The  unchanging  preponderance  of  the  East  Prussian
country  party  in  the  Diet  has  been  detrimental  to  progress  in
many  ways.  This  party  has  been  behind  all  the  measures
which  have  been  passed  and  proposed  both  in  that  assembly
and  in  the  Reichstag  for  the  preferential  treatment  of  agricul-
ture at  the  expense  of  industry.  It  has  opposed  scheme  after
scheme  for  extending— even  in  the  West  of  the  monarchy
— the  system  of  waterways  so  essential  in  a  country  like
Germany,  with  a  small  seaboard  and  a  large  Hinterland,  and


TRIPAETITB   GEEMANY  35

in  doing  this  it  has  candidly  admitted  that  its  purpose  has
been  to  prevent  the  cheapening  of  inland  transport  costs,
to  exclude  foreign  corn,  and  to  check  the  advance  of  in-
dustry. Wlien  at  last  its  opposition  has  been  withdraven,  as
in  1905,  it  has  been  because  concessions  have  been  given  in
another  direction,  and  these  have  generally  included  the
dismissal  of  an  obnoxious  Minister.
