Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-04-23
LUDENDORFFHS REIGN OF TERROR
Civilians Acquitted of Charges OF Treason Are Kept in Prison.
Germany Ruled by the Military PouerS
By B. T. KOSPOTH

of the military authorities among the
workers.
a proclamation issued by the official lead
ers of the German trade unions, those will
ing instruments Of the Kaiser. warning the
working classes not to heed the "evil coun-
sells" given them by enemy agents" proves
that great agitation still prevails Yes and
money Is being collected for the wives and
children of the sailors who mutinied at Kiel
and Wilhelmshaven and were sentenced to
long terms of penal servitude and in some
cases to death. For these unfortunate
women also have, on account of their hus-
bands conduct, been deprived by the Gov
ernment of the paltry financial aid formerly
granted them and merclessly left to starve.
But tyranny ever breeds revolt, and the more
absolute it is the more dangerously it fans
the smoldering spirit of anarchy into flame.
THE real administrators of Germany today
i are the generals commanding the military
districts Of the empire who take theirJorders
from Ludendorff. and not the civil provincial
authorities subordinate to the Chancellor.
1udendOrff not Hertling, rules absolute in
Germany. Militarsm has never been more
trumphantly despotic than after its brutal
victory over Russian anarchy. The military
authorities do absolutely as they like in Ger<
many, not hesitating to break the law when
1t suits their convenience Recently they
turned the school children and their teachers
out of two schoolhouses in Spandau and
transformed these into barracks for women
munition workers, who are of late in many
cases no longer permitted to live in their
homes, but are kept in downright slavery
under continual military supervision. The
town council Of Spandau protested, but quite
in vain and Chancellor Won Hertling was
forced to admit in the Reichstag that he
could do nothing he had no power over
the military authorities.
The incredible increase of crime I'm the
cities and In,
according to statistics published by the in
surance companies 800 burglaries are oc-
curing daily, has been used by General Won
Kessel, the commander of the Brandenburg
district, as preteXt to re-enforce the city
police by military patrols. Soldiers with
fixed bayonets now patrol the streets of the
capital, eXcellently symbolizing the universal
domination of militarism in Germany These
patrols use their firearms indiscriminately,
and several women and children have alreadv
been accidentally" shot by them, giving
rise TO more questions" by the Socialists In
the Reichstag which Herr Won Hertling has
not yet deigned to answer.
VNHERE is a satirical poem of Heine's in
i which he speaks Of the day when the
rulers of Germany will realize their political
ideals by turning the whole country into zone
vast penitentiary." This prophetic vision on
the German poet, who was q republican and
a Jew, and whom the Kaiser has aIwava
detested accordingly, has come true during
the war. Germany is today one great
"zuchthaus," where the entire population is,
so to say, undergoing preventive imprison-
ment." Why do the Germans stand tbis
preposterous military tyranny which woul6f
have goaded any other nation into revolt
long ago? That is the first question 7
usually ask Teutons processing liberal
opinions here in Switzerland where they are.
out OF Ludendorff's reach, The answer 4
always the same. The German people are
cowed by the enormous prestige of tba
Kaiser's generals. The efficiency OF tba
Prussian military machine stuns them into
submission. And the Germans have never
been free people; fear and reverence for
their uniformed masters are deeply rooted
In their hearts.
TT is the business of America and the
IL Allies to shatter this disastrous renuta-
tion for efficiency on which the despotIc
power of the Prussian military caste rests
Only when Hindenburg and Ludendorff are
squarely defeatea on the field of battle will
the convict population of the German penl-
tenitary break out Of their cells-and oeace
and liberty once more reign I'm Europe