El Nuevo mexicano., 1917-08-09
The German Crisis"
1T ONLY MEANS THAT GERMANY
MEANS 70 KEEP ON FIGHTING
py Frederick. William Vile Of the
vigIIantes


Late Berlin Correspondent of the New
York Times, Chicago Tribune, and PhiladeI
phia Public Ledger. Now London represent
alive Of the Vigilantes,) s
London. July II, 1slT.--It is devoutly to
be hoped that people In the United States
have not taken the Berlin political crisis
too seriously. People -hereabouts, whose
wish is father to the thought, are prone
to jump at conclusions every time a Demo
cratic head dares to show itself In Ger
! many, or whenever one OF the liberal radi'
cal or socialist groups takes its courage In
both hands and thinks out loud more brave
~ than usual. AS | write, Berlin dispatches
indicate that there is to be a cabinet shake.
up in both the imperial and .Prussian
branches Of the government that DR.. Helf-
ferich is to be dismissed as imperial min
lister of the interior that Herr thinner
mann, foreign secretary, who made himself
notorious over the proposed Mexican-Jap-
anese alliance against the United States, is
to be pitched overheard; and that four or
Ave members of the reichstag are to be
given ministerial jobs Of one sort or an
other.
l cannot possibly explain the meaningless.
ness of these sops to democracy by Will
liam OF Divine Right any better than the
Frankfurter ~Zeitung-whose political depart
ment was recently suppressed for publish
Ing some frank criticism Of the kaiser
which says:
"Halfmeasures will carry us no farther.
The mere raising of a few parliamentarians
to the rank Of excellencies Cabinet minis
tiers without portfolios) is meaningless IL
/ A. - x.,,r1n x,snfctrxv ratoinc tho rharaptar M
ia bureaucratic government"
Bismarck taught the Prussian ruling
classes that the German people are a ma
ton of house-servants." House-servants the
world over can be propitiated with soft
words or tips. When the German people,
after the prodigious sacrifices Bismarck i'm
posed upon them In three successive wars
within seven -years-against Denmark. Aus
tria and France-demanded "self-govern.
ment," the Iron Chancellor threw them .
tip by giving them a reichstag. But he was
very careful to see that 1t was shorn Of any
real power. He framed the new imperial
constitution so that the parliament Great
ed Hereunder was condemned in perpetuity
to be nothing but a money-voting machine
for the government and a safety-valye for
the coutnry--where its chosen representa-
tives could let off oratorical steam at Will
without any possibility of directing or con
trolling government policy.
The cabinet reforms which the kaiser
has felt constrained to make in Differences
to the notorious unrest now filling the Ger
man national soul does not relieve the reich
stag of its impotent character as a simple
debating society. Roman Catholic Cen
trists," national liberals, Tadical-progress-
ives and social democrats may fuse their
parliamentary strength into an anti-war or
anti; kaiser majority as often as they please,
but, that will not bring peace an inch nearer.
There was q celebrated German liberal poll
tician, who deserved the title in more than
name-Dr. Theodor Barth, well known in
the United States. He once said to me, re-
ferring to the pusillanimity of the reichstag
and the Prussian diet, that representative
government in Germany is a lie" So 1t is
And such crises as those which nave Just
passed in Berlin leave tia lie.
Let Americans remember the grandstand
bluff sprung by the kaiser at the United
States expense a year and a half ago, when
Admiral Won Tirpitz was retired from the
secretaryship Of the navy on account OF the
submarine controversy. Tirpitz was the
chief apostle of unrestricted U-boat piracy
His dismissal was hefalded far and Wlae as
evidence that Germany had decided to wage
war at sea with some regard to the dictates
of humanity and law. As a matter of fact
Won Tirpitz,s going and Won Capelle's COM
ing was followed by a steady, relentless IN
Itensifcation of submarine warfare.
On the very day when a lot of misguided
people in England were congratulating
themselves that things in Germany are tot
tering at last" the Germans on the Flanders
coast inflicted upon the BRITISH army the
first defeat the latter has suffered at HUI
hands in more than a year. 1t Is a warn
ing, or ought to be, that crisis" or no
~"crisis7 in political Berlin, Hindenburg Is
still on the job and that it will not be time
to talk about the collapse" Of our feroeious
and savagely efficient enemy till we have
him Enthusiastically on the run.