The Washington herald., 1918-02-02
HUNGER and THREAT OF BAYONET
BREAK GERMAN STRIKERS SPIRIT;
SOCIALISTS ABANDON MOVEMENT
Million Men and Women
Cut Off from Benefits
by Kaiser.
SOLDIERS GET ORDER
TO KILL MALCONTENTS
Proclamation Warns Citi-
zens to Stay Away from
Public Meetings.

uDIiC meetinyS.
Amsterdam, Feb. THE gov
eminent of the Kaiser, faced by an
smpire-wde Bolshevist uprising, has
decided to nip it in the bud by a
rule of blood and iron. 1t an
nounced today a tightening of the
state of siege (martial law) regula-
lions, under which any man or
woman, striker or no striker, max
ing the slightest move creating or
aiding disturbance will be shot on
the spot.
The mailed fist and starvation
have been enlisted as the military
regimes chief weapons in combat
ting the greatest internal menace
that has confronted the empire since
Its foundation.
herensky As Example.
Remember what happened to
herensky" is the warning watch
word of the government-supporti
press, And the Kaiser's military
cbiets are determined to snuff out
German Bolsheyikism before it is
famed by leniency into a holocaust
Unh
territorial entity, the home front"
and the battle line of Russia
Berlin's official proclamation
reads:
"Hdving introduced a more dras-
tic state of siege regulations, we
intend to suppress every attempt
10 disturb peace or order shyq al
means az our disposal. We there
fore-war3 every orderly citizen not
10 participate in any public meet
ings.
Everyone must quietly carry out
his duties and avoid forming
crowds. II arms must be used. no
distinction will be make between
strikers and others"
The general trend Of today's advices
from the strife-shaken German cap
ital inclines to the view that the
bayonet and the pinch of hunger arc
breaking, il they have not yet
broken. the backbone of the great
strike. Most powerful of the factors
strengthening this view was the re-
ported disavowal on the part of
Scheidemann and other Socialist
chieftains of the instigation and lead
ership. There were. indeed, some dis
patches fOreshadowing the early col
lapse of the whole movement because
Of lack of central control.
As the situation stands, easily
100000 men and women appear to be
still idle, and hundreds of plants in
all parts of Germany shut down.
Hunger Grips People.
More effective than the shoot to
kill order to the troops seems to be
the hunger weapon. Driven TO fanati-
cism by three years Of indescribable
suffering. thousand of men and wom-
en- are ready to lay down their lives
on the altar OF peace-compeIling re-
volt. But their little ones must live
~ per cent OF German workmen have
large families. averaging four children
and every scrap of food and fuel is
in the governments hands, is doled
out by the card system. but only to
those who behave" There is a third
weapon. equally effective, which the
military authorities today ordered used
without mercy; the Withholding OF
strike benefits. Without money from
the unions while the strike lasts, the
workers are unable even to buy the
cards that procure food and fuel. Nor
has any union great financial re-
sources left: the bulk has been
drafted" into the various war loans.
As they perused the dispatches
picturing this situation, political
observers to-day well realized the
grim truth in the boast that has
come from Berlin daily since the
strike started, that the German
government does not mind the
world learning about the silent up
rising because I'VE have the means
to stop it in short order the mo-
ment it becomes menacing."
Meanwhile, according to the Of
fical German argument, news of
the labor trouble in Germany will
encourage the workers in the en-
tente countries. It is because of
. this line of propaganda reasoning.
= understood from the outset in Lon
don and Paris, that 30 per cent of
the alarm in the dispatches has
been discounted in the allied coun-
tries.
Nevertheless. it was clear from all
that filtered through the sealed
German boEder in the last twenty
four hours that the movement has
all the symptoms of being strong
enough and wide spread enough to
have a powerful effect upon the
army, which possibility is the only
real menace to the empires home
front"
Strike Leaders Drafted.
One of the measures taken in COM
batting the strike, it is reported, was
the drafting into military service of
twenty strike leaders. The distur-
bances in the suburbs Of Berlin con-
tfnue. according to all reports from
the capital In Berlin itself the situa-
tion appears to be well in the hands
Of the military. The situation in
Munich, the Bavarian capital, is de-
scribed IS particularly grave.
. In the German press virtual unanfm-
Aity in condemning the strike is notice
sble. the only papers supporting it be-
ing radical organs. The Nachrichten,
OF Dusseldorf. In the heart of the
Rheinish industrial district, has this
10 eay: