It was but natural that the Socialists should hail this declaration of the Kaiser’s at first with enthusiasm.

“Internal freedom in Prussia—­that is a goal for which for more than one hundred years the best heads and best forces in the nation have worked.  Resurrection day of the third war year—­will go down in history as the day of the resurrection of old Prussia to a new development,” said the Vorwaerts.

“It has brought us a promise, to be sure; not the resurrection itself, but a promise which is more hopeful and certain than all former announcements together.  This proclamation can never be annulled and lapse into dusty archives.

“This message promises us a thorough reform of the Prussian three class electoral system in addition to a reform of the Prussian Upper House.  In the coming new orientation the Government is only one factor, another is Parliament, the third and decisive factor is the people.”

Other Berlin newspapers spoke in a similar vein but not one of them pointed out to the public the fact that this concession by the Kaiser was not made in such a definite form, until the United States had declared war.  As the United States entered the war to aid the democratic movement in Germany this concession by the Kaiser may be considered our first victory.

As days go by it becomes more and more evident that the American declaration of war is having an important influence upon internal conditions in Germany just as the submarine notes had.  The German people really did not begin to think during this war until President Wilson challenged them in the notes which followed the torpedoing of the Lusitania.  And now with the United States at war not only the people but the Government have decided to do some thinking.

By April 12th when reports began to reach Germany of America’s determination to fight until there was a democracy in Germany the democratic press began to give more serious consideration to Americans alliance with the Allies.  Dr. Ludwig Haas, one of the Socialist members of the Reichstag, in an article in the Berlin Tageblatt made the following significant statements.

“One man may be a hypocrite, but never a whole nation.  If the American people accept this message [President Wilson’s address before Congress] without a protest, then a tremendous abyss separates the logic of Germans from that of other nations.

“Woodrow Wilson is not so far wrong if he means the planning of war might be prevented if the people asserted the right to know everything about the foreign policies of their countries.  But the President seems blind to the fact that a handful of men have made it their secret and uncontrolled business to direct the fate of the European democracies.  With the press at one’s command one can easily drive a poor people to a mania of enthusiasm, when they will carry on their shoulders the criminals who have led to the brink of disaster.”