A valuable paper on the remarkable growth of the Social
Democratic vote in Germany appears in Tuesday's Daily Mail. In the opinion of the writer, Mr. Andrew Caird, it is not anti- militarism, but resentment against the taxation of food in the in- terests of the Agrarians, that has caused the "land-slide." This, however, is not a matter of mere speculation. It is borne out by the explicit statements of the Social Democrats them- selves. The protest against " Brotwucher "—i.e., bread usury— was the first plank in their platform at the elections, and the leading feature of their campaign literature. "In order to please the Agrarians," so runs one passage, "the duties on
food have been increased by 175 million marks The German people will have in future the questionable happiness of eating the dearest bread and dearest flour in the world." Herr Bebel, the leader of the party, has also emphasised the dangers to the middle as well as to the working classes of food taxation. It has been reserved, however, for Herr Singer, another leader of the Social Democrats and Member of the Reichstag, to apply the lesson of the German elections to the situation created by Mr. Chamberlain's proposals. "Mr. Chamberlain," he said to Mr. Caird, "repeats the specious arguments with which the East Elbian Junkers (landlords) tried to delude the German working people in the last cam- paign—namely, that an increased duty on agricultural pro- ducts will benefit the masses, when in fact the income of the Agrarians is increased at the expense of the consumer. It is absolutely false that through increased grain duties the wages of the German working people have been raised or their savings increased."
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