Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-09-13
FRANCE ALARMED
BY GERMAN PLOTS
BY ANDRE TAEDIEU
(For1ner French High Commissioner

(Leased Wire Service to The JournaI)
Copyright, 1929
(rhe meaning Of the Erzberger assassi
nation on Germany's future, treated else
where in q dispatch by Macmillan Harden,
from Berlin, is viewed also with alarm in
france, for NJ. Tardieu believes the mill
tarists. are gaining the upper hand in the
one-t1me empire of the Kaiser.)
PARIS, Sept. 1o.-Germany's NOR
al and political situation holds much
Of concern to the world. The assas-
throws a light upon it from which
We should profit.
For months this siyner of the
armistice in 1918 had been con-
demned to death by the military
party, just as Kurt Eisner was two
years ago, and in the execution Of
a plan carefully prepared.
We have in Germany the strange
spectacle of men who ruined the
country by provoking and losing the
war posing as public prosecutors. It
is dellberately overlooked that EN-
peror Wilhelm and his camarilla or
ganized the 1914 aggression. It is
deliberately overlooked that Ludan-
dorff at the beginning of October.
1918, approved the immediate sign
ing Of the armistice. So the Doom
exile receives enthusiastic kilograms
in which he is hailed as the chosen
'ooN4oul VI Ills COuIlLTy, ana Lu06n-
dorff is made leader Of the military
party.
To complete this monstrous para
dox, acts had to follow words, ana
one act was the assassination of Err
berger. The purpose Of this was to
make the people believe that the
generals won the war and the states.
men lost it.
Therefore, we find acclaimed the
general who, in panic, demanded
the armistice at any price and we
find murdered the minister who
signed it.
Nowhere, save in Germany, could
such fantastic perversions of the
truth find credit. Millions of Ger
mans believe today thai Wilhelm was
great emperor and that I.udendorfff
Germans pin their faith to those
whose criminal folly brought Ger
manv where she is today. Impe-
realistic militarism, to live and pros
per, needs to have this ironical leg
end believed. BY the assassination
of Erzberger it was thought to forti~
fy words by a deed.
Thus again the world is confront
ed with the disturbing question of
Germany's moral evolution. 1 re-
member during the peace confer
ence President Wilson freely ex-
olution which upset the throne had
remade the minds and the hearts of
the people as we'll. Happenings
since mat time hardly justify his
optimism. The very fact that those,
responsible for Germany's defeat are
tolerated as at present is profound
ly disconcerting. There is ample
evidence that a great part of the
German people believe that their
emperor and their generals, if they
had not been hampered by civilians,
would have entered Paris Victorious
ly in January, 1919. This fact, I'M
believable as it seems, is none the
less true.
One must admit that these encr-
mites are provoking certain reac-
tions in Germany. The socialists
organized impressive demonstrations
against the Erzberger murder. The
peoples party, directed by the big
Industrial unions. expressed its abb
horrence Of all efforts to change the
constitution by violence. The Wlrth
government adopted rather timid
measures to restrain the Pan-Ger-
man agitation.
But altogether the military reac-
tionaries have the upper hand to-
day AS yesterday and in Bavaria the
Won Kahr government boldly sides
with them against the Berlin govern
ment.