POLLING DAY IN GERMANY

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14933, 5 March 1912, Page 9

POLLING DAY IN GERMANY

THE VOTING VERY HEAVY.

BUT . WITHOUT EXCITEMENT.

[from our LONDON CORRESPONDENT.]

Berlin, January 13. Do not suppose—because Germany has only a, partial measure of popular representation, or because so much attention lias been called to the Reichstagswal of 1912 as an epoch-making onethat the campaign itself has caused any great excitement in Germany. It has not. I have never known another election campaign so quietly and dispassionately conducted.

There were no riots. There were few open-air demonstrations, for the open air was at freezing point, or lower, during the closing week of the campaign. With two exceptions, in the whole Empire, there were no lively counter demonstrations. In fact, although the most active party — the Sozial Demokratisehen Verein—is regarded as the most efficient political organisation in the world, the policy of its opponents was to all intents and purposes one of passive resistance. The bureaucrats, by whose help the nominees of the Emperor are able to carry through-a similitude of legislation, held aloof from the fray. As at every previous election since the Kaiser -adjured Bismarck to leave the Socialists to him, so at this election the Government issued its appeal to all German patriots to vote against Socialism, the deadly obstacle to Germany's Imperial destiny. That done, they rested. Only the Clericals held their meetings and made themselves busy; and only the Clericals, of all the opponents of the Social Democrats, have come out scathless. A Philosophic Peace. Tho difficulty on polling day was to discover whether anything was really happening. Germany takes some stringent provisions against electoral excitement and evidently with complete success. There is no poster warfare in a German election. Indeed, the poster itself is almost an unknown quantity in the Fatherland. There are prim little lighthouses in the streets for the sticking of bills, and most of the surface of these was occupied by the official announcements indicating the position of the nearest "wahllokal," or polling booth. Promiscuous bill-sticking is fortunately forbidden, so the public was spared the exhibition of some of the crude and f-ightful cartoons prepared for the occasion. The polling booths were difficult to find, and when found, they exhibited none of the signs of animation to which one is accustomed, even in New Zealand. It was a very cold day, ranging from ten to fifteen degrees below freezing point, even at noon; consequently not many persons spent more time than they needed in the streets. A Heavy Poll. But they did not neglect their civic duties. Despite the cold and the apparent lack of interest jpr excitement, the Germans turned out more strongly than ever to record their votes. Out of an electorate of 14,236,000, about 12,200,000 voted, or 85.5 per cent. There was never at any time a crowd round the booths, which closed at seven p.m. without demonstration. The whole life and business of Berlin went on as usual, and after the closing of the shops at seven and eight p.m. tho people gravitated as usual to the cafes, to sit and quaff beer and read papers and devour a snack of supper. It was announced a day or two ago that the Government would not permit the display of election results in the. timehonoured manner in front of the news-

paper offices. The official reason given was that the police objected to tho assemblage of crowds which must interfere with the traffic as on the occasion of the last election. In the present stato of cheeriness of the Berlin —they have been studying traffic methods in London, aJid are applying the first stages to Berlin —this may be the correct reason, but the press is almost unanimous in the opinion that the Government was afraid of the result of the elections, and feared to create demonstrations in its own disfavour. At all ©vents the elaborate preparations which were abou«ito be put into operation by the Berlin WH papers were scrapped, and tho public haa to think of the cafes instead. The figures showed that the Government had every reason to be afraid of tho results. In the Gales. Though the polls only closed at seven p.m. the first newspaper extra, issued by the Berliner Tageblatt, made its appearance at 8.32. These people refuse to be excited. The greatest interest centre* of the whole conflict., perhaps, was in what is known as the "Kaiser Kreis" of Berlin, that is to say tho Berlin electorate in which tho influenco .and palaces of the Kaiser lie. The Socialists, by their successes at previous elections, dominated thl,. whole six electorates of Berlin ; the Kaiser Kreis alono held out against them. At the last election there was a second ballot to eliminate the Socialist, and this time tho latter party made the most strenuous efforts to capture tho citadel. As it happened tho return from the Kaiser Kreis was the first to be announced, and when the first extra appeared it was evident -the appeal against the .Socialists had failed ; once more a second election was required to decide between the Socialist and the candidate of the Pcoplo's party. Before long fuller details came in, and it was then evident that tho Socialists had made even a better showing than in 1907, and that the result of the second ballot was quite doubtful. The appeal of the bureaucracy, the English peril," cry, had palpably failed. Germans were intent on minding their ovri. domestic affairs, and not being drawn off by foreign politics. There, in short, is the result of tho German elections of 1912. Whatever the Government may do— tho German Government is not responsible to the Reichstag—the people of Germany are not afraid of England. That is quito plain. That Blessed Word " Stichwahl." Talking about second ballots, the German word "stichwahl" meets an awkward position very comfortably. Wo have in English no word to express correctly the position of an election when none of the candidates has obtained a. majority. It is not a tie, and it is not a deadlock. It is simply a "stichwahl," a " stuck election." All through the evening the extras continued to arrive in the crowded cafes, and the people amused themselves in making a bid for copies as they wore distributed. But there was not a scrap of excitement. The whole thing was accepted with the philosophic resignation ,of people who either are philosophers or who know perfectly well that whatever happens in the \ election it really does not matter. The police chief, who said there was ho fear of riots with the thermometer so low, was a good prophet. Berlin, on the evening of January 12, was just the Berlin of any evening, with perhaps an extra inducement to spend some time longer in the cafes. In the Result. The result of the polls, in figures, is that the Clericals and the Conservatives are not much injured by the Socialist gains, but the National Liberals and Populists have been practically wiped out of existence. In votes the Socialists command 4,238,000 out of a total of 12,188,000, or more than twice as many as the next largest party, the Centre (or Catholics), and as many as the National Liberals, the Radicals, and the Conservatives put together. They have gained almost a million votes in five years ; bo it is idle to say that the people of Germany are much influenced by fear of a British attack. The Government parties are dismayed. " God grant," beseeches Count Schwerin, "'that,the non-Socialist parties may, before the second ballots, recognise the -whole seriousness, of the situation."