THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, JULY 31, 1908. THE DISILLUSIONMENT OF GERMANY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9155, 31 July 1908, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, JULY 31, 1908. THE DISILLUSIONMENT OF GERMANY.

Referring t-> the progress of opinion in Germany, the London "Spectator ' suys that the most surprising thing is the apparent growth in the saute of disappointment among the educated clauses. It was not disaffection, but disappointment, and was seemingly confined to the economic results of Empire. Everywhere the people were proud of the new position of their great country in external affairs, and of the reputation attained by their Emperor among Sovereigns and statesmen. They had, however, hoped for another result, which has not yet been attained. They had expected more domestic prosperity, and found themselves, if dependent upon

salaries, distinctly poorer men. Not only had the general standard of livr ing advanced, which is true more or less of every country on the globe, but the prices of everything desired in decent households had advanced beyon 1 all precedent. Rentals, luxuries, and even necessaries, all cost more, and as the educated classe.3 not employed in actual trade had always I lived thriftily, salaries having always been low and promotion never very rapid, it was now difficult to live at all. Germans love comfort almost as much as the English do, though they do not usually spend so much on it, and the obligation to push thrift to the verge of meanness is felt to ba a painful one, more especially as J they had been taught to expect that with their improved position in the world the lean years would tend io disappear. They have not, however, | disappeared. The immediate effect of this condition of opinion ought to be a great extension of tha preference for Free Trade, which would compel the Government to remove all taxes on articles of prime necessity. If salaries cannot be increased, the alternative clearly is to make things cheap—an alternative which even in America is becoming perceived, and strengthens the hands of those who call themselves "Revisionists.'' In

Germany, however, there are many obstacles to that course of procedure. It has, in the first place, been the habit for generations to allow the chiefs of the Executive a free hand in the management of foreign affairs, and the body of the people . scarcely believe that they know enough to control their Government when it is arranging mysteries like foreign treaties and great economic bargains. They shrink back when they are told that they must submit for grave reasons of State to heavy duties on imports of produce, say, from Russia or th.3 United States.