No division of competence between the two parliaments in such a way that only social and economic questions shall be submitted to the Chamber of Labour can be admitted. This distinction between political affairs and economic affairs is a pure impossibility, for economy, politics and general culture form a unity which must be respected. It is on production, on “creation” that the existence of the people and all its material and intellectual life rests. The two parliaments therefore should have equal power to study these questions. They must also have equal rights. To give the economic chamber only the right to draw up reports and give advice, and even to oppose its veto only, would be entirely insufficient and would not correspond to the primary rôle which the producers play in the life of a nation.
It is superfluous, continue the partisans of a Vocational Parliament, to present arguments of which history constantly furnishes corroboration. In the countries which practise the system of two chambers, one of the two chambers takes on always a greater importance than the other and plays the preponderant rôle. It is the one which translates best the will of the nation and best satisfies its needs. The other chamber may be able to resist for some time but in the end it is always forced to surrender. Up to now this preponderant rôle has been held by the lower houses, which being the product of universal suffrage, are always nearer the people, have more of their confidence and reflect more exactly their aspirations. Let us create now by the side of the former lower chamber, a Chamber of Labour and let us leave to it the care of determining its own future. It will either become a parliament of the privileged, making decisions that will not correspond to the true needs of the nation; in which case it will be promptly annihilated by the more popular chamber. Or, on the other hand, it will show itself to be the more practical and the more useful chamber to the people. In the inevitable conflicts that will arise between the two chambers, the economic chamber will have behind it the support of the people. In case of referendum it will be in favour of the Chamber of Labour that the national sovereignty will decide; in which case the traditional rôle of a lower house will pass into the hands of a Chamber of Labour. The proponents of the Vocational Parliament are convinced that it will be this last alternative that will be realized.
The German Constituent Assembly has followed their suggestion only to a very slight measure; sufficiently perhaps to attempt the experiment recommended by the advocates of the Vocational Parliament. The Assembly has created an Economic Council, which will be judged by its work, although it is deprived, according to the Constitution, of any real political authority. It is sufficient for the moment to say that in principle it is the classic point of view of formal democracy that guides it.
4.—THE POLITICAL ACTIVITY OF THE UNIONS.
Meanwhile, however, several things occurred that seemed to support the arguments of the partisans of a Chamber of Labour, when they claim that the natural evolution of events must lead shortly to the advent of this chamber.
We know that on March 13, 1920, counter-revolutionary troops led by the Infantry General von Lüttwitz seized Berlin, that the regular government abandoned the capital and that the Director-General of Agriculture, Kapp, was proclaimed at the same time Chancellor of the Empire and Premier of Prussia. It was a coup de main of officers and former reactionary functionaries, all of whose acts aimed at the re-establishment of the old régime. On the 14th the unions of workers and clerks sent an ultimatum to the new masters of Berlin demanding that they immediately withdraw. As this ultimatum was not obeyed, a general strike was proclaimed on March 15.
The counter-revolutionary government lasted four days; then, conquered by the general strike, it disappeared.
But before giving the workers and employés the order to return to work the chiefs of the unions wanted to obtain guarantees against the return of a new coup d’état. They called therefore on March 18 the representatives of the parties of the majority to a conference, where they presented to them the following new ultimatum. These representatives were to accept in the name of their groups—which would therefore be bound—the claims which would be submitted to them; otherwise the general strike would be continued in an aggravated form. The unions would not hesitate, if necessary, to prevent the return to Berlin of the Government and the National Assembly. They would even accept the responsibility of a civil war. The representatives of the Democrats and of the Centre refused to pledge their parties. They promised only to do what they could to get them to accept the claims of the unions.
As for the claims themselves, they were presented by the union leaders, and, after a long discussion and some modifications, they were accepted by the representatives of the political parties. These claims formed the celebrated agreement known in Germany as the “Eight Points.” They gave particularly to the unions the right to exercise a veritable veto over the nomination of Ministers and the formation of the Ministry.[20]