THE GERMAN CENTRE PARTY

New Zealand Tablet, 5 September 1912, Page 25

THE GERMAN CENTRE PARTY

ITS AIMS AND IDEALS There has lately ' been published by • the International Catholic Publishing Company, Amsterdam, an interesting account, of the history and work of the great German Catholic Party, The Centre,’ from the pen of M. Erzberger. The author, himself a member of tlie Reichstag, is at pains to show that the Centre is essentially a political and not a sectarian party. By this he means that the, party, though predominantly.., Catholic, opens its ranks to men of all religionsit is supported by voters who are not Catholics, and has always counted Protestants among its members within, the Reichstag. Windthorst affirmed this fundamental principle of the party when he said: ‘ The Centre party is not a sectarian one. Its programme is public on its principles we have admitted anyone who is willing and able to subscribe to it, and we shall welcome everyone who does accept it, to whatever religion he may belong.’ ‘Equal rights for all’ is the motto of the party,. and there is no measure of religious liberty which it has claimed for the Catholic party which it has not been willing to extend to others. The Centre party is certainly not exclusively Catholic, but in M. Erzberger's opinion there is no other political party in Germany to-day to which a Catholic can consistently belong. The Social Democrats are ruled out as impossible by reason of their avowed attitude towards all religions. The Liberals are committed to a policy, both as regards education and the religious Orders, which puts association with them out of the question. The National Liberals inherit the tradition of Prince Bulow, and are the open enemies of the rights of the Holy See. The. Conservatives are committed to a general policy of favoritism towards the Evangelical Church, and on, education and the Polish question hold views unacceptable to Catholics. The Centre party, therefore, is essentially the' Catholic party in Germany which invites,, and in a large measure secures, the co-operation of those who sympathise with its ideals even though they are outside the Church.

The Aim and Object. The aim and object of the Centre party were officially defined two years ago as follows : ‘ The Centre is a political party that has taken for its aim the upholding of the interests of the whole nation in every walk of life in accordance with the principles of the Catholic view of life.’ This may seem somewhat vague, and no doubt in the strenuous days of . the Kulturkampf a simpler formula might have sufficed , But the very success of that tremendous struggle has tended to diminish the number of points on which the QJatholics of Germany had to fight, as it were, for their own hands. Anyone who cares to compare the successive electoral manifestoes of the party will be in a. position to note the gradual widening of the pro-

gramme; until in the last one, that of 1906, there isnot so much as a reference to any single distinctive. Catholic grievance. • The objection to the definition already cited is that it 'covers so ‘little of the ground. There are so many things which are outside ‘ the Catholic’s view of life,' and which must be settled without reference to it. In other cases ‘ the Catholic view of life’ is also the general Christian view, and therefore not in itself distinctive.of a party. There is no ‘ Catholic view of life’ to guide us between a policy of Protection or Freetrade, or as to whether it is wiser to put our trust in a big battleship or in a fleet of submarines. Neither can we get guidance from ‘ the Catholic view of life in the solving of such problems as whether the tax on tobacco should be five or seven shillings in the pound, or whether the workers’ day . should be eight or nine hours. But it may be safely said that the Centre party has been true to ‘ the Catholic view of life ’ in that it has stood steadfastly on the side of freedom, and guarded the rights of the poor, and constituted itself the champion of the rights not of a section of the people, but of the whole. It was inevitable that, as the specific Catholic grievances got righted, one after the other, the bonds binding all Catholics into one political party should become gradually relaxed. As the causes which called the party into being slowly receded into the distance and passed into history, there came a tendency to judge its work from a purely political standpoint. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that the present programme, necessarily containing little of distinction and separate Catholic -interest, is viewed with cold disapproval by some of its former friends. On this subject we may quote the quaint words of M. Erzberger; ‘ A part of the nobility, formerly on the side of the party, at present either keeps aloof or has joined, its adversaries; but the party does not suffer by this, for as a great, Christian, popular party it is not much concerned how it is judged in some castles that know very little about the world. In the world of officials .and scientists the sympathy for the party is written in wax. The broad mass of voters, however, never stood closer behind the party than at present.’