In the spring of 1916 the Central Powers thought that the time had arrived to attack once more in the West. But the German attack on Verdun failed, as well as the AustroHungarian assault undertaken from the mountains on the borders of the Tyrol.

In the meantime the tremendous preparations made by the Russians, the French, and the English had been completed, and about the middle of 1916 our enemies made a terrific attack in the East as well as in the West, which brought about the second serious. crisis of the war. We only succeeded in mastering this crisis with great difficulty and also by ceding a certain. amount of territory. When towards the end of August, 1916, the Rumanians thought that the time had come when it would pay them to join the ranks of our enemies, the downfall of the Central Powers seemed certain. But the skill and energy of our leadership, which in the meantime had been placed in Hindenburg's hands, once more averted the threatened crisis. The Rumanian army was completely beaten, the greater portion of the country, including the most fertile area was conquered and furnished us with extra supplies. Unfortunately all our attempts to initiate peace negotiations towards the end of 1916 and the beginning of 1917 failed. At that time we could have had peace without losing anything, and we should have been glad now if it had come to a 'peace of renunciation' then. Instead of which, on January 31, 1917, the unrestricted submarine war was declared. This undertaking, by which we hoped finally to bring England to her knees and to force her to negotiate, sealed our fate. For it was the actual cause of the entry of the United States of America into the ranks of our enemies. With America's aid, the pressure brought to bear

upon us became so heavy that even the great power of the German Empire and the magnificent heroism of her brave armies were not able to hold out permanently. Just as in the case of Russia, and that of England herself, we badly informed and far too self-confident underestimated America's resources. And this underestimation of the enemy continued until the summer of 1918, until we realized the truth-too late.

And yet fortune favored us once more. In Russia the Revolution which had long been ripening broke out and the throne of the Tsars was swept away in the twinkling of an eye. It very soon corrupted the spirit of the army, which was no longer willing to shed its blood for a cause which was foreign to it. Gradually the troops disbanded and went home in order to secure land and peace. The repulse of a new offensive under Brussilov, some fortunate German enterprises in Galicia, against Riga and against the islands in the Baltic, brought the Bolsheviki to the helm on November 7. They immediately gave evidence. of their desire for peace at any price. After many vicissitudes the peace treaty with Russia was signed on March 2, 1918. This treaty brought us great but insecure gains. In other ways the year 1917 was not unfavorable to us. After we had withdrawn a part of our West front to the Siegfried position. we victoriously defeated all the attacks of our numericallyfar superior enemies, and the French especially sustained fearful losses on the Aisne to no purpose. In the midst of all this fighting we were sufficiently strong on October 24 to proceed with our allies to a second attack on Italy, which led in. a few days to an almost complete collapse of the enemy's army, which had to be hastily reinforced by French and English troops. This brilliant.

stroke did not suffice, however, to force our enemies to negotiate for peace.

In the spring of 1918, we felt strong enough for a third attempt in the West, for which, however, the whole strength of the German army was not available. Considerable sections were tied down in the East, in the Balkans, and in Asia, and were unable to coöperate in the decisive theatre of war. We won many victories in the spring battles, but could not break the strength of the enemy, whose numbers were so superior. At last, on the Marne, our offensive came finally to an end for the second time. From that time on things took a downward course.

More than one and a half million Americans were now assembled on the soil of France; in Turkey and in Bulgaria the longing for peace was in creasing; in Austria-Hungary racial strife loosened the bonds of the State more and more, while the fearful casualties of the Germans and Hungarians crippled the strength of their armies.

The Würzburger General-Anzeiger

Our enemies also were able to utilize their superiority in Asia and in the Balkans for annihilating blows; one after another our allies collapsed and betrayed us. Germany had to face a world of mighty enemies single-handed.

When Foch advanced with his very superior numbers, his thousands of tanks and his innumerable bombing squadrons in a surprise offensive, he placed the German Western army in a most unfavorable position. It is true that he was not able to break through for the lion-like courage of our army warded off defeat; but step by step we had to yield to the superior enemy, and in the end the High Command lost confidence in a happy issue of the war. We still remained far superior to any individual enemy nation, but en masse they crushed us. In this way also our heavily afflicted people lost confidence and the will to continue the fight. The third and heaviest crisis of the war, provoked by the appearance of the American armies in Europe, overpowered us. The end had come!

The London Chronicle

NEW efforts are being made in neutral countries and in the Entente nations to call an international Socialist Congress. We German Social Democrats have, for obvious reasons, maintained a certain reserve toward these efforts. At the time when Germany was on the crest of the wave we extended our hands to our comrades on the other side of the trenches in vain. We were the ones who waited for them at Amsterdam, at Stockholm, and at Bern. But they either would not or they could not come. It is now their obligation to take the first step. It is unnecessary to say that their invitation will not be in vain, so far as we are concerned. At any time during the war, regardless of the war situation, we were ready to renew the broken connections of international intercourse. Obviously, we are now ready to do so.

Our foreign comrades will, perhaps, regard more calmly now what they considered our errors and sins, and they will not believe that we wish to come in order to sit in the seat of penance. Previously, they, or a majority of them, were too readily convinced that the Entente wanted nothing more than a victory of justice. They could not understand why, as International Socialists, we gave them no assistance, either directly or indirectly, and they were angered by this. But we believe that we can say to-day that we properly appreciated the fearful threat hanging over our land. No one can

It

reproach us with not having done our utmost to ward off the peril impending for our nation. This is a consolation in our present hour of sorrow. would have been a very easy thing for the old rulers of our country to have said in that case: 'We were not responsible for getting you Germans into this trouble. The Social Democrats are the ones at fault. Take your vengeance on them!' We have prevented that possibility and we appear before our countrymen with a clear conscience.

