Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/283

1899.] The bill was violently opposed by the Agrarian party, who are usually supporters of the Government, on the ground that the proposed canal would benefit the industrial at the expense of the agricultural classes. Count Kanitz, the leader of the Agrarians, pointed out that agricultural produce could not be sent by the canal, as in summer to do so would occupy too much time, while in winter, when it would be most needed by the farmers, it would be frozen; that the cheaper means of communication which it would afford would enable foreign agricultural produce to compete with that of the eastern provinces on the Berlin market; and that the development of the manufactures of Western Prussia, which the canal was intended to promote, would draw the working classes from the agricultural districts, where it was already difficult to find labourers. The attitude of the Agrarians in this and other similar matters caused great irritation in Western Prussia. The Cologne Gazette declared that their "one-sighted and selfish policy" would soon "exhaust the patience of the whole west," and that "the busy and enterprising west will not allow itself to be degraded to the position of a Cinderella by the Agrarians east of the Elbe."

The Canal Bill was referred after the first reading to a special committee of the Chamber, which after much deliberation reported against it. When it came on again in the diet, the Chancellor, Prince Hohenlohe, urged that the canal would be "a necessary complement of the traffic routes of the monarchy," and that it was "a work of civilisation which would confer blessings on all branches of industrial and commercial activity, and increase the defensive strength of the whole Fatherland," adding, however, that in view of the fact that the construction of the canal might have disadvantageous consequences for some parts of the country, the Government would do what it could to compensate them in other ways. The Clericals, who in the Prussian diet as in the German Reichstag hold the balance between the Government and the Opposition, then suggested that as this statement altered the whole situation the bill should be referred back to the committee for further consideration, and this suggestion was adopted. The Agrarians, however, still persisted in their opposition to the scheme, although it was generally known that the Emperor took a strong personal interest in it. He declared publicly at the opening of the Dortmund and Ems Canal in August that the plans for the construction of a canal between the Rhine and the Elbe were prepared on his instructions, and that it was the firm and unalterable resolve of himself and his Government to carry them out. "The growing needs of the country," he continued, "demanded more extended and easier modes of communication. The exchange of goods in bulk in the interior can only be effected by waterways, and I hope that the representatives of the people, admitting this view, will place me in a position to confer upon the country the benefits of such a canal in the