The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1914-08-07
AuTocRAcY OR DEMOCRACY

10 great corrector of enormous times,
Shaker of o'er-rank states, thou grand
decider
Of dusty and old titles, that healest
with blood
The earth when it is sick, and cures
the world
o. the pleurisy of people!
Beaumont and Fleacher.
When peace is again established in
Europe there will come a new order
of things Democracy will not stand
forever upon the scaffold, with auto
cracy forever on the throne.
Ten days ago the German people
were at peace with all the world.
They had no quarrel of their own
! with anybody In the years that had
! followed the downfall of Napoleon III.
they had won the admiration of every
civilized country. Out of condition
of general poverty they had arisen to
great wealth and prosperity. They had
become the leaders and teachers of
all the nations in the development OF
1
reached to every nook and corner of
the globe. Their ships fioated on
every sea. Their victories were no
victories of brute force, but triumphs
of applied skill and trained minds. In
many respects the Germans had
touched the highwater mark of human
civilization. There was not another
country in the world but could learn
something from them.
| SUDDENLY this vast fabric by peace
and industry and skill and science
is torn in two. All the machinery of
progress is stopped by the hand of
autocracy. The Kaiser plunges Europe
| into the most devastating conflict
known to human history, and every
| civilized country reels under the
| because Russia had answered Aus
tria's wanton war against Servia by
mobolizing troops on the frontier in
| order to protect her own interests.
| In reality because the reactionary
party of Germany was determined to
invite general European conflict in
order to stay the advancement of
| political reforms.
/ In the very vanguard of the twen-
| tieth century in most respects, Ger
many has struggled back into the
seventeenth century politically. The
curse of medieval governmnt has
hung over her noblest achievements.
Every impulse toward political free
dom hs been beaten back by the mail
ed fist, and at a great crisis in in
their history the German people are
deprived of that power over their own
political institutions without which
the English speaking races have just.
| ly come to regard life itself as intol-
cradle.
| Autocracy has had its way. Aus
trials quarrel with Servia was no
affair of the German people. Russia's
challenge to Austria was no affair of
the German people. Yet the very fate
of the German Empire is thrown into
the balance in order to halt the march
of political freedom in Europe.
| All the world knew that declara-
ton of war against Russia was in eff
feet declaration of war against
France. Germany admitted it by
modifying her army not on the Rus
sian frontier but on the French from
tier. The decisive blow was to be
struck against the French Republic,
not against its imperial ally. 1t was
not Russian despotism that was to
be crushed, but French republican
:! ism.
The hollow hypocrisy of the whole
proceeding is revealed in the fact
that before the clash of arms is fairly
begun the Austrian invasion of Ser
via is practically abandoned.
Having begun the war, German
autocracy now finds itself isolated.
Italy construes the Triple Alliance as
applicable only to war of defense:
| because there would be a revolution
Italy if the government ventured TO
| champion the cause of the hated Aus.
trian. Great Britain is compelld to
| make Frances cause her cause. Ger.
| many and Austria are left alone to
fight the battle of autocracy and pay
the bill in blood and treasure and
| prestige. In this war they have no
sympathizers even among neutrals.
The enlightened opinion of the whole
world has turned against the two
Kaisers as it turned against Napoleon
iii. when he sought to make himself
the autocrat of Europe.
| What was begun hastily as a war
of autocracy is not unlikely to end as
war of revolution, with thrones
crumbling and dynasties I'm exile