Evening star., 1929-06-29
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.


to found weekly propaganda periodi-
cal, the Fatherland. Two weeks after
his arrival he published an article de-
scribing the makeup of the Reichstag
of 397 members, and he announced:
THE Conservatives, the So-callcd
War party from which most Of the
officers are being recruited, Is in a
hopeless minority, about 55. There are
11O Social Democrats and 100 Liberals,
so that, in fact, there is a Liberal ma
jority in the German Reichstag. Not
withstanding this composition, this
Reichstag has voted unanimously the
necessary laws and credits for conduct
ing the present war, and although the
Social Democrats reject war on princi-
pie, in their program, they have in
dorsed unanimously the policy of the
empire, as set out by the Emperor;
chancellor.
Il say this to prove that this war i"
not "a Kaisers war; because he caI-
! not make a war
The above statement is confirmed
the authors of an elaborate study, RE
publican Germany" by Hugh Quigle.
and r. T. Clark, published recently, ii
which Is stated:
"On August 4, 1914, the imperial re- :
III
For the first time since the foundation
of the empire, the whole nation, an in
significant fraction excepted, stood
Solidly behind the imperial government
and the Emperor, and when the latter
with his usual and not always unfor-
tunate sense of the dramatic, 7 know
no more parties expressed fairly
accurately the sense of unity with which
the German nation confronted the
peril its statesmen had brought upon
1t. On August 4 the German democ-
racy in the Reichstag virtually abdi-
Gated its function: the sole protester.
Karl Liebknecht, did not make his pro-
test vocal. The completeness of the
abdication may be explained as the
chivalrous surrender to patriotism, but
it also gives the measure of the democ-
racy's weakness"
It is inferred from the above ap-
praisal Of German democracy written
at least year before yesterdays toy
ing with the invitation to the Kaiser
to return) that the present surrender
Of democracy to the glamour of royalty
Is in keeping with that surrender In
1914. The Kaiser has been scapegoat
long enough; he is no more guilty than
his supporters, who call themselves
Democrats" and who yesterday pro-
tested against the world ostracism"
CnQeF WHICH lney TaIlkl6.
x x x
So yesterdays great military demon
stration in Berlin, TO register mourn
ing" of the German nation--not re-
pentance, but chagrin over ignominious
bitterly earned, and the severity of the
Versailles treaty and of the burden of
reparations which they will seek to re-
pudiate as soon as pressure is relieved
will be taken for what 1t Is worth in
its cant and defiance.
The speech of Bethmann- -Hollweg, the
imperial chancellor, on August 4. 1914,
shows why Germany to this day suffers
under world ostracism," for it openly
advocated breaking treaties at will
whenever IL was to Germany's advan-
on Belgium by the invasion, he JUSTIFIED
it in this language:
The wrong-I speak openly-that we
are committing We will endeavor to
make good as soon as our military goal
has been reached. Anybody who is
threatened. as we are threatened, and
Is fighting for his highest possessions
can have only one thought-how he is
to hack his way through (wie er sich
durchhaut).'
Those words lost him the last vestise
OF respect from the civilized world, in
cluding America.
Is the mourning" repentance for
confessed perfldy, or a prelude for a
reunion with the Kaiser and renewal
OF similar tactics? The call for the
demonstration was signed even by
President Won Hindenburg and his
cabinet, who. however. found it policy
not TO be present personally at the
demonstration they helped to engineer.
Thus Hindenburg rides two horses at
once-he StraddleS from support of the
mourning" to diplomatic absenteeism
from the mournerS' bench, but is on
record as protesting against the accusa-
ton that Germany plotted and started
the war. And, oficially. the Prussian
state forbade participation of any offi-
cials in the mourning" demonstration,
but invited the popuiace to make the
gesture.
At the same time, the Monarchist
organ, Kreuz Zeitung, in today's issue.
leads In attacking not only the Versailles
treaty, but also the Young reparation
agreement.
What pathos and what significance
lie in the poem of Alfred Noyes, pub
lished less than year ago, THE Pact!"
The first and last verses:
They have no pact to sign-our peace
fuE dead.
Pacts are for trembling hands and
heads grown gray.
Ten million graves record what youth
hath said,
And cannot now un-say.
They have no pact to sign-our happy
dead
But, o God. II We should sign in vain,
With dreadful eyes, out of each narrow
bed.
/, Our dead will rise again. szz,a
fFanvrishf faaa -, 0..,i ~ rs.5gtns