New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-05-07

Although people IN America have been brought
TO believe that monarchs nowadays are mere
puppets the passive instruments OF the will OF
their people and ornamental hgureheads. which
are entirely superfuous and in no sense indis-
pensable to the welfare of the commonwealth,
the fact remains that in number OF coun-
tries of the Old World the sovereign constitutes
to such an extent the kingpin of the situation
as regards domestic policy and foreign relations
that his or her sudden death at the present
juncture would give rise to an important and
possibly grave crisis at home as well as abroad.
a crisis to which the United States could not az
ford to remain Indifferent 1t is only by the ex-
ercise of the most careful and skilful diplomacy
that the war in Manchuria has been confined to
japan and Russia Time and again during the
last fourteen months have there been moments
when it seemed impossible TO prevent other
powers from being drawn into the conflict.
Hostilities between European nations may be
said to have trembled in the balance, and the
situation has been and still remains so thorny
that there is knowing the extent Of the
trouble to which the demise Of one or another Of
the rulers of Europe would give rise.
Take, for instance, the Kaiser. The foreign
press is fond of portraying him as the stormy
petrol of international politics, and a poten-
tate whose unexpected vagaries constitute
try to imagine Germany at present without the
Emperor. Even his bitterest enemies and most
unkndly critics are forced to admit that he has
become to such an extent the moving spirit
merely of the policy and administration of the
empire, but likewise of every phase OF Teuton
life and activity that it seems that were he to
die suddenly the entire administrative machinery
of Germany would stop. Absolutely nothing is
known about his eldest son and heir-for 1t is
impossible to attach any Importance or credence
to the silly newspaper articles ascribing TO him
infatuations for actresses that have never had
any existence save in the imaginative brain Of
their more ingenious than scrupulous press
agents Our information about him is limited
to the fact that he is only twenty three years
of age that he is about to be married. that he is
a devoted son, and that he has been trained in
measure under the direction of his father; also
that his life has been sngularly free from those
scandals which constitute the Rembrandt shad-
ing OF the portraits of almost every European
scion Of royalty. But quite in the dark
a to whether he possesses the strength OF
character and the energy requisite TO dl-
rect the policy Of Germany in these parlous
times We are ignorant II he will lean toward
Russia or toward the United States and Great
Britain in the concert of great powers, and as
to whether he will be able, like his father. to
dominate the other soveTeigns of the confedera-
ton known as the German Empire sufficiently
TO retain in his hands the supreme control or us
international relations In one word. the crown
Prince is an entirely unknown quantity, handi-
capped in any case by youth and inexperlence'
whereas of his father this at least can be said
namely. that in spite OF all the predictions and
apprehensions expressed at the time OF his
accession to the throne, now some seventeen
years ago, his reign has been one Of peace, and
while he has added to the territorial possessions
of Germany, he has accomplished this by state
craft and diplomacy instead Of by the sword. In
one word. Emperor Williams life constitutes
judging by the past guarantee OF peace. and
thoughtful people, students of the present and
of the past, rather than mere spectators as to
the future, will be disposed to agree that his
presence at the helm in Germany just now is a
subject for congratulation rather than OF
easiness.
At Vienna the life of Emperor Francis Joseph
is still more indispensable to the nainte-
nance of tranquility both at home and abroad.
Indeed there are many European statesmen OF
note who do not hesitate to publicly predict
that the death of this sadly broken and cruelty
bereaved monarch, now in his seventy-ffth year,
will be followed by an outbreak of civil war IN
his dominions and by the disruption OF the
Hapsburg Empire. 1t is not alone that the
Hungartans are determined at all costs to be
as we'll, more than three million IN number,
who are resolved to cast off the yoke OF Hun
gary, their sentiments in this respect being
shared by nearly three million Rumanians in
Hungary. They are all imbued with sentiments
of affectionate loyalty and devotion to the pres
ent Emperor. But they abhor the Magyars. and
they denounce the Hungarian government as
tyrannic. In Austria itself there are some six
million Bohemians and about four million Poles
who are firmly bent upon obtaining, If not full
hedged independence, at any rate autonomy OF
the most far reaching character and the single
tie that holds them all together is the now sadly
worn thread of their affection for Francis Jo-
seph. As his nephew and heir. Archduke Fran
els Ferdinand, is extremely unpopular, particu-
larry in Hungary, in Croatia and in the Polish
provinces where he is regarded as committed to
a most reactionary policy and to a settlement
of all these difficulties by armed force rather
than by statecraft, 1t is not unnatural that peo-
pie should look upon the death OF Francis Jo-
seph as portending chaos of such character
within the Dual Empire to furnish pretext
for foreign intervention. Indeed. 1T was not so
long ago that the President of the French Cham
Der OF Deputies predicted this in the course OF a
public address at Paris.
In Spain the disappearants of the nineteen
year-old King from the scene would bring to
the throne his little nephew aged four. the eldest
turias. who died last year This would make
necessary another long regency and trouble
would certainly ensue concerning the disposal
Of the latter. For whereas 1t might appear
natural that the principal guardian OF the infant
King should be his father. yet the latter, owing
to his foreign birth and 10 his being member OF
the most reactionary branch OF the Bourbons OF