Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1919-03-22
.TEUTONS SPEAK OF
ANOTHER STRUGGLE
War Has Not Produced ANY
Noticeable Psychological
Change In Germans.
By Frank j. Taylor

(Unlted Press staff correspondent
Copyright, 1919, by the United Pressl
Berlin, Feb. 26.-(By mail)-Three
months careful study of Germany. fol
lowing the signing of the armistiee.
forces the conviction that neither war
from without nor revolution from with
In has worked any psychological meta
morphosis of Germany as nation. or
OF Germans as individuals. Neither the
strength nor the weaknesses of the
German people evidences any transfer.
nation. The minds which accent and
apply the terms of peace will differ
but little from those which steered the
successful course of the German EN-
pire up to August, 1914.
The revolution has changed the form
Of government. 1t has not changed the
governed. The war has brought TO Ger
many defeat, disaster and destitution.
1t has not brought despair nor humih.
alton, A half dozen speakers at the ma.
tional assembly in Weimar voiced the
general feeling of the people when
they said, in effect:
" we have not been defeated mill
tarlly. Hunger and the revolution fore
ed US to quit. We accepted President
w llson S fourteen points and demobil-
lzed voluntarily, according to the pro,
Visions of the armistice."
The foreign office policies and the
attitude of its individual secretaries
are unchanged; its personnel is practic
ally the same as before the revolution.
though the officials all profess to be
democrats. Now they claim they op-
posed the war, especially employment
of frightfulness.
Count Bernstorff is considered nv
many well informed Germans to be the
man who is really running the foreign
office, with his cousin, Count Brock
dorff-Rantzau, chief in name only. The
Germans feel Z lat Brockdorff- Rant
Eau S speech outlining the nation IS for
eign policy marked new era in diplo-
macy because he stated frankly what
the Germans consider modest. These in
rluded retention of the German colon
les, a plebescite for Alsace Lorraine,
repatriation of German war prisoners
and reparation for damages only.
Ostensibly, the censorship was remov
ed with establishment of the present
government. Yet priority of news dis
is still preserved as an ex-
elusive and monopolistic privilege of
The Wolff bureau, which was the semi
official propaganda agency under the
Did regime. Foreign newspaper CORE
spondents' dispatches are held up six
hours after the same information Is OBJ
tanned by Wolff. This guarantees to
that organization the opportunity of
giving the world its first, and there
fore its strongest, impression of any
internal German situation,
In addition to the Wolff bureau IS
Influence on foreign propaganda, there
IS now a new government department
which is daily furnished the people
with inspired opinion through the
press. The theme of this propaganda
is. "There has been no revolution in
dermany-just new form of govern
nent. y With the exception of govern
ment organs, the press refuses to take
The national assembly very seriously.
A number of younger employees who
lolneu the government through ideal II
stic motives are, switching to the rad.
cals, believing that real revolution
S coming when the industrial workers
md soldiers councils decide that their
are not to be fulfilled.
These elements are thoroughly organic
ID and refuse to relinquish an iota of
heir power, though representative
'epublie has been established, because
hey apparently mistrust the motives
If the coalition leaders.
The situation in Germany, without
loubt, is critical as regards food, in
lustry and finance, but this does not
'eem to have effected any radical
'hange in the psychology Of the gem
raj public. Public opinion throughout
he country does not fix the guilt for
he war upon Germany. nor upon the
'usted ruling class. 1t does not ack \
lowledge German military defeat Ger
mans believe they are in their pres
mt position because-as their propa-
,anda tells thenl--their idealism led
hem to lay down their arms and trust
wilson.