The remainder resisted as well as
they could. There was antagonism between their interests and those of
the capitalists, between the religious and particularist tendencies on
one hand and free thought and cosmopolitanism on the other. The
agrarians demanded tariff duties on agricultural products to raise the
price of their foodstuffs. The industrials wanted a low cost of living
in order to avoid the rise of wages and to compete with better advantage
for foreign markets.
Bismarck was the target for vehement opposition when he inclined toward
the party of the traders and the industrials in his colonial and tariff
policy. This evolution came about 1879. For a while the great Chancellor
was looked upon almost as a traitor.
Nevertheless, his view was just. Balancing the forces on the one hand by
those on the other, ceding protective duties first to one side and then
to the other, offsetting the advantages which he offered to one side by
the prerogatives which he accorded to the other, he finally succeeded in
reconciling them.
From this reconciliation of the two dominant classes has resulted the
extraordinary power of Germany. The bourgeois parties have from time to
time grumbled over the military appropriations, but they have always
voted them.
Pages:
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309