The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-05-23
BEHIND THE SCENES IN GERMANY

revolution, with the result, not that
 the movement collapsed, but that
 control of it passed from the So-
 cialists 10 the Communists.
 This Seems likely to be the result
 in Germany. The first consequence
 was that leadership passed from tho
 Governmental Control Council to the
 Executive Council of Berlin, where
 the Independents and Communists
 were already in majority. The Ex-
 ecutive Council proceeded to press
 for q convocation of the Congress of
 Councils. and thereby a reelection of
 the Central Council. The latter pro-
 crastlnated. but gave way on the Ex- ecutive Council threatening to con
 yene the Congress itself; but even then succeeded in having 1t postponed m ore thEn once.
 But while the Opposition was nov ing to the Left in attempts to real
 ize the revolution. the Governm ent was moving to the Right, and rapidly restoring the old police-state behind
 a facade of parliamentary institu- tons. The consequence was a grow
 ing dissatisfaction with the Govern nent which, for want of proper eX- pression through the council organ 1 isation, broke out in periodic strikes ana streets IneSe were eN-
 rloited by the Government as excuses for oppressive and reactionary | measures. which in turn drove the Opposition further into revolution. But the defection of the Central Council had deprived the whole movement of any solidarity, and st expressed itself in local offensives, which were beaten in detail. First
 Bremen and the coast ports, then Dusseldorf and the coal area, next Saxony and the industrial districts, and finally, in the first week of March. Berlin itself all declared strikes, in which recognition of the council system was the principal or a prominent demand. And the Berlin strike, following close on that in Sax l ony, did frighten the Government ! into what might 'have been a con- | siderable concession.
 As late as the end of February the l Government had declared semi-of- | fcially that no member of the Gov | erDrne ent had the slightest intention | of having the council system incor- | porated in the Constitution either | legisla lively or adninistrattvely, but |, two days after the outbreak of the I Berlin strike, early in March, the | Government announced not only the | ! ton of the council system in the ! Constitution.
 I have already explained how in | the Governments socialization bills | reaction has been moufla ged to | look like revolution, and it will b.. | surprising if the "anchoring'' of the | councils in the constitution is any | thing more than their inclusion for subordinate purposes in the Whit | ley Council'' scheme above referred d | to. Indeed, more than this could not De imposed in the Centrum even if the | Government wished.
 ''AIl Power to the Soviets.~ The Communists are, of course, "wholehoggers.' whose war cries are "All power to the Soviets'' and Down with the Assembly," The In- dependents range from men like Led | ebour. Daumig, and Richard Muller | who see in the councils the salvation | rot only of the revolution, but of civ | ilization, to men like Haase, Cohn, | and Breitscheidt, who believe that l parliamentary democracy and prole- | tartan dictatorship can be co-or- | dinated if the bourgeois have the DO | litical predoninance, the Bolsheviks | the social power.