Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-12-14

OF every one 1amlllar VIII
history the circumstances
which surrounded the fall of the
first empire in France, the brief pc
riod of the first restoration and to
suggest the possibility. Enthusiastically
remote, that Germany is approaching
the moment when it will risk another
Waterloo by inviting back to power
the ancient regime, the Hohenzollerns.
Granting that there are nearly as
many points of difference as of re-
semblance between the situation OF
1919 and of 1915, it is at least worth
while, in view of the issues at stake.
to examine the points of resemblance
and as a consequence the forces winch
make for repetition of one OF the
most dramatic incidents in the history
of the world.
To begin at the beginning. Napo-
leon abdicated in April. 1914, while
his own army was still in being. He
did not surrender in the presence OF
supreme battlefield disaster, as IN
the case of Waterloo. 1t was true
that the enemy had entered his CAPT
tai, that his own sadly diminished
army could no longer keep the held
with any hope of success against the
allied forces, and his bravest mar
shals were precisely the advisers who
compelled an abdication.
Convinced Of Superiority.
The veterans of the empire, particu-
larly those troops who had been shut
nm IN German fOrfrpSSpS and had no
share in the last campaigns, were stlil
convinced of their superiority to the
enemy, whom they had defeated on
score of fields. All in all, there was
far more warrant in the French army
of that day than in the German OF
today for the belief that the ulti-
mate defeat had been brought about
by other than military influences and
the French army was still capable OF
conquering as it had conquered.
At the moment when the emperor
abdicated che French nation was as
weary of war as the German peo-
pie a year ago. If there had been
nothing like the strain of the four
years of the recent conflict there mao
been twenty years Of war with only
brief and partial truces. the block TAX
had been tremendous and the rewards
for victories. which remain the mar
vel of military minds, had been IN
creasingly slight and never sufficient
to bring a complete cessation of hos
Titles.
But a year later the situation had
materially changed. The Bourbons
returning had alienated the army.
They had sent the famous soldiers of
the revolutionary and imperial period
into retirement on minor pensions
they had replaced them with men who
had left France at the beginning OF
the revolution and had fought only
inc Esro
had turned out the vast army OF civil
employees and functionaries who had
been organized in the years following
the revolution.
situation Is Nearly Parallel.
Now. looking at the German situa-
ton Of the recent month. it is easy
to perceive the parallels. Technically
the army was not routed on the bat
tlef1eld as was the Prussian army of
Jena; it was not captured as the
French army had been at Sedan. 1t
had been beaten and supreme disaster
might have come within the shortest
conceivable time after the moment
when fighting ended had there been
no armistice, but it was actually in
line. fighting back. Withdrawing in or
der on November IL. 1918.
Some fraction of the prestige of the
old German army was thus saved.
The troops returned welcomed with
tary leaders boldly proclaimed that
the army had not been defeated, that
the collapse of the home front had
dragged the army down with it. This
was untrue, as in the Nnpoleonic
case. but it was not obviously untrue
On the contrary. there was at least an
appearance of warrant for the mill
tary claims.
But with the military surrender
came the revolutions. the local disor-
ders, the transfer of the seat of gov
eminent to Weimar, the actual con-
blance of order had been restored, by
elements as foreign to the recent Ger
man system as were the Bourbons Of
a century ago to the Napoleonic. The
soldiers who had overrun half of
Europe and at home had been the
were pushed into an obscurity which
was alike humiliating and painful.
Failed to Give Substitute.
The essential thing was-and is.
for the past tense hardly applies
that the new regime steadily failed
to give any substitute for the old. 1t
could not make real peace with the
enemy; it could not lift the blockade;
it was asked to sign the most humili-
history. just from any reasonable
point of view, but bound in the ma
ture of things to strike the German
mind as the ultimate expression of
injustice; and even this peace did not
in reality end the debate. The course
of events, the acts of certain Ger
mans. notably in Scapa Flow and in
the Baltic provinces. evoked new de-
mands from the allies, with further
sacrifices.
1t is a fact that the German cabi-
net, which governed, had no choice
but to capitulate whenever an allied
demand was made in such tones as
disclosed the will to enforce it by
arms if necessary. No other course
would have been left for a junker
regime had it been in power. But
this apparent truth was by no means
obvious to the German mind. What
was plain was that before the war.
during the war. UP to the last mo-
ment, Germany had spoken with au-
thority in Europe. her saber rat