Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1918-12-13
When Rogues Fall Ont
New York Evening Post.

Charges of laundering and angry recrimina-
tons usually follow lost wars France spent
years in investigating the disasters OF 1870: But
never before, we believe, has there been wit
messed the kind of ignomnious fault-ihndng.
with desperate attempts to SHIFT the odlum OF
failure, now going on i'll Germany. If the
Hohenzollerns in victory would have been IN
tolerable, in defeat they are contemplate. What
whining, what abject appeals, what falsehoods!
We are glad to see that the former chancellor,
Bethmann- Holweg, has plucked up sufficient
spirit to give the lie direct to the former kaiser.
The latter, in his ignoble exile in Holland, had
taken to whimpering about his Incompetent
ministers, and asserted that they sent him off to
Norway in 1914 in order to prevent him from
interfering with their plans to bring on the war.
The ex-chancellor publicly declares this to be
not the truth Indeed, the taunts and accusa-
tons have flown back and forth so thick that
one can hardly bl"me the German socialist who
says the readiest explanation is that all hands
are lying.
In the long interview which the Associated
Press has just got from the former crown
prince there is fine mixture of impudence un-
likelihood, and blurting out of probable facts.
The babblings of this boy who never grew up
would not be credited by any serious inquirer
without confirmation. Parts of his story are
like that of his father, with stupid government.
but with an incompetent general staff. 1t seems
that Moltke and Falkenhayn and Hindenburg
and Ludendorff thought that they knew more
about war than the unlocked Hohenzollern cub
who had been sent away in military exile and
disgrace, before the war, for INSTRUMENTATION
and general folly. If the veterans had only
listened to the youth they would have sur
rendered in October, 1914, after they had lost
the battle of the Marne; they would have
properly supported" the crown prince when he
was disastrousy beaten in battle. There may
be some truth in the military observations of
this young man who succeeded in making him
self despised when his father was only hated,
but his word cannot be taken for it. Or for any
thing else in his interview, unsupported by
other evidence.
1t is clear that all this hurried and rather
disgusting washing of German dirty linen in
public will strengthen the demand for some kind
of international tribunal to pass upon the ques-
tons involved. Military matters would be sec
ondary. Not till skilled critics have all the
orders and reports before them, can they tell
Marine. The ingenious crown prince vows
that the German general staff would have won
it had they not fallen into nervous fright But
this does not explain exactly what it was that
got so badly on their nerves. All this is a
matter for long investigation in the future.
There need be no delay, however, in probing
into the responsibility for the war. That whole
question has been raised by the ex-kaiser in
his pitifu endeavors to exculpate himself. If
he were built in large way, he would demand
hearing before impartial Judges so that he
might establish his innocence. To do that he
would have to produce the official dispatches
of 1914 which neither he nor his government
has thus far ventured to make public. Vague
report is that many of them have already been
burned to avoid exposure of guilt. If that is
true. it would be only another form of that
suicide which Daniel Webster declared to be
confession.
A Strengthening purpose on the part of the
allies to demand the delivering up of the former
kaiser for trial is manifested in the news. The
haling of him before high international court
may come Even short of that, we have in the
falling out of the German rogues revelations of
the most illuminating kind What light is
already thrown upon the supposed superman
of Germany Their nfallibe system, their
absolute knowledge. their perfect teamplay-all
these old superstitions look pretty foolish as
we now see the mask torn off them. So does
that other commonplace of two years ago that
autocracy may be nconvenient in peace, but
that it is incompatible i'll war. The founder
ing of democracy does not today appear so much
worse than the floundering, as it is now dis
closed to US, the Prussian autocracy And
democracy at least houndered through!