The Dominion. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1918. THE KAISER'S PLACE IN THE GERMAN EMPIRE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 21, 19 October 1918, Page 6

The Dominion. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1918. THE KAISER'S PLACE IN THE GERMAN EMPIRE

.•_—. —« . ■ Some of to-day's reports picture a state of affairs in Germany which is summed up in the assertion that the alternatives' in sight are peace or. revolution. Whether these conditions have been reached or approached time and events must show, but the question raised is not a little important. Whatever internal changes occur in Germany it must still rest solely with the Allies to determino and enforce the conditions of. a just peace, but their task would be simplified to some oxtent if the German people overthrew their militarist autocracy and took a real step forward in democratic reform, Both Mji. Lloyd George and President Wilson have at' times expressed

themselves frankly on this subject. Tho latter in particular has consistently differentiated tho war responsibility of the Gorman people from the deep-dyed' criminality of tho Kaiser and his war lords. Hβ laid stress.on this distinction when, in Aiiguet, 1917, he replied to tho Papal Note 'on,, peace. He said on that occasion: "The object of this war is to deliver the free peoples of the world from the menace and ae-

tual power of a vast military establishment, controlled by an irresponsible- Government, which has secretly' planned to dominate the world. . . . This power is not the Gorman people. It is the ruthless master of the German people." The President thus in a sense places the brand of Cain on the brow of the Kaiser, and makes his war lords the Ishmaelites of the civilised world, and he represents the German people as the Kaiser's victims and not as his fellow-criminals. No doubt there is something in this view of the matter, , though nothing that can bo allowed'to interfere in any way with the imposition of just conditions of peace, including the exemplary • punishment of German crimes'and the exaction of all possible reparation. The .German poople bear their own.heavy load of guilt. They have not only, submitted readily to the militarist autocracy of which the Kaiser is the head and front, but were well content in their debasing servitude so long as militarism brought or promised to bring them booty and profit. If the Kaiser lay in a- felon's grave it .would still "be remembered that.the sinking of the Ltisitania awakened popular acclamation in Germany. For practical purposes the distinction drawn by Phesident Wilson is chiefly important as raising the possibility that the Kaiser and his principal accomplices may be called to account

by the German people as well, as by the Allies. It is not altogether impossible that, so far as the Kaiser and his war lords are concerned, the action of the Allies may. be forestalled by the German people. In the closing paragraph of his historic reply to the Pope, • President Wilson declared that: "We cannot take

.the words of "the present rulers of. ■Germany, as a , guarantee'of anything that is to' endure, unless explicitly; supported by such conclusive evidence of the will and purpose of the German people themselves as the other peoples of the world would bo justified in accepting." Such an attitude does not imply any palliation of the' crimes of which the Gorman people, as well as their Kaiser, bear the guilt, but it recognises a possibility that the German people may yet cast off their Kaiser. If the possibility exists, the fact must be attributed first and

foremost to the tremendous and growing strain of war to which the. German nation ie now subjected, and to the realisation that crushirig defeat is inevitable. While these "are the main factors making for revolution in Germany,, it.may tend , in some- degree to the same end that throughout his reign the Kaiser has strained' the Constitution of the German Empire and -stifled the expression of the people's mind in politics. ■■.■■;■'". '.''■■ Fora score of years,and more the Kaiser-has , preached and lectured and written as though under the Constitution of. the German Empire he was delegated with despotic, autocratic power. He sent, -his portrait to the Minister of Education- in .1890, with, the. words, sic v'6l6, sicjubed. On May 4, 1891. at a. Ehenish banquet, he said: .":There is but one master in the/ country: , .it is I, and I will bear no other.',' In the Golden Book ol the city of Munich, he wrote in Latin: "The will'of the king'is supre'nlc.law.", .Again.we'find,him Bayjng: i"I accept gladly'the co-opera--tion of all, but I shall crush anyone, who attempts to cross my purpose.". He invests himself time and again with the glamour ,of a world ruler specially set, apart by heaven-." In 1910 he said:, ''Considering myself as the instrument of'the Loud, without hced.pf the -views and opinions of the'day I go my way." The world •has ~grown accustomed • to;, this

claim of this "Potsdam King to autocratic sovereignty,.. and a good many people have, been led to believe that .the' Kaiser, was autocrat of all Germany as the Tsar was autocrat'of. all Russia.■ ; But ■ tho Kaiser all through has simply play-ed-the braggart, and-has worn ■iolen plumes. His place ■■ in . the German Empire has been, described by. President AVilson in hie book,

