24 THE CLASS STRUGGLE THE PASSING OF THE NATION 25 In this connection, it is well to remember that Dr. Naumann is neither a militarist nor an imperialist in the ordinary sense of the word. On the contrary, he is a democrat, and there are people who think he is almost a Socialist. It must also be borne in mind that the propaganda for Middle Europe is not confined either to Pan Germanist circles or to pseudo Socialists like Dr.
Naumann, but that it has received the sanction of official Socialist circles, both in Germany and Austria. Middle Europe is in fact being created as a matter of economic realty, and accepted in one form or another as an idea. In fact, the only opposition to itoutside of a few selfish special interests comes from those who object to it not because it attempts to create a super state, thereby transcending the national state idea, but because it does not go far enough, thereby shutting the door against a real worldfederation.
But what is Middle Europe. Whatever else it may or may not be, one thing is certain: It is a complete abandonment of the nation as a political entity in theory and in practice. The national state is to be given up in favor of an international organization, called for purposes of convenience a super state, but which will in reality soon become the state. The Austrian Empire, which was considered an anachronism among modern states because of the dozen or so nationalities which it contained, is to become the prototype of the state which is to emerge from this war.
have any significance on their own account, all the smaller ones must live by utilizing the quarrels of the great, or must obtain leave if they wish to do anything unusual. Sovereignty, that is, the freedom to make decisions of wide historical importance, is now concentrated at a very few places on the globe. The day is still distant when there shall be one fold and one shepherd, but the days are past when shepherds without number, lesser or greater, drove their flocks unrestrained over the pastures of Europe. The spirit of large scale industry and super national organization has seized politics. People think, as Cecil Rhodes once expressed it, in continents. The country which desires to be small and isolated will nevertheless become of its own accord dependent on the varying fortunes of the Great Powers. This is in conformity with an age of intercommunication and of centralized military technique. Prussia is too small, and Germany too small, and Austria too small, and Hungary too small. No single state of this kind can survive the world war. Such things are no longer possible. Their day is past.
The national state having passed, and the world federation not having as yet arrived, Naumann sees the world divided into three or four large super national states, of which Central Europe is one. The drowning of the individual nationalities in this Central European ocean does not trouble him, because this war has already drowned them. This war has been a melting pot for the European nations, and they cannot, therefore, possibly go back to their individual existences. Their struggles were not national, and any possible justification for them must be sought in the creation of some super national political entity as their result. Thus only says Naumann shall we Central European nations appear finally justified for having shed our blood for one another.
Otherwise the whole thing was purposeless, meaningless. What was Serajewo to us Germans of the Empire? What were we seeking in the Carpathian passes? Why did Hungarians or the Southern Slavs trouble themselves about Zeebrügge?
Dr. Naumann is not a dreamer internationalist working for a world federation, but a German Realpolitiker, what we call a practical man that is to say, a man who has his eyes in front but does not see beyond the next step. He does not see the world federation, at least not in the near future, but he cannot help seeing the disappearance of the nation as a sovereign state, and he lays his plans accordingly. All the allies in the Great War says he feel without argument that neither now nor in the future can small or even moderate sized Powers play any large part in the world. Our conceptions of size have entirely changed. Only very big states