Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1917-12-20
BY FRANK n. sIMoNOs.
Copyright 1917-The Tribune ASSN
1.-The New York Tribune).

Copyright 1917-Ths Tribune ASSN
(The New York Tribune).
Th English speaking publics OF the
world are sc unfamiliar with the on
ditions OF eastern and southeastern
europe that some of the greatest prob
lens for the future. growing out of the
world conflagration, remain of little
Importance to the United States and
Great Britain-that is. of Importance as
measured by understanding. Precisely
this lack OF knowledge has served to
obscure the meaning OF German peace
proposals to Russia, as voiced by the
German chancellor.
we expect" said Hertling, that the
Lithuanian and Polish peoples in the
conquered districts OF Russia will be
permitted to decide upon their W
form of government and follow their
own cultural IDEALS This is the sub
stance of the statement, hedged o
by the most noncommittal of phrases.
Nov. exactly what did this mean and
does it mean to the world? AT the
least it proposes Il more momentous
change in European territorial adjust
ments than followed the Na%poleonic
war.
1t means more. Thanks to the free
use of the map. the map that has been
frequently printed to accompany my
articles. the American public has
grasped something of h meaning Of
Mitteleuropa. We are beginning to
understand something of the danger to
world liberty II Germany is able to eX-
pand perpendicularly. speaking by he
map: to extend her rule from Hamburg
to Basra, from the North Sea to the
Persian gulf. But not yet has there
been any sufficient education as to the
meaning to the world Of German eN-
pansion %laterally, speaking again by
the map.
Turks the VA Cancer.
Now the lateral expansion of Ger
many is conditioned on certain basic
facts. For a century Europe has been
either at war or on the edge of war
because OF questions growing out OF
ish flood. One after another portions OF
the Osmanli empire, conquered when
the Turk was on the advance. have es-
capped from the sultan. And each
province that has thus escaped has
been the cause of European dispute and
of International rivalry until we see
the las recession, produced by the Bal
kan war of 1912. succeeded by the world
ConflagratiOn, which is still proceeding.
Now conceive that a similar disinte-
grafton were to take place in the Rus
sian empire with it's vast area, with its
tremendous resources. and it becomes
clear thai the Russian question may be
FOR the future infinitely more dangerous
than the Turkish question has been in
the past; that 1t may, for the balance
Of h Twentieth century, replace the
ly this possibility which today con-
fronts the world and Is the basis of
present German policy.
Like the Turk, the Russian has con
quered many races: like the Turk. he
has failed to assimilate the races he has
conquered. The Pole. the Lithuanian.
the Finn, the Rumanian Of Bessarabia,
rel the various divisions of Russians.
preserve a varying degree of individ-
uality and have not. like the Saxon
and the Bavarian. the Rhinelander and
the Prussian. achieved a national con-
seriousness within a common empire.
Accordingly, when the Russian unity,
which vas dynastic and governmental,
was overthrown by the revolution and
which still continues to induce disinte-
grafton, the unassimilated portions of
Russia promptly began to seek some
other unity than h Russian-Roman-
off unity of the past. Finland, Poland,
Lithuania. Ugrainia, these are the first
national movements. There will doubt
less be others. but at this moment
these command attention.
In the face OF this German policy
has long been preparing. Better than
all the rest of the world the German
has understood that Russia was still
not a nation; 1t was a collection of
nationalities united by q governmental
machine and a dominant dynasty. Now,
when the machine has been scrapped,
the dynasty eliminated by revolution,
Germany is prepared with a policy,
while all her enemies have neither a
policy nor a comprehension Of the ex-
act situation on which to base a policy
Berlin Seeks Russ Dissolution.
This German policy is quite patent;
what Germany seeks Is to accelerate
the mace Of the disintegration, to en-
independence. not alone In getting In
dependence, but in dividing and sub
dividing until the eastern world is
transformed into a series OF totally d.
vided races. mutually hostile. reduced
to anarchy and capable Of Offering nc
resistance to German penetration
whether peaceful or otherwise.
And since there Is one people In east
ern Europe capable of supplying a new
unity, possessing the cultural and the
political capacity for creating a strone
and united state. the German policy IL
p~redicated upon the decision that this
people must not be permitted to achieve
this unity. And this people, of course
are the Poles. Twenty odd millions OF
Poles inhabiting the Russian. German
and Austrian territories about the vistu.
Ia, Joined with the several million
Lithuanians. once included within the
Polish Kingdom, n the several races
IN whole or In part dwelling also in
Sahds once Polish, might easily, given
unity for = brief period Of years. build
9 Polish Kingdom or republic as large
a Italy or Prussia and bar the road
10 German lateral expansion. More
than this, were such u state to develop
without the German Poles. 1t would un'
u~uestlonably draw the German Poles II
& and thus threaten to undo all tn.