Radicals 42 50 8 0
Antisemites and
Economic Union 22 30 8 0
Poles 16 20 4 0
Liberal Union 10 13 3 0
Volkspartei
(Democrats of South) 6 7 1 0
Alsatians 10 7 0 3
Guelfs or Hanoverians 5 1 0 4
Danes 1 1 6 0
Independents 0 7 7 0

Total 397 397 43 43]

V. PARTIES SINCE 1907 (p. 236)

*251. The Buelow Bloc.*--The period covered by the life of the Reichstag
elected in 1907 was remarkable in German political history chiefly by
reason of the prolonged struggle for the establishment of
parliamentary government which took place within it--a struggle which
had its beginning, indeed, in the deadlock by which the dissolution of
1906 was occasioned, which reached its climax in the fiscal debates of
1908-1909, and which during the years that followed gradually
subsided, leaving both the status of parties and the constitutional
order of the Empire essentially as they were at the beginning. Even
before the dissolution of 1906 the Conservative-Centre _bloc_ was
effectually dissolved, principally by the defection of the Centre, and
through upwards of three years it was replaced by an affiliation,
known commonly as the "_Buelow bloc_," of the Conservatives and the
Liberals. This combination, however, was never substantial, and in the
course of the conflict over the Government's proposed budget of
November, 1908, there was a return to the old alignment, and
throughout ensuing years the Conservative-Clerical _bloc_ remained a
preponderating factor in the political situation.

*252. The Elections of 1912: Parties and Issues.*--The Reichstag of 1907
was dissolved at the termination of its five-year period, and in
January, 1912, there was elected a new chamber, the thirteenth since
the creation of the Empire. The contest was pre-eminently one of
measures rather than of men, but the public interest which it excited
was extraordinary. Broadly, the line was drawn between the Gov