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Show Crime of Lese Majeste in the German Empire Brings Sure Penalties Immunity of Monarch and His Family From Democratic Criticism and Free Discussion Dis-cussion a Feudal Survival "Face to Face Willi Kaiserism" By JAMES W. GERARD, American Ambassador at the German Imperial Court, July 23, 19J3, to February 4, 11)17. Author of "My Four Years ia Germany." Copyright, liU bv I'ublic l.o.t-r Company. Copyright Canada, 19 1 S, by i'ubhc Led nor Compauy. CHATTER IV. , The Kaiser and "Lese Majeste."' THK taVuls und a'Witv and j Hs;:veab!o personality of the Oeru-an ruiperor must not blind uh to the fact that he is j i the center of the system which j j hiun brought the world to a despair and misery uch as it never has known since tiie dawn of history. j inut remember that ail his utter- ance d' viose the soul of thu con- j I queror, of a man i u tensely an mous for eari.dy fame and a cons pic tiuue I pUic-' in the gallery of human events; envious, too. of t he yreat names of th piijl. his ears so lun-l for a l-mi l-mi rat ion and applause that they fall to har tiie Kieat. lorn; - drawn wad of agony that echoes around th w or Id. His ew tire so blinded with the sheen of (us own fc'-ory that they do not e the mutilated corp-es, th crime, the petilcn -e. th.e hunger, th Incalculable sorrow that sweeps the earth from the j.mles of Africa to the frozen plains of the north, from Siberia to Saskatchewan, from Texas to Trie -de, f --orn ALiska. to A f han-l.-nan everywhere be has brought t ie dark an;'! of mou: v lu. to m'.lhons upon milhor.s of desolate homes. Vo yon renter:. her that r : 'turc of the cm.:erors. Cae ar and Alexander. Alexan-der. Attila and Napo'eou. PurV' nuwre and t'amb ses. astrile tb.cir hor-ses or m ihanots hi the enter o' the picture, dark, gloomy, nien-achi,;: nien-achi,;: '.ich sid of th!"!i. lining a -iast plain that fades in the distance, dis-tance, lice th.e dead, stiff, co'.l. ray. reproachful yet all the vie rim? o' those CA.vu;ueror?. as well ns all their battalion;. d. not ecjual the countless number that have it 1 ready drenched a foraivlus earth with their cyins blooi in this war, Vtims all of the vainglorious vain-glorious aL'ibition of a single mortal the trt'nr.an kaiser. Fat the despot who send? his ?ub-;ect ?ub-;ect to die. as l-'Vederlck the theat said, "in order to be talked about." is not indigenous to any one particular country. like conditions produve like result. The career of Ixrnis XIV, tNe "Sun Kim?." for instance, whose vrars auvl e 1 1 ra a nee s sowed the seels of the French revolution. Is enitomled in t-o r' ises xittertvi bv Mr. Gerard's second book, written since his departure from Berlin upon j th severing of diplomatic relations j with imperial Germany, has been se- ! cured by the Public Ledger for ex- j elusive newspaper publication in the UnitiHl States and Canada. It will i appear simultaneously in daily installments in-stallments in this and other news- papers licensed by the Public Ledger. Any infrUigemeut of the Public Ledger's copyright will be prose-cut prose-cut cd. him. ' I am the state" and "I almost bad to wait." After the French rev oh; tarn, another an-other despot, the hvs. Napoleon, not only sought th conquest of the world. i but made h:s e-wa:t"r and ex -i; room marshals and irs w asherwomen cu'-hesses. pt':v'';sm h.j.s been ch.-tr-(Vter: tic of maiy general ions, but the world had thought itsc'f r'.d of th worst ofY-u ders. Kovalty sthl lives to to:tu-o and retard re-tard civ-.hzat'ou. Its mechovl of r-er-pct'.:a:!on are i:n: handed frou. the middle tles. Wiiat is lce majeste but a s'.:ruv,i! of feudalism, a kind of sla erv to Inviolable tradition the lmm unite of the monarch and his family from that criticism and freedom free-dom of discussion w huh is the es-sem es-sem e of democi acy ? To co m mit le se majeste. to s o eak shi;iuint;Iy of roahy m Germany is a very se; ;ous orfeue. 1 hae taken the following exainp'es of decisions in Use majeste cases r.ot I iron ihe recards of the lower courts. I he decisions of w hich may bo re- versed, but from th.e records of the imperial supreme court at l.eirsh. th? lushest court in the '.and. For Instance ; Tho defendant, a 5veaher at a r-methi '.vnsist inr ehteuv of s.