Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-06-06
BY FRANK II. sIMONDs.

I would hardly be an exaggeration
to say that the forthcoming Ger
man election may prove the most
important event in Europe since
the armistice of Rethendes On the
result depends. not merely the fate
or Germany, but of central Europe II
the reactionary elements gain the up
per hand, then. the hopes of recon
struction. of an adjustment of war
claims. OF cooperation with Germany
in the task of restoring Germany
economically. must be abandoned and
germany Will become again an acute
menace to all of her neighbors.
All things considered it is manifest
that the best the world can hope for
now in the German election is the
continuation in power of the coaIi-
ton of majority socialists and CEN
trists, who have nominally. at least.
governed Germany since the collapse
Of the Hohenzollern regime In the
first days of November. 1918. The al
tentative is a triumph for the ele-
ments of reaction. a return Of the
odd gang and thereafter possibly a
new civil war in Germany and GER
tainly growing chaos in the relations
between Germany and her conquerors.
coalition Losing Grounds.
Unfortunately there Is something
less than a certainty that the present
coalition can hold. 1t has manifestly
been losing ground for many months,
has in fact lost strength in both d.
rections, that is. TO the extreme left.
which is radical. and to the extreme
right. which is reactionary. Its own
approximate failure has strengthened
both the independent socialists, who
stretch off in the direction of bolshe :
vism, and the junkers. who represent
all that was worst in the situation
before the war.
An analysis of the causes Of the
failure of the present coalition Is
simple. When the kaiser fed the
army crumbled and peace had to be
made on any terms, that militarist
and junker group. which had con-
trolled the destinies of Germany dur
ing the latter stages of the war,
turned over quite voluntarily to their
radical opponents the task of making
peace with the enemy. In this abdica-
ton there were two motives. first the
purpose to seem to meet the demand
Of President Wilson that Germany
should have a government represent
ing the German people, as a prelimi
nary to an armistice. and second the
desire to escape the responsibilities
for making a peace which was bound
to be disastrous.
But the transfer Of power to the
majority socialists. with whom were
associated the centrists-that is. the
Roman Catholic party-was in reality
little more than a resort to window
dressing. The majority socialists dur
ing the war had slavishly accepted the
will of the junkers. They had voted
the credits for the army. they had
passively accepted every militaristic
H. 4 81, tn h
responsibility for the punishment OF
the minority socialists, men of the
stamp of Liebknecht who had coura
geously challenged the Prussian cam
arilla which governed Germany.
Moreover. the first domestic task
Of the new German democratic gov.
eminent was to suppress the real
revolution. which had broken out in
Berlin and elsewhere and threatened
to precipitate bolshevist crisis. To
suppress this revolution the majorit;
socialists had to do two things
fight their fellow socialists of the
minority and seek and obtain help
from their old junker and reactionary
enemies.
As consequence what follow ed
was a bloody and violent repression
OF the German revolution the murder
Of such radical leaders as Liebknechi
and Rosa Luxembourg. Bolsher!sn1
ana com iS cAlIGihe
radicalism-were beaten. but in or
der to defeat them the majority so
cialists were compelled to put them
selves in the hands of the German
army and of the men of the Luden-
dorff regime. who represented the
old Prussian spirit. Noske. who had
raised an army to suppress the revo-
luton. was henceforth little more
than a creature of the old great gen
eral stan.
Stihed q Revelation.
Thus. using the majority socialists
as an instrument. the German reac-
tionaries promptly stifed real revo-
luton. Normally Germany had be-
come a republic: nor were the reac-
tionaries Immediately concerned about
the fate of the kaiser. But actually
the militarists had regained power
and checked the spread of real de-
mocracy along with that revolution
which in the first days of January.
1919, threatened to destroy the old
order in Germany. Even before the
Paris conference assembled the Ger
man junkers had avoided the immedi /
ate danger which threatened them al
the moment Of the armistice.
The second step in the discrediting
of the democratic idea, which nomi-
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