Prince Bismarck has asked the Prussian electors to send up
an overwhelming majority to the Landtag of the kingdom pledged to follow his lead. If they will do so, he tells them, through the Provincial Correspondence, he will employ the surplus to be obtained from the new tariff in reducing their direct taxes, and especially the classified Income-tax, which he admits now presses very heavily, and will carry out his scheme, now completely prepared, for the purchase of the great private railways by the State. He hopes to be able to reduce fares, more especially for heavy goods, and improve the service, and yet, by getting rid of need- lessly expensive staffs and conflicting managements, to reap a profit for the State. Remembering that the railway em- ploy& will in Prussia prefer to serve the State, which gives them personal dignity, that the Prussian bureaucracy, what- ever its defects, is invariably efficient, and that the " interests " will not be able to screw one shilling out of the Prince beyond the mathematical value of their shares, that is a feasible pro- ject. It will, it is believed, attract the electors, who are just now delighted with the Austrian alliance and the political security it is believed to ensure, and will reduce the Opposition to less than one-third of the House.
Previous page
