The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1917-12-29


takably favorable to the Briton. HI
holds all OF Germany's colonies
save for small portions occupied bN
his allies. He has banished the
German flag from the sea. he has
brought about the ruin OK the
whole commercial edifice of Ger
many within his own empire. AND
the necessity OF getting at Britain
has involved Germany, through the
submarine campaign, with the Uni
ted States and with the various 9th.
er nations. The whole commercial
machine of Germany outside Of the
fatherland has been wrecked, in
South America as well as Asia. II
the war were to end today on the
basis of the war map, no one could
deny that, as Tirpitz truthfully said
recently, Great Britain had won and
Germany lost and that for the future
crippled Germany would face a
strengthened British commercial
rival
Further than this. Germany had
hoped to annex Belgium and much
of Northern France, including Calais
and Boulogne. No rational German
now expects such a result. What
ever else remains to be settled 1t is
clear that Belgium will remain in
dependent and closely united in
sympathy and interests with her
present allies, while France is equal
ly sure to emerge from the war ter
ritorially intact. On the west the
sole questions that may be debated
today are whether Germany will
keep or lose Alsace-Lorraine and
whether she can be compelled to in
demnify Belgium and France for
wanton destruction, while, so far as
Britain Is concerned, Germany has
to face the possibility Of a final loss
possessions.
We may say quite accurately, then,
that the last year has served to
make patent the fact that all of
Germany's western hopes have been
destroyed. France will survive the
war strong and bound in firm alli-
ance with a British empire now pre-
pared for war and possessing an
army which, Joined to the French,
win make a repetition Of the events
of 1914 impossible, in our genera
ton at least. And Belgian indie
pendence is ultimately certain. be-
cause unless Germany agrees to this
she will have to fight the United
States, Britain and France for an
But by contrast we are bound to
perceive that many of the eastern
plans of the allies seem to have
come to an end. Assailed by Ger
many the western powers at the out
set were moved by the conviction
that one consequence OF an unsought
war would be the liberation of those
subject races whose sufferings had
been a constant reproach to nine
teenth century humanity. On the
morrow of the Marine, when the al
lies first realized that they would
not be conquered by a sudden
thrust. they began to frame a pro-
gram which looked to the liberation
of the Poles of Austria and. of Ger
many, to the recreation of a free
Poland; they began to design q new
map OF Europe which should see the
Southern Slavs rescued from Aus
trian tyranny, the Czechs emancip-
ated, the Balkans remade, the Ru-
manians delivered from Hungarian
chains. In Turkey, too, the Armen-
ians and the Syrians were to be
freed and the Turk was to be elected
from Constantinople, which was to
4d4A 10 LAAD GAd4g anu AlAhH Gnu a
problem three centuries old.
The collapse Of Russia has, tenn
porarily at least, endangered some
OF these grandiose schemes which
did not represent selfish ambitions,
as did the German program, but
rather were founded upon a liberal
and democratic spirit. Without Rus
sia the allies cannot hope to erect a
Poland which shall include Posen
and Danzig as we'll as Warsaw and
Lode; in fact, unless the war Is
protracted for years 1t must be a
question whether they can prevent
Germany and Austria from arrang-
ing their eastern frontiers as they
choose and, temporarily at least,
masters Of the Polish
state which must now be establish
ed.
Equally clear is the fact that the
for the liberation OF the
Austrian Slavs and Rumanians has
wellnigh disappeared since the great
champion Of the small Slav states re-
lapsed into anarchy and fell under
the spell of those who are more con-
cerned with a division of the lands
within Russia than reapportion-
ment of those in the Hapsburg mon
1ANAA1 III AAAG DdAh0tAA QhU
will not venture to prophesy even
now, but there Is at the least good
reason to suspect that Austria. has
yet once more escaped the doom that
has always seemed to be imminent
and that all the idealistic and
dreams Of lfberating
her subject races will have to be laid
aside.
Italian ambitions belong to a diff
ferent order Of ideas. In addition to
the liberation Of her Italian speaking
brethren in the Trentino and in
Trieste, Italy cherished the dream OF
restoring the Venetian tradition
along the eastern shores of the
Adriatic and in the Aegean. Istrfa,
Albania were in part or In
totality to fall to the Italians, who
were likewise to take foothold up
on the mainland Of Asia Minor. But
such ambitions were only to be
realized as a detail in the extinction
Of Austria Hungary and the destruc-
there remains today only the reason
able hope that, thanks to the support
Of her allies, she may yet gain the
Trentino and Trieste. More she can
hardly expect, now that German
and Austrian guns are almost with
In range OF Venice and her own
safety Is in danger.
IL Germany has failed In the west
As seems indubitable, IL she has
failed In her war with Britain, a.
cannot be questioned, she has
brought to dust and
ashes almost all Of the allied pur-
poses In the east and within the
territories Of her own empire and
those of her Hapsburg ally. Unless
Russia shall find new organization
md new leadership, the chances
now Enthusiastically point 70 the dis
position Of the states and peoples
which Tie along German and AUS
.rian eastern marches By the Ger
mans and the Austrians. This peril