Venizelist army at Saloniki to carry out our purpose. Had we done this, the Greek nation, which is intensely patriotic and solicitous for the true welfare of the country, would have conceived a just opinion of the sovereign who had compromised the nation's future. There is a shrewd old saying that dirty linen should be washed at home. Now in spite of timely advice to the contrary, the Allies committed the blunder of employing English and French troops to dethrone the king and the French detachment included negro units from Senegal! The effect was doubly unfortunate. It made the king, in the eyes of his subjects, a martyr persecuted by foreigners; and furthermore, the pride and self-respect of the whole Greek nation was outraged by our use of black troops to carry out this purpose. Their bitter resentment is so keen to-day, that during the last campaign, Greeks would appear at election rallies with their faces blackened with soot!

Political motives likewise played a very important part. While Venizelos was necessarily absent from the country, assisting in drafting the treaty of peace (?), his partisans, without his knowledge, ran the government in an arbitrary way, which alienated a great number of citizens. Venizelist officials persecuted their political opponents with blind stupidity. These tyrannical measures were resented the more, because they had been preceded by an era of true freedom during the earlier premiership of Venizelos, immediately after the popular revolution some years ago, which overthrew not the king but the old arbitrary form of government.

So intimidated were the people by Venizelist officials, that great numbers of them resorted during the last campaign to a device adopted under

earlier tyrannical régimes, and professed themselves ardent Venizelists, in order to vote without hindrance for his opponents.

Thus it came about that a statesman, consistently liberal at heart, was so ill-served by his stupid political supporters, that their abuses of authority during his absence inspired the nation with violent hatred for himself.

In the third place, there were material grievances. Constantine's partisans used the delay in the demobilization of the army as a powerful argument in their favor. They circulated the report that Venizelos had agreed to have the Greek troops occupy Asia Minor up to the border of Cilicia, in order to form a junction with the French forces in the latter province, and that this would necessitate not only delaying demobolization, which the people eagerly demanded, but even calling to the colors additional classes of the population. They told the people further, that if the king were recalled, all this would be avoided, and in addition peace would be speedily concluded with the Turks, because the Kemalists feared Constantine and would immediately come to terms with him.

Last of all is the hereditary factor. Races, like individuals, have their hereditary traits. This is especially true of the Greeks, who, in obedience to the law of 'persistent mentality.' preserve many of the qualities of character which they possessed in the earlier ages of their history.

Men of every country resent the intellectual superiority and renown of any great man among them, if they are aware of its existence. They will not stand behind such a man for a long period, no matter how valuable his public services may be. The Greeks resemble every other people in this respect. They had heard Venizelos

But

incessantly lauded to the sky as the greatest Greek of modern times, as the ablest diplomat of any land. His indisputable superiority and world-wide fame had offended many of his fellow countrymen. The same qualities bestowed upon him an authority which, supported as it was by the gratitude he merited for his immense service to his country, seemed likely to give him an indefinite lease of power, and therefore to exclude his political opponents from office for many years to come. For these reasons, in any country Venizelos would sooner or later have had to pay the penalty for an eminence which blocked so many hopes and embittered so many envious and mediocre rivals. That is the historic Calvary of every great man. in addition to that, Venizelos was ruling over a nation which throughout its long history has been characterized by extreme mobility of sentiment, has been a prey to irresistible impulses, and has displayed notorious ingratitude toward its own great men. was the Greeks who in their early days invented ostracism, to disembarrass themselves of statesmen who had no other fault than his great talents and devotion to the public weal. We need hardly recall that Aristides was banished in 485 B.C. because the people were tired of hearing him called 'The Just.' Themistocles, the conqueror of the Persians and the creator of Athenian supremacy, was ostracised only fourteen years later. Demosthenes offended his fellow countrymen by his fame and eloquence, so that they refused him the crown of gold which Ctesiphon proposed to bestow upon him in recognition of his Philippics, and his ever vigilant patriotism.

It

To-day, ostracism no longer exists; but human sentiment is unchanged, and moves men to the same injustice.

In view of all these motives and in- ! fluences, what has just occurred in Greece can be easily understood. It b proves once again, that self-interest, envy, and mysticism control the acts of men; and that the Tarpeian Rock still stands close to the Capitoline.

[Kölnische Zeitung (Conservative Daily British Occupied Territory), January 14, 15]

ECHOES OF ANCIENT DISCORD

BY DR. FRANZ FISCHER

[The litigation to prevent the publication of Memories has naturally revived interest in the the third volume of Bismarck's Thoughts and circumstances attending his retirement. Kölnische Zeitung prints the following hitherto unpublished confidential letters from its editorial archives, written by its Berlin correspondent while the discord between Kaiser and Chancellor was at its height.]

