New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-11-10
De-kaiserized Germany

DC"NAloCklZSU N1cEI1lhklY
The Divine Right of Kings is out
lawed.
The Kaiser has given up his title to
the German people and to German terri
tory.
He said on Friday that he could not
see his way to abdicate. Yesterday he
abdicated. He had taken refuge at Spa,
hoping, with the support of the army
chiefs at Grand Headquarters, to save
his throne and dynasty
1t was too late. The spread of revo-
luton in Germany had imperilIed more
than his own tenure and that of his royal
and imperial house. 1t had jeopardized
the existence Of the empire and the con-
tinuance in power of Prince Max of
Baden's newly "democratized" parlia-
mentary regime. The whole political and
social order in Germany was tottering.
To save themselves the politicians in the
Reichstag had to shake off their backs
The dead weight of Hohenzollernism.
The Kaiser and the Crown Prince have
been eliminated. Prussia is left without
king or an heir apparent. The other
kings, the grand dukes and the reigning
princes are going into exile A national
constituent assembly is to be elected to
frame new imperial constitution. Uni
versal suffrage fer all the states is to be
decreed and the suffrage is to be given
to women. The last great bplwark in the
world of royal divine right and political
autocracy has been demolished Kaiser
ism has gone the way of Czarism. And
time and the conditions of the armistice
can alone determine how far Germany
will drift toward Bolshevsm and that
internal chaos which has overtaken Rus
STA.
How often have we been told that there
could never be revolution in Germany!
The German people, it was argued, were
too docile, too Injured to discipline, too
respectful of constituted authority, to
rise against their masters.
There was measure of truth in the
prediction that the German public would
not revolt against Kaiserism That pub
lie has never sought freedom as an end
in itself. There has never been in Ger
many since 1848 a genuine or widespread
spirit of protest against despotism as
such. The German Michel has never
been democrat. There has been no
trace in his sentiments of moral re-
action against the harsh and autocratic
ideal of the Prussianized state
His attitude toward the government
has been absolutely materialistic. He
was for it so.long as it promised returns.
Germany in the last three decades has
been mad for conquest, for economic ex-
pansion, for prosperity achieved by the
sword, for wealth and power acquired at
the expense of weaker nations. All
classes were eaten up with soulless
cupidity. SO all classes were willing to
stand by the government when it de-
ciared d war of conquest and so long
thereafter as it seemed to be on the road
TO victory
There was some whimperipg in 1917
"hen German prospects darkencd
little. The unrest of that time showed
itself in the passage of the Reichstag
resolution declaring for a peace without
indemnities and annexatons. But when
Russia collapsed and was dismembered
at Brest-Litovsk all Germany rallied
again to government which appeared
TO have Eastern Europe and Central
Asia within it's grasp.
There is only one sin which the Ger
man people have ever charged against
their government--the sin of defeat.
The revolution which is sweeping Ger
many is revolution against more lib
eralized government than the empire has
ever known before. That government is
being torn down not because it is trying
to remain reactionary or oppressive, but
because it has lost the war. Germany is
turning toward Bolshevism not because
it believes very much in Bolshevism, but
because it wants to vent its rage against
regime which promised it the booty of
two continents and failed to bring any
of that booty home.
Germany at war presented for more
than four years a remarkable spectacle
OF political unity. But that unity was
artificial. 1t had no moral basis. It was
a unity of greed. The clearest-sighted
Of living Germans, DR.. Wilhelm Mihlon,
put on record back in the earliest days
Of the war his conviction that German
unity, such as it was, would not with
stand the shosk Of defeat. He described