The Alaska daily empire., 1914-12-15
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 The subject matter of tho world 2 greatest debate, maintained @isn both words and bullete, ia made prac- tleally complete Hith lhe issaapee ot tho French yellow book" Never be. fore were naaouH combatan DO quick and 80 diiigent ip aitorta at seifjusdficahon, bg sottns lorsh pi.n- ciples and evidence. t is hardly -o be wondered at thet each dlapuant would shun the blame for tho sreat' est recorded crime against eiysiizn- ton.
 The French volume naturally thres' es, ln the main, old straw; ils par ticular contribution ia in Che greater fuTness and ucidity with which it interpret the yarious Issues and oo- velopments The main points of the Allies accusations arc simply made sharper. The document comes at Q time shrewdly chosen, whom in the mind of che neutral world the mean- ings and consequences of lho great conflict had resolved themselves inc to relative clearness. Insofar as any one is convinced of leaning toward the Allies cause this French book comes as a timely "clincher" Hos tile pardsans there is. for either side small hope as yet of converting
 TO Americans. for example, who in the past four months have had forced upon them a liberal education In old World Geography history politics, etc. the whole vast affair, at first so appeallngly incomprehensible, has now grown roughly clear in what may be termed two main phases. These are the past and tho future each as apart rom and beyond the period and the activities Of the brute fight ing itself The great respective Ques- tions as to each phase might be styled Whose the major shore of blame. and from whose triumph the major de- gree of benefit-in the worlds eyes.
 Right away. of course each phase and its test question develop Infinite angles and ramificadons But there are two or three subordinate issues that stand out The first question that of blame, resolves itself into the particular and the general. or the immediate and the remote
 As to immediate occasion-the chief topic Of the manyhued "books"-the psalm of the arguments hardly lies with the Triple Alliance. The pur. port of the ante-bellum diplomatic developments runs strongly adyorsef from the character of tho Austrian ultImatum and lts time limit down to the manner in which Germany TO. iused to put fingers pressure for peace on Vienna. and, as France now urges. launched her own lastmoment uldmatum at Russia.
 But 1t may well be that these su. perficiai arguments yield to ones more fundamental If Germany can estab- fish the thesis Of Q national peril needing Initiative in defense. or def erence in the guise of attack. she may prove her innocence of the major ag- gression. Such Q thesis. in several versions. the American public has now modo rariously acquainted witn. It concerns chiefly the alleged hostile dangers to German progress or even existence, political or racial, commer- clay or industrial, and cultural.
 It is Germany's burden Of proof here to advance adeQuate evidence and specifications. Especially 50 to dem. onstrate that these dangers outweigh certain obvious conditions.-sucb as that it would have been SO much eas. fer to blast German commerce 20 years ago; that Russian ambitions can find vastly easier tasks than smitlng westward at the hardest military nut to crack 10 tho world; that culture is not precisely thing of politics and gunpowder; and 90 on. UnQuestionagly 1t is on this mat. ter of underlying danger and defense. and the proofs thereof, that the neu- tral mind Is most apt to remain hay.
 Turning from blame to benefit, itl might be plausibly argued that & fa-I vorable verdict on this second score would outweigh complete guilt on the first-although at heavy price In the cost Of the present var. Appar- ently this now appoars to be the dom. mating thought of many German pro tagonists, especially in the home press. Just as their emphasis was at first shifted from the particular to the general issue of blame, so now the main insistence appears to be on the world need for mankind's sake, of a German victory.
 Here the issue becomes more spec uiative and less concrete than as to blame. To one partisan appeals a 1 triumph of a heavenly ordained and terrestrially proved fitness for ascen.l deney; to another 1t is the choice ofl representative democracy blunderlug yet ever progressing, over unreDre- sentative autocracy.
 The ultimate verdict may Do near or far. The outlines of the case it- self, however, are now pretty clear. | -(Boston News Bureau)
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