The Washington herald., 1916-01-09
{ European Experts Think We
Must Join One Customs IN
ion, Because if Both Ad-
mitted Our Goods on Same
Terms as Own Allies. We
Would Have Unfair Advan-
tage Over Competitors.

dustrfal interests. This party is not
strong. enough to control the Reichstag,
and support must be gained from a large
number. of radicals and Socialists II the
Junkers attack the cabinet. I do not
think they viii do so. however, for the
supreme power is in the hands OF the
Kaiser. and IL he has made this agrees
ment with Franz Joseph, as believe he
has, the Junkers will have 10 swallow
II as meekly as the Socialists swallow an
unpopular war budget"
Germany's Trench Policy"
One curious manifestation Of the new
feeling in Europe that henceforth the
world must be divided into two ayoxedly
hostile camps is the doctrine Of "tJench
policy" The phrase is German. and
seems TO have been first put forward by
Friedrich Naumann in his book, Nit
teleuropa-" which every one in Ger
many Is reading. II breaches the gospel
OF a great central empire which can
defy the sea power of its foes. 'aThe
main idea" an English CRITIC writes of
the book, is that Germany and Austria
Hungary form the natural center of a
great political and economic system,
stretching from the North Sea and the
Baltic to the Alps, the Adriatic and the
Danube, and destined to draw In ali
the states on its fringe"
The Socialist paper OF Berlin. Yorwa-
arts, recently described Herr Naumann,
as something between an early Hebrew
prophet and the head OF the statistical
bureau Of modern syndicate" The new
prophet" who bids fair to become as
famous as Bernhard, comments on the
conclusion drawn by all military critics
that the trench, has supplanted the fort
for defensive purposes. Frontiers, as all
n ~ ~ w.yfIl - n
by great entrenched camps at long in
tervals, but will themselves be trenches
From this situation Naumann draws the
following doctrine:
THE consequence of this trench policy
Is that one Is bound to be clear, in the
very laying out Of military fortifications,
as to who 1t is with whom one intends
in all circumstances to live in friendship.
Europe will be given two long walls
from North to South-one Of them
running approximately from the Lower
Rhine to the Alps. the other from Cour-
land to either the right or left OF
Rumania."
Believes Division Permanent.
Naumann believes that the present d.
vision of the European world into two
groups is permanent, and holds out no
hopes for the small nations which seek
10 EGIldln dlOOI
The small peoples he says, have only
the choice between isolation and linking
up, and as. within the space OF one gen.
Grafton, isolation will become almost in
tolerable for them, they must sooner or
later decide with which league they will
or can march. 1t is a cruel compulsion
and hard fate. but 1t is the dominant
characteristic of the times, the categori-
cal imperative OF human development.
No resistance or lamentation will avail.
Small states, which cannot carry on a
tariff war. but need to import and to ex-
port every day. must in future place
themselves on the books of one or the
other Of the great world firms
1t is an irony Of the situation that this
last paragraph by German would not
be seriously disputed by English econ
omists. although Britain, believe quite
sincerely, has defined the freedom of
the small nations as one of the principal
objects Of the war. Only a small knot of
free traders at any price in these islands
still venture to stand out against the
plan for an economist war against Ger
many, and when that war starts II seems
to all observers that the little fellows
cannot remain economically neutral. Po-
litical freedom will remain. II they Join
the entente: the fate of those who cast
their lots with the central powers is
likely to be that of Little Red Riding