The Washington herald., 1920-04-19

with the eyes of ordinary people.
Facts of common knowledge they
did not seem to know; the present
condition of the world they did not
appear conscious of. They were
living in a strange world of night
mare which revolved about them
selves and was only concerned with
their welfare.
With the palpable causes of the
war they did not concern >~them-
selves. or il at all. only SO far as
to excuse themselves of all respon-
sibility.
Certain Of "Their People,
Thus l was told with tragic SOL
emnity by persons whom 1 had
previously admired that all the
poor monsrehs" without exception
had desired peace, that two at least
of the banished kings-they said
1t themselves-were absolutely sure
their people. to the last man. were
at that moment ciamoring for their
FetuFu 10 tnelf thrones.
The second of my impressions was
that all this astonishing fallacy, par
ticularly the last mentioned part of
1t, came of two facts of grave mo-
ment: The stupefying effects of
their sudden downfall and the ex-
hilarating effects of the present
wave of Bolshevik activity through
out the world. The former OF these
iS nox-ah4l41fanv H. x..f4I I,
here. but the latter is suitable for
comment.
Surprising as it may be. the old
autocratic- rulers of Europe are
building their hopes on Bolsnevism
as the red path through which they
are to come back into their own.
Thus they argue: When the peo-
pies of Europe have sufficiently tried
this wild. mad, illogical. selfish. bru-
tai theory OF government, they will
say: The old monarchies were bet
ter. let US have our monarchies
back
Dream Not Impossible.
1t looks like a foolish dream, but
who will say it is altogether without
justification? History has too many
examples of such strange and COM
plete revulsions to allow us to say
that the kings and queens. princess
and princesses of dead empires are
wholly wrong in their expectations.
One thing that these poor dreaming
souls do not see is that two short
years of communistic rule in their
countries would probably leave them
with nothing to come back to.
There is another side to the pic
"a, rfr, y
l came as near to Germany as pos
sible without stepping over the
frontier. and in one of the greater
Swiss cities. which has been for
nearly a hundred years and in a
measure still is the center of in
ternational unrest as well as an
asylum for leaders of liberty. 1 saw
something of the mind of the com
mon people of Germany. in relation
! to the war.
1t was startling revelation, an
swering hardly at all to anything
had thought of before leaving
England. 1 was told that the Ger
man arm. was the "onIy army in
the field that had not been de-
featcd"
Material Need Uppermost.
There is the deepest impression
left en- my mind of a complete
sub. "tion of the German soul to
considerations of material need.
Not for the, great body of, the
German people is IT important to
inquire into the causes of the war
They do not care to ask how 1t came
to pass. or who was responsible for
it. All those questions they dis
miss with the thought that there
were thieves and liars among the
governing classes in all the war
ring countries and that it is not
worth whilo to ask which of them
were the worst. The Kaiser and
his family were fools and at the
last moment they were towards and
poltroons, and the German people
have no further use for them
There are fools. too. and worse
among leaders of the people now
! and the only matter of the moment
is how best to crush them.
But the great thing is food, food
! food-how to get enough of 1t. OF
sufficient nutriment. to keep body
and soul together among the null
titudes of poor. All the way down
the principal streets, men who are
strangers to each other stand abou,
in groups discussing this question
Nations Soul Paralysed.
r could not overcome the deep
emotion with which recognized
this spectacle of a nation with a
paralyzed. IL not a dying soul
| There is no fight left in 1t, unless
!, 1t Is the fight of despair. but that
lis a terrible thing to contemplate
and 1t Is for the allied nations to
CONTINUED Or PACE EIGHT.