a feminine outburst,
which in any other country, would have been passed by. She was
placed under preventive arrest and is still in gaol.

The police are armed with the censorship of the internal postal
correspondence, telegrams and telephones. One of the complaints of
the Social Democrat members of the Reichstag is that every movement
is spied upon, and their communications tampered with by what they
call the "Black Chamber."

There is no reason to suppose that the debates in the closing
session of the Reichstag in 1916 on police tyranny, the Press
censorship, the suppression of public opinion, will lead to any
result other than the familiar expressions of mild
indignation--such as that which came from the National Liberal and
Pan-German leader, Dr. Paasche--and perhaps a little innocent
legislation. But the reports of the detailed charges against the
Government constitute, even as passed by the German censorship for
publication, a remarkable revelation. It should be remembered in
reading the following quotations that the whole subject has been
discussed in the secrecy of the Reichstag Committee, and that what
is now disclosed is in the main only what the Government has been
unable to hush up or hide.

In his famous speech on "preventive arrest" the Social Democratic
Deputy, Herr Dittmann said:--

"Last May I remarked that the system of preventive arrest was
producing a real reign of terror, and since then things have got
steadily worse. The law as it was before 1848 and the Socialist
Law, of scandalous memory, are celebrating their resurrection. The
system of denunciation and of _agents-provocateurs_ is in full
bloom, and it is all being done under the mask of patriotism and
the saving of the country. Anybody who for personal or other
reasons is regarded by the professional _agents-provocateurs_ as
unsatisfactory or inconvenient is put under suspicion of espionage,
or treason, or other crime. And such vague denunciations are then
sufficient to deprive the victim of his freedom, without any
possibility of defence being given him. In many cases such arrest
has been maintained by the year without any lawful foundation for
it. Treachery and low cunning are now enjoying real orgies. A
criminal is duly convicted and knows his fate. The man under
preventive arrest is overburdened by the uncertainty of despair,
and is simply buried alive. The members of the Government do not
seem to have a spark of underst