Muddled Reichstag

President Loebe of the Reichstag seized the heavy bell with which it is given him to attempt to maintain order and during most of the week rang it until his arm ached.

At the extreme Left of the Reichstag the Communists groaned; at the extreme Right the Ludendorff Voelkische Deputies stamped and hissed. Atop the Tribune, Chancellor Luther stubbornly defended his newly created "Little Coalition Government" (TIME, Feb. 1).

Weak. The Chancellor began by reading a vague and general ministerial declaration, which had been made so noncommital that it did not even pledge the Cabinet to take steps for Germany's entrance into the League of Nations, although Dr. Luther and Foreign Minister Stresemann are personally pledged to such a policy by their action in putting through the Locarno Pacts, which specifically require that Germany shall enter the League (TIME, Dec. 7).

The Chancellor's intent was apparently to conciliate the Right, which opposes Germany's entrance into the League until more concessions have been extracted from the Allies. He succeeded so badly that he was hissed and booed from both the Right and the Left, and received not so much as a single handclap from the Centre, which comprises his "Little Coalition."

Firmer. Next day Herr Luther abandoned all attempt to conciliate the Right--played to the Socialists of the Left, who helped him to railroad through the Locarno Pacts. He declared positively that the Cabinet would hasten the entrance of Germany into the League, and announced his intention of calling for a vote of confidence on the morrow: "The Government will not attempt to carry on by backstairs tactics or shillyshallying." The session closed amid a Luther motion from the Centre.

Showdown. Chancellor Luther ascended the Tribune after his henchmen had assiduously bruited it about that he carried in his pocket an order for the dissolution of the Reichstag which bore the signature "Paul von Hindenburg." If the vote of confidence should be defeated, the Chancellor would announce that President von Hindenburg believed that only a general election could terminate the three-cornered deadlock now existing between the various Reichstag factions. The Deputies pondered well whether they wished to lose their seats and campaign for them again. While they pondered, Foreign Minister Stresemann seized the occasion as the psychological moment to announce that he had obtained a few minor concessions from the Allies respecting the evacuation of the Rhineland. The effect was electrical and cleared the air for the Government considerably.

Ballots. To sustain the Government: 160 "Little Coalition" votes, with 11 Deputies "not present because of illness." To unhorse the Government: 150 "Permanent Opposition" votes, with 20 Deputies "not present because of illness."

Thus Chancellor Luther was "sustained" by 10 votes. But there were 152 "abstentions." There lay the rub. Those who abstained were the 131 Socialists and 21 Deputies of the Economic Union, a minor-party bloc. Henceforth the Herr Chancellor must continue to curry favor with these "benevolent abstainers," as he did throughout his first chancellorship last year. The German party situation continued muddled.