Evening star., 1918-11-10
Exit William Hohenzollern.
Abdication !

! ADQlcdI1On!
William Hohenzo1lern, "kaiser and
king" surrenders his crown. The
monarch who thought himself greater
than law, greater than human rights,
as great indeed as Divinity, has
yielded to his fate and steps from his
throne, beaten as military ehieftain,
cursed by his people as the author of
their sorrows and sufferings.
How changed from 1914! How tre-
mendous the fall from the heights to
which he climbed as he waved his
sword and called upon his mighty
hosts to follow him in conquest! For
years he had longed for "the day" of
Germany's advance. He had plotted
and planned and schemed for advan-
tage, to separate other nations, to keep
up their frictions. He had built a
powerful military organization and,
challenging England's power on the
seas, he had secured from heavily
taxed people the means to build as
well a great navy. He had made a
compact with the "Red Sultan
slaughterer of Christian peoples. He
was the war lord supreme.
His moment for striking was well
chosen. France was in the midst of
weakening domestic difficulties. Eng
land was struggling with economic
problems of gravity and facing
possible rebellion in Ireland. Russia
was not yet recovered from the wounds
of the war with Japan. and had not
completed her strategic railroads to
the German frontier. And America
for purposes of the kaiser's calcula-
tions America did not exist. There
was no America as far as his schemes
were concerned.
He struck, seizing as opportunity
and using as justification Austria's as
sault upon little Serbia and Russia 8
declaration of partisanship for the
weak victim of Austria's unjust de-
mands. He violated every law of ma
tions in his precipitancy. He tore into
shreds the treaty which assured Bel
GUMS neutrality. From that moment
William Hohenzollern became as the
enemy of humanity.
Upon the kaiser's head rests today
the odium of all the crimes that have
been committed by his armies in the
field of invasion The blood of chill
dren and civilians slain without excuse
or warrant stains his hands. The
deaths of people from the bombing
of undefended cities far distant from
the war zone are to be charged against
him. Every one of the foul, nameless
barbarities recorded against his SOL
diers is count in the indictment. For
William Hohenzollern set the standard
for his army. There is nothing to
show that he ever questioned a single
act of bestiaity or ever punished the
perpetrator of a single crime. Indeed,
he decorated the man who sank the
Lusitania!
sitNo apologist for William Hohen-
zollern can clean his record. And it
is the blacker for the greatness of his
opportunity, for the richness of his
heritage He could have been factor
for righteousness, for development, for
the real advancement of his people
He chose to exploit them for his own
aggrandizement. He elected to become
a war lord and he aspired to be the
ruler over all Europe and the dictator
of the affairs of the world
What fate has in store for this most
miserable man cannot be told. There
can be no adequate punishment for
ehis sins. The loss of his throne is
nothing as compared with the penalty
shis crimes have justified. That must
sbe left to future determination, by the
German people, perhaps. possibly by
the allied nations. Abdication is but
a stage, and not a final act.