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ones who have already inspired them with folly? There is danger if the popular leaders do not keep a firm hand. If the Socialist newspapers continue to throw oil on the fire, while the Socialist deputies in Parliament are throwing water on the fire, the conflagration will continue to spread.

For more than a year we have been sounding the alarm. The governing classes should wake up and take action. They should not tolerate an indefinite postponement of peace and demobilization: or allow a few over-zealous and hot-headed patriots to lay mines that may blow up not only themselves, but all Italy. But we realize that the government is at a disadvantage in defending itself, when so many domestic enemies are ready to stab it in the back.

The Socialist leaders seem unaware that their delinquencies are as serious as those of the government. Who tried to make the Italian people believe that the European war was due to a conspiracy of the capitalists? Authentic documentary proofs are accumulating every day to prove that this guilt rests on Germany and Austria. Who tried to make the people believe that they could remain neutral? Those gentlemen refuse to read the confidential memoirs of Conrad. Did they not try to convince us that neutrality would be a national bless

ing? Let them look at Spain, which is balancing between anarchy and a rule of Janizeries. They describe Russia as a terrestrial paradise. But Lenin can make no headway except with the support of his opponents. They say that the Hungary of Bela Kun was a viceparadise. But their own newspapers are forced to acknowledge that Hungary is voluntarily returning to the rule of the helmet and mitre, and that the Hungarian Socialist party is 'completely disorganized.' True, they have been able to win some votes by shouting against war and glorifying Russia, but they have set a wheel in motion which they cannot stop. They defamed the army, but they opened the way for a bloody pogrom against the officers of the government.

We are not so simple-minded and devoid of common sense as to expect a public confession of these faults. What good would it do, providing it were thinkable? But we ought to change our methods. We shall be forced to do so unless we wish some day to see our snake-charmers strangled by their own serpents. You gentlemen who profess to represent the masses in Parliament, bear in mind that if Italy falls the proletariat falls with it. Aye, the proletariat will be the first to fall. Repeat that to yourselves.

[The Neue Freie Presse, November 13, 1919]

POLITICAL SENTIMENT IN GERMANY

A MEMBER of one of the Entente missions recently said to your correspondent: "The greatest man which the war has produced is Noske.' When I inquired why he thought this, he said:

'Last January, Europe was on the very verge of Bolshevism. Noske is the man who rescued our hemisphere from that abyss.'

Noske himself is by nature such an unassuming and modest man, so practical and matter-of-fact in his make-up, that were he to hear this quoted he would protest vigorously against being considered the greatest man of the day, or even a great man. Nor is he in fact a great man. Indeed, if we use a term that has been somewhat cheapened of late to apply only to men of overpowering intellectual greatness, Noske is not a genius. He is merely a clearheaded, sensible citizen. He possesses that healthy common sense which every man in public life should have, and which serves the people far better than genius. Statesmen of genius are often most woeful leaders. Statesmen of common sense are never so. Noske's moral qualities are of the first order. He has great energy, courage, sense of duty, and candor. These are the qualities which have made a basketmaker of Brandenburg the savior of Germany and of Europe. That part of what the Entente diplomat said is unqualifiedly true.

Last January, the Spartacans were almost able to seize the reins of power: If Bolshevism had captured Berlin, it would have taken the rest of Western Europe. Noske was the man who prevented this immeasurable misfortune.

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A man who was in Berlin last January, when the repose of the night was broken by the constant spitting of machine guns, and the supporters of Liebknecht and Rosa Luxembourg were seeking to seize the imperial chancery, will never forget the day when Noske's troops, the 'Nosketiers,' as the Berliners later christened them,― that little army which Noske had created out of nothing, concentrated at the gates of Berlin at the critical moment and marched down Potsdam Street into the capital, bringing rescue when hope had almost vanished.

