The Watertown news. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1917-1919, 1917-07-16
HOLLWEG FALL
HITS AUSTRIAN
PEACE PROGRAM
MiIitaristic Ascendency in Ger
many Is Seen in Elevation of
Hindenburg.
BOOST FOR CROWN PRINCE
Move Means Severe Setback to the
Efforts of Emperor Charles of Aus
tria to Hasten Peace-Michaelis
Real Bureaucrat.

Zurich, July 16.-Austria should de-
tach herself from the kaiser, the for
mer Czech minister, Herr Praschek,
declared in the Austrian reichSrath
Saturday, in dispatch from Vienna.
Herr Praschek said the hate of the
world was not directed at Austria, but
at Germany, and that peace could not
be obtained by clinging to Germany's
side. Must we continue to sacrifice
our interests to the expansion of Ger
many? Must we continue to submit to
German militarism which drew us into
this WARP" he said.
London, July 16.j-By the resignation
of DR.. Won Bethmann-Hollweg the
war party, represented by the Ger
man crown prince, Field Marshal Won
Hindenburg and General Won Luden-
dorff, all of whom were called to Ber-
lin by the crisis there, appears to have
gained the ascendency.
This victory for the war party au-
gurs i'll for the electoral and parlia-
mentary reforms sought in Germany
and for the movement to diminish Ger
many's war aims.
This means a severe setback to the
efforts which have been put in prog
ress by Emperor Charles of Austria to
hasten peace. The chancellor was
Catholic party and the South Germans
generally had rallied to the suggestions
of peace emanating from Austria and
preached by Matthias Erzberger.
MichaeIis Real Bureaucrat
The overthrow of the imperial chan
cellor is regarded as the beginning,
rather than the end, of developments
of the utmost gravity within the Ger
man empire bearing directly on the
great struggle now in progress on the
battlefields of Europe.
Bethmann-Hollweg's successor, DR..
George Michaelis, is a typical Prus-
sian bureaucrat.
Just before his official head was
swept away DR.. Won Bethmann-H oll-
veg, who was apparently backed by
the kaiser, had evolved peace for
mula, declaring that Germany was
fighting defensively for the freedom of
her territorial possessions, that ap-
peared satisfactory both to those who
were calling for peace by agreement
and those demanding reputation of
a policy of no annexations and no in
IDENTITIES.
Victory Almost in His Grasp
So far as internal reforms had a
part in the ministerial crisis, Dr. Won
Bethmann-Hollweg appeared to have
defeated his opponents, especially after
meant the formation Of sort of i'm
perial coalition ministry
The tide, 1T now seems, turned
against the chancellor when, for dynas-
tic reasons, the crown prince was
called back to Berlin from the front,
the kaiser explaining the summons by
stating that the proposed ELECTORAL and
parliamentary reforms affected not
him alone, but his successor.
The crown prince for years has been
opposed to Won Bethmann-Hollwega and
his policies. At the time of the Aga
dir incident and again when the un-
savory Zaborn incident had excited dis
gust even in Germany, the crown prince
espoused the cause of the extreme
militarists to such an extent that after
his behavior in the reichstag in the
course Of the debate on the Agadir af-
fair the kaiser banished him to Dan
zig.