The Daily News. TUESDAY, JANUARY 16, 1911. THE GERMAN ELECTIONS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 109, 16 January 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, JANUARY 16, 1911. THE GERMAN ELECTIONS.

T,he result of the elections in Germany may have "a marked effect on international relations, and the fact that although there has been the keenest organisation since the 1907 election with a view to smashing the power of the Socialist Party, this party has redeemed some of the losses made on that occasion, and is likely to become stronger than ever it has been in the history of the movement within the German Empire. In dealing with the great wave of Socialism in Germany the other day, we put it forward as an opinion that Socialism would have great gains. The reasons for this view were that the great mass of the German people are becoming more and more antagonistic to the everlasting waving of the mailed fist. The German people have been taxed and harassed in order that the military caste may increase armaments, and make Germany a menace to the peace of the world. We must believe that modern thought is antagonistic to continued aggression and vast preparations which fall so harshly on the taxpayer. In order to keep the insatiable maw of the wardevil full, Germany not only taxes her industry and the people who are the life-blood of the industry, but borrows enormously from her disliked neighbor, France. Indeed, the unparalleled industry and thrift of the French peasant, who supplies the francs for Germany to borrow, is one of the chief reasons why Germany is able to pour French money into new Dreadnoughts and into the giant army which hangs like a millstone round the necks of the people. The German people are a little tired at the insolence of the army. The point of view of the working German is that here is a great sinister animal that simply eats its head off and exists mereily for a problematical reason. The people become weary at the notion that the merest sprig of an officer whose work, however skilled, is merely an expense to the country and never revenue producing, is of greater social consequence than a great business man or a commercial genius. The people have seen, with the help of the Bebels of the community, that they do not rule Germany, but are merely the unwilling means of assisting in maintaining the insatiable animal mentioned. Short of armed revolution they have no weapon other than a political one. It must not be believed that every person who helped to win tlese latest victories for the Socialists is an out-and-out Tiobelitc. Bebel and his

party ar<> opposed to war. opposed to the enormous and costly preparations for it, opposed to the swaggering insolence of the officer caste, opposed to the everincreasing taxation that makes this in-

solence and expenditure possible. Therefore the people, seeing that the only weapon available is political, return Socialists who are pledged to prevent if possible the further development of the sinister Thing that crushes the German people, feeds the foreign money-lender, and tightens the clutch of the foreigner on the securities at Berlin. The Kaiser's sermonettes to his troops that they must be unpolitical and nothing but soldiers are excellent, but, however an army may control a man's body, it cannot control his thought. If the extreme militarists induce the authorities to attempt to "annihilate the Socialist Party" it may easily be found that Socialism is a weapon that is more difficult to meet than the fleets of the foreigner. At a critical time like the present the German political situation is, of much greater interest and importance to the foreigner that, at a time when there are no international matters in dispute, and ii'lenial affairs, not to call them by any more expressive name, mhy keep the mailed fist waving on its own ground. We believe that the waving of that fist even outside its own territory would be a catastrophe f« Germany, and-that the German people who are sending Socialists to the Eeich,stag take the same view. The Socialism of Germany is not the Socialism that exists in a feeble form in New Zealand, where there is no room or reason for it. It is the sanest form of Socialism advocated and controlled by leaders and not by funny little men who become "Socialists" to air somebody "else's views and to engage in the use of self-advertising catch phrases. Socialism in Germany justifies its existence by deeds. It has not been a very vocal Socialism. It has planned in silence, and its works are shown at the elections. The Socialist vote that can defeat a motion by the ,war-at-any-price party is one means of turning the sword into a ploughshare and the spear into the pruning hook. It does not much matter what a political party may call itself. It must be judged by its work. The people of Germany •have not been misled by catch-phrases. They have seen the power of the Bebelites in the Reichstag and the courage of them since the drubbing of the 1907 election. When the people set out to help an ideal the insolents become more and more helpless. There may come a time when a man who produces the wealth for the soldier to spend may claim to be entitled to privileges asgreat at those enjoyed by the person who produces nothing and is trained to destrov.