DECADENT LIFE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3393, 8 December 1911, Page 2

DECADENT LIFE.

GERMANY AND AMERICA

Here are facts about two social problems troubling Germany and the United States. GERMANY’S SOCIAL SCANDAL. “The sonsational trial which has just ended in the condemnation of Count Gisbert Wolff-Metternich to nine months’ imprisonment for fraud and obtained money by false pretences, lias brought much to light which calls for serious reprehension on tho part of the newspapers,” says the “Post’s” Berlin correspondent.

“The accusod man himself was a ne’er-do-well who, when all else failed, sought to enrich himself bv selling his name to an heiress, and tfius bringing an honored line into disrepute. He considered that the prospect of obtaining a rich wife justified him in obtaining dress clothes, jewellery, automobiles, etc., on credit, and the ease with which he obtained such credit led him to engage in transactions which brought him into conflict with the law. Witnesses for the defence swore that there out of every four ‘cavaliers’—that is, sons of aristocratic families living in Berlin—did as he had done.

“What is particularly galling to many Germans is tlie revelation of the fact that officers in the Prussian Guard Regiments have condescended to act as table decorations in the houses of Jews who have become enormously wealthy through means that will sometimes not hear inspection. SOCIETY LIFE IN PRUSSIA.

‘‘As the ‘Tageblatf points out, no Jew is permitted to become an officer in the Prussian Army, but Prussian officers accept profuse hospitality in houses where they hope to marry a daughtei of millions, dance attendance on the ladies of the house, and borrow money from the young ladies’ parents. It was stated in tho trial that the commanders of regiments had finally to warn subalterns against visiting such houses.

‘‘All this has made a very great impression on tho German people. The Emperor has from time to time issued rescripts urging officers to avoid luxury, and reminding them what their fathers accomplished while living a simple life, and others will now undoubtedly follow.

“The ‘Deutsche Tages Zeitung’ says, at the conclusion of its article: ‘This trial exhorts us with a thousand voices to take thought for our old genuine nobility, for our incomparable intellectual culture, and for the physical and mental healthiness of the people.’ ”

REV. S. C. HORNE AND THE U.S

Rev. C. Silvester Horne, M.P., has just returned from the States and Canada. In his paper, the “Signal,” he says:— “He found the same problems everywhere. Everywhere the democracies are fighting their way towards their goal. Everywhere their worst foes are of their own household.

“There are certain things which no great democracy can permit, for they mean death in tho long"run. The first is that labor should be underpaid, and our workers who make our wealth starved of health and hope and happiness. This they cannot and must not be. America has not solved this problem with all her unparalleled resources and her clover, practical, virile population. There are some who say quite frankly that America is moving forward to industrial revolution.”