Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/597

 PRUSSIA

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PRUSSIA

and because the Government proceeded more cir- cumspectly. It was only in Hanover that a strong party, that of the Guelphs, maintained a persistent opposition. The war had also made it possible for Prussia to restore the efficiency of the Zollverein. The re.sulting great economic development of Germany was of much benefit to Prussia's western provinces, for the commerce of the Rhine and the manufacturing districts of the lower Rhine and Westphalia rapidly grew in importance. Berlin also shared in the general increase of prosperity, it became a city of a million inhabitants, a centre of wealth, w;is almost entirely rebuilt, and covers a larger area each year. In its active mercantile life it is a symbol of the present character of Prussia just as Potsdam, near by, still preserves the character of the Prussia of the era of Frederick the Great.

The result of the great economic development was a renewed growth in influence of the Liberal party, which, however, did not last beyond 1877. From 1870 the Liberals were opposed by the new and strong Centre party, in which the great majority of the non- Liberal, Catholic population of the western pro\'ince3 were combined. The opposition between the Centre and the Liberals made it possible for the Conservatives to gain time to form a more effective political organi- zation than any they had had before, and to regain for the elements holding to old Prussian traditions a marked influence upon Prussia's domestic policy, not- withstanding the fact that since 1866 the western provinces included the greater part of the territory and population of the country. From 1871 the Gov- ernment took part in the struggle in which Liberals and Catholics fought out their opinions. It restricted the share of the churches in the direction of primary schools, and passed laws that destroyed the ruling position of orthodoxj- in the Protestant church sys- tem. It sought to bring the clergy once more under the power of the State. During the eighties Bismarck abandoned the Kulturkampf, so far as government interference in Catholic church life extended. There was no essential change in the policy affecting the Evangelical Church. The Evangelical Church has a supreme church council, and by the law of 1873 it re- ceived a synodal and parish organization; in 1876 a general sjTiod was established by law. Few changes were made in the school laws. The final decision con- cerning them has not yet been reached, as in the Con- stitution of 1850 a special law of primary schools was promised, and this promise must now be fulfilled. A bitter struggle arose over this question. The bill of 1891 was dropped as too liberal; that of 1892 was with- drawn on account of the opposition of the Liberals. After this the matter was allowed to rest. In 1906, owing to the necessities of the situation, a law was passed by a combination of the Government with the Conservatives and National Liberals, with the tacit consent of the Centre. The question to be settled was who should bear the expense of the public schools?

It was laid down that the pubhc schools were in general to be denominational in character; but that everywhere, as exceptions, undenominational public schools were permissible, and in two provinces, Nassau and Po.sen, .should be the rule. The share of the Church in them was not defined, and the struggle as to its rights of supervision still continues. The gen- eral level of national education is satisfactorj-. Only •04 per cent of the recruits have had no schooling. In 1901 there were .36,756 public primary schools, of which 10,749 were Cathohc. These schools had al- together 90,208 teachers, and 5,670,870 pupils. Only 315 primary schools were private institutions. For higher education Prussia has 10 universities, 1 Cath- olic lyceum. 5 polytechnic institutions, and 2 com- mercial training colleges. Unfortunately there grew out of the Kulturkampf not only the conflict over the schools, but also the conflict against the Polish popu-

lation. The Government has always distrusted ihe Poles. This distrust has been increased by the dem- ocratic propaganda among the Poles, by their progress in economic organization, and their rapid social de- velopment. Moreover, the rapid increase of the Polish population and its growing prosperity have enabled the Poles to outstrip the German element, which does not seem capable of much resistance, in the provinces of East and West Prussia, and of late in Silesia. In 1885 the Government began a land policy on a large scale. The scheme was to purchase from the Poles as many estates as possible with gov- ernment funds, to form from these farms to be sold by the Government on easy terms, and by establishing \-illages to settle a large number of German peasants in these provinces, which, on account of the many baronial estates, were thinly populated, and thus to strengthen the German element in them (1890, law for the forming of these government-leased, or sold, farms; 1891, law for a bank in support of these hold- ings). The Government began by banishing large numbers of Poles, then set systematically to work to germanize the Poles by limiting the use of their language; thus, even in purely Poli.sh districts, Polish w;is almost entirely excluded from the public schools as the language of instruction, even for teaching reli- gion. With exception of a break in the early part (1890-94) of the reign of \Mlliam II, this anti-Polish policy has been carried on with steadily increasing vigour. At last in 1908 the Government by law ac- quired the right to expropriate Polish lands for its colonizing scheme, as voluntarj' sale of such lands had almost entirely ceased. So far no use has been made of this authority. The harsh policy of the Govern- ment greatly promoted the growth of Radicalism among the Poles; of late, however, the more sober ele- ments seem to have regained influence over them. Besides the increase of the Polish population in the eastern pro\nnces, there has also been a large emigra- tion of Poles into the western provinces, factory hands, so that in some of the western election dis- tricts the Poles hold the balance of power.

Outside of its Polish policy Prussia since 1870 has done much for agriculture. Mention should be made of the founding of the central credit assocation fund, the first director of which was Freiherr von Huene, a member of the Centre party of the Prussian Diet. The reform of the system of taxation, however, was the main cause of the improvement and reorganiza- tion of the entire economic life. Indirect taxes were restored, the direct taxes of the country were based on an income-tax, from which very small incomes were exempted. The income-tax was supplanted by a moderate property tax. The taxes on profits were left to the communes for their purposes. Prepara- tions for the tax-reform were made from 1881 by Bitter, Minister of Finance, and the reform was car- ried out (1890-93) by Miquel, Minister of Finance, a former leader of the National Liberal party. The in- troduction of the reform was simplified by the fact that only one-eleventh of the direct taxes were needed for the requirements of the Government, and of this eleventh the income-tax yielded 80 per cent. Five- sixths of the revenues of the Government come from the surplus earnings of the railways, aa since 1879 nearly all the railways within its territories have been purchased by the State. As these surpluses vary they effect the uniformity of the budget, especially in periods of economic depression. Since 1909, how- ever, provision has been made for this in the budget. The purchase of the railways by the State affected for some time the improvement of the waterways, on account of the advantage to the State of the railway revenues. In 1S86 the impro\-ement of water com- munication, which is still urgent in the eastern prov- inces, was taken up both in the form of a regulation of the rivers and in the form of a canal poUcy. In 1897