Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1919-07-01
QUIET BEFORE THE STORM

1T has been customary of late to predict that the
signing of the peace treaty would be the signal for a
general revolution in Germany because the nation would
rebel against the burdens imposed upon it in consequence
OF its disastrous military policy. and there is an element
Of surprise in the present lack of information concerning
sentiment in Germany, since last Saturday If a revoln-
ton is going on, the outside world knows nothing about
It is true that Germany has not yet felt the ehects
Of the peace treaty: she knows what the stipulations are
and has studied them completely enough to make vain
protestations. but how a working peace agreement
looks, they do not yet know. The whole significance OF
the immense transactions at Versailles may not have
dawned upon the people generally speaking, and this may
account for the absence Of news telling of serious dis
turbances.
Last fall and almost throughout the winter Germans
were systematically led to believe that they had not been
vanquished in the field; their odd consolation was that
no enemy had trodden upon German soil and that war
fare ceased without being brought about by a final mill
tary contest. To this illusion the nation chung; it was
life and death to the people who felt that it's mag
unanimous government had sued for peace just to give
the tired and war-wearied belligerents on the other side
an opportunity to withdraw!
During the spring that view, apparently underwent
some change, for dispatches from Versailles and Paris
made it exceedingly clear that the Allied and associated
nations did not consider themselves defeated-in fact,
they were rather strong in the belief that they were the
victors and that they. had all the right necessary to i'm
pose their own terms upon Germany-as that country
had imposed her brutal terms on France in 1871.
And when the preliminary peace treaty was handed
to Germany on the fourth anniversary Of the sinking of
the Lusitania, the German nation realized for the first
time that it was indeed defeated. In vain did she plead
for easier terms; some immaterial concessions were
made. not out of any feeling of charity, but as a matter
of mere expediency.
On the Sunday before the treaty was signed, the
elected representatives of the German people voted to
accept the peace terms and must then have felt the full
force of the fact of crushing defeat.
AS we understand it. the national assembly is to rat
lily the treaty before it becomes absolutely effective. and
it is not unlikely that the debate incident to this action
will precipitate friction among the members and disrup-
ton in the nation. To some it does look as though the
prevalent quiet in Germany is ominous: 1t may be the
uncanny stiffness that precedes a storm, and if that
does come, it is quite likely that actual peace will re-
main in allegiance as farS as Europe is concerned, for
some time to come. e = a
On the other hand, it is really more likely that the
silence is nothing but sheer amazement that all the dire
predictions as to the peace terms have come literally
true. The nation may. be too dumbfounded to speak
and, it is hoped, too intelligent to indulge in the expen-
sive and useless pastime of new revolutions.