The Daily News. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1918. "DEMOCRATIC" GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 October 1918, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1918. "DEMOCRATIC" GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY.

It is the way of the German in high quarters to treat the peoples of oilier nations as a pack of fools, to be cajoled or bamboozled as the occasion demands; so it is not surprising that Dr. Soli', in his last reply to President Wilson, solemnly assures him that "A new Government has been formed, in complete accordance with the principle of representation of the people, based on equal, universal, secret and direct franchise." But outside people are not likely to be hoodwinked in this fashion. There can be no democratisation of Germany while the Hohenzollerns remain in power. They must first go, and with them the whole of the military caste. As a matter of fact, the constitution of the German Empire has not been altered. As it stands it is the most reactionary and despotic in Emope. Like other things German, it is "camouflaged." On its face it /seems' to rest on a democratic basis —the basis of universal suffrage.- In his "Memoirs" Bis- 1 t march shows that "universal suffrage" was only an opportunist measure to compel recalcitrant German principalities to join the Imperial federation. It was not an essential part of the constitution. It was not an end in itself, but a means to an end. Bismarck took care to prevent universal suffrage from becoming effective. His anticipations have been fully realised; manhood suffrage has proved no obstacle to absolutism. It must be borne in mind that the German Chancellor is not responsible to Parliament; he is only responsible to the Emperor. There is no cabinet, or delegation of the majority of the Eeichstag. There is no parliamentary system. The powers of the Eeichstag are very lhnited. It is mainly a machine for voting supplies, but even that financial control is more nominal than real, for under the constitution the Assembly must make provision for the Army and Navy, which are outside and above party politics. Having fixed the contingent of the Imperial forces, the Army and Navy estimates must follow. The Eeichstag has always been merely a debating club, withI out the slightest responsibility. There are a great many parties in Germany. This accounts for the strength of the Government. "The •art of government in Germany for the past 25 years," according to Dr. Charles Sarolea, "has consisted largely in playing off one party against another." There is a mysterious and exalted body in the German Empire—the Bundesrat—whose power is not restricted to the right of veto. It is not the Reichstag that controls the Bundesrat, as our Parliament practically controls the Legislative Assembly; it is the Bundesrat which controls the Eeichstag, and reduces it to impotence. The Bundesrat can dissolve the Eeichstag, hut the Eeichstag cannot dissolve the Bundesrat. The Prussians rule Germany, and its "three-class" system of voting has been described as the most scandalous law in existence. The voting is indirect, and therefore capable of outside manipulation. ' The first electors elects a small body, which in turn elects the representatives. For the purpose of elections the citizens are divided into three classes, the voting power being in proportion to the taxes paid, and each class having (equal voting power. Supposing that a particular division pays 6000 marks in taxes, the amount payable by one of the three classes would be 2000 marks. If in that district there only lived one rich man paying that amount, he would by himself constitute the first class. If there are twenty people who each pay 100 marks in taxes they form the electors of the second class. If there are 200 electors paying 10 marks each in taxes, they form the third class. Thus one elector of the first class has as much electoral power as the 20 electors of the second class, and as much power as the 200 electors of the third class. When a country agrees to be ruled by such a monstrous ,system as this it is not to be wondered at that the influence of reaction should make itself felt. The German press is. muzzled, as is the judiciary, and even the church. They are all part of the "system" that can be manipulated by the Kaiser and his military coterie. To talk of a free democracy—as does Dr. Solf—is, therefore, so much "bosh." Germany is still shackled, and will remain so until the Kaiser, and the despotism and militarism he fetands for, disappear. The German [people have for so long been feround down, and are so thorfpguiy disciplined, that it is, per,liapSj I ,'tco mneh to expect of them io ris&ancl do away with the sys-icm-Abat is responsible for all the si'iserx, sorrow and loss of this ■war. it is not too much to r:peet that the Allies, who know the edsiilon intimately,— to- their

cost—will have no more track with the present rulers of Germany, but will put forth redoubled efforts to crush German militarism onee and for all, and dictate peace terms to an enemy that shows not the slightest regret for the great, wrong he lias done the world, and who is now only endeavoring to obtain by subterfuge and chicanery what he realises is impossible to win on the battlefield.