GERMANY'S CHIEF DANGER.
12V-E are not very much alarmed by the signs of Mammonism in Berlin detected by our correspon- dent, " L. K.-D.," in his letter in another column,—at least in the form in which he couches his indictment. The worship of money in great cities is rarely as formidable as it seems. Wordsworth's sonnets a hundred years ago passionately denounced it in this country, and Tennyson's " Maud " in the middle of the century repeated the warning to the nation. Yet the temper of the nation in the stress of the South African War has proved that its heart is not corrupt, and that the lust of gold has not affected its manliness. Berlin, again, is a new city. Though, as the Prussian capital, it was never a provincial town, it is only in the last generation that it has risen to Imperial rank. The men of a former fashion may sincerely regret the abandonment of its simple standards for an imitation of London and Paris. But in idealising the life of Berlin in the period before 1870 they forget the significance of that date. The minor Princes in Germany can never go back on the ceremony in the Hall of Mirrors. When they acclaimed the German Emperor they renounced for them- selves and their descendants the old traditions of their capitals. Year by year, and month by month, the centri- petal tendency has increased which is making Berlin less and less a star among the stars of Germany, and more and more of a central sun. Munich, Dresden, Weimar can no longer compete with Berlin as the patrons of art and learning.
But if we think " L. K.-D." mistaken in his reading of the signs, we are far from maintaining that there is no cause for anxiety. The courage and clever- ness of the new Imperial Chancellor were the chief characteristics of the Session which stands adjourned over the Christmas recess. When the Diet reassembles this month it will be interesting to see if Count von Billow's adroitness will still serve him effectually in the questions of home politics which await his reply. It was comparatively easy to turn away the factious wrath of the Socialists when they indicted the in- discretion of the Minister for the Interior. He had accepted a present of money from a private association of employers in order to assist the campaign for a Home Office Bill to restrict the liberty of workmen. The Chancellor did not attempt to screen his colleague alto- gether. Ile admitted the charge, but he ridiculed its importance—the silly cry of " Panama" had been raised —and the matter dropped at his promise that the circum- stances should not recur. More serious irregularities remain. The Department of the Secret Police, a kind of political spies whom Bismarck used unscrupulously, and who were strong enough a few years ago to drive Baron Marschall von Bieberstein out of the Foreign Office, is labouring under grave suspicions, and a number of financiers have been arrested who are alleged to have lent themselves to an elaborate system of fraud as company and bank directors. These scandals have still to be investigated, and we cannot anticipate the result ; but we string them together here because they seem to us to possess a certain similarity in nastiness. At least, they point to a state of things which is not a happy augury for the future prosperity of the Empire. Tue ostentatious display of their wealth by a few rich men in the capital is no cause to despair of Berlin. They are, as we have tried to show, a natural phase of its growth, and our fears for Germany do not rest on the signs of the disappearance of plain living.
The real matter for regret in these circumstances is the unrest in the bureaucratic world. That is Germany's chief danger. An army of officials administers the affairs of the Empire. As long as the machine works smoothly no sound of its mechanism is heard. The public has a vague idea that its members are overstaffed and underpaid, but it is only in moments of exceptional disquiet that the grievances of the bureaucracy become audible. Yet we can imagine no worse fate for the Empire than a general rising of its officials. A riot of the proletarians, against which so many precautions are taken, would throw things much less out of gear, and would be far easier to quell. Take the class of the school- masters, for instance, who are servants of the State in Germany. In many district4 of the Empire they subsist on a miserable pittance, and are literally worked to death in fulfilling their duties in rural schools. At the best, their conditions of employment are discouraging and hard. They have to serve a long apprenticeship, and can rarely hope for an appointment till they are well over thirty years of age. Indeed, the average time of life at which the middle-class German gets married is nearer forty than thirty ; and then, in whatever department of the huge Civil Service he may work, his margin of income will be as small as his leisure to employ it. The discontent of the schoolmasters extends to the higher ranks of the teaching profession. The incumbents of the University chairs chafe under the rigid supervision which the paternal Government exercises over them both inside and outside of their lecture-rooms ; and the doetores privatim doeentes, the Privatdozenten, whom Matthew Arnold regarded as "a great source of vigour and renova- tion " in the higher instruction of the Fatherland, and who receive no salary from the State, are equally liable to dismissal if they entertain political heresies. There are so many forms of Socialism in Germany—the Red Socialism of the heirs of Marx, the Cabinet Socialism