Cologne, March 9. The Rhein- und Mosel-Zeitung, which is so 
modest as to be neither “the most widely read newspaper of the 
Rhine Province” nor an “exponent of political thought”, remarks 
in connection with the election of deputies from the city of 
Cologne,!*? inter alia: 


“We are quite ready to regard Herr Merkens and Herr Camphausen as very 
honourable men” (‘so are they all, all honourable men”,’ as it is said in the tragedy) 
“and even” (just think of it!) “even to bestow applause on the Rheinische Zeitung” (a 
most valnable gift!) “when it triumphantly counterposes these men to the 
opponents of the rights of our province. But we must all the more sharply and 
resolutely condemn the reasons for which an attempt has been made to exert an 
influence on the election of these men, not because these reasons are undeserving 
of any consideration, but because they deserve no such exclusive consideration, but 
only a secondary one.” 


The fact is that the following lithographed circular had been distributed to 
various electors of Cologne city: 


“What the city of Cologne has to represent first and most importantly in the 
forthcoming Provincial Assembly is indisputably the conditions of its trade and 
industry. Hence the choice must fall on men who, besides being of an honourable 
disposition and occupying an independent civic position among us, are closely 
acquainted with the course of these relations in all respects and are able to grasp, 
illuminate and expound them from the correct standpoint.” 

Then follows the reference to the above-mentioned, certainly very honourable 
men. After which the circular states in conclusion: 

“Our city already today occupies a powerful position in the commercial world. 
But a still greater extension of its trade and industry is in store for it, and the time 
for this development is not far distant. Shipping by sail, steam, towage, and the 
railways, will bring back to our city the period of the old Hansa, only its true 
interest must be represented with understanding and circumspection in the 
forthcoming Provincial Assembly. 


“Cal Feb. 24. 
ologne, Feb. 24 A number of electors” 


This circular elicited the following Capuchin’s tirade from the 
extremely witty Rhein- und Mosel-Zeitung: 


* 'W. Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act 3, Scene 2— Ed. 


Local Election of Deputies to Provincial Assembly 367 


“If anywhere material local interests prevail to such an extent that there is not 
even a faint glimmering of spiritual and general needs, is it any wonder that those 
who hold the reins of government in their hands pay attention only to the former, 
and the latter are ordered only according to their discretion? O you great city of 
Cologne, you holy city of Cologne, you witty city of Cologne, what a low point the 
spiritual state and historical recollections of many of your children have reached! 
By the realisation of wishes and hopes that could at most make you into a big 
money-bag, they dream of bringing back the period of the old Hansa!!!” 


The Rhein- und Mosel-Zeitung does not find fault with the 
election of the deputies; it finds fault with the reasons which are 
said to have “exerted an influence” on the election. And what 
were these reasons? The newspaper quotes one circular addressed 
to various electors, in which the “conditions of trade and industry” 
are described as the most important objects of Cologne’s represen- 
tation in the forthcoming Provincial Assembly. How does the Rhein- 
und Mosel-Zeitung know that this circular, which incidentally, as the 
newspaper itself admits, reached only “various” electors, exerted 
such an effect on the minds of the electors that it primarily 
and exclusively decided the election of Herr Merkens and Herr 
Camphausen? Because the election of these gentlemen is recom- 
mended in a circular for quite special reasons, and because in fact 
these gentlemen were elected, does it in any way follow that their elec- 
tion is a result of that recommendation and its special motivation? 

The Rhein- und Mosel-Ztg. bestows applause on the Rheinische 
Zeitung when it “triumphantly counterposes these men” (Herr 
Camphausen and Herr Merkens) “to the opponents of the rights 
of our province”. What moves it to this “bestowal of applause”? 
Obviously the character of those elected. Is this character sup- 
posed to have been less well known in Cologne than in Koblenz? '* 
Among the interests to be represented in the Provincial Assembly, 
the Rhein- und Mosel-Zeitung mentions only a “freer political system of 
local government” and an “extension of the rights of the estates”. Does it 
think that it is not known in Cologne that Herr Merkens has 
distinguished himself in various provincial assemblies by his strug- 
gle for a “free political system of local government’, and that in 
one Provincial Assembly he even defended this oy and 
indefatigably in opposition to almost the entire Assembly? But in 
daft to “the extension of the interests of the estates” it is very 
well known in Cologne that Herr Merkens has primarily protested 
against the narrowing of these interests by autonomy, that 
nevertheless he stood just as resolutely for the interests of the 
estates being kept within their proper bounds when they opposed 
the general interest, general law and reason, as in the debates on 
the law on wood thefts and hunting.* If, therefore, the general 


* See this volume, pp. 224-62.— Ed. 


