New-York tribune., 1918-12-21

to counterbalance the most extreme in
fuences, they felt certain solidarity
with the representatives of the old
regime, army and bureaucracy, espe-
cially the Foreign Office. and are con-
sequently slow in resisting their en-
crOachmentS.
Exactly contrary appears the OK
treme section represented especially by
Barth. His strength and that of his
party lie in their having combated
the war and the old regime all along,
and their determination to outlaw the
power of militarism by the dismissal
of all officers and the abolition of a
standing army, and to control all mill
tary forces by soldiers councils. They
are equally resolved to cxtirpate the
most dangerous representatives of the
old regime from higher civil service.
Prone to Experiment
Their weakness lies in their com
parative ineXperience, their greater in
clination to hazardous political and
economic experiments, some of which
might easily prove fatal to the whole
fabric of the German commonwealth
in its present exhausted and alto
gether ptiful state.
and the Extremists, leaving aside the
Liebknecht group, is largely a struggle
between the Berlin Soviet committee,
in which the Independents predominate,
and the Council Of Peoples Plenipoten-
tiaries, or the national government
wherein the Moderates and 1ndepend-
ents are represented in equal numbers,
but wherein the former WELD the su-
perior influence, owing to practical
alliance with the old bureaucracy.
The strongest weapon of the Ex-
tremists and malcontents against the
present regime is their accusation that
the government lacks the courage and
resolution to stamp out the miitarist
counter revolution.
The delegates reference to secret
order to the army, nstructing the vari-
Gus corps to keep one division of each
corps mobilized beyond the period Of
rehabilitation and to supply it with
abundant ammunition, under the pre-
text of their being needed against re-
dictionary man9uvres, has produced a
deep impression and damaged the gov
ernment's positions
Liebknecht the Disturber
The congress also is instructive in
Judging the extent and character of
the influence of the Liebknecht group.
They form an insignificant minority
in the congress, but it is obvious Lieb-
knecht is, at all times, in a position
to collect great masses Of Berlin work
men and induce them to strike as a
political demonstration. This congress
can atiord to ignore them, but when
Liebknecht gets the soldiers repre-
sentatives' active units to demand some
thing, it is a very different PROPOSE
ton.
There was scene of tremendous
excitement and tumut when a deputa-
ton of various Berlin regiments pen
etrated the congress hall and urged the
immediate acceptance of the soldiers
demands -neamely that supreme sol
diers councils be invested with the pow-
err of command, the abolition of officers
distinguishing stripes and badges, the
disarmament Of officers, and that sol
ders' councils supervise discipline
1t is likely that the congress will
make important concessions to these
demands. This will be due solely to
the fact that they are backed by armed
force. This is characteristic of the
whole political situation in Germany
However, in forming judgment on the
merit of the demands, it should be
remembered that, wild though they
may seem if applied to other countries
they are widely regarded as in dis
rensable to Germany if the power and
the spirit of militarism are really tc
be extirpated.