Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-11-29
NY FRANK n. sIMoNDs.

No wise man will venture to fore
cast the immediate future in Germany
Ion the strength of such evidence as is
available Yet it will surprise no one
that there should be disclosed on the
morrow of the great defeat separatist
tendencies in south Germany and
snti-Prussian sentiments in western
Germany Both have their foundation
in history.
The present German empire was
FOUNDED upon the fact Of military vic
rory. At the outset of the Franco
-Prussian war both the French and the
-Prussians calculated upon the aid of
the south Germans. Napoleon III was
wrong and Bismarck right. but there
was basis for the French belief that
Aths states which had only a little
more than a half century before been
members of the confederation OF the
~Rhine and had sympathized with Aus
-fria In the recent war you'd stand
with France rather than Prussia.
Bismarck. on his part. reasoned that
the real unification of Germany could
Jake place only when the two sec
tions had been participants In great
and victorious campaign. He pro-
cured the war. as he boosted in his
-recollections. by editing the Ems dis
>patch. South Germany did march
with Prussia, and after Sedan and
Metz came the great scene il, the
Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. soon
TO see the peace congress. when Will
ham was crowned German emperor.
Bismarck Held the South.
=. But even after victory it required
!. all of Bismarck's skill to bring the
south German states to the point:
There were personal jealousies and
~<hcre were historic rivalries. Ba-
H-<aria had once aspired to the leader
ship in Germany: the Bavarian dy-
nasty was far older than the Hohen-
-zollern. and between north and south
Germany was the great religious diff
Terence of opinion which in the past
~had contributed to Bavarian align
ment with France and with Austria
rather than with Prussia in previous
..&enturieS.
: After 1871 there was an unmistak-
able march toward unity; the two
sections of the new country lost their
old rivlries. Prussia steadily &C
auired greater and greater ascen-
.dancy as Prussian military and ex-
pansionist ideas laid hold of the
minds of the Bavarians as well as Of
the younger generation in Baden ana
: lSurttembe~~. Yet there remained a
certain measure of antipathy.
The great question now is whether
= ihe defeat and the complete upset of
-.ahe Prussian military gospel and pres
~Sige will abolish what was possible
only because of military victory. Be
: tween Prussia and Bavaria, as well
: as the other southern states. there
remain great differences. The Ger
anan Austrians. who have just pro-
claimed their separation from the
Hapsburg empire and their desire
FOR union with Germany. are far
: more closely related in history and in
: character to Bavaria than to Prus-
.sia. and a union of Bavaria, Baden,
Wurttemberg and German Austria,
-either in a single state or more prob
fably in a federation of states which
would follow the precedent of the
old confederation of the Rhine, would
he logical.
THE south is more apt. too. to cling
to conservative ideas. Republicanism.
which may be swept aside for the
bolshevistic ideas in Prussia, is far
more likely to prevail in the south.
and If the north becomes bolshevistic
while the south elects the republican
forms, then there will be a new line
of cleavage. Religion. political forms
and the traditions of a history which
is only relatively remote may easily
prove stronger than the influences
due to Bismarckian policy and de-
rived from military victory now be-
'come military disaster.