Part 8 (2/2)

Minister Dandl was directed to form a new ministry with some Socialist members. It was announced also that a proportional franchise system was to be introduced and the upper chamber reformed along progressive lines.

The government of Baden announced that steps would be taken to abolish the three-cla.s.s franchise and to introduce the proportional system. In Wurttemberg measures were prepared providing that the kingdom's representatives in the Federal Council should take their instructions direct from the people's elected representatives, instead of from the government. A democratization of the first chamber was also promised.

The Grand Duke of Oldenburg, in the address from the throne at the opening of the Landtag, declared that reforms were contemplated giving the people increased power to decide all important questions of state.

The Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar accepted the resignation of his whole ministry and announced that a new ministry would be formed from among the members of the Diet. The Diet at Darmstadt unanimously adopted measures providing for a parliamentary form of government in Hesse.

But while these concessions were being made at home, _Schrecklichkeit_ continued to rule unhampered on the sea. The _Leinster_, a pa.s.senger boat plying between Kingston and Holyhead, was torpedoed by a submarine, and 480 of her 687 pa.s.sengers were lost. The wave of indignation in enemy countries following this act was reflected at home in an uneasy feeling that the new Chancellor could as little curb militarism as could his predecessors. Ludendorff, too, had regained his lost nerve. He told Prince Max that the military situation was better than he had believed when he recommended that an armistice be requested. Minister of War General Scheuch had promised to send six hundred thousand new troops to the front.

The Chancellor's position was also rendered more difficult at this time by an agitation for a _levee en ma.s.se_ begun by some fire-eating Germans of the old school. The possibility of a military dictators.h.i.+p was discussed, and an appeal was made to ”the spirit of 1813.” The natural result was to increase the prevailing hostility to everybody in authority, whether he had been connected with the former governments or not.

The Independent Socialists and their Spartacan brethren grew bolder. Dr.

Oskar Cohn, who had made a speech in the Reichstag four months earlier, denouncing the war as ”a Hohenzollern family affair,” now openly declared in the same a.s.sembly that the Kaiser must go.

”The question can no longer be evaded,” he said. ”Shall it be war with the Hohenzollerns or peace without the Hohenzollerns? World-revolution will follow on world-imperialism and world-militarism, and we shall overcome them. We extend our hands to our friends beyond the frontiers in this struggle.”

Liebknecht, released from prison on October 20th by a general amnesty, celebrated his release by attacking the Kaiser and the government that released him. On October 27th, he addressed a half dozen Independent Socialist meetings, and called for a revolution of the proletariat and the overthrow of the capitalists and _bourgeoisie_ of all lands. He closed each speech with cries of ”Down with the Hohenzollerns!” and ”Long live the Socialist Republic!” Nothing could more clearly demonstrate the helplessness of the government than the fact that Liebknecht was neither compelled to stop talking nor arrested. There were outbreaks of rioting in Berlin on the same day, but they were largely due to the unwise and provocatory measures of the police, who to the last preserved a steadfast loyalty to the government and to that grim sense of duty that had marked the Prussian _Beamter_ in former days.

The Reichstag pa.s.sed on last reading the measures sent from the Federal Council to put into effect the Kaiser's recommendations of September 30th. Their most important provision was one placing the military command under control of the civil government, which had been demanded by the Majority Socialists as one of their conditions for partic.i.p.ation in the government. The Kaiser sent to the Imperial Chancellor on October 28th the following decree:

”I send your Grand Ducal Highness in the enclosure the measures for the alteration of the Imperial Const.i.tution and of the laws concerning the representative powers of the Chancellor, of March 17, 1878, for immediate promulgation. It is my wish, in connection with this step, which is so full of meaning for the German people, to give expression to the feelings that move me.

Prepared by a number of acts of the government, a new order of things now becomes effective, transferring fundamental rights from the person of the Kaiser to the people. Thus there is closed a period which will endure in honor in the eyes of future generations.

”Despite all struggles between inherited powers and forces striving to raise themselves, this period discloses itself unforgettably in the wonderful accomplishments of the war. In the fearful storms of the four years of the war, however, old formulae have been shattered, not to leave ruins, but rather to give way to new forms of life. In view of the accomplishments of this period, the German people can demand that no right shall be withheld from them which insures a free and happy future. The measures proposed by the allied governments[21] and now accepted by the Reichstag owe their existence to this conviction.

[21] Here meaning merely the German federal states.

”I accept these decisions of the people's representatives, together with my exalted allies, in the firm desire to cooperate, as far as lies in my power, in rendering them effective, and in the conviction that I shall thus serve the interests of the German people.

”The post of Kaiser means service of the people (_Das Kaiseramt ist Dienst am Volke_).

”May the new order release all good forces which our people need in order to endure the hard trials that have been visited upon the Empire, and to win the way, with firm step, from out the dark present to a bright future.”

These were fine phrases, but, like all other p.r.o.nunciamentos and reforms of October, they came too late. The political censors.h.i.+p had recently been relaxed, and the people, ignorant though they may have been of actual conditions at home, knew what was going on within the borders of their greatest ally. Ten days earlier a strike had been begun at Prague as a peace demonstration, and had involved much of Bohemia and Moravia.

At Budapest revolution was in the air, and the Magyar deputies of the Parliament were openly discussing the question of declaring Hungary's independence. On October 17th, Kaiser Karl announced that steps were to be taken to reorganize the Monarchy on a federalized basis.

Two days later President Wilson rejected Baron Burian's peace offer.

He declared that the United States Government had recognized the Czecho-Slovak state and the aspirations of the Jugo-Slavs, and he was therefore ”no longer at liberty to accept the mere autonomy of these peoples as a basis of peace, but is obliged to insist that they and not he shall be the judges of what action on the part of the Austro-Hungarian Government will satisfy their aspirations and their conception of their rights and destiny as members of the family of nations.”

Count Michael Karolyi, leader of the opposition in Hungary, on the same day, in a speech in the lower house of Parliament at Budapest, attacked the alliance of Austria-Hungary with Germany. He admitted that the Central Powers had lost the war, and appealed to his countrymen to ”try to save the peace.” A memorial was sent to Kaiser Karl declaring that ”Hungary must return to its autonomy and complete independence.”

The Czechs were already in virtual control in Prague. Magyar Hungary was rotten with Bolshevism, the fruits of the propaganda of returned soldiers and Russian agents. Croatian soldiers at Fiume had revolted.

Baron Burian retired and was succeeded by Count Andra.s.sy.

Much of this was known to all Germans when the Kaiser's decree was issued. But they did not know what the Kaiser and his advisers knew, and they did not know why Ludendorff had deserted the sinking s.h.i.+p a day earlier, sending his resignation to the Kaiser and being succeeded as Quartermaster-General by General Groener. All indications had, indeed, pointed to the defection of Austria, but so long as it did not come the Germans--that is, such of them as had not completely lost hope or been infected with internationalist doctrines--still had a straw to cling to.

On October 26th Kaiser Karl informed the German Emperor that he intended to ask for peace ”within twenty-four hours.” He invited Germany to join in the request. Before the German reply could be received Count Andra.s.sy sent a note to Was.h.i.+ngton accepting President Wilson's conditions for an armistice and for peace, and declaring that Austria-Hungary was ready, ”without awaiting the result of other negotiations, to enter into negotiations upon peace between Austria-Hungary and the states in the opposing group, and for an immediate armistice upon all the Dual Monarchy's fronts.”

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