The example of the United States of America inspired other nations of Europe toward the ideal of a government in which the people should have a voice. Our republican institutions have had a reflex upon English institutions so that to-day Great Britain, in spite of having a nominal King, is one of the most democratic governments in the world. The King of Italy holds his power as a result of a war in which the people of Italy wrested freedom from Austrian domination. And Russia, at the time when it went into war, was moving toward a more elastic form of government. That it failed in the experiment was due to German intrigue, and not to lack of desire of the Russian people for self-government. On the other hand, the people of the Central Powers, Germany and Austria-Hungary, have accepted--sometimes with mutterings of revolt, but eventually with resignation--the idea that their rulers derived authority from some divine source. Few nations in modern times have had less voice in the government of their country than the people of Germany. For, under the German constitution, Germany is governed by its Emperor, with its legislative power in two bodies, the _Bundesrat_ and the _Reichstag_. Now, the United States puts its legislative power into two bodies, the Senate and the House of Representatives. France puts power into the Chamber of Deputies, England into the House of Commons and the House of Lords. But England is shearing the power of the House of Lords, and in our country the Senate and the House of Representatives are elected by and are directly responsible to the voters of the country. Here, as in France and in England, the vote is not restricted by wealth or by class. In Germany the vote is so arranged that 370 rich men have the same voting power as 22,324 poor men in one district, Cologne; while the _Bundesrat_ is merely a diplomatic assembly, representing the kingdoms of the German Empire, an assembly which the King of Prussia absolutely dominates, and through which he becomes, as Emperor of Germany, absolute ruler of the empire. For the _Reichstag_ has no power to make or unmake ministries, or to control the Emperor in any way. The Emperor appoints the chancellor, and the chancellor is answerable only to him. So that in the long run, although it has a constitutional form, the government of Germany is the Emperor of Germany and the military group known as Junkers with whom he has surrounded himself.