The Slate, in we read.: "The German Empire is a federal State composed of four kingdoms, seven grand-duchies, seven principalities, three free , cities, and the Imperial domains of Alsace-Lorraine, these lands being united in a great corporation of ■ public .law under the hereditary presidency of ,the 'King, of Prussia. The 'Emperor-is nf president and not. its monarch. . As Emperor he occupies not ku hereditary throne, but only an hereditary office. . Sovereignty does not reside in him, but in the union of German federal Princes anil __ free cities. For years the Kaiser has claimed . a. sovereignty over 'the German Empire that he has no right to under the Constitution. Ho. is "Gur.'iipn Emperor" and not Emperor of Germany, and his sovereignty begins and ends with the kingdom of Prussia. In his pose as Emperor -of'.Germany, he lias , been, simply a , 'false claimant, and . President. Wilson has tcviv Ihis all' throueh. As O.riivin limpi'mr ;> fateful and :iwful rover, as. hr:id of Aniiy ii" r l N 7 m.v h.-s '"-'n in Ilx , hands of llic Kaiwr, and. there is rca'sioii .foi , 'jifiyinsr'.!.!" ,, '' liij.!i;i.s n.!iii— l

that powej', and can be taken to book for violating the Constitution of tho Empire. As president of the Gcr-, man Federation of Slates he lias power to declare war and to make peace, but that power is limited. He has no power without the authority of the Federal Council of Germany to declare an aggressive war, and ho plunged the Empire into this war without such authority. He has power only to declare war if Germany is attacked. Bissiarck, in speech after speech, when the Empire was set up in 1870, in order to make the acceptable to several States and kingdoms of. Germany, laid atross on the fact that the Empire was created for defence, and the Constitution guaranteed Germany against a wanton war; and the present Kaiser, in defiance of that Constitution, plunged the people of Germany, fed oh lies, into a wanton and unnecessary war. The infamous lies of August ;), 1914, , ' about French assaults on Germany on land and in air were invented to save the face of' the 'Kaiser, but they may not save his neck. Mr. Ellis Barker, in his last book, The Great Problems nf British Statesmanship, says: "If tho present war should end in Germany's defeat the German people will not only ask whether Germany commenced the waiybut whether tho German Emperor in declaring war acted lawfully or unlawfully, and he may bo held to account."

In the foregoing violations of the Constitution by the Kaiser, Pbesidest Wilson probably found a partial reason for speaking about tho "ruthless master" of the German people. But he may have found a reason in another region. The Kaiser and his war lords have so worked the Constitution of the kingdom of Prussia and the German" Empire as to give a minority of the people the power to elect a majority of thp. rulers. In Prussia all the labouring class and some of the middle class, have no vote. TKe electors are divided into three classes, according to wealth, a'nd Schiereeand, in his Germany, I lie. Weldhuj of a World Power, says that "three electors in the first class count for as 'much as 225 in the second class, or 14.800 of the third." Up to within , the last few months every attempt to broaden the franchise and remove this glaring injustice has been arrested by the Kaiser and his Junkers. In the election to the Imperial Parliament of Germany universal suffrage is given, in name; to the German people, but withheld in reality. There has been no redistribution of seats since the Empire was set "up in 1870, . and 800,000 votes.in a city will elect only one member, and 40,000 may command a representative .in a -Junker district. In 1912 four and a quarter millions of votes sent ilO members to the House from one side, and three and three-quarter million votes sent 126 members. from the other side. The Kaiser has hitherto ruthlessly vetoed every! attempt to allow the will of the people to be adequately represented in the House. Now, as'liiu throne totters, he may be willing to concede a democratic franchise. But it, is an unreal deathbed repentance, like the Hapsnuiio offer of autonomy to tlic Slavs. In 1889 flie.'Kaiser said'to Prince Hohenlo'he, when he saw the Social "Democrats trying to command tho Berlin , Town Council: "Then t-Kcy would plunder the burgesses.. That was a matter of indifforence to him. He would have loopholes made in his palace and look on at the plundering; Then the citizens would ■beg him to .-.help them." Truly, .only a "ruthless master" -would thus speak. The Kaiser has broken tho Constitution of the German Empire, and clampe'd it together by the steel bands of military power. He-said to the Potsdam Guards in 1898: "It is tho soldier and the Army, not majorities and parliamentary decisions that have forged the unity of theGerman Empire. It is on the Army my confidence rests." Such is the political record of the most criminal braggart in history. There is some foundation for the distinction drawn by President Wilson be'tween people ajid Kaiser, • and revolution in Germany is so much the more a possibility, though it is'not by any means to be taken for granted. .