For instance, a
man can have the Red Eagle order of the first, second, third or
fourth class, and these may be complicated with a laurel crown,
with an oak crown, with swords and with stars, etc. Even domestic
servants, who have served a long time in one family, receive
orders; and faithful postmen and other officials who have never
appeared on the police books for having made statements against
the government or the army are sure of receiving some sort of
order.
Once a year in Berlin a great festival is held called the
_Ordensfest_, when all who hold orders or decorations of any
kind are invited to a great banquet. The butler, who has served
for twenty-five years, there rubs shoulders with the diplomat who
has received a Black Eagle for adding a colony to the German
Empire, and the faithful cook may be seated near an officer who
has obtained "_Pour_le_Merite_" for sinking an enemy warship.
All this in one sense is democratic, but in its effect it tends
to induce the plain people to be satisfied with a piece of ribbon
instead of the right to vote, and to make them upholders of a
system by which they are deprived of any opportunity to make
a real advance in life.
Pages:
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136