Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1919-05-21
Declares Entente Cannot Cage
Germans; Split Over Yielding.
CRISIS IN CABINET IS SEEN
Scheidemann Denounces Wilson and
Says 100000 Teutons Shall Not
Be Put Behind Bars by
Allies Terms.

al assembly that the peace terms were
unacceptable" brought the members
of the assembly, the spectators and
those in the press gallery to their feet
in hurricane of cheers and applause.
The chancellor paused in his address
and then thundreded out the word
which announced the German govern
ment's rejection of the Versailles con-
ditions.
Leaders of the various groups, with
the exception of the Hugo Haase
group, made speeches backing the gov
eminent.
With the exception of the independ-
ent socialists, led by Haase, all fac
lions in the assembly arose and
cheered vociferously. The assembly is
sitting temporarily in the assembly
hall of the University of Berlin on I'm
ter den Linden.
The chancellor described the peace
treaty as dreadful and murderOuS"
document. He said it would make an
enormous Jail of Germany, in which
100000 persons would have to labor
for the victors in the war. The chan
cellor said German trade would be
strangled should the peace terms be
accepted.
Presents a Terrible Picture.
'That is the Jail picture in it's ex-
ternal aspects" he continued without
ships because the mercantile fleet
passes into entente hands, without ca
bles, without colonies, without foreign
settlements, without reciprocity and
legal protectiOn-yeS and even with
out the right to cooperate in fixing the
prices for the goods and articles which
we have to deliver as tribute.
II ask you what honest man will say
that Germany can accept such condi-
tons? At the, same time, as we shall
have to beStir ourselves to perform
forced labor. for the benefit of the
entire world, our foreign trade, the
sole source of our welfare, is destroyed
and our home trade is rendered impos-
sible. Lorraine iron ore, upper SHES
ian coal, Alsatian potash, the Saar val
ley mines and the cheap foodstuffs
from PoSen and West Prussia are to
lie outside our frontiers. We are to
impose no higher tariff or protection
than existed on August 1, 1914, while
our enemies may do as much as they
like at every point in strangling us at
home. All German revenues must be
held at the disposal of our enemies for
payments, not for war invalids and
widowS-all as forced labor for prod
ucts, the prices of which will be fixed
by our customers.
"What is a people to do which is
confronted by the command that it is
responsible for all losses and damage
that it's enemies suffered in the war?
What is a people to do which is to
have no voice in fixing its obliga-
tiOns?'
He criticized President Wilson and
said that the president by his attitude
had deceived the hopes of the German
people.
Ministry Meets to Discuss Pact.
The imperial ministry met to dis
cuss the peace terms, but no positive
proposals have as yet been communi-
Gated to the entente. Practical ques-
tions and considerations relating to
territorial cessiOnS, which were trans
mitted to M. Clemenceau, president of
the pace conference, by the German
delegation, were said to be not OF
fundamental Importance, but of an ex-
planatory character.
"Even If important changes are not
made by the negotiations begun at Yer
sales, there remains no choice but to
bow to compulsion and sign the
treaty" says an appeal of the central
committee of the independent socialist
party in the party organ, Die Freiheit.
J ut has been predicted that the Ber-
lin government, in the event that it
should decide to go down in a blaze of
glory by rejection of the peace terms,
would be succeeded by the minority
socialists led by Hugo Haase)
"Not signing" continues the appeal,
"means the retention of our prisoners
of war, the occupation of our raw ma
terial districts, the Tightening of the
blockade, unemployment, hunger and
death en- masse. 1t is the proletariat
that would suffer the most terribly
from the consequences.
Peace, as hard and as oppressive
as it may be, is necessary assump-
ton for the possibility of rebuilding
our social and economic life in. the
spirit of the revolutionary proletariat."
The appeal is prefaced by denun-
citation of the severity of the peace
terms. 1t concludes with a demand
that the workingmen of all countries
unite against capitalism for a world
revolution.