BERLIN, April 18, 1889. BISMARCK reads our paper with great attention from beginning to end, even the supplement story. The latter (Durch Stürme) irritates him exceedingly. He insists it is socialist through and through; that it incites the poor and oppressed against the rich and ruling classes; that the characters are unmitigated scoundrels whose whole object is represented to be the oppression of the poor. He insists that there are no starving school-teachers in real life. R. tells me that he has to listen to an outburst from the Prince on this subject every morning, as though R. himself were the author. I told him to tell the Prince the story is by a wellknown novelist, who is anything but a socialist; and that it will end all right; and if the Prince will wait patiently, he will discover that in due time the good are rewarded, and the evil punished. Workingmen will not be incited to discontent by this romance, for they do not read the Kölnische Zeitung, and it

contains a good lesson for manufacturers and landlords who treat their workmen badly.

BEATENBERG, August 22, 1889. Our editorial attack on the article on Colonial Policy, which the Prince wrote for the Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, has offended Bismarck so deeply that he has ordered all relations with our paper broken off. He will have nothing more to do with us. He lays special stress on the point that he does not object to our opposing his policy, but to the tone of our opposition. We seem to be ranking ourselves with his personal enemies. Our tone is calculated to wound him personally. He has more profitable things to do than to irritate himself over such matters, and therefore the Kölnische Zeitung, which he has previously read through daily, is no longer to be delivered to him. I personally think the Prince is particularly angered because the Kölnische Zeitung has again recurred to our unfortunate toadying to Russia, and because it charges that we are also toadying to England.*

BERLIN, January 25, 1890. Differences of opinion have arisen between the Prince and the Kaiser, due ultimately to Bismarck's inability to accommodate himself to the new era, represented by a Kaiser who really rules. I feel these differences may be speedily reconciled. They may be summarized thus: the Kaiser, who is too friendly to the working people to suit the Prince, has not been able to get his liberal views incorporated in the speech from the throne. He wants a workingman's welfare law; the Prince does not. The Kaiser wishes to repeal the law

* Bismarck insisted that England's friendship was more important to Germany than any possible gain from supporting Emil Pasha's expedition to the Upper Nile.

against the Socialists once for all; the Prince will not give up the right to banish Socialists. The Kaiser wants to get rid of Maybach; the Prince wants to keep him. We shall know more regarding all this in a few days. But it is impossible to prevent a knowledge of Stock Exchange. I believe, as I have these differences from reaching the said, that the Chancellor has no intention of resigning. He just told his son Herbert, whom the Kaiser sent to get a measure passed to raise official salaries, that he could not leave the Kaiser over a mere difference of opinion. The Kaiser, on his side, does not want to

alienate the Prince. He knows that weaken the popularity of the throne. even his voluntary retirement would

He understands also how to handle the

Prince, and present prospects are that things will go better in the future. The

worst feature is that the Prince's Ministers also have lost their freedom of action. The Prince has recently been so arbitrary and unpredictable, that the ministers are completely put out. Yet we may hope that an improvement will occur here also.

BERLIN, February 21, 1890.

Last night, I had a long interview with Prince Radolin and Count Philip Eulenburg, both of whom are intimate with the Kaiser and Prince Bismarck, and Count August Eulenburg. To-day, I had a conversation with Count Bill Bismarck. All these gentlemen feel sure a break will occur between the Prince and the Kaiser before long; for things cannot continue as at present more than a few months. The Kaiser will do all in his power to delay the Prince's resignation. He is very much in earnest but very calm.. On the whole, sentiment in favor of workingmen's committees is growing stronger -even among Westphalian employers. Only, they will have no compulsion.

BERLIN, March 1, 1890. The State Council has unanimously agreed to prohibit Sunday labor except in special cases. It also almost unanimously approved the proposals regarding the employment of women and children. At the second session the project for workers' committees was adopted. Their obligatory introduction was not proposed or favored that is to be left to the discretion of the parties, but they were almost unanimously recommended. The workers' committees, which have proved such a success for thirty years at Neviges, have aroused particular interest. Perhaps you could get a good article upon them. A pleasant sensation was created by a telegram received by the Kaiser during the session, announcing the introduction of workers' committees in the Saar district. At the third session, methods for making the government mines and factories model establishments, in respect to labor conditions, were discussed. The first measure debated was one for giving all the employees, in the course of time, the status of ordinary civil servants, like the workingmen now employed by the post office and railways. One of the reactionary speakers, Jeucke, gave the Kaiser to understand that his interference during the May labor disturbances had done harm. It would have been better had there been an open revolt. The Kaiser at once rose up replied very calmly, that Jeucke's opinion was entirely new to him. Hitherto, his information has been precisely to the opposite effect. But even if there were some basis for Privy Counselor Jeucke's statements, yet he must say that to-day, after thinking the matter over more calmly and clearly than he had been able to do at the time, he would again act, as head of the State, precisely as he had acted on that occasion. Everyone knew

