The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1918-11-11
KAISER FLED
FROM THRONE
After Abdication He Went
to Middachten in
Holland
CROWN PRINCE
RENOUNCED THRONE
The Ex-Emperor Read with
Shudder the Demand
to Abdicate

signed letter of abdication on Saturday
morning at the German great headquar-
ters in the presence of Crown Prince
Frederick William and Field Marshal
Hindenburg, according to a dispatch from
Amsterdam to the Exchange Telegraph
company. The German crown prince
signed his remuneration to the throne
shortly afterwards.
1t is believed that King Ludwig of
Bavaria and King Frederick August of
Saxony also have abdicated.
Before placing his signature to the
document an urgent message from Phil
ipp Scheidemann, who was Socialist
member without portfolio in the imperial
s cabinet, was handed to the emperor. He
read it with SILVER. Then he signed
the paper, saying:
''It may be for the good of Germany"
The emperor was deeply moved. He
consented to sign the document only
when he got the news of the latest events
in the empire.
Serious food difficulties are expected in
Germany owing to the stoppage of trains.
The council of the regency will take the
most drastic steps to re-establish order.
A dream of world dominion obsessing
the mind of Emperor William plunged
the world into war. Upon him and the
tremendous military engine of destruc-
ton of which he was the embodiment,
the exponent and the leader, rests the re-
sponsibility of deliberately planning and
bringing about the greatest conflict the
world has ever seen.
1t did not matter to the world that the
emperor's personal share in the swift
events Immediately preceding the war
had been obscured. The world convicted
him of organizing, directing and main
tanning at the top notch of efficiency the
great German military machine 1t re-
membered that he signed the order for
the German mobilization. 1t remembered
that he stood sponsor for the terrorism
and brigandage which, under the guise of
warfare, ravished Belgium, laid waste the
cities of France, depopuated and out. |
ragged Serbia and sent the Lusitania with
her freight Of women and children to |
grave in the Atlantic
Civilization will never forget that it |
was the minions of the emperor who of |
fcially shot to death Edith Cavell, the |
English girl who befriended the Belgians |
in Brussels
Against these his cry, Il did not will
the war" availed as nothing. Before the
bar of humanity William was adiudged /
guilty of the greatest crime since the
crncifixion. In him humanity saw the
last Of the autocrats, the final Caesar
Assertions that he was at heart peaceful,
so persistently circulated for years as to
give them the stamp of German propa-
ganda, became branded as certainly false
He who had long proclaimed himself the
prince Of peace stood revealed as human
ity's scourge, and against him and all
that he represented rose the new world
of democracy and freedom.
Many doubt whether William was en-
tirely sane. He said repeatedly that he
possessed divine mandate to rule, that
the Almighty was his unconditional and
avowed ally" II is not entirely clear
whether such outgivings were the prod
uct of a disordered brain or were due to
unbounded egotism and an effort to i'm
press his subjects with the idea of rever-
ent and unquestioning submission. His
speeches to his armies in which he as
serted he and they were instruments of
divine judgment upon Germany's en-.
emies' were regarded by many outside
of Germany as pieces of rhetoric, in
tended only to deceive his own people.
Assembled Throne 80 Years Ago.
Friedrich Wilhelm Victor Albert was ]
born Jan. q, 1859, and became Emperor
William H. on the death of his father, !
Frederick ILL., June Is, 1885, He came
out of the University of Bonn fully pre-
pared to enter the school of statecraft !
Set to work in the government bureaus,
he was early taught the routine of off. c
cial business under the tutelage of the c
great Bismarck.
AT the death Of his father, the imperial
throne devolved upon William H., who c
was then but 20 years of age. Bismarck h
continued as chancellor but not for long
Though the great statesman had made !;
every effort to instil his young pupil with
his own ideas of government and diplo-
matte policies, the new emperor soon :
found that he disagreed with his grand Il
fathers former close adviser in many i'm. a
Dortant respects In 1890 the disagree a
ment of the two men reached a crisis, a Il
rupture came and Bismarck went. The 9
relations between the two men remained Z
'NiRiANo IVA cCNNidi Jul DblbItI
Bismarck died peace was made between g
hem.
With the passing of Bismarck the en- II
,eror's real reign began. AS military s.
nan he was a stickler for efficiency, dis "
.ipline and the observance of etiquette a
o the last detail And of the details of 9
Ill these components of army life and 81
raining he was familiar to the smallest t.
,oint. 1t is related that during military n
eyiews he was able TO detect the slight v
st imperfection in the equipment or B
raining of regiment or squadron and
allied attention to the dereIiction sharp 1,
y. With the principles Of tactics and Ii
naneuvers, too, he was thoroughly ac- d
Besides being well versed in army mat. "a
ers, the emperor was thoroughly fa1l IL
liliar with naval affairs having a tech a,
ical mastery of the details that 90 to
| u