The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1913-12-20

In view Of the court martial sentence
passed on Lieutenant Forstner yes
terday, whereby he must go to Jail
and Is therefore deprived of his mill
tary commission, the following &C
count Of the zabern incident that
stirred all Germany Is especially inter-
esting. 1t. was published in The New
York Post under a Berlin date:
In Zabern. in Alsace, a ~20-year-old
which has set the empire in uproar,
broken the pleasure Of the Kaiser's
stay at Donaueschingen with his
friend, Prince Fuerstenberg, sent
ministers and high military potentates
hurrying across Germany to explain
things to the sovereign, given the
press matter for q months campaign,
caused riots, arrests. n lawsuits,
compromised the position Of the Staff
halter Of Alsace-Lorraine. and brought
the whole question Of the army and
it's attitude towards the non-un1form-
ed population to a head.
The lieutenant had no idea what
levers he was setting in motion. His
| regiment, the .Ninety-ninth Infantry
Is garrisoned at Zabern, q town OF
some, Il 1000 inhabitants close to Stras-
burg. It is now customary to allow
Alsatian recruits to perform their
military service in Alsace, and as the
Alsatians n Lorrainers are by no
means reconciled to the fate which
has made them Germans, n still
look l~ongingly across the border to
France, the training of the Alsatian
recruits is a source of difficulty and
anxiety to the officers who have to
lead them. Lieut.. Baron Won Forst-
ner, Of the Ninety-ninth Infantry,
holds that the difficulty can be sur
mounted by making the Abstain
soldiers realize how inferior they are
to the real Germans. The Abstain
have a word of their own coming,
"Wackes.' which is applied to un-
desirables and detrimentals generally,
and to tramps in particular. Its con-
veys the idea Of rogue and loafer to-
gether, and is used by the German
n~eighbors of the Alsace as q generic
term for Alsatains. According to re-
port in the town, Won Forstner had
ordered the Abstain recruits to report
themselves always with the formula
81 am a Wackes."
L%leutenant's Rash Words.
One day he was giving instruction
to his men as to how they should be-
have IL they came n conflict on,
or off, duty with civilians. Molestation
Of soldiers by civilians, Is by no means
unknown in Alsace. II they We're at
tackled, said the lieutenant, they were
to use their weapons. and so far from
there being any punishment for so
doing, he would give ten marks to
any NAL who stabbed a Wackes. This
pleasantly was reported In h town
by the Alsatian soldiers, and the result
was that an angry crowd pursued
Won Forstner In the street and besieg-
ed a house where he was spending the
evening, reproaching him for his
cowardice in not coming out to be
Iynched. The police force Of Zabern
consists OF four men, and troops had
to be called out to disperse the
crowd.
At this stage, Baron Won Forstner
should have been given leave Of alb
sence, and the thing would have been
forgotten. But the commander of the
regiment, Col. Won Reuter-, considered
that the uniform had been insulted by
civilians, and that the Wackes must
be brought to their senses. He kept
Lieut.. Won Forstner, and the towns
more things about him, continued to
demonstrate their dislike of him. In
Iinstructing his men on the folly, and
worse, Of e%nlisttng In the French for
eign legion, which was a particular at
traction for Alsatians n Lorrainers
as a means of escape from service III
the German army. he coupled, as he
says, service In the French army. and
as his recruits say. the French flag
with a word which is debarred from
educated society in all countries.
The inaurrectionary blaze, burst ou'
again. TO the Alsatians, the Frenct
flag, under which their fathers fought
is a dearer emblem than the blacl
and Write and red ensign which ncE