What he started last January he has perfected and completed subsequently. He has organized a National Guard. This small, but effective, army is firmly in the hands of the government. The members of that government, including even the Socialists - who hesitated at first, but learned by bitter experience that political life cannot continue without armed support are determined to employ this military force whenever it is necessary for the sake of maintaining peace and order. That determination is one of the most important practical gains of the year. When the German army dispersed haphazard after the conclusion of the armistice - dismissed, as members of the old government have repeatedly told me themselves, because it could not be kept under the colors - Germany was defenseless. Now we have every reason to believe that it is adequately defended from internal enemies.

Danger from that particular source seems to be diminishing. The wave of

radicalism has dashed itself to pieces. Its mad agitation reached such lengths as to disgust its own supporters. The faith of those, who in all the disorders of the year that lies behind us never lost hope that the sound common sense of German labor would finally revolt from the fallacies and follies of these radical leaders, has been justified. Many signs indicate that the influence of radicalism upon the German working people, after rising rapidly for a time, is now decidedly on the wane. The latest by-elections in Germany show a great falling off in radical votes. We are told that the subscription lists of some of the leading radical Socialist newspapers are by no means as large as formerly. Most important of all, the workingmen show a growing disinclination to obey the strike orders of the radical leaders. The general strike which the latter tried to start in Berlin recently, in connection with the machinists' strike, proved a complete fiasco. The working people are satiated with that sort of thing. They have finally learned that constant strikes injure not only the community as a whole, but also the participants. On the other hand, we are receiving from every part of Germany encouraging reports of an increase in industry and and labor efficiency. Germany is already at work again to be sure not yet up to its old mark, but making progress. Dislike of steady labor is one of the consequences of the war that still lingers. I would not have my readers think that we are going full steam ahead by any means, nor would I convey the impression that danger of a Communist Revolution has entirely disappeared, although it is greatly lessened.

One of the most effective pieces of propaganda against Bolshevism is the report of the trial of the assassins of

the Munich hostages. The German working people shudder with abhorrence at the beastly brutality there exhibited by the Soviet leaders. The Communist party itself, although not large numerically, is divided into factions which fight each other quite as bitterly as they fight the bourgeoisie and the Majority Socialists. In spite of all that, we are not yet perfectly insured against a Communist revolt in Germany. Spartacanism survives, and there is reason to fear that the privations of the coming winter, that hunger and cold, may give it new life. That will be our critical season. A Socialist minister wisely said a few days ago that if the new government survived the winter, its safety was assured. After that, trouble may flare up here and there, but Noske and his national guard can master it.

But while the dangers threatening the young German republic from the left are lessening, those that threaten from the right are growing. There is no mistaking the fact that for some time a reactionary wave has surged through Germany. For a time after the complete collapse of the old régime the Conservatives and Pan-Germans disappeared completely from public view. The elections to the National Assembly were a crushing defeat for them. However, even that defeat did not dishearten them. They have reorganized and are now conducting an active agitation.

Let no one suppose that these Conservatives and Pan-Germans have learned any lessons from their country's frightful disaster. No, indeed. They are just what they were before, and they talk the same language that they did in the days of the Kaiser. Their political conceptions are of enviable simplicity. Germany's defeat was due entirely to the Socialists. The latter started a revolution that de

moralized the army and brought about the Peace of Versailles- a disgraceful peace, which only a Socialist government would sign.

You may be astounded that there are still men who hold these views after the experiences which the nation has gone through. The Peace of Versailles and the revolution are SO obviously the result of German defeat

the

a defeat not due to the Social-Democrats, but to the military leaders who, in the summer of 1918, with a poorly fed and war-wearied army, ventured a great offensive against an enemy front strengthened by fresh American forces; to army leaders who did not know how to estimate the strength and effectiveness of the enemy tanks, and who refused to believe that Foch had a reserve army to break out suddenly from its forest lair upon the German flank. The persons responsible for German defeat are the military leaders, who ventured to inaugurate an unlimited submarine campaign, thinking to destroy England in three months- the men who made this foolhardy move in defiance of the cabinet and against the warnings of the German Ambassador in Washington. Responsibility for German defeat is shared by everyone in this country who supported a policy of fighting to the bitter end and defeated every peace effort of the government and the Reichstag. They are the men who blocked the intended mediation of President Wilson, who demanded annexations in a war where Germany was opposed to practically all the rest of the civilized world, and who were so completely blind to actual facts that they pursued these unattainable ends after the strength of the army and the courage of the nation were exhausted. The men who did these things were our military leaders and our Pan-Germans and Conservatives. Upon them rests responsibility

for our defeat and not upon the shoulders of the Social-Democrats and the bourgeois parties. That is the truth.

