Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-04-14
Where Germdny'S Chance Lies
tCharles Downer HaZen in the
Atlantic Monthly

lCnarleS DONner HaZen IN the
Atlantic Monthly
| The one outstanding landmark in
contemporary Russia is that set up
on March 3, 191S-the treaty of
Brest-Lttovsk. That treaty has never
been recognized by any of the vic
torious Allies; nevertheless. it dogs
them night and day in the time OF
triumph, embittering peace, if not
preventing it, darkenlng counsel, and
putting strain upon friendship.
The treaty of Brest- -Litovsk may be
repudiated by the conferences of
Paris; il may be dead as far as Ger
many. it's chief author. is concerned
but it is far from being a negligible
factor in the history of the present.
On the contrary, ii, and the things
| it represents and embodies in its fell
| phrases. are bound to exercise a
profound and disturbing influence
upon the future.
BY that treaty Russia renounced
an enormous territory, more than
! twice the size of the German Empire,
and a population nearly as LARGE as
that of Germany. 65 million people.
! Germany may not get what she ex-
pected and intended to get from hav-
ing imposed these monstrous terms
upon a defeated and demoralized
foe. but she will at least have the
satisfaction of knowing that the
might of her blows, aided by the
| ductility of Russian "reformers,
who, having renounced the patriot
| ism as a bourgeois and capitalistic
quality, found it not difficult to re-
nounce an imperial territory, have
profoundly transformed Russia as d
factor in international affairs
or course. out of this vast domain,
domain stretching from the Baltic
to the Black Sea. Germany intended
| to create a number of small states
which might receive German made
kings, or which. at any rate, would
! be German satellites, parts of the
German political, military and econ
omic system. She will be forced to
let go the political and military con-
troll for the time being; but unless
the conference of Paris can invent
safeguards more promising than any
vet suggested against economic pen
etration. Germany may confidently
look forward to a vast extension of
her influence in all Eastern Europe.
The barrier offered by n string OF
small states and reduced and
weakened Russia will constitute a
less serious abstacle to German econ
omic ambitions and German intrigue
than was offered by the Russia OF
l1914. and particularly because these
eastern neighbors. less developed
than Germany. and devastated as she
| has not been. will be strongly tempt
ed to look TO her for the things
which they need. and which she can
furnish more cheaply and easily than
other nations, because of geographi-
cal proximity.
Whatever amputations may be
made in Germany herself, in Alsace-
Lorraine. Schleswig. the Polish Pro-
vinces, the one ineluctable fact that
will remain will be this: Germany.
with approximately 20 million in
habitants, will have as neighbors on
the east and south, numerous small
states. several of them new and of
uncertain viability. Formerly she
had two great states as neighbors-
Russia and Austria Hungary. Both
of these states have been broken
into fragments. Germany has not
been. Her potential role in Eastern
Central Europe has been improved
as a result of the war.