Denver labor bulletin., 1917-10-27

oERIALISM.
German financiers were carrying out
their part of the kaiser's war plans.
1t was not to me alone that Baron
Wangenheim told the story of this
Berlin conference. Only recently the
Marquis Garroni, the Italian ambassa-
dor at Constantinople, announced that
Baron Wangenheim said the same
thing to him, Italy at that time being
a member of the Triple Alliance. My
diary shows that the conversation with
the German ambassador took place on
Aug. 26. This was about six weeks
after the fateful council in Berlin in
which the kaiser gave civilization over
to fire and sword, and all the details
of the meeting were still fresh in
Baron Wangenheim's mind.
Planned for 25 Years.
The decision for war which the Aus
trian emperor had confided to his am
bassador to Turkev in May, and which
the kaiser fully revealed to his lieu
tenants in July, was the elimination
of plans that had been under way for
twenty-five years. Just as Bismarck
had plotted and contrived to unite the
German states by war and to create
an empire dominated by Prussia, so
the kaiser had brooded over his own
dream of making Germany the master
state of the world.
Thruout all his policies for quar-
ter of a century runs this Weltmacht
motif, like the motif of a Wagnerian
opera. Everything that was done or
left undone had its inspiration in this
single purpose. Year in and year out,
the kaiser broOded over this ambition,
in which he was the central figure of
stupendOus moving picture, direct
ing and controlling the destinies of
the world.
AS 1 have already said, it was not
by accident that the war came, and it
was not by chance that it came in
1914. In all his calculations the kaiser
had overlooked one factor, that of hu-
man nature. He had not perceived
that his own people might fail him in
the critical moment and that the con-
troll of the great machine which he
had constructed might be challenged
before he could set it in motion.
Baron Wangenheim confided to me
that there would have been war at the
time of the Algeciras conference. But
Germany was not ready. No matter
how elaborate the preparations had
been, there was always something
lacking, so Germany proceeded to get
ready with a new army bill and new
budget which imposed capital tax
that all the world now recognizes as
war tax. The amazing thing is that
it was not so recognized at the time.
To Head Off Revolution.
The new army estimates would have
expired in 1915. The Social Demo-
cratic movement was gaining enor-
mously in strength thruout Germany.
Before the kaiser was fairly ready for
l., Lit - Na1t IL L.
was threatened with a social revolu-
ton at home due to the heavy burdens
the German people were carrying, the
spread of democratic doctrines and
the growing resistance of the working
classes to arbitrary government.
If things drifted until it was neces-
sary to renew the army appropria-
tions, the Social Democrats might be
able to hold up the estimates and force
sweeping reforms that would prac-
tically put them in control of the
reichstag and perhaps end forever the
kaiser's dream of world domination.
1t was vital that the war should
come before this issue was joined at
home, and hence the murders at Sar-
ajevo were little less than a godsend
to the Germany autOcracy. They gave
the kaiser the excuse he needed and
they provided the opportunity to man
euver Russia into a position in which
war could be represented to the Ger
man people as one of self-defense.
The Berlin conference put the finish
ing touches on the program. The Ger
man financiers furnished their task
and the trap was sprung.
There can be only one end to this
struggle, and that is the complete de-
! struction of kaiserism and absolutism
d thn OF nf
world, President Wilson was the first
to see that without this elimination of
kaiserism and absolutism no durable
peace was possible. To make peace on
any other terms is to make truce
and give Germany time to prepare for
a fresh attack. AS Baron Wangen-
helm once hopefully remarked, the next
time Germany would have at least a
five-year supply of cotton and copper
when war was declared. That is un-
{ questionably what will happen unless
the nations that are now fighting au-
tocracy make the results of this war
so decisive that the Prussian system
can never be re-established
| If Germany was victorious and
Great Britain and France were crush
ed, the United States would have been
dItdcheu OH tHe pIeechC 'hae IL hau
supplied the Allies with money and
munitions and be compelled to pay
an indemnity that would make Ger
many the richest nation in the world
in spite of her enormous losses. l
have heard this indemnity mentioned
at $4,000, 100000, or 20O,OO0,O0O,-
900 marks.
There is not the slightest doubt in
my mind that this is what the kaiser
would have done if the Allies had been
defeated Indeed, the humbling and