The Cordova daily times., 1918-02-15
MOVING AUsTRO-GERMANS

There is and has long been an inter
 national democracy in the world. It is
 largely the creation of organized labor
 That facts casts a shadow pretty far
 into the future, not a shadow in the
 portentous sense, necessarily, but in the sense that it is prophetic, Thus in ternational democracy, long existent,
 is only now coming into full self-con-
 sciOusness. The ferment in Vienna is the answer of Austrian democracy to
 that of Russia, and the little noise
 that comes to us, despite the silencing
 of the censor, is the inarticulate re-
 sponse of German democracy to Aus tria. It is the awakening sense of a community of interest, one that is not broken by nationalistic severances, that has made the mind of Austria sus- ceptible to the example of Russia, and which is making the mind of Germany
 quicken to the impulses that come
 from Austria. The predicament of
 Austria and of Germany marks, more
 than has been probably imagined,
 the failure of the censorship. The sup
 pression of military information that
 would be of value to the enemy was
 the primary, but the least, of the req
 sons for a censorship in Germany and
 and Austria, which outdid all previous
 performances in points of severity
 and efficiency. The chief reason was
 recognition of the fact that there was
 danger in letting the German and Aus
 trian people know what the people at
 war with him thought and said, and did. General Hoffman complained to Trotzky, with true Prussian perempto- Tiness, that Bolshevik propaganda was continued, despite the armistice Trotz- ky answered that when he signed the armistice he engaged himself to sill ence the guns, not the wireless. It was not a technical controversy, but one recognized by both as of the greatest practical moment. This newly lWak-I ened self-consciodsnes in internation- al democracy is one of the fundament- al facts of the present situation, and | a fact which Eliminates the i'm mediate future in both Germany and Austria.
 Another not less fundamental, and , perhaps even more unmistakable in it's prophecy, is that 1t is suffering, chiefly that of hunger, which has awakened the democracies of Austria and Russia to a consciousness of their relation of mutuality in the present Situation. Hunger Is the most dyna-I mic of all social forces. It's constrain- ing and restraining power is greater than that of any social force known Politically, it is the most revolutional of forces. Under it's goading masses will boldly undertake what, normally, hey would lack the courage even to All this, of course, Is trite. But it has a present application @ the state of Austria and Germany. The problem pressing on both is to 'elieve this hunger, which has goaded he people of one nation to the verge 1f revolt, and those of the other to ooldness of speech that must excite both the anxiety and amazement of authority The cause will become more powerful and dangerous the onger it persists, and in Austria, at least, it can not much longer persist without decisive consequences. These facts suggest that Germany and Aus tria must, without loss of time, break the blockade which is starving their people into revolt. It is possible to break it by accepting peace on the terms offered The last-named method is the quicker one, and the only cer- tain one.