, how overwhelming
must be the majority of votes cast by the Social Democrats, in order
to gain a majority representation in the Reichstag itself. In 1912
they cast more than one-third of the votes, and are represented by 110
members out of the total of 397.
For the student of German politics it is important to remember, that
the Social Democrats are not all representatives of socialism or of
democracy. Their demands at this present time are far from the radical
theory that all sources of production should be in the hands of the
people. Only a small number of very red radicals demand that. Their
successes have been, and they are real successes, along the lines of
greater protection and more political liberty for the workingman. The
number of their votes is swelled by thousands of voters who express
their general discontent in that way. The state in Germany owns
railroads, telegraph and telephone lines; operates mines and certain
industries, and both controls and directly helps certain large
manufactories which are either of benefit to the state, or which, if
they were entirely independent, might prove a danger to the state. The
state enforces insurance against sickness, accident, and old age, and
the three million office-holders are dependent upon the state for
their livelihood and their pensions.