PROTECTION IN GERMANY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3375, 15 November 1911, Page 7

PROTECTION IN GERMANY.

ABROGATION OF THE TARIFF. KAISER FACING DEFEAT. In the Reichstag the Imperial Chancellor, Dr. von Bethmann-Holweg, scouted the idea of abrogating the present protective tariff. Even a temporary suspension, he declared, would be dangerous. Refeixing to the proposal that meat should be admitted free as a means of reducing the high cost of living, the Chancellor pointed out that such a course was impossible, and denied that there had been any abnormal rise in the prices of necessaries. Before the end of tlie year, or at the very latest in January, 1912, the general elections for the Reichstag are to take place (says a well-known American writer resident in Berlin), and as the time approaches the anxiety of the Government, which expects a great defeat, is becoming more and more evident. While the patriotic Germans have little or no fault to find with the foreign policy of the present Administration, the great masses of the voters are thirsting for revenge over the ultraconservative landowners (junkers), who, in conspiracy with the Catholic Centre, in 1909 placed enormous new burdens of taxation upon the middle classes and the poor while they absolutely refused to tax the great fortunes Tlie supposed representatives of the people favored tlie millionaires, but taxed all the necessaries of life, even down to matches. The budget which the allied groups of conservatives succeeded in passing was so utterly unjust that even Prince von Buelow as staunch <«. "Junker” as any, refused to accept it. a refusal which ultimately led to his downfall.