The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 1917.

Evening Star, Issue 16473, 11 July 1917, Page 4

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 1917.

The contrast presented by Germany with tho rest of the-world, which Germany for long has astonished and ' and horrified that.portion of it Revolution, which claims to be civilised, is receiving a further illustration in proof from tho manner in which her Kaiser and his Advisers ore facing the mew revolutionary spirit that is abroad in tho eartJi to-day. In Germany they do not talk of revolution, Pefis'h tho thought. Tho" German people and their Kaiser ato one in thought and one in aim. He who says otherwise "chows no understanding," says the ' Cologne Gazette," "of tho sincere relationship of senti"mont between the German people " and their Kaiser, who precisely by his bo"haviorar before tho war and during the "war has won aver even, the greatest part "of the opponents in principle of " monarchical views, ... To proclaim "tho danger of revolution even before the "war would have boon a senseless under- " taking, but now none but misguided fools "in foreign countries can lapse into such, "thinking." This, too, is tlie view taken by men who know Germany intimately. Referring to the Social Democratio party,' the former Berlin .correspondent of tho 'Christian World' says : " They will never "revolt, even though their liberties were "curtailed out of all recognition. In the " make tip of the average German the " capacity for revolution has been omitted. "Wo need not fancy for a moment that " tho events which have happened in Petro"grad will ever happen in Berlin. It is "unthinkable," In the absence of more definite information than that which has so far come to hand, we must accept the above as a correct diagnosis of the modern German" character.' Their grandfathers, the men of 1843, had. not the material comforts that their degenerate grandsons had before the coming of their Kaiser's war, but they possessed a virile manhood and the grit to make itself felfc. They not only forced from the grandfather of the present Kaiser a united Diet, but they compelled that same King of Prussia—" my great ancestor of glorious memory"—to "stand "bareheaded before the corpses of tho in- " surgents whom the soldiers of this ' War " Lord' had shot down in tho streets of his "capital." Therefore it is inadvisable, even in the light of our fuller knowledge, to permit ourselves to dogmatise on what will ex will not happen in Germany in these days of national upheaval. All that can at present ba positively asserted fa that there are, as yet, no serious indications of the Gorman people uniting for tho purpose of overcoming the monarchy or for effecting a change of dynasty. But-, though there axe not these, there are what are known as politioal crises, muttering®, protests, and plain speaking—ebullitions which, with due deference to so high an authority as -tho 'Cologne Gazette,' may, from the monarchical standpoint., be much more "satisfactorily" dealt with in davs of peace than in days of war. These indications of unrest are to be found not so much in food riots and street demonstrations as in *he speeches of deputies in the Reichstag and in the comments in a Press far from free. The official Press* with the blindness that chai-octerised them from the beginning, persistently sought to make tho German peoplo believe that the downfall and expulsion of Tsardom and the entry of the Republic of the United States of America as an active belligerent on the ode of the Allies ha.ro not in the least degree, either morally or materially, affected Germany's status. Against this typically Teutonic conclusion even the organised and chastened ' Vorwarts' ,felt constrained to lodge a protest. This Socialist organ wrote: Yet the Government whose policy has aroused all important liberaf nltions against Germany are obliged to conceal tno meaning and consequences* o' the tact trom their own people; and their endeavors to deceive popular opinion in Germany about the consequences of W national moral isolation is the clearest symptom ot the weakness of the Government's actual standing. They are hiding the truth hecause the truth is too damning; and when tho .truth is finally exposed the German Government will have to pay both for their mistakes and for tneir attempt to miseducate the German people as to their meaning. The position, briefly, as far as it is permissible to assert, is that there are no unmistakable evidences at this hour that the German people are ripe for revolution; but there are clear indications of unrest and dissatisfaction, though these so far have assumed no more serious aspect than what the peoplo of England would regard as Ministerial crises. This, and no more, even while fully conscious of the possibility that the unexpected may happen at any moment. Organisation, however—that organisation which is; tho universal boast of the German—has got the people in its grip. They are so thoroughly organised that such things as individual initiative and independence of action have been driven out of them. Meanwhile, their Von Capelles and Von Steins, their Zimmermanns and Helfferichs axe lying to them. These high officials continue to tell the German people that they must win, as their enemies are enduring as best they may those last despairing pangs2-tho forerunners of admitted defeat. Speaking in the Reichstag on April-28, the Minister of the Interior, Herr Helffericb, said: The American apostles of humanity who are trying to drive our neutral neighbors into war against us with the threat of starvation will not turn the scales of Fate. Realising her position," Great Britain is seeking a decision on land, amMs driving hundreds of thousands of her sons to death and ruin. ... If we remain true to ourselves, if we keep calm and maintain our nerves if wo keep our own house in order and" maintain internal unity, then- we have won the war. All is now at stake. In these decisive 'weeks the German, people have to prove that they are worthy to exist. It is not a new story* It has been repeated /in season and out of season by Kaiser and statesman and by the Gorman Press times out of mind. But the promised day of victory is - farther off than over> and the weeks slip by, falsifying as they pass assurance after assurance. Nor can the rulers of Germany afford to forget that there are others than the men and women who stay at homo to work and starve. What of tho 12,000,000 men (i.e., these left of them) whom Germany called to the colors, and who have shed their blood and ruined or given their lives for the cruellest lie in history— whau of these? Mr Gerard, the former American Ambassador to Berlin 'a man who only speaks whereof- he knows, I says 'that at the end of the war these men will turn to their Government and say j You got us Into the war. You mado the mistakes, and we have now nothing except the prospect of working for the rest of our lives to pay off thin debt. Wo don't think much of you as a Government. Get out! ' The coming of some such day may be nearer than we care to think.