whose lands have been stripped of cheap laborers by the development of industrialism in the cities. The party has thrived under persecution. It steadily gained votes in the face of the most antagonistic laws which the Junkers could devise with Bismarck’s aid, and the most harassing police espionage which the bureaucratic system of Government has made possible.
In the country districts the polling place is always a beer-garden.
At the entrance the heelers of the opposing candidates sit at tables drinking beer while handing out the slips to new-comers.
In the last German election nearly one-third of the 9,500,000 votes were polled for the Social-Democratic candidates. The result of that election shows a loss of nearly 30 per cent. by the agrarian groups, and a gain of 43 per cent. by the Social Democrats. It was the sort of thing that we call, in our politics, a land-slide. Every session of the Reichstag for eighteen years, however, has shown an increasing number of seats occupied by the Social Democrats, so that the great gains of the last election did not indicate a turning over of public sentiment. It rather represented a culmination of those influences which have been adding strength to the Social-Democratic party ever since the first session of the Reichstag in 1871, when only one Social Democrat sat on the extreme left.
A polling place in the laboring man’s quarter of Berlin, generally a restaurant or beer-garden.
The Social Democrats now poll a majority of votes in nearly every capital city, every great mercantile marine port, and if all the great industrial centers. They are handicapped by unfair representation. If the true expression of the will of the German people were reflected in the Reichstag the Social Democrats would be in a commanding position there.
In studying German politics, however, it must be borne in mind that the ministry is not responsible to the Reichstag, but only to the Emperor. No cabinet resignations or dissolution of parliament follows a vote unfavorable to the Government. The
