New-York tribune., 1919-01-22
Germany

Germany
The German election returns are in
complete, but so far as they go they
greatly improve the outlook for d peace
full consolidation of a German republic
1t was a three-cornered contest. The
forces working for popular government
and toward the restoration of normal
conditions in civic and industrial life
came between the Reds on one side and
the more cautious, more silent, but there
fore the more dangerous, monarchst re-
dictionaries on the other.
The Red leaders played into the hands
of their enemies. Their issue with the
Ebert government was that Of constit-
uent assembly vs.. ''proletarian rule
through direct action" The Reds ap-
pealed to the force of arms and lost,
hopelessly. Their terrorism strengthened
more than anything else the hand of
the government. 1t drove the large mass
of the bourgeoisie to the support of the
Majority Socialists
1t may be assumed that the three most
potent factors to insure the victory of
to resume normal national life, the
desire for food and the desire for the
earliest possible withdrawal of Allied
troops from German soil
The connection between the victory
of the Majority Socialists and the desire
for the withdrawal of the Allied forces
of occupation is limited at by the gains of
the Ebert party over the Centre-dis-
euised as the Christian Peoples party in
Western Germany, in Baden, in the
Rhine districts and also in Bavara-all
Catholic areas that are normally the bull
wark of Centrist power. Evidently here,
too, the notion is at work that the Allies
would trust the Socialists more than they
would the party of Erzbcrger and Hert-
ling.
The gains of the Majority Socialists
at the expense of the Centre are set off
by the surprising advance Of the German
Democratic party in the eastern and
central industrial districts, especially in
Berlin, at the expense of the Majority
Socialists. For this advance Herr Won
Payer, the Democrat leader, can clearly
thank the shadow Of Lebknccht For
Germany there is hope in this fact. The
Democratic party is the successor of the
old Fortschrittiche Nolkspartei, the only
old German bourgeois party that could
rightfully claim the name "lberal."
There is more community Of interest
between the Democrats and the Major
lty Socialists than between the latter
and The Minority Socialists or Inde
pendents, and less occasion for frc-
ton and Jealousy. OF all the bourge-
ois parties the Democrats are proba-
bly, the only sincere anti-monarchists.
Their cooperation with the Majority So
clalists and perhaps with the more pro
gressive, or rather more cleverly oppor-
tunist, wing of the Centre is highly
probable, and would be under the circum
stances the best pledge of the success
Of the National Assembly.
The camoufage of high-sounding
names, like Peoples party, behind
which the old reactonary forces fhe
Pan-Germans and Conservatives. in
trenched themselves for electioneering
purposes, proved too thin for even the
German political which is
TO say great deal The defeat Of the
Extreme Right should not, however. lull
anybody into sense of safety. The
Reventlow Westarp- Kardof gang proba-
oly consider the whole Constituent AS
semDly sort of un German Joke
iher method of restoration is NOT mar
hamentary action. 1t may be taken for
granted that Hindenburg still dreams of
becoming the General Monk Of that do
hcious German edition of Charles IL the
fecluse of the Isle of Wieringen
Inc Constituent Assembly may now
get ready for business. The trial Of what
Germans like to call the New Germany,
opens. For the Allies the only possible
attitude is that of watchful WAITING
with emphasis on the watchful. con
soiidated Germany may be preferable to
an anarchist Germany but it makes =
strong "Wacht am Rhein,v edition Foch
none the less imperative.
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What Arch and Why?