Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1919-04-07
Revolution Has Not
Changed Germans
Nor Old Germany

Correspondence of Associated Press
Weimar, March s.-The German ma
tional assembly has been mt work some
weeks now, and has demonstrated,
among others, two things clearly, 1t
Is unable 10 do business much more
speedily than the old rcichstag, chief
ly because there is little unity and
much dissension between the parties.
and the old order OF things has
changed very little despite the myriad
Of new faces.
b The latter is perhaps the most Inn
portant point, because the assembly
was hailed by countless German papers
and particularly by the agencies that
supply the outside word with news
as the birth OF the new republic, the
beginning OF n new regime, the living
emblem OF the passing OF the old.
1t Is new In n sense. and the old
regime has passed perhaps, but there
are enough of The old people left. and
so many Of the new people are not
much unlike the old, that the effect in
the Weimar Theater is not much diff
ferent from the reichstag. One hears
floor. watches precious time fly by
over the same or similar arguments as
used to make one despair of construct
i've legislation.
Perhaps the most striking thing Is
the tone of the great majority of the
party speeches. Just one delegate has
had the courage to attack the con-
servatives and the moral strength to
go on record as admitting that Ger
many had something to do with start
ing the war.
Man after man, regardless of party.
has in speeches. proved to his own
and the houses satisfaction that Rus
STA, France or England not Germany,
started the war.
Several have declared that neither
the German government. nor the Ger
man people wanted the war, or knew
even that it was coming. let alone be-
ginning it or having the remotest to
do with starting it.
One lone man has had the courage
to tell the house that the German
treatment of Belgium forever forbids
German complaint from being effect
i've. The great bulk of the delegates.
as the great bulk at least of northern
Germany. seems to have adopted the
attitude
We'll. it's all over now. We. the
people, didn't start the thing at any
rate, so let's start out even and square.
with no fard feelings on any side
And SINGULAR as it may seem, there
doesn't seem to be person hardly
irx.b
eigner. even that of the now popular
American.
The assembly is the principal outlet
for every known kind of propaganda.
INDUCED in nearly as vehemontiy and
excitedly by the social democrats as
by the conservatives.
First there is the Alsace- Lorraine
question. 1t comes up three, four, a
dozen times.'a session, and always
rouses the same enthusiasm Every
old and shop worn argument is trotted
out and cheered. 1t has never occurred
to the Germans that on the other side
Of the fence there are fairly good argu-
ments to support Frances retention
of these provinces.
The junction with Austria provokes
an almost equal enthusiasm. and ii
would almost seem as if the speakers
finsert 1t in their speeches for that pur-
pose alone. countryman from farth-
est East Prussia can be sure of a
"bravo" if he mentions the brethren
in Austria yearning to become the tail
end of the German kite.
The Schleswig- Holstein question has
come to the front lately and Germany