Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-03-10
BY FRANK H. SIMoNDs.

Copyright, 1918, by the Mcclure Newspaper
Syndcate.)
In the past year the world has had its
attention SO fixed upon the military
significance of the Russian breakdown
and the immediate costs of this break
down to the allies have been so mani
testify great that there has grown up a
belief that in addition to eliminating
Russia from the present war Germany
is laying the foundations for DONNA
ton of what was once Russia. econom-
ica1ly and politically. Already there is
heard the prophecy of what Germany
will be able to do when she has har-
messed the Russian millions to the Ger
man war chariot and transformed into
Prussian cannon-fodder the masses of
Russian peasants.
Yet is any such thing likely to hap
pen? Granted that Germany has de-
stroyed the fundamental unity of the
great Slav nation. divided the Great
Russians of the north and Ckrainians
or Little Russians of the south as the
United States might have been divided
had the south gained independence in
the civil war; conceding that she has
cut off certain Slav fringes, such as the
Lithuanians and the Poles. viii the I'LL
innate effect of this great dislocation
be as serious for the western world as
the immediate military effect has been?
Refore endeavoring to answer these
questions it is essential that we should
first look the immediate effects of the
Russian collapse squarely in the face.
Germany has been freed from an east
ern peril. she has not merely gained
half a million good soldiers for west
ern warfare. but she has gained vast
, quantities OF Russian material and the
freedom to concentrate all of her own
artillery and munitions and most of
the Austrian upon the western front
Further than this, she will prese ntly
by next autumn probably, begin to get
, considera bic food supplies from Russia
and he relieved of her greatest danger
that of famine Finally. there has been
real restoration of German morale
and at least temporary hardening
from the west in the shape of in
IDENTITIES and perpetuation of Ger
man control in Belgium. All these
are solid facts and all of them serious
things for the western allies.
But, looking at the future. uhat has
the world to fear from the German
successes in the east VIII the Slav
be Teutonized? Can the German i'm
pose upon moro than 100000, 900 Slavs
a rule that will make the Slav the
servant of the Teuton and the agent of
Teutonic conqussts all over the world ?
Will Germany in the next war, about
which some of her generals are all
ready glibly talking. lead millions of
Russian recruits across the Rhine and
the Meuse and down the Euphrates and
the Tigris?
Nothing seems more unlikely, be-
cause the S:av problem does not hold
out any promise of such a solution,
even in the minds Of the more thought
full Germans. The great achievement.
which may last for years. has been
the abolition of the Russian menace,
mind for two centuries, ever since by
the peace OF Eystad. in 1921. Russia
reached the Baltic and Peter the Grea
seized Riga. German hands are be-
of
freer for dealing with other questions.
But even here there is a sharp lirni-
tation-
Chances of Russian Rally.
First of all. what is now going to
may be a uprising of the Russian peo-
pie like that which followed the com
plete conquest of Spain by Napoleon IN
! 1905 and 1909. When he had swept the
Iberian peninsula from the Pyrenees to
the Straits of Gibraltar and placed his
brother on the throne in Madrid Ma
poleon was suddenly faced by the spon-
taneous uprising of the Spanish people,
which in the end made the Spanish ad-
venture almost as expensive as the
campaign to Moscow and next to it the
browning blunder of the N poleonic
epoch.
1t is possible, but extremely unlikely,
that the Russians may now rally TO de-
fend their country. to defend it by the
same sort of guerilla warfare that the
Spanish employed. In such a case there
viii be ever increasing demands upon
German n1anpower. just there We're
upon French manpower in Spain. and
there viii be. also. end of all hope of
drawing provisions from Russia. those
foodstuTs which are the one vital need
of Germany at the present nour. This
is the possibility of present Importance
can hope for, bu it is well to recognize
that the chances of such an uprising
are relatively slight.
Failing such a revolution. such an up
rising of the mass of the Slavonic peo-