New-York tribune., 1919-05-02

wv HEN President Wilson enunciated
wv his fourteen points the laboring
people of Germany-which is only
another way of saying all Germany-took
them as the terms of an honorable draw
which would end the war and thus dispose
of their most pressing troubles. But end
ing the war only part of all that was
going to happen President Wilson had
! not been liked in Germany-he was the
leader who was fetching the United States
into battle to save the money which had
been loaned to England-for the German
conviction (and German convictions have
nothing to do with facts) is that Americas
motives were purely financial. Then, all
at once, President Wilson appeared to them
as one transformed into Messiah, who
would lead them not only out of war but
on to life and hope in new and better
world.
The details Of this new world were hazy,
but that made it all the better, for each
could furnish it to suit himself. Anyhow,
it was to be good. The professional poll
ticians of the Socialist party seized the
opportunity to get themselves into power,
and the Spartacist wing of the Independent
Socialists equally took the opportunity to
catch the amateur politicians in the net of
soldiers and workers. councils. In such
fashion came the revolution, with its null
titude of promises and for the moment the
workman and the returning soldier were
as many schoolboys without their mas
ters. They stopped work and they capered;
they passed resolutions that each employer
should present 800 marks to each of his
employees as a joy offering. Some of the
employers made the presents and some did
not. The workers passed local acts making
it penal offence for any employer to dis
charge an employe-whether" or not he
worked-and they gave very large employ
ment allowances, some of them amounting
to as much as Is and 20 marks day.
The Revolutionary Fantasy
Since those happy days the realization
has been growing that there are seven days
in the week and three meals at least day
to provide for and that idleness is
not an unalloyed blessing. The trade
unions, which were quite lost in the revo-
lutlonary fantasy, coming back into
their own again, and the labor question is
rapidly adjusting itself upon at least COM
prehensible lines.
And slowly, too, the feeling is growing
that perhaps the fourteen points were not
the charter of the millennium but series
OF subjects for argument The United
States took those fourteen points rather
coldly, because it did not know what thew
meant. The German took them with avid
ity because he did not know what they
for Il, L.
could not phrase. Now he is asking for
more definite information and is finding
that the Allied powers consider that they
are treating with defeated Germany and
not with an honorable foe, with whom thew
have fought to draw. The nastiest feature
of the whole peace business is that the
German does not consider himself defeated
and will take any repressve or oppressive
measures as bad faith. This would not
seem to form any part of the subject of
labor, but it does form large part in that
the possibility that there will be no Ger
many tit to live in after the peace is being
made use of by agitators to help along the
Spartacist propaganda. But the faith of
the worker is still in the fourteen points.
Essential Orderliness
The points which would make for labor
disorder in Germany are more numerous
than those in any other country, and it is
remarkable tribute to the essential order
illness Of the people that the differences be-
tween employer and employe are rapidly
being solved. The first and primary cause
Of trouble is unemployment and the daily
arrival of demobiized troops with no Jobs
to 60 to. For instance, Essen, which has no
unemployment in peace times, has now 2O,-
600 men out Of work, although the 100000
men and women imported for war work have
nearly all been sent home. Leipzig has 40
600 without work and Hamburg over 100000.
Taking the country as a whole, out Of a
normal working population of 100000
about 100000 are supposed to be without
jobs The second factor is the state of the
money. When worker receives five marks
in wages he does not know what it will
buy To-day it may buy him enough food
for the day, but tomorrow it may not be
sufficient. Thus no one knows the purchas-
ing power Of wages and how much thew