The Washington times., 1919-11-12
GERMANY REGARDS
PEACE AS M0CKERY
Strikes, Famine, and ReVolu-
ton Follow Crushing De-
feat by Allies.
By CARL ID. GROAT
United Press Stan Correspondent.

BERLIN, Nov. 12.-One year OF
peace!
A bitter mockery. says Germany to-
day on the anniversary of the great
wars end.
It has been a year OF aught but
peace for her.
And. she looks out into the uncer-
tsinty vista OF the future with mis-
giving. She fears that il is the old
cry OF peace. peace! peace. when
there Is no peace. She shrinks be-
fore the realities. For they spoil for
her, perhaps. a further plunge into
the chasm OF moral, physical, econ
omic disintegration which has mark
ed the Teuton course.
Conclusion of one year OF peace
found the nation today uncomfortably
close to national bankruptcy. 1t
found her with q laboring class, un-
chained from the grind OF the past.
now unwilling to work-and in many
cases unable for want OF the raw
materials. II found her with a gov
ernment which despite good inten-
sions and hard efforts has been unable
to progress materially. And. too, 1t
found her with internal strife, with
political haulings and pullings, with
strtvings after monarchy and with
strivings after proletarian dictator
ship, in short, with a confusion and a
moral breakdown which threatens be-
fore the winter dies to flame out in
new civil upheavals with possible
6loodshed or with further Industrial
stagnation.
The pendulum here has swung from
the reddism OF last November's rev.
olution to more moderation, it is
that the INSTRUMENTATION of the
Pan-Germans would sweep back into
power. The air is filled with rumors
OF putsches.
Both Sides CONFIDENT.
One side says, ''The monarchists will
overthrow the government, and put
a Hindenburg or even a Hohen-
zollern in power" The other says,
The Spartacists plan trouble. They
will bathe the land in blood again
to establish their rule of the pro-
letariat"
And both sides speak with some
degree Of truth. For certain it is
that the extreme right and the ex-
treme left are bent on establishing
a new order of things. while the
present Ebert-Bauer-Muelle govern
ment. 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 a sort Of
blind hope that the spring will bring
her a new life.
'-If we can only get through the
winter, is the prayer on every side.
For the poor, confronted with coal
al M = IL
stricted rations-it is a prayer that
something will come to make a new
era For the politician in power,
IL is a hope that he can stave off
political ruin and perhaps the dis
ruption of his country. For the busi-
ness man IL is the thought that IL
his work isn't socialized or ruined
this winter, help may come in the
spring.
Hopiu. Against Hope.
And e--,rywhere those IN power
are he Ig against hope that an un-
friendIy outer world will finally take
the German view that purely as q
matter OF good business for the whole
worlds security. financial aid will be
extended whereby Germany can drive
off the specters of unemployment,
hunger, social unrest, unwillingness
to labor, and of general apathy.
The government rests on a very
unstable basis. German industry is
badly shackled for want of raw ma
terials. And German labor is sullen
and lazy. discOntented with things
as they are, none too well nourished,
and unwilling to work under old con-
ditions. 1t demands, and is obtain
ing. more and more a say in how
its own destiny shall be ordered.
The cry is for more socIaliZation.
The moderate parties want this
brought about gradually; the radicals,
abruptly; and the conversatives not
at all.
Germany's play from now on will
be to obtain a tightening OF her
peace terms through the League OF
Nations. She has launched a cam
paign for that and will carry 1t on
She maintains that,
with a republic, and a new deal all
around. she is entitled to more con-
sideration than the treaty gives ner.
Her leaders are doing their utmost
to squelch the Pan-Germans, and at
the same time to curb the reds. They
seek to present Germany to the world
as a new nation with new ideas.
She is a new natiOn-but one sunk
in a morass.
A morass of moral decay! A morass
of financial decrepitude. \ morass OF
industrial and political uncertainty!
And. in this state of affairs, Ger
many consequently views the peace
dubiously, and says that
for her. at least, peace to date has
been but a bitter mockery.
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