from a restricted vote to general suffrage with a secret ballot. Unfortunately, the unity of the Majority was split up by the bank question before my proposals could be discussed. There is a great deal which would have been different at the outbreak of the war if the working classes had been represented in the Chamber of Deputies, and they would certainly have been represented if my proposals had been adopted. As a result, the whole procedure was negative in effect, and in view of the King's attitude and the fruitless experiments, the whole problem of the elections became a greater bone of contention than ever. The National Labour Party was now faced with the difficult problem of solving the complex electoral question. They actually did solve this problem formally, by passing the proposed laws, but this solution did not bring about any satisfaction. This could only have been brought about if the new vote of the industrial workman had helped them to acquire a corresponding representation in Parliament. Since the reform of the Labour Party did not succeed in gaining this object, the problem remained, in spite of the new reform, one of the most burning questions of the day.
In this way the outbreak of the war found the nation on the threshold of new internal difficulties, after it had passed through other great internal problems. National and social demands armed themselves for a new attack. The Opposition had lost the first battle against Tisza, but no end had as yet been put to the existing enmity.
A new and bitter struggle was developed à propos of the nationalization of the administration. Stefan Tisza