We can readily understand why the Pan-Germans and Conservatives should feel it incumbent upon them to evade acknowledging this responsibility and try to impose it upon their political opponents. Those are the usual tactics of politics. But what we cannot understand is that this distorted interpretation of the events should begin to take root among the German people. However, that is apparently the case. There are many evidences that a Pan-German and a Conservative agitation, which, of course, is employing its old standby of attacking the Jews, is winning ground. Just how much ground it is difficult to say. We shall not know until the coming spring. However, present indications are that the reactionary parties will not be the small minority in the coming Assembly that they are to-day. However, it is unlikely that they will constitute a majority either in the next Reichstag or in any subsequent one. We may count upon the common sense of the German people to prevent that.

In any case, the drift toward Conservatism is the most significant fact in the political life of Germany just at present. It appears to be due less to approval of the Pan-German and Conservative programme than to dissatisfaction with the achievements of the past year. Radicalism seems to have played the same hand in the German revolution that it has in all previous revolutions, and assisted reaction. These radicals have been demanding the socialization of industry and the organization of Soviets. They have been instigating strike after strike; they have been threatening the security of private property and income;

they have been disturbing the public peace, until at last a longing for law and order, for peace and quiet, has seized upon the mass of the population. One of the most important tasks of the government and of the parties now in power, is to prevent this dissatisfaction from turning against the republic itself. The ruling parties, including the Majority Socialists, have been statesmenlike enough to repudiate the extreme demands of radicalism, but they have made many concessions which circumstances forced upon them. The bourgeoisie also knew that it must make sacrifices, and that after such a war as we had fought, it was impossible to return to the old conditions. However, there is a limit to the sacrifices that the bourgeoisie will voluntarily make under any conditions. No government can exceed that limit without resistance. It often seems as though our new government was inclined to fall into the same error as the old government in respect to usurping undue authority. If taxes are made so high that a man derives practically no income from his property or his labor; if the shop committees are given such power that the employer is deprived of practically all, say in the administration of his business, the result quite possibly will be to drive so many into the reactionary camp that they will overthrow our free institutions.

So, the young German republic is pursuing a treacherous path between dangers on the left and dangers on the right. The dangers on the left, as we have said, seem to be diminishing. The dangers on the right are not to be despised, but with care, they also may be avoided. The situation of the present German government recalls that of the Directorate after the storms of the French revolution. That body likewise had to repel attacks from both radicals and royalists. This his

torical parallel is, to be sure, not very encouraging for the young German republic, for we know that Napoleon succeeded the Directorate. However, there seems little likelihood that a Napoleon will rise in modern Germany. The generals that it has at present are hardly up to Napoleon's stature, and are not likely to intimidate the administration. If the republic can keep alive but a few years and prove its capacity to survive the present crisis, its future is assured. The men at the head of the government are not statesmen of over-towering genius, but they are honest and well-intentioned. The administration frequently does things that savor of dilletantism and unworldliness. It will have to learn its trade. But there is no reason why the German bourgeoisie, and German working people should not eventually qualify to hold power as long as the Prussian Junkers did that is for several centuries.

The difficulties are not insurmountable. The question upon which the survival of the republic really hinges is one inherited from the old régime. The debts of the German nation on April 1, 1920, will amount to two hundred and four billion marks. Will it be possible to carry this gigantic debt burden, and will political existence be possible so long as that burden exists?

A second point-in a few weeks Germany's enemies will ratify the Peace Treaty. A treaty will then go into effect which imposes upon Germany conditions most of which can never be fulfilled. No one can tell now what will happen if the Treaty of Versailles actually comes into force and Germany's former enemies demand that it be carried out. That would bring the German republic face to face with difficulties in comparison with which its previous trials have been but child's play.

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