The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1918.

Evening Star, Issue 16848, 25 September 1918, Page 4

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1918.

The spectacle of the German Kaiser touring the west front, especiA Sobered ally that portion, of it Enemy. known as Alsace - Lorraine, and mingling with the men of "my army" in order to inapire them to fight " whole-heartedly " on his behalf, iB in striking contrast with those scenes with which the nations were made familiar, from their frequent repetition, less than four months ago. To-day the burden of hi 9 verbal outbursts is that "I and my army" are sure that you will give the enemy the right roply to their daring enterprise; last June they were boastfully and presumptuously thanking God for the victories He had already given, for the certainty of those that were yet to come, and for having sent them Marshal Von Hindenburg. "In your Excellency," he said, addressing ths Marshal at the Main Headquarters of the German i army on the west front, "and in your general (Ludendorff) Heaven has bestowed upon the German Empire, the German army, and our General Staff those men who are called upon in these great times to lead the German people in arms in its decisive struggle for existence and the right to live, and with its help to gain the victory." To-day other shouts and other words are heard in the land. What rnav be the actual daily conditior.3 of life or tha doings and hopes of the majority of the German people it. u not possible to say; but it is a reasonably safe assumption that large numbers of them are heartily sick o£ the war and long for its close. Nor can they detect, whatever form that close assumes, any hope therein for them or their country. The "hurrah" epirit has passed out of Germany. How utterly and completely we can but guesa. Possibly, however, it would be an infinitely more miserable Germany than that which faces the coming winter did she but'know the mhol« truth. That, merci-

fully perhaps, is spared the men and women who for more than four sanguinary years have sacrificed themselves for a lie, and let their sons pass through the, fires of Moloch in order to serve the evil ambitions of a military caste.

Germany to-day stands face to face with reality. She cannot indefinitely stave off the fate that is hers. She has for long defied and flouted a non-military world, and she has, thanks to the unreadiness of Bome and the treachery of others to the cause to which they were pledged, hitherto held back its armies from administering that punishment which is her due. But that is fast drawing to a close, and Germany can no longer hope to succeed. . Not only are the hosts of an indignant Christendom closing in upon her—not only is the wrath of their righteous anger nearing its appeasement but, which is bettor even than these, the German people themselves are beginning, if indeed they have not Jong since, though silently, begun to ask i Whence the cause and reason for this vniversul hatred? Why doos Germany stand alone in the world? Why, if she were beaten to her knees, not a single nation, great or small, the wide world over, would pity hex or spring to her relief? Germany —by which wo mean the plain people as distinct from the ruling classes—has been slow to learn, but she is learning. Not that the cry " Whence and why this universal distrust?" L heard now for the first time; but that the immensities of its possibilities, as the direct consequences of their military failures, have been brought home, and as suddenly become apparent to the veriest jingo as to the humblest Social Democrat. These now look around them in stupor and amaze. "Where," they ask. " are those victories which were promised us? We axe falling back, withdrawing, not advancing. And whence came these hosts, these hundreds of thousands, of stalwart Americans? Our statesmen told us time and again that they could never reach Germany." HerrHergt the Prussian Minister of Finance, eaid definitely that "the great army over the water cannot swim and cannot fly, therefore it will not come;" and both Hexr Eelfferich and Admiral Oapeile told the Reichstag, in the secrecy of committee, that "America could not enter the war, and that bar military significance was equal to nil."

It is small wonder that the German people are downcast; that a political carisis is developing, the end whereof no man can predict; that, tho German Kaiser has no other panacea to offer than bombastic speeches; or that " now no sound of laughter" is to be heard, but only the first movements of what not impossibly may become "a wild and wrathful clamor" from a long deceived but an awakening people. Austrian statesmen, outwardly calm but pitifully bankrupt of hope, still affect to speak bravely and talk of another peace offensive. Short of unconditional surrender it is possibly the best they can do. The pacifists and domestic traitors among the ranks of the Allies are an ever-active a.nd a persistent help. They never weary- in their self-imposed task; but in the names of peace and freedom are prepared, as long as they are so permitted, to help forward tho enemy to the utmost of their ability by their pernicious activities. The "peace by arrangement" advocates are among the chief dangers that exist to day to the complete success of the Allies and their cause. The Austa-o-Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Baron Burian, does, well, therefore, to cling to them. He lias little or no other hope. Hallucinations such as the belief that the prompt rejection of Austria's recent Peace Note is ain " outstanding example " of opposing camps and opinions among the Allies rests on no firmer ground than the belief that the pacifists in England, France, America-, and elsewhere can help him. The rising murmurs of discontent, everywhere growing louder and more threatening among the peoples of the Central Powers, cannot be stayed by sucn devices. In President Wilson's words, what the Allies oppose in the pacifists is not their feelings, but tEear stupidity.