The Washington herald., 1918-01-30
What Is Happening
In German Empire
As Battles Rage
CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE

bit. The feeling would calm down.
Then see to it that the Hungarians
rode with loyal German troops. Split
them up.
And those are the reasons why the
worlds greatest military operation,
the supreme effort of Germany to
win the war, did not begin last De-
cember.
The war can end IN one Of two
ways-a military decision in the West.
or a revolution in the central empires.
The latter is the leading hope of
the entente allies. But a revolution
Is a difficult thing to bring about
when a people thinks It is winning
war And the German people think
exactly that
They have been weakened by under
feeding until they are prey to all
manner OF disease. They yearn for
decent and sufficient clothes. Their
homes are cold, for though there is
plenty of coal in Germany, there is
no way of distributing it. The great
majority of the German people not
in the army are sick to their very
souls of their world war.
World staryes, Germans Think.
But the Germans do not imagine
themselves to be the only suffer
ers. Their newspapers tell them
that conditions in England and
France are worse than in Ger
many, and they can readily be-
lteve it,. for II they. the victorious,
are suffering. what must be the
condition of the defeated?
True. strikes and small riots
are common in Germany. The
government labor department ac-
knowledges upward 5000 labor diff
fculties of one sort and another.
in the past year. But it is note
worthy that none of these was in
direct protest against the war, but
rather against some local condi-
tion. the outgrowth of the war.
sometimes it was a movement for
more wages to meet the rapidly
advancing cost of living. Some
times it was against overtime.
Oftenest 1t was against the food
restrictions.
OF course. II all these difficulties
had taken place at the same time.
they would have made a revolu-
tion.
But they were not the result of
organization or even of a concerted
idea The most sanguine of Ger
man Democrats are without hope
OF a revolution Of Germans civil
population.
Even DR.. Kribel Schlieben. a leader
OF Germans who hope for a democratic
Germany. has no hope of a revolution
10 20 aENa C-IN NAgI
ed to the privileged classes in Ger
many. He was German consul general
at Belgrade, Serbia, when the war
broke out. His opposition to the war,
which he branded as one of aggres-
sion and without cause, lost him his
position. But he continued his ac-
tivities.
''Then." said he, ''I began to notice
that my friends and associates who
believed as / did were disappearing
one by one. I came to Switzerland.
The German people are not the kind
who revolt" said DR.. Schlieben. 1T
is useless for America, whose position
In this war see clearly and admire,
to hope for a revolution. The most we
can hope for Is an advance of demo-
cratic principles after the war, not
during it."
Cemented Closer to Their Rulers
Singularly. the efforts of President
Wilson and Lloyd George to arouse
the German people against their rulers
have SO far had only the result of
cementing the two the more.
THE war must go to q knockout;
German militarism must be crushed"
says Lloyd George.
The world must be made safe for
democracy; Germans autocratic pow
er must be crushed" says President
Wilson.
And the German newspapers inter-
pret both these statements as proof
that the governments Of the world are
in a conspiracy to undo the German
empire and to bring individual dis
aster to its people.
1t Is proper and right that President
Wilson should discriminate between
the German rulers and the German
people, for only thus can Americas
position be made plain to the world.
But We would not listen to the Kaiser
II he were to counsel America to
overthrow Wilson and Congress and
set up q new government to treat for
peace with him. The German people
do not regard their situation as fun
damentally different from what Amer
ica's would be in such circumstances.
They do not see their Kaiser as we
see him In fact, they do not see
him at all. They only see his divine
rights.
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