- mpathijcrs with th.e So- 'lahs: ciu.H', maiie tho fotlowins statement, in reference to a speecii of the kaiser: 'T'nder the protection of tho highest high-est power of t ite state th.e satin. let has been rtur.s: before the t Socialist par;v, the trauut ec ivhich means a combat for life and death. Wed. then, so far as the insult -onoerTis our parte, we are so far aho e it that (Continued oc Pasre Two.) SURE PUNISHMENT FPU LESE MUM (Continued from Page One.) the mndslingiug no matter from wlia t direction it may oomo--eannot touch us." The defense pointed out that the defendant de-fendant "had considered each word care fuily before he had made the sneech. and that in doting so wanted to aoid any possibility pos-sibility of lese majeste." The supreme court held that, although the defendant carefully selected his words and tried to evade prosecution, lie must be nd; mined guilty, because bis audience could not have misunderstood the insinuation. insinu-ation. The sentence was affirmed. I'anucious as it is to say anything that ea n he const rued as rieron lory of the authority of the kaiser, It is equally dangerous dan-gerous to a 1 1 ack I ht! dead in embers of t iie roya 1 lions. The editor of the Volkswacht had published pub-lished in his paper an article entitled "The i lerma n ( 'ha r act erist ics of the Hoheny.ollerns," which the lower court interpreted in-terpreted to be a reply to a statement of the kaiser, which had referred to a i. roup of people considered mi wort by by him to be called "Genua us." W it hout doubt the edit or was a Hading to the kaiser's speech, made at Koeui;;sberi; to the newly enlisted nrmy recruits, lu which he called t he Socialists "vh tcrla ndslose Gcse 11 en," I. e., scoundrels without any count ry. The writer, however, discussed "the ool.ducL of I he Elector Joachiu of bi.i ndenburtr and of his brother. Albreclu. elector of .Mainz, before and during the elect ion of Em pet or 'ha rles V." Tim defense claimed that the defendant could not be held guiltv of lese majesle against (he kaiser, since the defendant "ciiticised the kaiser's ancestors and not the kaiser himself." Gut the court beld that iT was the intent of the defendant to discredit Ihe "House of the llohen-zollerns. llohen-zollerns. and that the kaiser, bv implication, implica-tion, being the living head of the Mohen-r.ollern Mohen-r.ollern family, was t heieby insulted." The court furt her sta tes that l bo de-f. de-f. n hint's article could not be regarded as jl scientific or historical contribution, contribu-tion, :d uce l he V ol U s w a e i M ' H subscribers, cynsisiini; chiefly oi" vor U l n men . had neither the under landim;- i nor interest In d nastio Intrigues nf the sixteenth ecu-cent ecu-cent III'V. Keen I hosi' Americans who have e-pie-:: ed I he i n "eh es freely a bout the kals v will, afler the war Is over, be compel;,",! to take their "cures" In some country other than Germany, for in one case it was held that an American citizen was rightfully convicted in Baden ot lese majeste 'because of statements made by him in Switzerland. The court held that the judgment of tne lower court must be sustained, since tne German imperial laws have precedence over anv treaties engaged in by tne Grand Duchv of Baden and the I mted States and "that the defendant had become be-come a citizen of the United States does not exempt him from prosecution in the German imperial courts." Jn another case a newspaper editor criticised a speech delivered by the kaiser before the reichstag on December G. The defendant did not refer to the person of the emperor himself, but simply attacked at-tacked and ridiculed the propositions and proposals made by his imperial majesty. The defense pointed out that the kaiser's speech was not an act of the kaiser's own personal will, but only an act of government for which the imperial chancellor chan-cellor should be responsible, and that the defendant was not conscious of the fact tiiat the criticism contained in his article could be an insult to the person of the kaiser. It was held, however, by the court that a criticism of the kaiser's speech at the opening of the ri cristas: is always to be regarded as a criticism of the kaiser's person, and that the plea that the im- I perial chancellor should be responsible for ats of government of this sort is not I sustained. j In other words, it is. in Germany, a , crime to cri tieise or ridicule any proposition propo-sition uttered by the sacred lips of the kaiser. "If the kaiser announces that two and J two make five, jail awaits the subject who dares to ridicule that novel arithmetical arith-metical proposition." It is because of these convictions for lese ma'jeste that the P-erliners. when discussing dis-cussing the emperor at their favorite table, or "Stammtisch." in the beer halls and cafe?, always refer to him as "Leh-mann." "Leh-mann." (Continued tomorrow. 1 |