The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1917-11-15
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Editorial Pages
SIGNS or A BREAKDOWN.

| Philadelphia Ledger: Perhaps the
central powers. especially Germany, are
still far from collapse; perhaps the war
may go on n year or more longer be.
fore the allies can bring them TO terms
by decisive defeat; but the internal
discord In each and the growing fric-
tion between them are signs OF ap.
preaching overthrow which must give
their rulers grave concern. Austria
Is In worse condition than Germany,
to be sure. and by the same token her
desire for peace Is the stronger. Va
| rious circumstances have contributed
10 it-fear OF German domination. i'm
minent bankruptcy, and destitution
among the people. The foreign minis.
ter may still profess confidence In the
final outcome, but these things deceive
no one. The war has never been pop.
ular with the people Of the polyglot EN-
pire, especially the Czechs and Slavs.
whose sympathies were all the other
way and they would be glad to see
II ended. In Germany. on the other
hand, the unity Of feeling has been OBJ
vious from the beginning. All classes
rallied around the government, and even
the theory that Germany Is fighting In
self.defense. That fact makes the
quarrel between the reichstag and the
chancellor, the diverging views Of So
cialists, Centrists and Pan-Germans, the
more significant.
II may be a long time yet before
either the German government or the
German people will be in a mood TO ac-
cept the only terms of peace which the
allies can offer. But the pressure upon
both to do so is becoming very great.
Even the circumstance that there is
apparently little to fear from Russia
cannot obliterate the impression OF Inn
pending defeat which the allied sue
cesses i'm Flanders are making. For
these can no longer be explained as
due to strategic retreats" planned by
Won Hindenburg. The question is not
one of territory but OF morale and in
that the Germans are steadily losing.
Nor Is the submarine campaign the
triumph II once seemed to be. Not only
are the allied fleets graphing more
vigorously with the menace but II the
reports Of mutiny be true, the German
seamn themselves are refusing TO un-
dergo the exceptional risks of this kind
of warfare. Indeed the inability of hu-
man nature 10 endure the continued
strain was long ago seen to be one i'm
portant factor against its success. The
mutiny of the Austrian seamen at Pola
reveals an even more desperate situa
ton in the navy. The long period of
inaction has proved demoralizing. But
for the fighting in the Baltic there
might easily have been an equally ser
ious mutiny at Kiel.
The dissatisfaction of the civilian
population is troublesome, to be sure,
but it may be long distance between |
attacking a government and overthrow
ing it, If the German people can still
be persuaded that they are engaged in
a righteous war of defense, their politi-
cal agitation will remain far from revo-
luton. Mutiny in the navy or army
is a more serious affair. 1t means that
the fighting men will no longer fight.
1t would be premature to assume that
the German government now faces this
peril or is as near to facing it as the
Austrian government. But even re-
mote possibility of such a kind is omi- |
nous. 1t has been said that the side
whose nerves were strongest would win |
in this war. The nerves of one side |
are apparently beginning to be shaken.