Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-06-01
WORTH HALF A MILLION MEN
The New Austro.Cerman Treaty Justifes the
Purpose of the Entente TO Destroy
Prussian Militarism

purpose oil the Entente 10 DestrOy
Prussian Militarism
THE new treaty between Germany and
Austria deserves consideration from
two different but allied points of view:
one from its relation to the Mittel-
Europa conspiracy and the other from its
effect on the non-German populations of
Austria Hungary.
A treaty was negotiated with Turkey
some time ago which made that country
virtually vassal of Germany. This
agreement brought the Asiatic part of
the Berln-to- Bagdad plan into the realm
Of the practical, as suming that Germany
is victorious in the war. The new treaty
binds Austria Hungary to Germany for
a period of twenty-five years and solidi-
fes the central part of the great Euro
pean empire which the Kaiser is trying to
create by force of arms. 1t pledges the
two rulers to employ the entire strength
of their peoples for military purposes,
and to treat the armies of the two coun-
tries as one army, dominated by the
German commanders, with the subordi-
nate officers interchangeable. 1t makes
the military supplies of each nation avail
able for either and it provides for the
organization of industry for military
purposes.
The treaty expressly states that "the
allied nations shall devote all their care
to have their armies enter into an
eventual future conflict fully prepared
ot Of thoir 7
continues: "Only thus will the future
war be of brief duration; for had the
armies of both the allies been in this
condition in 1914 this war would have
been ended long ago."
There is here formal notice to the
world that if by any chance the Central
Powers should lose this war they will
fight another one and strike so hard at
the beginning that they cannot be re-
sisted. 1t means that Mittel-Europa is
to be established by force of arms; if
not now, then in the future. II sends
glimnering doWn the 1Uind all hope that
disarmament can follote this War and
that the world can hare period of
peace until and unless the military po,Uer
of Germany is absolutely destroyed.
If any have doubted the imperative
necessity of defeating Germany by force
of arms and compelling upon her such a
peace as the sense of the civilized world
demands they can no longer have excuse
for entertaining such counsels of weak
ness.
The probability that this treaty will
defeat its purposes does not make the
defeat of Germany less necessary. The
non-German races in Austria Hungary
are restless. Some Of them are already
revolving. Bohemia is seething with
revolutionary activity. Every Bohemian
and Czech and Slav and Croatian and
Slavonian and Serb in the empire knows
what the military dominance of Germany
in their country means. They have been
deprived of their liberties by the Aus
trian Germans, but the cruelty of the
Austrians is mercy in comparison with
that Of the Prussans. AS the nature of
this treaty becomes known to the people
they are likely to rise in rebellion. And
they will have the sympathy and CO.
Alliance. Hungarian regiments
have already deserted to the Italians and
to the Russians and are fighting their
own country. Civil war would, of course,
bring into Austria Hungary German
regiments under the treaty which makes
the armies of the two nations one army.
Such war would hasten the victory of
the Entente.
However great a triumph for the
Mittel-Europa idea this treaty may seem
in Berlin, it is worth half million men
or more to the nations fighting for
democracy and peace. 1t steels their
purposes and justifes their determine
tion to destroy militarism and it plants
in the heart of the conspiracy the seeds
of destruction by arousing every instinct
of self-respect and independence in the
non-German races subject to German