The Washington herald., 1918-02-24
The Reaction in Germany.

~The plain fact is that the blood of conquest is
ono. more up in Germany" says the New York
Evening Post, in speaking of the new drive into
the vitals of Russia.
It continues:
GThe Junkers vault again into the saddle. At
their great meeting in Berlin their joy, their arro-
zance their contempt for the democratic move
nent, found unbounded expression They feel that
they have come back into their autocratc own.
The army and Junkerthum are the be-a and the
end-aIl of Germany. The Reichstag resolution of
last July urging peace without annexations and
indemnities? That was only vile resolution,
with which the army stabbed in the back
Nor is it only the exultant Agrarian League which
now SCOTS at the idea of week-kneed diplomatic
negotiations for peace. In the very Reichstag'
Count Westarp, the Conservative leader, boasted
that the good German sword is again at work."
The New York Evening Post has been the
most earnest champion of the German people,
contrasted to Prussian militarism, in the United
States and when it acknowledges that "the Junkers
have now mounted into Germanias saddle, and
that "as for the danger of political upheaval at
home, and the need of placating the Social Demo-
crats the Junkers evidently feel that they can
snap their fingers such things, provided they can
bring home plunder enough it is high time to
call into question our governments persistent ef-
forts to effect peace by negotiation or by diplo-
macy.
On the other hand, Frank H. Simonds expresses
doubt whether the German people will be willing
to prolong the for an indefinite period for the
sake of anneing the Baltic provinces, and believes
that the German mlitarists cannot escape definite
accounting or Showdown" with their people IN
the event of the failure Of the coming drive in the
West If the German people, when the first intoxl-
cation and flush of the conquests passes from
them, are utterly unwilling to continue the war for
the sake OF the booty in the East, the posture
of affairs is not greatly unlike the old. The col
lapse of Russia, according to Simonds, has not
proven cure for German internal difficulties; it
affords merely a temporary relief from them.
We are inclined the latter view. 1t is i'm
possible to believe that the Germans as a people
are again mad with the spirit of conquest and OF
more war; after three OF the bitterest years that
any nation ever experienced. 1t is true that if
Russian fields and granaries relieve the food situa-
ton in Germany; if the central empires are Sc
duced with the promise and the prospect of abun-
dant loot, and find that the threat OF starvation
no longer hangs over their heads, they may be
willing to abase themselves before the throne Of
militarism again, and deliver themselves over body
and soul to their Junker masters.
There is a counterfeit ring to the German
thrust into the heart of Russia, and presently it
will be exposed and open to the gaze the world
Germany has not the army corps to spare to go
far into Muscovy if she is determined her su-
preme effort of the in the West The next
four weeks are likely to see remarkable dis
closures in the military situation 1t is impossible
not to feel that they will all be in favor of the
cause of civilization.