The Nome daily nugget., 1918-02-18
POLITICAL FACTORS
 OF THE WAR


 that empire never was unified. The whole of Arabia Is now In revolt and all the subject peoples. Armenians, Sy- rians Greeks. Jews, are eager to be freed from the Ottoman yoke. Turkey has nothing to gain and everything to lose by the continuation of the war.
 Bulgaria fS so war weary that the English press is openly talking of mak- ing a separate peace with her. She gained in her first brief campaign all the territory she aspired to and now is only anxious to hold as much of it as she can. Many of the Bulgarian leaders were educated in Roberts Col lege and are much attached to Ameri- ca. The entrance of the United States into the war has shaken the confidence :lof the Bulgars in the justice and the success of the German cause. The Government majority in parliament is reduced to nine and assertions on the Salonica front are becoming very mum, erous now that winter is coming on Fully fifteen per cent of these de serters have lived in the United States" says a British officer at Sa- lonjca.
 Germany has croSt the political Rubicorn and in the space of five days changed from an autocracy into a democracy. This has been the most lmomentous week since the founding of the empire" These are the words of Matthias Erzberger, leader of the Center or Catholic party of the Reich etag From our standpoint the access sion of the aged, reactionary and au- tocratic Count von Hertling in the place Of the relatively moderate-mind- led Herr Michaelis seems q doubtful gain for democracy, but, nevertheless 1t means a great advance for Germany Last July Herr Erzberger turned against the government and denounced It for the blundcring diplomacy and submarine campaign that has made an enAmy of America. The Socialists who had hitherto supported the gov ernment joined with the Clericals and by a vote of two to one passed Q peace resolution It was commonly said here at the time that the kaiser was ian autocrat and would disregard an Iadversc vote in the Reichstag as he had before. But it did not prove so. lChancellor von Bethmann- HollWcg went out of office and Michaelis went in, but his protest concurrence in the lReichstag resolution was distrustcd, SO he has now been replaced by man iwho Is not 8 PIussian but Bavarian, not a Protestant but a Catholic, not an limperialist but an open advocate of an immediate peace without anneXa- ltions or indemnites, Here is what a Reichstag deputy, Herr Gothcin, said of the situation in October:
 The overwhelming majority of the lsoldiers at the front are also not in- Iclined to fight longer for any kind of Iaims of conquest, but only for Ger imany's vital security and for the peace aims of the Reichstag resolution. At home the prolonged hours of work and the insufficient nourishment, es- ipecially the latter, have increased in the great cities and in the industrial Edistrlet the longing for peace, as have talso the increasing ruin of the mid Idle. class and the sorrow and care in !countless families. Strikes are to be feared iu working class circles if the war continues for aims of conquest. Even for this reason an unambiguous lrepudiation of the annexationists is an indispensable necessity. One of the weightiest tasks now is to decide peo- ple at home to hold out
 The revolutionary spirit of Russia has spread to Germany and infected lthe German navy. We have the best of evidence to that effect nothing less than the word of the German Secre- tary of the navy. Admiral Capele. This is his statement:
 It Is unhappily. 8 sad fact that the Russian Revolution has turned the heads of some persons In the navy. land has Introduced revolutionary ideas among them. Their msenate plan was to recruit representatives on all ships, to cause the crews to refuse to obey orders. to paralyze the fleet, and 10 force peace upon the country.
 It Is said that the crews of four bat tleships at Wilhelmshafen took part in the mutiny and the captain of the "Westfalen" was thrown overheard and drowned. Such a revolt is practically