Germany’s Declining Prestige and Absolutism
Maximilian Harden, one of Germany’s fearless editors and publicists, writes to the New York World that German prestige has fallen very low. To use his own words: “A storm rages over the land which will continue to rage until the air is clear, until absolutism is killed. The death-knell of the present system has been sounded. The doom has been uttered of that majesty which clothes itself in clouds. Even conservative men give voice to their regret that the expressions of the Kaiser relating to foreign politics have brought the empire into a critical position. No foreigner can understand this, and it has cost conservatives their hearts’ blood.” Mr. Harden says that the emperor has aroused the hatred of England and France, through the support of the sultan, and lost the confidence of Turkey by lack of sympathy for the Young Turks; Italy is seriously thinking of breaking the triple alliance; Russia hates Germany as never before; the rising empire of Japan is now jealous, and things are in a broil generally. Mr. Harden, himself a conservative and a great admirer of Bismarck, concludes his article by saying: “Germany finally will enter the list of constitutional countries. We are marching, and if you listen, you can hear in the distance the thunderous tread of our millions of feet.” But it will be a still greater wonder if Germany is not found in the ranks of socialism.