368 | Karl Marx 


epic ate of Herr Merkens to be a deputy to the Provincial 
ssembly is established beyond all doubt by his whole parliamen- 
tary career, if Herr Cam phausen’s exceptional, universal culture, 
high intelligence and serious honourable character are generally 
known and recognised, how does the Rhein- und Mosel-Zeitung 
know that the election of these gentlemen is due not to these 
obvious reasons, but rather to the above-quoted circular? 

No! No! the honourable news aper will reply to us, that is not 
what I maintain, not all! My delicate spiritual cast of mind is 
merely offended by the originators of that circular, by those 
materialists who have laid stress not on the spiritual and true 
interests of the people, but on other and much lower motives, and 
who for improper reasons have sought to exert an influence on the 
election of those men and on those “children of Cologne” whose 
“spiritual state and historical recollections” have sunk so low! 

If the Rhein- und Mosel-Zeitung is only concerned about the 
originators of that anonymous document, why does it raise such an 
outcry? Why does it say: 


“If anywhere material local interests be to such an extent that there is not even 
a faint glimmering of spiritual and general needs, is it any wonder that those who hold 
. the reins of government in their hands pay attention only to the former, and the 
latter are prdered only according to their discretion?” 


Do then material local interests prevail exclusively in Cologne 
because they prevail exclusively in an anonymous circular? No 
more than juristic interests prevail exclusively in Cologne because 
these interests are exclusively asserted in another circular which 
likewise reached various electors! Are not dull children to be found 
in every town as in oy seay is Would it be fair to judge the 
character of a town or a family from these children? 

Closer examination, however, shows that the circular is in fact 
not so bad as the honourable Koblenz newspaper wants to make us 
believe. It is even completely justified by the function of the 
provincial estates as fixed by law. Their legal function consists 
partly in asserting the general interest 4 the By Absa and partly in 
asserting their special estate interests. That Herr Camphausen and 
Herr Merkens are worthy representatives of Rhenish provincial 
interests is a general conviction that did not need to be confirmed 
or even so much as mentioned by the originators of the circular. 

Since the general qualification of these gentlemen as deputies to 
the Provincial Assembly was above all discussion, the question 
therefore concerned only the special requirements of a Cologne 
deputy. The question was what city interests Cologne should “first 
and most importantly” represent in the “forthcoming Provincial 
Assembly’! Would anyone want to deny that these are the “condi- 
tions of trade and industry”? But neither would the simple denial 
suffice; proof would have to be given. 


Local Election of Deputies to Provincial Assembly 369 


The Rhein- und Mosel-Zeitung particularly objects to the passage: 


“Shipping by sail, steam, towage, and the railways, will bring back to our city 
the period of the old Hansa.” 

Oh, woe to the poor city of Cologne! How it is deceived! How it 
deceives itself! “By the realisation of wishes and hopes,” moans 
the Rhein- und Mosel-Zeitung, “that could at most make you into a 
big money-bag, they dream of bringing back the period of the old 
Hansa!” 

Poor Rhein- und Mosel-Zeitung! It does not understand that the 
phrase “period of the old Hansa” is intended to mean only the 
period of the old flourishing of trade, that in reality the death- 
knell would have to sound for “all spiritual and general needs”, that 
“spiritual state” would have to be totally deranged, and that all 
“historical recollections” would have to be quite blotted out if 
Cologne wanted to bring back the political, social and intellectual 
period of the Hansa towns, the period of the Middle Ages! Would 
the government not have to make “spiritual and general needs” 
exclusively its private domain if a town were to have so completely 
estranged itself from all rational and healthy awareness of the 
present time as to live only in a dream of the past! Would it not be 
even the duty of the government, its duty of self-preservation, to 
tighten its hold on the reins if the attempt was made in all 
seriousness to blow sky-high the whole present and future in order 
to bring back obsolete and decayed conditions. 

We want to tell our readers the plain truth. There took place in 
Cologne —and that is the clearest testimony to its political vitali- 
ty—a serious election struggle, a struggle between the men of the 
present and the men of the past. The men of the past, the men 
who would like to see the “period of the old Hansa towns” 
restored in its entirety, have been driven from the field despite all 
machinations. And now along come these fantastic materialists, for 
whom every steamship and every railway should have demon- 
strated ad oculos their utter lack of sense, and talk hypocritically 
of “spiritual state” and “historical recollections”, and lament by the 
waters of Babylon over “the great city of Cologne, the holy city 
of Cologne, the witty city of Cologne” —and it is to be hoped 
that their tears will not dry up so soon!