The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1917-09-12
. A German Revolution.
(By William English Walling Of The
Vigilantes)

is a revolution at hand In Ger.
many? The Russian extremists go SO
far as to assert-against all facts
that Germany is already "ablaze'
with revolution. And nearly all Rus
| slams seem to be convinced that the
Germans will surely follow their ex-
ample, and do to the Kaiser what
they did to the Car.
In this connection it is eminently
! worth while to note the difference
between Russia and Germany. Here
are few of the most glaring:
Russia has been revolutionary for
half century, it is more than half a
century since the last spark Of revo-
luton died out in Germany.
The recent Russian revolution an
nOunced itself by thousands Of pre-
liminary outbreaks, spread through
more than decade; Germany has
not produce a single revolutionary
outbreak in sixty-seven years.
The majority of well-informed OBJ
servers had long predicted a revolu-
ton in Russia. No prominent Ger
man, and nobody who knows Ger
many, dreamed of predicting an early
revolution in the Fatherland-until
this war arose, and the wish became
father to the thought.
The Duma elections as long ago
as 1906 indicated that 80 per cent of
the Russian people were revolution
lists. The revolutionists in Germany,
a minority of the Socialist Party,
probably do not number half mil
lion altogether-scarcely one per cent
Of the German people.
In Germany it has been custom
ary for a handful of Socialists to sit
few months in jeil for such mild
misbehavior as lese majeste. In Rus
sia hundreds of thousands of the
flower of the country have languish-
ed in prison or exile, while tens of
thousands have died, not for innoc-
uous verbal criticism Of government
but for revolutionism.
The Russian Socialists are all re-
volutionists. The German Socialists
95 per cent of them-have actually
attacked revolutionism as being un-
socialistic and have preached legality
(the Kaiser's law, while discipline"
has been their God. They have
taught obedience to the Socialist lead
srs, who-as we have seen-obey the
Kaiser.
Nor has the war brought the Ger
man revolution nearer-as yet. The
whole German nation is under the
impression that Germany has been
steadily victorious and the Socialists
and the revolutionists have publicly
announced that this is their view
also. Now military victories make
an excellent basis for the German
made peace-for which all German
agents are now agitating. But they
are not exactly a favorable soil for
German revolution-as August
Bebel, the great Socialist leader
pointed out only a few Years ago.
The view of all well-informed Ger
mans is that Of Victor Berger who,
after making the usual German claim
that Germany would remain victor
ious on land. concludes that there is
no prospect Of a revolution in a. VIC
torious Germany.
But let these military victories and
their very memory be wiped out by a
series of equally numerous and decis-
i've defeats and the country may be-
gin to move towards revolution. The
military caste will never yield-except
under compulsion. That compulsion,
implying the complete reversal of mil.
itary discipline, can scarcely be ex-
pected from a militarized and non
revolutionary people like the Ger
mans. The pressure will have to come
from without.
1t may be that German revolu-
ton is near, or it may be that a Ger
man revolution is far. One thing is
certain-that the only hope Of such
a revolution is smashing and irretriev-
able defeat for the Kaiser's armies.
The German revolution is already
being fought for-by the revolution
lists Of Russia and the descendants of
the revolutionists of France, Italy.
England and the United States. Kais-
erism left the worlds great democ-
racies no choice. They had either to
allow themselves to be robbed of a
large part Of the benefit of their own
revolutions in the past or they ha