Evening star., 1919-05-07
irony AND PATHOS
IN GERMANFATE
Junker Contrasts May Day
! Dreams of.Past With
Tragedy of Today.
By BEN HECHT.
CableEram to The Evening Star and
Chicago Daily News, Copyright, 1919.


cablesram to The Evening Star and
Chicago Daily News. Copyright, 1919,
BERLIN. Germany, May (delayed).
The irony and pathos of the fate
that has overtaken German lay naked
in it's deserted streets today. For
years May 1 was the great symbol of
the millennium which awaited the
German people in the future. Mil
lions of working men and women
turned out and marched behind gayly
footing bands. 1t was the day on
which the social democrats held their
annual demonstration. A chuckling
junker said to me today as we walk ed
the streets in search Of an open res
taurant:
Germany has many anniversaries,
but of them all this is the most iroE-
ical and tragic In the old days the
people marched, sang and cheered.
They dreamed of the time when the
masses would rule and when liberty
would sit enthroned in Utopia. Now
that time has come and the masses
rule And see! There are no parades,
no bands and no singing
Dream Gone, Reality Here
THE dream is gone and the reality
IL here. Workingmen shoot down
workingmen. The armies under Herr
Noske. the peoples general. attack
armies under Max Levien, another
peoples general"
My companion waved his hand at
the dreary, deserted streets. Sec" he
said. the people rule and the great
dream has been realized"
We talked then of the peace await
ing Germany.
eio -ho nc
not" he smiled. What difference
does it make? Perhaps our fiery
epigramist. Herr Haase, will come
into power and every one will be-
come bolshevist, or perhaps the mon
archy will return. If you ask Down
would tell you that it Is all imma-
terial- Germany is crushed, Russia is
crushed and England has added an
other noble slice of Africa to her
possessions, and so England Is con-
tent, and even magnanimous. I grant
you that 1T was a moment Of stupid
insanity which inspired the Germans
to fancy that they could cope with
England Pool old, clumsy linking,
sfmple-minded Germany. All she got
for her pains, her heroisms and her
sacrifices was a reputation as a baby
killer. All. The wonderful Eng
ushv'
We talked then of the danger of
bolshevism.
Il don't believe in It," said my COM
don't think there is SO much danger
as we Germans hope there is. Yet
who knows? History is full of
strange things. Bolshevism would
ruin Germany. but running Germany
now is like gliding the lily. Ger
hac 20 J1a nd
haps 1t would be a great aid to US
if 1t came. Today Germans are kill
ing Germans in Bavaria. This is
spectacle which should delight the
entente. On the other hand. perhaps,
it is a spectacle which makes the
entente somewhat nervous. England's
delicious morality is responsible for
what bolshevist menace there is to
the world. England thought it neces-
sary to keep UP the blockade. Moth
ing was too bad for the nation which
had killed Belgian babies. and so
England continued to starve US after
the armistice continued to demoralize
Us
1T would have been much better
politics for England to have stood
our women and children against a
wall and shot them. Such procedure
would have angered us Germans. bue
would have been forgotten in time.
oAS ios ohootih6 "oihCh Aho CH
IL too immoral a procedure; it is
better for ones morals to starve them.
Coming In and destroying German
factories is too Hunlike in tactics:
rather cripple and ruin them in
perfectly moral way. Hence the
blockade and hence bolshevism:'
We found a restaurant open and
here my companion talked of the war
Of the future.
Maybe what 4 say is fantastic and
inspiring by tangled emotions" he
said. but the next war is coming be-
tween England and America. You
watch. England will form an alliance
with Japan and when America be-
comes too great a rival and when the
American merchant marine endangers
the British commercial omnipotence.
England will again wage a holy war
against a nation of greedy, unprinci-
pied babykillers-your own esteemed
countrymen, my friend"
Returning from the restaurant met
the Independent socialist leader. Ru-
dolph Breitscheidt. After the peace
terms are public" he said. I'LL have
ideas. Now. l have none. All Ger
many is waiting. You will have many
stories to write after the peace terms
are known"
1 asked Herr Breitscheldt If he
wasn't celebrating May /. ''One does
not celebrate the crack of DOOM" he
answered.