A GENERAL ELECTION IN PRUSSIA.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1403, 19 January 1899, Page 17

A GENERAL ELECTION IN PRUSSIA.

A CURIOSITY IN FRANCHISE SYSTEMS. Prussia is again in the turmoil of a genera! election. No sooner had she settled down after the excitement of clioosing members for the Reichstag than she must bestir herself to choose members for the Landtag. And the Landtag (says the " Pall Mall Gazette "), it is well to remember, although of scant esteem among foreigners, is, in the eyes of true Prussians, especially Prussian Junkers, a much more important and interesting Assembly than the Reichstag. It is in the Landtag that the control of their national affairs is vested; it is the Landtag that makes their laws, that decrees what taxes they must pay, and how their children must bo educated. Then the Landtag is their own private possession; no one but Prussian subjects may sit there; whereas the Reichstag opens its doors to all comers, even to the hated Bavarian —and upon just the same terms as to them. The former is an eminently select Parliament, the most select, indeed, in all | Europe; while as for the latter —a I Junker would tell you—the less said about its character the better. No socialist has ever yet held a seat in the Landtag; and at the last general election only 20 Democrats were returned, the other 413 successful candidates being either Conservatives or Reactionaries — mostly the latter. The Prussian Lantag enjoys the distinction of being elected on the very worst franchise system ever yet invented, on one, indeed, that is quite a curiosity in its way. The law on which it is founded was passed in 1849, just when the King of Prussia's nerves had recovered from the shocks they had received in the " Year of Revolutions," that mad year, '4B. His subjects, after revelling in chaos for a season, had conceived a violent passion for law and order, and were rending the heavens with their cries that no price was too heavy to pay for a settled government, and in reply they were endowed with the three-class voting system. This system was the late Prince Bismarck's special bete-noire; never was there a system at once so absurd and so unjust, he used to declare; and ho would certainly have made short work of it years ago had he not known that, if he did, ho would bring into the field against him tho whole of the Junker tribe. Again and again he held three-class voting up to ridicule as a thing that really must he got rid of; and Herr Herrfurth, when Home Secretary, announced publicly thai, its grave was already dug. Hitherto, however, the Junkers, the only section of the community that views it with election is regarded by them with special anxiety is the fear lest, should even a fair number of Democrats win seats, an agitation will be started in the Landtag itself in favour of the reform of the franchise. And, if this were done, the Government could hardly, in face of their former declarations, refuse to take the matter in hand.

Not only is voting in Prussia on the three-class system, but it is indirect, and, needless to say, not by ballot. By no possible device can you conceal tho name ft the candidate for whom you vote. All Prussian subjects who are 25 years old have the right to vote, unless, indeed, they be criminals, paupers, lunatics, or women. But the value of a vote depends upon whether the voter does or does not pay direct taxes; and, if he does, upon the amount. All the electors in any district are divided into three classes. In the first-classes are placed the rich men ol the'district, they who together pay one-third of the taxes levied there. The number of them varies of course according to the locality; but in the country is rarely above half a dozen, and may be but one man. In the second-class are the men of moderate means, whose united incomes represent one-third of the wealth of the district, and who therefore pay onei third of the taxes; and in the third-class I are the rest of the electors, whether rate--1 payers or not. Each of these three classes has allotted to it an equal number of votes, or rather the right to elect an equal number of Wahlmaner—that is, electors who, as the representatives of the original electors, choose the members of the Landtag. Thus wherever onethird of the wealth of a district is in possession of one man that man is also in the possession of one-third of the votes; and, if he has two-thirds of the wealth, he has also two-thirds of the votes. In this case he can elect the majority of the Wahlmanner and send to Parliament whom he chooses. Baron Stum, for instance, does actually thus send a member to the Lpdtag, wjo repress there no one

but himself; and there are several large ' landowners who do practically the same j thing. On the other hand, General Caprivi, the ex-Chancellor of the Empire, j who, as comparatively a poor man, is in the second franchise class, has only about one-tenth of the voting power possessed i by one of his servants, who is rich. Tho value of the vote of an elector belonging to the third franchise class is practically nil, as even supposing that in a district where there are 10,000 of them they all support the same man, they could not secure his election unless they could induce the majority of either the second-class or the first-class voters to support him, too; and of this being done • there is rarely any chance. In these circumstances we can hardly wonder that very few third-class electors should ever take the trouble to vote at all, especially as, under the three-class system, tho process of voting is a lengthy business, All who wish to vote must assemble in the voting-booth as soon as it is open and wait there until their names are called, and that may be at 8 a.m., or not till several hours later. Then in sight and hearing of their neighbours, and —what is of course more trying—also of their employers, they must state for whom they wish to record their votes. Hitherto the Social Democrats as a party have stood entirely aloof from the Landtag elections, refusing to have part or lob in them, on the score that to give men votes that have no value is an insult. This, year, however, they have changed their tactics: and with a view to harrying their opponents, even although they may have no hope at all of defeating them, they are taking an active part in the contest. In most cases, however, they have agreed to give their support to the Democrats, rather than bring forIward candidates of their own, a manoeuvre on their part that has excited both dismay and indignation in Junker circles.