[28] There are differences of detail between these two modes, but of no importance.
[29] The origin of this provision goes back to the “certificate” that was given in the elections for the National Assembly to soldiers and sailors returning from the front and to troops assigned to service for the preservation of order in polling places.
[30] Session of July 7, 1919. (Heilfron, op cit., vol. V, p. 3314.)
[31] Session of July 7, 1919. (Heilfron, op. cit., vol. V, pp. 3299-3300.)
[32] See the analysis of this bill in the Deutsche Juristen Zeitung, 1920, p. 385.
[33] Heilfron, op. cit., vol. II, p. 969.
[34] Reichsgesetzblatt, 1920, p. 909.
[35] Bismarck was always against the granting of salaries to members of the Reichstag. He hoped thereby to prevent making of politics a career. The members of the Reichstag since 1906 have been receiving compensation which, at first fixed at 3,000 marks a year, was increased in 1918 to 5,000. National Assembly members were paid 1,000 marks a month. The new Reichstag in one of its first sessions decided (1) that its members are to receive 1,500 marks a month; (2) that those of its members who, in the intervals of the Reichstag’s sitting, worked on committees, should receive 50 marks a day. In addition, members of the Reichstag have the right to travel free on all railroads of the Reich.
[36] There were formerly six important permanent committees: on procedure, petitions, commerce and industry, finance and customs, justice, and budget. We shall see that the Constitution has added to this list a committee on foreign affairs, and a committee on the protection of the rights of popular representation when the Reichstag is not meeting. It goes without saying that the Reichstag may name special committees for such and such functions decided upon.
[37] There are thus three kinds of treaties: Those made by a law of the Reich, those made by agreement between the President and the Reichstag, and those made by the President alone.