New-York tribune., 1918-11-01
Near the End

The war is dying down to it's embers.
Turkey is out. Austria-Hungary is
pleading to be allowed to get out. Ger
many is fearfuly balancing the humilia
ton of q complete surrender against the
forlorn hope Of fighting on single
handed for a negotiated peace.
The Quadruplc Alliance was a plum
derbund pure and simple. 1t had no
basis except the covetousness and greed
OF four predatory nations. No one Of
these nations drew the sword in self
defence The honor Of no one of them
was touched They fought for no con-
ception which could be associated, even
mistakenly, with any normal code of ma
tional conduct. Their war policy lacked
utterly moral background. Three minor
malefactors linked up their fortunes
with one big malefactor, and with cal
culaton became the latter's tools and
satellites.
What bound these conspirators to-
gether was a rope of sand. Military
success. with dazzling dividends in the
shape of territorial booty, was neces
Soi W hCCp IHC pcA tliCAS SllAp civ ACO
even success going far beyond the
original expectations of the four bene-
ficiaries could not cement a union which
lacked sincerity of feeling and genuine
comradeship. There is no honor among
thieves, no fidelity among self-seekers.
At the very peak of the fortunes Of
the Quadruplc Alliance, when Russia
and Rumania had fallen victims to
treachery and force and were about to
be partitioned, the moral weakness of
the Central coalition was most conclu-
sively manifested. Germany, with Aus
tSa-Hungary's assent, monopolized the
spoils, and both Bulgaria and Turkey
retired sulking to their tents.
The wounds Of the treaties of Brest-
Litovsk and Bucharest never healed.
Bulgaria and Turkey, quarrelling about
the crumbs, drew apart from each other,
and both cherished an increasing rancor
against Berlin. If in the hour of tri-
umph and feasting the minor satellites
had turned against the too rapacious
trencherman at the head Of the table
what hope Of common sacrifice. and
Niblung loyalty could there be in the
presence of danger and disaster?
Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Tur-
key were alike subsidized by Berlin
They sold their service, but they did
not sell their fealty. Bulgaria is ma
tion of cunning traders. She financed
her war with money borrowed in Ger
many, on notes which are now worthless.
Her people made an immediate profit out
Of the German alliance. She acquired
Macedonia and lived off German gold.
But when Macedonia slipped away and
the German gold supply got low, Bull
garia turned her coat and capitulated to
General Franchet d Esperey
The Turks are not traders. They are
sentimentalists and fatalists Germany
promised them Egypt, Transcaucasia
and Persia. They have lost Arabia, Syria
and Mesopotamia, and the petty COM
pensations which they received in the
Caucasus region will now have to be put
o2ck INTO the peace conference melting
pot.
The Young Turks invented a pan
Iuranianism to match Berlin's pan
Germanlsm But it came to nothing.
The German alliance has wiped Turkey
virtually off the map. The Turks real
'zed what was coming months ago. But
they are stoics. When they gamble they
pay their losses like gentlemen and
philosophers. But woe to the German
VINO shows his face hereafter in the
tight little Turkish kingdom of Ana
tolia.
And Austria-Hungary, whose mad
statesmen of the Berchtold, Tisza TYNE
have dissipated the proud inheritance of
the Hapsburgs? Vienna and Budapest
IN completely with Berlin, precipitated
the war by attacking Serbia. He who
taketh up the sword shall perish by the
sword. The Dual Monarchy has ceased
to exist. 1t led the people under its
archaic rule into four years of misery
Yet they, unknowingly, were not fighting
the battle of the Hapsburgs and the
Hohenzollerns, but their own battle
Whatever now happens to the monarchy
they are free. On its ruins collection
Of new states will arise, standing foi
true nationalisn, liberty of thought ano
person and democratic development
Germany has slain Austria-Hungary
just as she has slain Turkey. Yet the
Austro-Hungarian peoples, looking for
ward to liberation, really owe her debt