The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1917-06-22

= tons of German destiny, than as tn,
actual plans of responsible, rulers
but the rulers of Germany themselve!
: knew all the while what concrete
plans, what well-advanced intrigue!
lay back of what the professors anC
the writers were saying, and were
}, glad to go forward unmolested, filling
the thrones of Balkan States with Ger.
man Princes, putting German officers
at the service of Turkey to drill he1
armies and make interest with the
Government, developing plans of Sc
dition and rebellion in India and
Egypt, setting their fires in Persia.
The demands made by Austria up
on Servia were a mere single step in
a plan which compassed Europe and
Asia, from Berlin to Bagdad. They
hoped those demands might not arouse
Europe, but they meant to press them
whether they did or not, for they
thought themselves ready for the
final issue of arms. Their plan was
to throw a broad belt of German mil
itary power and political control
across the very center of Europe and
beyond the Mediterranean into the
heart of Asia; and Austria Hungary
was to be as much their tool and pawn
as Servia or Bulgaria or Turkey or
the ponderous States of the east.
Austria Hungary, indeed, was to
become part of the central German
Empire, absorbed and dominated by
the same forces and influences that
had originally cemented the German
States themselves. The dream had
its heart at Berlin. 1t could have had
heart nowhere else. 1t rejected the
idea of solidarity of race entirely. The
choice of peoples played no part in it
at all. 1t contemplated binding to-
gether racial and political units which
could be kept together only by force
Czechs, Magyars, Croats, Serbs, Rou-
manians, Turks, Armenians the
proud States of Bohemia and Hun
gary, the stout little commonwealth
of the Balkans, the indomitable Turks,
! the subtle peoples of the east.
These peoples did not wish to be
united. They ardently desired to di-
rect their own affairs, would be sat
! isfod only by undisputed independ-
ence. They could be kept quiet only
by the presence or the constant threat
of armed men. They would live under
common power only by sheer COM
pulsion and await the day of revolu-
ton. But the German military states
men had reckoned with all that and
were ready to deal with it in their
own way.
| And they have actually carried she
greater part of that amazing plan in
to execution Look how things stand.
Austria is at their mercy. 1t has act
ed, not upon its own initiative or up
on the choice of its people, but at
Berlin's dictatiOn ever since the war
began. Its people now desire peace,
but cannot have it until leave is
granted from Berlin.
The so-called Central powers are,
in fact, but a single Power. Servia
is at its mercy, should its hands be but
for a moment freed. Bulgaria has
consented to its will and Roumania
is overrun. The Turkish armies,
which Germans trained, are serving
Germany, certainly not themselves,
and the guns of German warships ly-
ing in the harbor at Constantinople
remind Turkish statesmen every day
that they have no choice but to take
their orders from Berlin. From Ham
burg to the Persian Gulf the net is
spread.
1t is not easy to understand the
eagerncss for peace that has been
manifested from Berlin ever since
the snare was set and sprung. Peace,
peace has been the talk Of her foreign
office for now a year or more; not
peace upon her own initiative, but
upon the initiative of the nations ov-
er which she now deems herself to
hold the advantage. A little of the
talk has been public, but most of it
has been private. Through all sorts
of channels it has come to me, and in
all sorts of guises, but never with the
terms disclosed which the German
Government would be willing to ac-
cept.
That Government has other valua-
BILE pawns in it's hands besides those
l have mentioned. 1t still holds val
liable part of France, though with
slowly relaxing grasp, and practical
ly the whole of Belgium. Its armies
press close upon Russia and overrun
Poland at their will. 1t cannot go
farther; it dare not go back. 1t wish
es to close its bargain before it is too
late, and it has little left to offer for
the pound of flesh it will demand. The
military masters under whom Ger
many is bleeding see very clearly to
what point fate has brought them.
If they fall back or are forced back |
an inch, their power, both abroad and
at home, will fall to pieces like a |
house of cards.
1t is their power at home they are
thinking about now more than their
power abroad. 1t is that power which
is trembling under their very feet;
and deep fear has entered their hearts.
They have but one chance to perpet-
uate their military power or even
their controlling political influence,
If they can secure peace now with
the immense advantages still in. their
hands which they have up to this point
gained they will have JUS
titled themselves before the German
people; they will have gained by force
what they promised 20 gain by it; an
immense expansion of German power,