The Vorwarts, the leading Socialist organ in Berlin, has a
most amusing article on what may be called the ethic°. wsthetic principles of the German Emperor. The article, which is summarised in Wednesday's Daily Chronicle, was suggested by the Kaiser's condemnation of the design of the proposed fountains in the Friedrichshain as too imposing and architectural. Instead of the " fairy-tale " fountain, he sug- gested something more "kindly cheerful,"—more attuned to the intelligence of the workmen's children who play in the Hain. On this the Vorwarts bases a most interesting dis- quisition on the Kaiser's wsthetic dualism. On the one hand, he admires the magnifwo pomposo style, which he reserves for his "Hohenzollern" work. On the other, as a patriarchal autocrat, he demands that his people "shall have the simplest art possible, something innocent and easily understood. This is the explanation of his preference for Charley's Aunt and the comedies of the Royal Theatre." So, too, it is asserted that he "objects to complicated music for the people, to drama which excites or causes discontent,—for example, Hauptmann's Weavers." There is, no doubt, conjecture as well as " chaff " in the article, but in its essentials it repre- sents the Kaiser fairly enough. He at any rate is no up- holder of the doctrine of "art for art's sake."
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