Page:Diplomacy and the War (Andrassy 1921).djvu/251

 tolerate any longer anyhow. Why continue the fight when the American President says that the peace will be a just one, and that it will inaugurate the age of eternal peace and the rule of justice? Is it not a duty to mankind and to one's own country to create the revolution when it is obvious that a good peace can be secured by the aid of a new and completely democratic form of government, and when we know that the old leading factors have not entered into negotiations? Is it not possible and necessary for the nation to save herself by rendering public circumstances democratic with one blow and by breaking with the old leaders? Anyone who did not believe the promises of the American President was mercilessly stamped as an agitator for war. Wilson, "the enemy," was more popular than the own statesmen of the people. Since Russia had broken down, and since the American Republic had assumed the position of Czardom, and since it had become a fact that the most democratic nations fought against the less democratic ones, the belief spread that the democratic revolution would lead to the promised Eldorado. The question was asked: Can a war be waged successfully in this manner?

The desire for secession amongst our various nationalities was fostered strongly by virtue of the fact that, in accordance with Wilson's theory, even Hungarian politicians sought to recognize the constructive principles of the new world in the right of every people to determine by vote whether or nonot [sic] they wished to secede from the State. Money and systematic