The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1917-10-23
Germany and Austria

After ten months of arduOuS ef-
fort. Germany's peace campaign has
. failed 10 revoke an answer from any
of her enemies; yet it has not been
! aItUget her unsuccessful. She has
/ failed to get England. France, OF
! Italy 10 discuss peace. but she has
gOt Austria discussing it. There. are
-.u pCac" negotiations going on be-
i fNuen Germany and the United
: States. but there are active peace e.
! GoliationS going on between Ger
/ many and Austria. The two allies
started out gayly side by side, but
! they have got off their horses to
! argue with each other. The situa-
! tion becomes almost comic when it
Is noted that the peace controversy
! is assuming the form of a demand
! BIZ Austria that Germany state her
terms, and of the usual slippery eva
siOus of the demand Dy Germany:
comic. in view of the fact that both
OF them haughtily announced last
December. at the opening of their
peace campaign. that they were gra-
ciously willing TO listen TO the peace
terms OF their enemies.
Nhen Germany took Austria along
with her on this ten months cam
paign she had no thought of any
thing but a German peace. She has
no other thought still. for that mat
ter But it was a dangerous thing
TO take such comrade as Austria
on that Fishing excursion. Austria
needs peace too much. The German
policy was to talk as if an honorable
peace could be had, but always to
u l.; h1 hing fn
inveigle the enemy into a conference
at which they would discover there
was TO outcome except German one
Germany contemplated being able to
talk about peace for months and yet
never to hint at the terms. 1t SEEM
ed an impossibility, and yet for ten
months Germany has succeeded in
walking that tightrope, and appears
able 10 keep it up.
But, however Austria may have
lent herself TO this trickery at the
beginning. it is impossible 10 talk
about bread to d hungry man with
ont getting him interested. More
and mere Austria. has shown grow
ing unsteadineSs, a growing desire
to get off the tightrope and talk
peace terms; impossible terms, Ger
man terms, terms to which none of
the Allies would listen for a mo-
ment but still terms. And the
German program contemplated the
careful and permanent exclusion of
any definite word until the Allies
had been fairly trapped into the
peace conference. She relied on
her ability to keep this trickery up
while all the time adding to the paci-
fist strength in enemy countries, and
her confidence in her own ability
was justified; but she relied too
much on Austria. The more Austria
has talked of peace in aid of Ger
many's campaign, the more she has
grown 10 want it, and the harder it
has become to keep her own people
quiet. The divergence between the
two has increased until today it
seems as if Germany must either
yield something to Austria's de-
mand for a statement of terms or ad-
nit the fraudulent peace campaign
to be a failure. After ten months
the Allies are still dumb, but Aus
becoming vocal She cannot
rong remain silent, for she hears the
outcries of her own people, her ears
catch the sinister sounds from Pola.
where the crews of her submarines
are in revolt against their officers,
where officers have been killed in
clashes between Austrian and Ger
man sailors. Austria can read the
omen.-N. Y. Times.