In spite of all the pressure
applied, the subscriptions have hardly produced a few hundred marks.
The German Press describes the Alsatians as ungrateful and
short-sighted.
August 9, 1899. [8]
The mania for autocracy dominates the mind of the German Emperor, King
of Prussia, and leaves no room therein for anything but exactions of a
disturbing kind. We know how numerous are the crimes of
_lese-majeste_; also that William II wishes the Reichstag to pass a law
punishing with hard labour those who incite strikes. A lecturer at the
University of Berlin, M. Arons, having dared to proclaim himself a
socialist--needless to say, from the theoretical point of view--the
Emperor required his Minister of Public Education to have M. Arons
brought for trial before the Council of the University, consisting of
forty-five professors. These acquitted the accused, who, in their
opinion, had not indulged in any propaganda and was within his strict
rights in expressing his personal opinions. The Emperor had their
judgment heard on appeal before a court consisting of officials of the
Public Education Department. To make such an appeal possible, the
Reichstag was required to pass a new law in June 1898, known as the
Arons Law.
Whenever the occasion offered, I have shown how deep is the hatred
which William II bears towards the old liberalism of the German
Universities. Yet it is for this same William that certain
Germanophils amongst our French Universities entertain such a
disgraceful weakness.
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