Evening star., 1917-09-06
The EveninE Star Newspaper Company
llth st. and Pennsylvania Avenue
The Kaiser and the War.

AAC NdlSCI duU tAV " oA.
Stimulated doubtless by President
Wilson's reply to the peace proposals,
Chancellor Michaelis has given an inter
view in which he discusses at length the
circumstances leading to the great war,
and declares that it was not the Ger
man emperor who was responsible for
the conflict, but two men of the Rus
sian government who cancelled the czar' s
orders for the mobilization of the
cence of blame for the outbreak the
chancellor cites the fact that the en-
peror was at the time on his summer
vacation at the North Cape. All of
which, he AYERS, is sufficient to mark
the American charge that Germany pre-
cipitated the war as part of a secret
plan to dominate the world as calumny.
Never was a summer vacation better
timed than that of Emperor William in
1914. No law breaker planning to com
NIT crime ever laid a foundation for
his alibi with better judgment. But the
absence Of the imperial person from
Berlin was not the kind of absence that
makes for ignorance of current happen
ings. There is such thing as wireless
telegraphy nowadays. Nobody save a
fanatic proGerman believes that the
kaiser did not know every move in the
negotiations between Austria and Ser
bia, eliminating with the ultimatum and
Serbia's reply which called for submis-
sion of the case to The Hague. If the
kaiser went north confident that the
peace would be preserved it was because
he felt assured that Serbia would not
dare to resist Austria's demands and
that Russia would not go to Serbia's res
cue, his assurance as to Russia being
perhaps based upon secret and cousinly
information from "Nicky."
Had Germany not desired the war it
would have been necessary only for Ber-
lin to notify Vienna that there would be
no Intervention by German forces if
Serbia resisted and her friends went to
her rescue. Austria was not attacked,
was in no danger. Serbia offered repara-
tions for the crime at Sarajevo, con-
ceded everything but autonomy and Of
fered to submit the whole question to
arbitration. Austria wanted no arbitra-
tion. She wanted Serbia. The ultima
tum was drawn with no hope or wish
for its complete acceptance And that
It was drawn with the full knowledge
and consent of Berlin, perhaps even at
Berlin's instigation, is believed today in
quarters that are not acutely pro-Ger-
man.
The car may have planned de-mobili-
zation, may even have ordered it, and
the order may have been Cancelled by
two Russian generals, as Michaelis
charges. But that does not prove that
it was Russia and not Germany that
started the war. 1t does not prove that
Germany was not scheming to dominate
central Europe and consequently even
tually all Europe, and as a result all the
world, as the President declares in his
reply to the peace proposal. For the
acquiescence of Russia in the outrageous
demands on Serbia would have placed
Germany in command of central Europe
as surely as though by conquest
Chancellor Michaelis has not scored in
this re5oinder. He has not made as bad
q break as his predecessor, in the latter's
reference to the "scrap of paper" but
that Summer vacation" reference is
really altogether too ridiculous.