The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1917-07-07
What a Separate Peace WouId Uc,p

a
sia on the other is unlikely, / share.
But | do believe it is sufficiently with
| in the possibilities TO require consid-
Grafton. Suppose that Russia and her
foes should reach a basis OF settle
mcnt which restored 10 Russia all that
she has lost save Poland, and gave her
Armenian territory in Asia and free
passage in the Straits, what then?
First Of all Rumania would COLLAPSE
at once and be compelled to make a
peace which would leave her vass:ll
of the Central Powers. Bulgaria
would become permanently allied TO
the Central Powers and Serbia would
either make separate peace which
would place her in the same rosture
as Bulgaria and Rumania, or else
would lose all scmblancc of separate
existence. AS for Greece, we know
that her king is merely waiting ia
throw his country into the arms of
n German invader.
Russian retirement. then, would
mean The temporary Success Of the
German dream Of Mitteleuropa, il
would mean that the Germans had
succeeded i'm constructing an empire
in Central Europe greater than Ma
poleon's and had also added TO it
Asia Minor and Syria. Such a situa-
ton would threaten the future Of all
the other nations of EuropS. Italy.
Great Britain, and France as Mediter-
ranean nations and Mohammedan
powers would find themselves facing
n menace which could not be exag-
gerate,
But could Italy continue in the
war? Again the question rises as to
radical and socalistic sentiment.
Would Russian retirement lead TO a
similar explosion in Italy, and would
the same Utopian ideas serve to dis
arm the Italians as they had the Rus
slams and thus make socialism the
soldier of autocracy? No man can be
sure what the answer to this ques-
ton might be, if the Russian retire
ment were followed 10y one more ter
rife attack by the Central Powers up
on Northern Italy.
1t is essential to face the fact that
Germany at the present moment
stands to win the war, if at all, be-
cause she is deriving great and grow
ing aid from the liberal and socialis-
tic elements in the countries that are
fighting her. Autocracy, fighting for
its life, Prussian military spirit at bay
and threatened with determination, is
suddenly finding a possibility of sur
yival because of the blind idealism of
the liberals i'm the world outside.
If it were true that the same spir-
it of liberalism were rampant in Ger
many, if the German Socialists were
able to urge peace without annexation
upon Germany as the Russians are i'm
posing it upon their own nation, one
might view the situation with greater
calm, but this is not the case. Thus
we have the assertion of Schiedemann
| in the Reichstag that even if the AL
lied nations should proclaim the doc
trine of peace without annexation,
there would not yet be any revolution
in Germany, although he asserted that
such a time would come.
German socialism is divided, but
the larger faction still supports the
government and the position of the
government is weakened or strength
ened as the military prospects i'm
prove or worsen. German soliacism
has not yet raised its voice to pro-
test against annexation as n matter
of morals, in any great volume. 1t
has declared that as n matter Of fact
Germany could not win the war i'm
such fashion as to acquire territory
or impose indemnities. That is all.
And this is long way from the Rus
sian spirit, which is one Of pure if ILL
balanced idealism.
No man can say that the growth and
spread of liberal and even Utopian
ideas in Russia will not affect Ger
many. AS the war goes on, if Ger
man prospects continue TO worsen, we
shall certainly have an ever-growing
demand in Germany for neoca with
out annexation or indemnity. But
what it is essential to recognize now
is that the completeness of the Rus
sian collapse has wakened new hope
i'm Berlin and that this fact, added TO
the still mistaken faith in the subma-
rine, has given Germany n new acces-