New-York tribune., 1918-11-14
Danger Signals
By Frank Fl. Simonds
1918. Ne,o York Tribune inc

march Of the revolution in Germany
toward conditions which are wholly
analogous to those of Russia at a SINH
lar period in the upheaval in the Slav
state. Indeed, the fact seems to be that
the pace is far faster in Germany than
it was in Russia.
The familiar conception of the Ger
man as a disciplined, orderly, obedient
creature, taking his pleasures in food
and drink rather than politics, and en-
( joying his restrictions as other peoples
enjoy their liberties, may easily serve
to blind the world to the perils Of the
new situation.
The truth is, of course, that the Rus
sian revolution was made in Germany,
not merely procured by German infu-
ence, but based upon the ideas of the
German Socialists. 1t marched rapidly
through all the phases of an aggravated
class war, which has now degenerated
into a government by assassination, al
ways keeping time to the tunes of the
German doctrines of socialism.
One is accustomed to hear now that
the German people are not to be COM
pared with the Russian, that they are
educated, intelligent, European rather
than Asiatic. And in the same order of
ideas it is argued that the German peo-
pie have long been citizens of the mod
ern world, while the Russians have to
the last lived in a world medi eva in
the extreme. Yet the truth is that in
Russia the basis Of revolution was hun
ger aggravated by military defeat, and
that hunger is not only imminent but
conceivably existent in Germany. More
over, whatever be the existing condi-
ton, the rapid extension of strikes, the
growing chaos as the old system breaks
down, make the progress Of famine in
evitable
In Russia The first days of the revo-
luton were marked by little serious
fighting. The good nature of the crowds
and the reasonableness of the mobs were
themes of all observers. The men inn
medlately called to the control Of the
government had already conducted Rus
sian affairs in Duma cabinets; they
represented liberal ideas, but they were
not Socialists or anarchists. Prince
Ivoff's ministry, in which Miliukoff and
many other men of distinction served,
was not Red. After Lvoff Kerensky
still represented a measure of modera-
ton and in some fashion sought to save
II
nations.
But although the revolution is less
than week old in Germany we are al
ready informed that the moderates are
excluded; the bourgeoisie is not to have
any representation in the government,
although the bourgeois:e in Germany
represents at least third Of the whole
population whereas in Russia it was
insignificant. But to exclude both the
bourgeose and the conservative ele-
ments in Germany, who still adhere to
the older order of monarchical ideas, is
to pass rapidly from the tyranny of an
autocracy to the tyranny Of anarchy.
If the recent course of events in Ger
many be not promptly changed nothing
seems more certain than that we shall
at no distant time find ourselves facing
eastward over the Rhine upon a vast
seething mass Of anarchy, extending
from the Rhine to the Siberian wastes
and including within it's limits the 3OO.-
100000 people of Russia, Germany and
! AUSTRIA
If the present movement in Germany
continues we shall find, also that the
hostility which swept over Russia after
the revolution, the hostility for the West
ern nations, the hatred of Britain and
Of America as reactionary states, will
appear in Germany.
All contemporary signs point to the
swift arrival in Germany of exactly the
same sort of control which has plunged
Russia into anarchy and ruin. German
autocracy has failed in its effort to
make over the world, but German So
ciallsm, which has already conquered
! Russia and Germany and has invaded
Austria and Bulgaria, is not less hos
tile to the Western form of democracy
than was German autocracy.
The thing Americans as a mass do
not and can not understand is that to
the German and Russian Socialists the
American form of democracy seems
more hideous than their own expiring
autocracies. The men who now control
the German and Russian revolutions are
as hostile to the form of representative
democracy under which we live as we