New-York tribune., 1918-03-24
Uprising impossible in Germany;
Radicals Monarchiists at Heart

characteristic anecdote told by q
| German Radical. The uproar in. the
streets of Berlin was not understood
by the bureaucratic mind, and one of
fetal, long accustomed to looking out
upon life across & green table, asked
in puzzled way: "What do the peo-
pie want? Why, we clear off our
desks every evening, and if anything is
left undone we finish it next day"
The atmosphere in which that bu-
reaucrats mind moved still exists in
Germany. Many Germans still think
that clearing off the official desks
every evening is the chief function of
government. Get an efficient admin
istration, and why, they ask, seek to
vitalize the governmental machinery
with the uncertain. current OF the popu-
lar will?
That is one reason why the Trotzky
"wedge' failed to split the German
rock. The character of the German
people, both for good and for bad, was
against him.
These general grounds for not ex-
pecting q revolution in Germany had
already impressed themselves upon
my mind long before the war began;
1t lay IN the very atmosphere OF Cer-
many that there could be no revolution
so long as the character of the people
remained what is was.
A few days after my return to
America the news Of the Russian revo.
luton reached me while I was resting
at my old home in a farming commu-
nifty Of the South. The plain coun-
try people there at once beieged me
with the question: Would there be a
revolution also in Germany? And |
frequently had to answer the same
question q little later in Washington
and New York. My answer was always
decided negative. Besides the gem
eral causes just mentioned I referred
! to the attitude of the German people
| toward the Kaiser and toward mon
archical government.
Those are things that Trotzky under
estimated. He failed to take into con
sideration the fact tha. the Kaiser
position with his people has even been
strengthened during the war. The Ger
mans do not hold him responsible for
beginning Of the war; and even If
there were feeling in Germany
against continuing the war strong
enough to float a revolutionary move
ment it is by no means certain that it
would be aimed against the Kaiser
1t is a noteworthy fact that the great
strikes of nearly two months ago were
in no sense directed against him or
the system Of government. They wero
political, indeed, in being protest
against an annexationist policy, the
wild land-grabbing agitation of the
Fatherland party, and the postpone
ment Of the Prussian suffrage reform
but they went no further than that.
The Kaiser Role
From the very beginning Of the war
the Kaiser adopted a role calculated
that prevented the Germans from feel
ing themselves fully one people. He
appealed for unity, Tor standing to-
| gether against the country's enemies;
and he pledged himself to ignore po-
litical differences. He doubtless had
mixed motives in this, was doubtless
looking in part to strengthening him
self and the monarchical idea with the
people. Whatever his motive, his cal
culation was correct. He followed up
his words by placing the Socialists
upon an entirely changed footing He
actually appointed to office men whom
ne had once denounced as fellows
without a country; and one of these,
DR.. August Mueller has even risen to
the rank of an under secretary of state
in the Imperial Food Office
This conciliatory treatment of the
Socialists gave expression to d genuine
change Of attitude in the imperial and
in the governmental mind. The way