El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1918-03-11
.GERNANGENERAL
IS SCARED.
Gives Up Idea of Dominat-
ing World and Tries to
Save It's PRESTIGE
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SdfO 4bo 3 OSG4SOs
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full Of the effects Of more terrible
losses upon the people, and inclined
to trust in intrigue and bargaining
/ to effect what Ludendorff seeks to
/ accomplish by force.
The conflict between the military
and civilian autocrats came to head
over the submarine issue The mill
/ tary won. and brought in America, on
| the promise that they would starve
] England in six months The uneX-
/ pected activity of the United States
and the failure Of the submarine to
accomplish its task discredited the
military party, increased the power
Of the political leaders. and resulted
4 in the conciliatOry tone adopted at
/ the beginning Of the negotiations
with Russia
| Strikes and revolutionary propa-
ganda has tended to enable the mill
tary to assume more and more con-
troll over the direction of home af-
fairs. Accordingly the supreme con-
/ troll Of policy is at this writing more
in the hands Of the great general
staff than at any time since the days
of the victorious rush into France
that was ended by the battle Of the
Marine.
The great general staff, have
learned from official sources
which have drawn upon the real
opinion not manufactured for
the war lords, Is scared and
badly scared. II has given up its
aim of dominating the world, for
the present, sheIved Its ambitious
plans OF 1914 until next time, and
resigned itself to hope Of wealth
erinE the revolutionary storm by
maintaining its ''prestige.S
The real peace terms OF the Ger
man autocracy, therefore, can De
summed up in the Russian formula OF
no annexatiOns and indemniueS- II
is supreme irony that the German
staff should come to this phrase
first used by pacifists, but IL is the
truth. The German leaders, however,
will face a revolution before they VIII
cede Alsace, or the Trentino, or even
Palestine or BIesopotamia, or their own
colonies, since the smallest conces-
sion, without something received in
exchange, would be an admission Of
defeat and. in their own opinion re-
suit in their overthrow.
Would Gladly Bargain.
Bargains, by which colonies were
exchanged, territory taken here and
given there, the general staff would
eagerly consider, because loss of
prestige would not be involved But
no agreement on democratic lines in
volving consent by Germany, Austria
or Turkey 10 permit subject peoples
to decide their own destinies can be
considered BY the war lords. For
this, too, would imply defeat Hence,
when the subject Is mentioned, they
invariably reply, and will continue to
say until the end. that the principle
of self determination If admitted
to the territory Of the central powers;
must be carried out in Ireland If in
Alsace, in India If in Bohemia. in
Egypt and Morocco If in Posen and
the German colonies
The real war aim OF the dOni-
Mating caste in Germany Is to get
out of the war with whole skins
and with their power unimpaired.
II they stick to these territorial
points, ii Is because they feel con-
WINGED that TO give way would
mean their ruin.
What are the internal forces that
have thrown into panic the war
lords and their bureaucratic asso-
They are complex. but. my informa-
ton makes clear vastly more power
full than IS realized by the allied pub
lies. There is in Austria and Ger
many a BOlshevik party that is work
ing for the social revolution It has
ST cured an enormous hold upon the
people IN Austria and Hungary, and
the repressive measures adopted IN
Germany have only resulted in
spreading. the contagion through the
atherland- The Austrian and Ger
man strikes were fOmented. not by
he Socialist parties. but by the revo-
iutionists. and the Socialist leaders
associated themselves with the
strikes merely to turn them into safe
Nannels and stifle them at the
earliest possible moment
Revolutionary AgitatOrE Active.
In addition to the revolutionary
aCitators who by word of mouth and
anonymous pamphlets are spreading
he gospel Of Lenine and TrotZky all
over Germany. the Socialist parties
ere seeking to evolve a genuinely
liberal stage. From the point Of view
Of the autOcracys this is only one
shade better than Bolshevfk propa-
ganda- If the Bolshevilzs have their
way, the autocrats and their satel-
lites will be exiled or Jailed, II the
Socialists gain power, the wings Of
the Hertlings and Ludendorffs will
be clipped.
The result of the Trotsky campaign
/ among the German and Austrian
civilians is seen in the spread Of
strikes, but. so far. all details OF
troubles in the armies and fleets have
! been concealed from the outside world.
II is however the spread Of demo-
cratic and social revolutionary prop
uganda in the army that is causing
-ost worry in the highest German
circles.
/ A militarist state depends for its
stability upon the army. But If trou-
.
use Of soldiers against them is dell
cate matter. Protopopoff discovered
this in Petrograd year ago. when
Ha ordered two regiments, out OF the
5000 regiments under the orders Of
the car. to disperse street demon
rations in the capital The two
] regiments fraternized with the mobs
and killed their officers, and the
/ .rhole fabric Of Russian militarism
fell to pieces.
Leaders Fear the Army.
The lesson has not been lost upon
/ the German autOcrats. 1t is easy 10
/ bring soldiers with machine guns to
/ Berlin But what will happen II one
platoon of soldiers refuses to fire on
! mob containing perhaps the moth
ers and sisters OF the conscripts. and
| kills its lieutenant instead2 The very
/ thought makes the kaiser and Luden-
dorff tremble. A tiny mutiny might
: be suppressed: but what If the SOL
Tiers sent to suppress IL mutiny too?
/ The heads OF the German state are
J 0t fools, and they know the frame
/ OF mind that is spreading through the
| army. There is good reason to be-
lieve that one Of the principal argu-
ments used by the politicians against
the plan for q general offensive in
/ ne west was the feeling in the army.
I It is not mutiny in battle that they
I fear. but growth Of rage and despair
/ TO q point where the soldiers could
OF be depended upon to suppress
trouble at home. And when that
/ point has been reached the German
/ military state fz doomed