and

what he said at the time. He would be neglecting his duty as head of the State if he had remained passive and had not attempted to reconcile the parties so long as reconciliation was possible. When the Kaiser had concluded this sharp, direct, but fluent reply, all the members present rose and thanked him.

His concluding remarks were a sharp reproof to the Social Democrats. It was his duty to combat them; he had the means to do so whenever necessary. But the first thing was to satisfy the just demands of the workers, and that was why he had convened the State Council. Since the subject of workers' committees had been so thoroughly discussed, he considered it no longer necessary to keep the whole council in session. When Jeucke, in his speech opposing workers' committees, insisted that they were inadvisable because they were likely to impair discipline, he expatiated upon the point that a workingman was the employer's legal equal only before he entered his employ, because as soon as he contracted to work for the latter he became his servant, and must be subject to strict and almost military discipline in the interest of production — whereupon the Kaiser raised both arms in the air to express his astonishment. After the regular speakers had finished, the Kaiser requested General von Loe to say a few words upon this question of discipline. Loe is a splendid talker, and made a brilliant speech attacking Jeucke's argument. Military discipline and labor discipline were entirely different things. In case of the first, complete subordination to one's superior officers was vital, but the authority of the latter was carefully kept within specific bounds. Appeal might be made directly to the Emperor himself, against unjust punishments. The existence of that right of appeal was the

:

best guaranty that unjust and arbitrary punishments would not be inflicted. The very possibility made superior officers cautious to keep well within their rights. In factories, on the other hand, the laborers are subject to a single master, the employer. They have no protection against injustice. To install committees of the kind suggested could have no other result than to promote a good understanding between workers and employers.

After the Kaiser had adjourned the session, Prince Pless was appealed to by many of the members to thank him for sharing directly the labors of the Council, something which had never happened before in the country's history. As soon as the Kaiser saw what was in the air, he requested that this formality be omitted. He was only performing his duty. One of the labor experts introduced himself to the Kaiser at breakfast as a Social Democrat. The Kaiser delivered a lecture to him upon his Social Democratic ideas, which lasted almost a quarter of an hour. It ended only when the Kaiser's attention was diverted elsewhere.

Prince Bismarck attended only the first morning session, which lasted from ten o'clock to one, and the breakfast which followed. After that he kept away from the meetings. After the first breakfast, as he was lighting his great pipe, which Mrs. von Boetticher had handed him, he apologized for his probable absence in the future on the ground of other pressing duties. He then talked with Mrs. von Boetticher for an hour, and later went down the long corridor of the Interior Office and the Foreign Office to his house, stopping on his way at the offices of five different officials, where he called unannounced, and at each place spent a quarter or half an hour, gossiping. He repeatedly showed his displeasure at the Kaiser's actions.

Of course this is merely the rumbling before the storm. Yet, day before yesterday, the Kaiser went out of his way to tell two different gentlemen that he felt certain they would weather the crisis.

BERLIN, March 11, 1890.

The Kaiser has conferred the order of the Black Eagle upon Minister von Boetticher of his own initiative, without consulting Bismarck. He only informed the latter later. The Prince is badly put out about this, as he considers it a studied offense. He hardly congratulated the Minister when he presented himself, and does not try to conceal his indignation. Those who are best informed believe he has made up his mind not to resign his office, but to hang on to grim death.

BERLIN, March 16, 1890.

This morning, Count Herbert wrote me that his father desired to see me about eleven o'clock. I immediately went to the Chancellor's palace and had a half hour's interview with him. Wine was being served, and he asked me to drink a glass with him. I begged him to excuse me, saying that I indulged sometimes in the evening, but had to be careful in the morning to keep in good trim. He replied that his case was different. He had to have a half flask of wine every morning to oil the wheels. Then he started out at once about the Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung article. He regretted that it had been misinterpreted by the National Liberals and the Kölnische Zeitung. He was not contemplating allying himself with the Centre. He would consider such a policy impracticable and could not understand how any one came to attribute such folly to him. His article was directed against the Progressive Party, and was intended to call the Kaiser's attention to the