The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1918-11-22
DREAM or WORLD
DOMINION ENDS
IN ABDICATION
Power of Hohenzollerns Again
to Set World AfIame
Is Ended.
Plunged WerId Into Greatest War In
a History sand Now Goes
Into Oblivion.

~ =
The abdication of the kaiser and the
remuneration of the crown prince ends
the power of the two men solely re-
sponsible for plunging the world into
the blOodiest conflict in all history.
The kaiser sought world dominion
and won-world hatred. The military
leaders of Prussia. Its philosophers,
teachers, preachers and business men.
for years directed the moral. intellec-
tual and material resources of the en-
pire toward the tremendous concen-
tration and contamination of organ
lied power which in 1914 he let loose
upon the world. His armies crushed
by the hosts of civilization, his empire
torn by revolution, he now retires to
private life with the record of being
the blo0dieSt-minded and most hatred
ruler the world has ever known.
Sought World Dominion.
He signed the order for the German
mobilization. He stood sponsor for
the terrorism and brigandage which,
under the guise of warfare, ravished
Belgium. laid waste the cities of
France, depopulated and outraged Ser
bia and sent the Lusitania with her
freight of women and children to a
grave in the Atlantic.
Civilization will never forget that it
was the minions of the emperor who
officially shot to death Edith Cave.l,
the English nurse who befriended the
Belgians in Brussels.
Against these his cry II did not will
the war; availed as nothing. Before
the bar of humanity William was adj
judged guilty of the greatest crime
since the crucfxion. In him human-
ty saw the last of the autocrats, the
final Caesar.
Assertions that he was at heart
peaceful, so persistently circulated for
German propaganda, became branded
as false. He who had long proclaimed
himself the prince of peace stood re-
vealed as humanity'S scourge, anal
against him and all that he represent
ed rose the new world of democracy
and freedom.
Claims Almighty as His Ally.
Many doubt whether William was
entirely sane. He said repeatedly that
he possessed divine mandate to rule,
that the Almighty was his 'uncondi-
tional and avowed ally" 1t is not en-
tirely clear whether such outgivings
were the product of dis9rdered brain
or We're due to unbounded egotism and
an effort to impress his subjects with
| the idea of reverent and unquestiOning
| submission.
| His speeches to his armies in which
he asserted he and they were "inStru
merts of divine judgment upon Ger
nany'S enemies" were regarded by
many outside of Germany as pieces of
rhetoric, intended only to deceive his
own people.
Few statesmen realized that the en-
peror in his Shining armor," maneu-
vering his armies and fleets, building
up the German military system, ce
menting the central empires and Tur-
key, and fostering the preaching of the
| supremacy of autocracy, was erecting
machine that one day would make
war upon all civilization.
I Yet the world was warned by some
fir-sighted men that the emperor
would one day bring catastrophe upon
the nations. These men saw in him
then and see him now as mad inyen-
for, given in his youth the most dar-
gerous of all toys-his army and navy.
They were his playthings. He de-
veloped them throughout the years to
the point where he had to put theia
70 test. Like crazed inventor he
feared the end of his reign would find
his inventions untried, so grasped the
first opportunity to wage world war.
seizes Pretense to Open War.
Meantime the German war party
grew, with William ut its head and
the scheme of world dominion awaited
the hour to begin its attainment. Ii
came with the assassination of the
Austrian Archduke Francis Ferdinand
and his wife at Sarajevo.
Recalled from a yachting trip, Will
liam presided at a conference at Pots
dam of representatives of the German
and Austrian armies. navies and COM
mercial interests. There, according to
the best information obtainable. the
decision was reached to make the as
sassination of the archduke pretense
for the world war for which Germany
had long prepared.
In the diplomatic exchanges between
Germany and Austria on one side and
Great Britain, France and Russia on
the other William posed as one wishing
for peace but driven to war.