We do not deny for a moment that some individuals among the Socialists were carried away by the chauvinist flood of enthusiasm and that we, all of us, may have made errors of detail. But what section of the International can boast that it has never been guilty of similar faults of judgment?

We German Social Democrats do not endorse outright every point of Wilson's programme and the London memorandum. We wanted to rescue our country intact from the war, but to reorganize it then so as to assure different races and fractions of nationalities every conceivable freedom within the confines of a democratic Germany. For this reason we have struggled energetically, before the war and during its course, to obtain autonomy for Alsace-Lorraine and to prevent any effort to oppress the Poles and Danes.

Since Providence has decided otherwise, we are perfectly willing that our border nationalities should determine

their own political destiny by a referendum. We beg, however, that some consideration be given to the fact that we saw objections to this form of selfdetermination. Our objections were inconsistent with the principles of democracy. We have seen only too often that the pretense of self-determination can serve merely as a mantle in which imperialists, on our side and on your side of the battle line, cover up their annexationist plans, so long as it seems good policy to mask their real intentions. Thus the Poles are now clamoring for West Prussia and Danzig and the Czechs for the German parts of Bohemia, without paying any attention to the right of self-determination of the Germans. We now see politicians, who have hitherto been the most violent opponents of these views, advocating the principle of making dead history the dictator of tomorrow, of drawing boundaries in accordance with old traditions and of obligating national minorities to subordinate themselves to the interests of larger political units.

No one will dispute the fact that a referendum immediately following a war is merely an emergency measure so far as ascertaining the permanent wishes of a nation is concerned. Nations are called upon in a moment of intense excitement, under the impression of temporary political and military events, to decide the destiny, not only of the present generation but of future generations. Thus the people alive to-day are to decide the political destiny of those who are to come tomorrow. It is not impossible that the plan we German Social Democrats proposed at the time our armies were most successful, of leaving the borders unchanged but guaranteeing complete freedom in every country, would have been no less democratic than the principle now adopted. But no So

cialist will dispute for a moment that settling political relationships by a popular vote is greatly to be preferred to brutal arbitrary annexations.

The recognition which the German Social Democracy has accorded to the programme of President Wilson removes the last practical point of controversy between the different sections of the International, and no one can maintain now that sufficient reasons exist to prevent our reunion.

We shall enter this conference as citizens of a country that needs to shirk no comparisons with any other country in respect to modern constitutional provisions. We have attained what we have struggled for for decades: equal suffrage in Prussia, parliamentary government, the subordination of military authority to responsible civil authority, the right of the people's representatives to decide questions of war and peace. We should have greatly preferred to attain these reforms by internal agitation rather than by foreign pressure, but the way that we attain them does not change their character. The French did not free themselves from their Cæsaristic militarism entirely by their own efforts in 1870. Now they are paying back the debt. In that case, they had merely to get rid of an upstart. In our case, we have to-day to dispose of a dynasty deep-rooted in the nation for centuries. These differences explain why the course of revolution has not run parallel. Such variations of form do not affect the essential character of the changes.

Germany is to-day a bourgeois democracy with a capitalistic economy and a strong Socialistic tendency, like England or France. Why should we Socialists remain apart? Indeed, is there anything to separate us except the chauvinist distortions which the bourgeois press presents of our activity,

and an imperialism which rightly sees n the reappearance of the 'red international' a danger for its extravagant plans. We German Social Democrats follow with intense interest the efforts of our foreign comrades to bring about an international congress. We appreciate that their success or failure may possibly change the whole history of the world. For if this war ends with a victory of imperialism instead of a victory of democratic justice, then we shall certainly have another world war, the horrors of which will be many times greater than those of the present one. You cannot forge a chain so strong but

Vorwärts

what it eventually will be broken.

We are ready to serve the cause of a League of Nations, and a permanent peace of justice, with all our strength and with devoted enthusiasm. If our country obtains a just peace, we shall have the power at home to maintain here in Germany a force of pacifists and international Socialists, watchful for the interests of all humanity. If imperialism wins, the resistance of the German Peace Party and of every other peace party will be broken, and instead of entering a new era of prosperity, the world will sooner or later rush headlong to new disaster.

ESTHONIA is almost untouched by the horrors of war, but Courland and the southern part of Livonia have experienced its worst effects, and many of the fine estates in that vicinity have shared in the general disaster. The reconstruction of what has been destroyed is now well under way, and the people are industriously occupied repairing the losses they have suffered. The large manor houses form a little world by themselves, and, although war has brought many discomforts and burdens upon their occupants, life still goes on to a large extent in the old idyllic way. Some of these houses, remote from the main routes of traffic, are almost untouched by recent events, and those who dwell in them experience about the same routine of daily joy and sorrow as in the old days of peace.

The Baltic baron lives and holds his sway in these small principalities. Al

though much reviled, these Baltic gentlemen prove to be excellent men, whom we appreciate the better the more intimately and the longer we know them. It is true they represent a peculiar type, and can hardly be classed with any other group of similar social status. This makes it the more necessary to judge them carefully and conservatively. The Baltic baron is self-confident and proud of his achievements. Here in Esthonia, which is a naturally poor country with much waste land and swamp, it is a doubly laborious task to make the barren, stony soil productive. These proprietors take an active personal part in this labor. They are industrious farmers and, for the most part, finely educated men. The refining influence of centuries of old tradition is apparent in their families, and makes intercourse with them a source of constantly renewed pleasure and satisfaction. The