A CHANCE FOR A CHANGE

The Ruhr question has been attacked from every conceivable angle by the press, from the lecture platform, and by individuals throughout the country, partisans of one stand or another. But the actual facts of the occupation cannot be denied and the ultimate result of that occupation is a question which now offers an extensive field for speculation.

One possible outcome of the present condition is being watched with keen interest by students of political theory, conservatives and liberals alike. For more than two years the German Republic has had a constitution which attempts interesting new departures in representative government, but which, for various reasons, has not yet been put into full operation. It exists, but the present government has not been able to operate in its true spirit. Now comes the possibility that the Ruhr problem, as viewed by the Germans, will stir the people sufficiently to oust the present time-serving government and put into effective operation the Constitution as intended by those who brought it into existence.

Combining many of the features of the English parliamentary system of government with the American presidential system, the new German frame of government undertakes an innovation which commands the attention of all who live under a republican government. Fear of a coup d'etat by the junker element, coupled with machinations of the present capitalist regime have thus far prevented the new Constitution of Germany from getting under way. The Ruhr crisis may furnish the required stimulus and with a president chosen by the vote of the whole German people a more definite course of action, for better or for worse, could be looked for.