[47] The committees thus formed are eleven in number and each consists of nine members. They are, committees on foreign affairs, political economy, interior administration, commerce and audits, taxes and customs, justice, the Constitution and interior regulation, the army, navy, and the execution of the Treaty of Peace.
[48] See Koch, Die Grundrechte in der Verfassung, Deutsche Juristen Zeitung, 1919, p. 609, et seq.
[49] It should be observed that this provision has been decreed by a law; consequently there can be no question in regard to it whether it is a provision having the force of law or only a moral maxim. It is a legislative provision. The fact that it was later inserted into the Constitution has only the effect of preventing its abrogation or its modification other than by constitutional amendment.
[50] This principle of civil law has also become now a provision of constitutional law ([Article 152]).
[51] It must be also noted that up to now the States have not as yet complied with this order of the Constitution. In Prussia in particular it does not seem that measures have yet been enacted against the “fideicommis.”
[52] Reichsgesetzblatt, 1920, p. 876.
[53] The question of the length of the working day has not been touched by the Constitution. Up to now it has been regulated exclusively by special decrees based on the eight-hour day. The decrees of November 23, 1918, and of December 17, 1918, introduced the eight-hour day for workers in industries with the exception of industries which must not be interrupted. The decree of November 23, 1918, prescribed the length of the working day in bakeries; that of March 18, 1919, did the same for salaried employés. A general law that provides for an eight-hour day and regulating its application is in preparation.
[54] Reichsgesetzblatt, 1920, p. 98.
[55] As yet there has not been organized insurance against non-employment.
[56] The political parties interested themselves in these elections, the platform being “for or against religious instruction.” The number of socialists elected was less than that of bourgeois parties.