The Greeneville daily sun. (Greeneville, Tenn.) 1918-1920, 1919-11-12
Germany Views
Peace as Mockery
By CARL D. GROAT


peace!
"A bitter mockery, says Germany
today on the anniversary of the great
wars end.
1t has been year of aught but
peace for her.
And, she looks out into the uncer-
tain vista of the future with misgiv-
ing. She fears that it is the old cry
of peace! peace when there is no
peace. She shrinks before the real
tiles. For they spoil for her, perhaps,
further plungs into the chasm of
moral, physical, economic disintegra-
ton which has marked the Teuton
course.
Conclusion of one year of peace
found the nation toda-- uncomfortably
close to national bankruptcy. 1t found
her with laboring class, unclaimed
from the grind of the past, now I'M
willing to work-and in many cases
unable for want of the raw materials.
1t found her with a government which
despite good intentions and hard eff
forts has been unable to progress ma
terially. And, too, it found her with
internal strife, with political haulings
and pullings, with strivings after
monarchy and with strivings after pro-
letarian dictatorship, in short, with a
confusion and moral breakdown
which threatens before the winter
dies to fame out in new civil upheav-
ais with possible bloodshed or with
further industrial stagnation.
The pendulum here has swung
from the redism of last November's
revolution to more moceration, it is
true. And, there have been signs
that the ultra-c onservatism o. the
PAN Germans would SWEEP Sack into
power. The air is filled with rumors
of putsches.
One side says, "The monarchists
evil overthrow the government, and
put a Hindenburg or even a Hohen-
zollern in power" The other says,
"The Spartacists plan trouble. They
vii lbathe the land in blood again to
establish their rule of the proletariat.
/ And both sides speak with some
degree of truth. For certain it is
that the extreme right and the ex-
IRENE life are bent on establishing
a new order of things, while the pres
ent Ebert Bauer Mueller government
/ formed of majority socialists, centrists
and democrats, banks on Noske and
his iron guards to keep Germany in
order.
Aside from Noske and his guards
Germany has little to bank on. She
only prays and hopes with sort OF
blind hope that the spring will bring
her a new life.
eff we can only get through tht
winter" is the prayer on every side
For the poor, confronted with Goa
shortage--cold homes and still re
stricted rations-it is a prayer tina
something will come to make a new
era. For the politician in power, i
is hope that he can stave off politi
cal ruin and perhaps the disruption
of his country. For the business man
it is the thought that if his worl
isn't socialized or ruined this winter
help may come in the spring.
And everywhere those in power ar,
hoping against hope that an unfriend
ly outer world will finally take tn,
German view that purely as a matte
of good business for the whole world
security financial aid will be extend
ed whereby Germany can drive of
the specters of unemployment, hun
ger, social unrest, unwillingness II
labor, and of general apathy.
The government rests on very un
stable basis. German industry is bad
ly shackled for want of raw materials
And German labor is sullen and lazy
disconnected with the things as the,
are, none too we'll nourished, and un
willing to work under old conditions