Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1917-06-21

.Aey nave regarded the smaller states,
Va particular, and the peoples who
tpuiu o. overwhelmed by force, as
lhelr natural tools and instruments OF
domination. Their purpose has long
peen aNowed. The statesmen of other
hations, to whom that purpose was in
credlple, paid little attention.; regarded
Wnat German professors %expounded in
tlelr class rooms and German writer's
SCI iorth to the world as the goal Of
Gellhan polcy as rather the dream OF
tiihos detached from practical affairs.
as preposterols private conceptions of
Ger1nan destiny, than as the actual
plans of responsible rulers. But the
rulers or Germany themselves knew all
lhe "hlle what concrete plans, what
wen advanced intrigues, lay back of
what the professors and the writer's
were saying, and We're glad to go for
ward unmolested filling the thrones
OF Balkan states with German princes,
putting German officers at the service
OF Turkey to drill their armies and
make interest with her government. de-
Neloplng plans of sedition and rebel
non in India and Egypt. setting their
fires in Persia. The demands made by
austria upon SerYia were a mere
single step in a plan which comprised
Europe and Asia, from Berlin to Bag
dad.
They hoped those demands might
not arouse Europe, but they meant to
press them whether they did or not,
for they thought themselves ready for
the final issue of arms.
Austria Pawn Like Serbia.
Their plan was to throw a broad
belt of German military power and po-
litical control across the very center of
Europe and beyond the Mediterranean
into the heart of Asia; and Austria
Hungary was to be as much their pool
and pawn as Servia or Bulgaria or
Turkey or the ponderous states of the
east. Austria-Hungary indeed, was to
become part of the central German en-
pire, absorbed and dominated by the
same forces and influences that had
originally cemented the German states
themselves. The dream had it's heart
at Berlin. 1t could have had a heart
nowhere else. 1t rejected the idea of
solidarity of race entirely. The choice
OF peoples played no part in it at all.
1t contemplated binding together racial
and political units which could be kept
together only by force-Czechs, Mag
vars, Croats, Serbs, Rumanians, Turks,
Armenians-the proud states OF Be-
hernia and Hungary, the stout little
commemorative of the Balkans, the
indomitable Turks, the subtitle peoples
of the east. These peoples did not wish
to be united. They ardently desired to
direct their own affairs, would be sat
isfied only by undisputed i%ndepend-
ence. They could be kept quiet only
by the presence or the constant threat
of armed men. They would live under
a ommon power only by sheer com
pulsion and await the day of revolu-
ton. But the German military states
men had reckoned with all that and
were ready to deal with it in their own
way.
Dream Nearly Succeeded.
"And they have actually carried the
greater part of that amazing plan into
execution! Loci how things stand.
Austria is at their mercy. 1t has acted,
not upon it's own initiative or upon the
choice of its own people, but at Ber-
Inns dictation eve since the war be-
gan. It's people now desire peace, but
cannot have it until is granted
from Berlin. The so-called central pow
ers are in fact but a single power. Ser
bia is at it's mercy should it's hands be
put for a m freed. Bulgaria has
:. c%oncented to it's well and Rumania is
oyerrun. The Turkish armies, which
Germans trained, are serving Germany
certainly not themselves, and the gun
Of German warships lying in the har'
Dor at Constantinople remind Turkish
statesmen every day that they have M
choice but to take their orders from
Berlin. From Hamburg to the Persian
gulf the net is spread.
rs. it not Easy to understand TIN
: eagerness for peace that has been man
ifested from Berlin eve since the snar,
was set and sprung? Peace, peace peac,
, has been the talk of her foreign office
, for now a year and more; not peace up
on her own initiative, but upon the in
itiative of the nations over which Sh'
now deems herself to hold the advan
age. A little of the talk has been pub
: lie, but most of it has been private
- ~ ~-{ &c - No.
, come to me, n in all sorts OF guises
t but never with the terms disclosed
/. which the German government woul,
be willing to accept. That's government
5 has other valuable pawns in it's hand
besides those 1 have mentiond. 1t still
2 holds a valuable part Of France, though
with slowly relaxing grasp, n prac
tically the whole of Belgium. 1t
armies press close upon Russia an
over run Poland at their will. 1t canno
e go further; it dare not go back. !
wishes to close It's bargain before it j
: too late and it has little left to offe
for the pound of flesh it will de1nan
Wear For Their Power.
: "The military masters under whor
= Germany is bleeding see very clearly t
. what point Fate has brought them. ]
t they fall back or are forced back a
! inch, their power both abroad and q
V home will fall to pieces like a house c
cards. 1t is their power at home the
4 are thinking about now more than thei
power abroad. 1t is hatSpower which
trembling under their very feet; an
: deep fear has entered their hearts. The
: have but che chance to p~erpetuate he
: military power or even their controllin
t political influence. If they can secur
e peace now, with the immense advant
: ages still in their hands which the
have up to this point apparently game;
they will nave justified themselves be
fore the German people; they will hay
e gained by force what they promised
gain by it. an immense expansion {
d German power, an immense enlarge
o ment Of German industrial and CON
# mercial opportunities. Their prestig
e will be secure. and with their prestit
k their political power. If they failed, the
d people, will thrust them aside; a go,
d eminent accountable to the Peep
themselves will be set up in German
d as it has been in England, in the Unite
h States, in France, and in all the gre;
n countries Of the modern time, excel
Germany.