The Washington times., 1919-04-04
HOPELESS TROUBLE
AHEAD OF GERMANY

! BERLIN. April 4.-Germany's in
fant republic was born with no sill
yer spoon, unless liberation from
/ militarism and kaiserism can be in
! terpreted in that way. The new re-
public begins with the most hopeless
| legacy OF troubles that any nation
ever faced.
| So interviewer and tangled are the
problems which the new republics
cabinet is undertaking and struggling
! against while new ones rise con-
! stantly, that the words of a German
who said, There's not a man in all
Germany who sees at one time more
than half OF the maze of dangers that
might explode and overthrow the
state" are true.
! There are those who say the situa-
/ tion is beyond solution. They hold
! that the slate Of the past should be
wiped clean, and that the German
state should start all over again,
much as Russia tried to do. The gov
ernment realizes this would mean dis
aster and complete loss of confidence
! in any form of government, and
struggles hard to avoid it.
Hard Enough to Change.
It is hard enough to change the
form Of government when things are
running smoothly, and when all par
ties agree to IL. 1t is hard enough
to begin a republic where no govern
ment existed at all before. The Ger
mans find their task made far more
difficult by the reason that their
country was completely reorganized,
and the new regime has to answer
| Immediately for all the deluge Of
failures and mistakes of the old.
Germany today can be visuaIized
perhaps as pepper full of popcorn,
most OF which has popped, but some
Of which has not and is still going
off. Each explosion shakes the whole
mass. This unstable state is held to-
gether only by the walls OF arms that
still surround II, for many are they
who would like to escape from the
burden.
Germany's new government is
tackling the problems with optimism
and hope-confidence is hardly pos
sible, as yet. Right here IL might be
said the new German government is
one without brilliant leaders and is
without great men in it. This the
Germans themselves say, and do so
Without regret in their voices. The
Germans have had enough of great
men, and seem glad to trust their
future to mediocre, honest citizens.
"CarDenters' ReIehStaE."
This Carpenters Reichstag," as it
has been called, has already weather
ed storms of opposition. during the
rying months when the Ebert
Scheidemann party guided Germany
from militarism, and put to flight the
adoption OF a provisional republic
constitution at Weimar, on February
20. The great mass OF German peo-
Ole have expressed their confidence
at least the honesty and impeach-
able good intentions Of the "citizen
congress-"
How successful these "citizen
tatesmen," IL they can be called that,
Will be, can be told only by time.
If they succeed in bringing Germany
out o. the muddIe OF tangled political.
social. economic and foreign prob
lens, IL will be an everlasting tribute
to the republican form of government.
II they fail and have to call for help
outside Germany. as no small pro-
portion of Germans who are pessi-
mistic predict, IL will be because the
militarists and the Junkers left too
much Of bad legacy to carry in these |
trying times.
Tremendous Difficulties.
Just what tremendous difficulties |
the new republic faces cannot be ap- |
preciated fully nor described in their |
proper relations by a foreigner, espe- |
cially when German leaders them |
selves cannot straighten out in their |
own minds these problems, which |
change almost daily.
But there are high lights that stand |
put, or group themselves under heads,
and the best a correspondent can do
Is describe these problems as they
3ppear, not so much to a foreigner,
but to Germany's republican cabinet,
which is trying TO master them all at
once.