The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1871-09-23

must be fought again IN couple years,
and, if won afresh, fought third time,
and 80 on without any prospect Of last
ing peace? There d no man now in
Germany, who is Got convinced of the
inevita bility Of new war with France,
and theadmiration Of Count Bismarck's
craftsmanship has decreased remark
ably, since this conviction hss become
general. spoke With national liber.
Al Of the purest water few days ago,
and he confessed that the annexation Of
Alsace and Lorraine was q political
blunder. And well he may say 50. The
discomfort and evaporation of the in
habitants OF these two provinces is 80
deeply rooted that two generations at
least would have to die away before o
more loyal feeling can arise. In Aus
trian Italy the opposition was not 6ercer
and not by far so dangerous. The AL
satians and Lorrainers by far surpas
the Venitiansand Lombardists in energy.
and they are excellent soldiers. II the
war recOmmencee, Prussia will require
an army Of 2QQ. 900 70 keen them down
more than the Frenchmen will re-
qulre TO neut -alize the fortresses Of Metz
and Strassburg. And this Is not the
only danger. Perhaps more dangerous
still to Prussian Younkerdom il the
republicanism Of the Alsatians and
LOrrainers, which by them will be com
municated to the other parts Of the
empire they have been chained to; and
so, instead Of serving the ends OF des-
potlsm, as Bismarck in his narrow mind
edness had thought, the annexation will
In reality promote the downfall Of abso-
lntism and the triumph Of democracy
However, at present the order of the
day is preparations for the coming
war. Of the milliard paid by France
not a groschen will be spent for the
interest of the German people il will
go exclusively to defray the expenses Of
the enormous, but yet constantly swell
ing military budget And it will not
be sufficient unless soon a second mil
lard is paid by the French, fresh loan
must be contracte aud fresh taxes
imposed upon US. l aEdlng army
like ours is an insatiaLIC Ister, the
devour, devour until nothing is left to
devour, or the people lose patience and
knock it on the head. The latter am
confident will be the case one fine MORN
ing, in spite of the proverbial meek
ness of Michel / don't mean tO>mor-
row. But this much il sure, the mon
ster has become too exacting and too
lmpudent even for meek Michel, and
thanks ~ the mad proceedings Of our
success-drunk rulers, the day il not
distant when the nation must either
make an end of it, or emigrate to Amer
ica.
A friend u mine who is in the regu.
lar army and knows its organization
thoroughly, has calculated our losses
from July, 1870, up TO the present day.
The result i pretty well in accordance
with what l wrote repeatedly. OF tile
soldiers that were employed in the war
with France. fully onn half have been
killed (by iron, lead and diseases) or
rendered unfit for service. As we had
more than 100000 in tue field, this
signifies SIC hundred thousand men dead,
crippled or otherwise Inyalided Aud
that on the conquering side The
trenchmen have surely not lost less,
and we shall not exaggerate, il we
estimate the total Of the military losses
IN human life and health on both sides
at one million and a quarter. A heavy
price indeed for tie blessing Of being
governed by Bonapartes and Bismarcks.