which went, out to slay it, the Broadcloth Socialism which slew the slayer—that we shall not dwell on the particular variant which the Universities have invented. It is known in its native country as Kathedersozialismus. and its forces can- not be neglected in estimating the perils of the Empire. Like little copies of an immortal prototype, the school- masters and professors of Germany may become suspect of corrupting the young ; they may use their responsible position to defeat the object of the reforms by which the German system of education is continually being improved from the national point of view. Or take the case of the guardians of public order. The power of the police in Germany is practically unlimited. No one can be born or die, can change his house or ride a bicycle, without the intervention of the police. A policeman is present at every theatrical performance and at every public meeting, and can compel the suspension of either at his absolute discretion. We should certainly have thought that the State would consult its own interest by paying these officials a salary sufficient to remove them from tempta- tion, rather than, as we' believe is intended, by prov ding for their more severe punishment in cases where they suc- cumb. But the abuses that are coming to light show by how inadequate a bond the State attaches itself to its servants. In an age when the standard of living has been considerably raised, when financial corruption is on the increase in high places, the lean officialdom of Germany is expected to preserve its integrity on a minimum rate ' of pay, and the public is expected to preserve its confidence in State officials who are notoriously dissatisfied with their lot.
We might pursue this inquiry through all the branches of the Civil Service. There are the railway servants, for example, who are to some extent the victims of the low rates of inh6d freight by which the prosperity of trade is assisted. But we must go on to point out that the danger of an underpaid bureaucracy is aggravated by the attitude of the Government towards the rights of labour. Strikes, of course, cannot be prohibited, but every possible obstacle is put in the way of the success of strikers. The Emperor and his Ministers are now committed to a Bill, which will be reintroduced this Session, increasing to a term of penal servitude the penalty for incitement to strike. His Majesty, in his picturesque language, is determined to protect the 'willing workman ; but the effect of the legis- lation will be to prevent, not merely a public meeting in favour of less hours and higher wages, but likewise a private discussion by a couple of labourers over their pipes. It is here that the problem of the Social Democrats touches the problem of officialdom, and the combination is a formidable peril for an Empire on its trial to encounter. In this connection it is interesting to note that no less enthusiastic a Royalist than Erust von Wildenbrucb, the dramatist of the Hohenzollern dynasty, has recently drawn a picture of official life in rural Germany which fully bears out our apprehensions. In his story called "Neid" we meet a, Government servant who is a type of his kind. The juices of human affection have dried up in him. He is soured by the tedious process of promotion, numbed by the monotony of his occupation, and harassed by his exiguous salary. The multiplication of this type in all quarters of the Fatherland is an event which the friends of Germany cannot contemplate without misgiving.
The example of the German Empire is quoted so frequently in this country, and its interests coincide at so many points with our own, that the question of its future has an especial fascination. Englishmen are going to school this year. Their unwillingness to take advice is giving way to an extreme docility. They hope to gather a harvest of reform from their South African experience, and they will not sacrifice the fruits on the altar of their old self-esteem. Rather, they deprecate delay. They resent the cumbrous process of inquiry, the caution that averts regret In a period of military disaster, the causes of which they imperfectly understood, they learned the lessons of adversity, and now they are anxious to realise their gain. They know that they are unpopular abroad, and their surprise and new diffidence combine to make them the ready pupils of the most pros- perous Continental nation. They see Germany supreme in the counsels of the Sultan and in the Concert of the Powers. They have watched the genius of her Emperor grow from waywardness to maturity. They mark the success of his fore.gn policy, which is not the less tenacious of its course because it happens on occasions to fulfil their own wishes, as in the instance of Mr. Kruger's proposed visit to Berlin. They measure the strides of Germany's commerce. They study the favourable reports of her educational system. They note, in their "Daily Hail Year-Book," that she consumes less alcohol and produces more books than they do ; and then they turn impatiently to the statesmen and public men at home, and demand that their own methods be remodelled on the pattern of the German. We cannot but admire this temper. Zeal is so much better than indifference that the excess of zeal may be trusted to effect its own cure. Still, it may have been worth while to examine the credentials of our teachers, and to try to discover below the surface on what kind of enduring foundation the material prosperity of the German Empire is built.
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