The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-06-16
WHAT CAN GERMANY OFFER?

From the Springfield (Mass) Republican.
 UT is not unreasonable to suppose that
 Germany would be glad to discuss A terms of peace now, because the con ditions are as favorable as they are likely to be. The advantages gained in the field have been offset by the active par ticipation of Italy with the. allies, and the outlook in the Balkans and in Greece Incomes more threatening day by day While there may be a chance of rift in the voalltion, or of the collapse of one or mere members. it would be exceedingly unsafe to trust to such a break in the ranks if any present basis for peace could be found.
 So far as the people of Europe are con cerned there can be no question that the overwhelming majority desire peace. That they wanted war in the first place is questionable. In Austria, to be sure, the prospect of war with Servia seemed to evoke enthusiasm last July. but the popu- lace regarded that as but a punitive ex- petition and had little conception of the consequences In other countries, and in Austria itself so far as the great war is concerned, it was only the stout belief that the nation had been attacked by a foreign foe which reconciled the masses of the people to the thought of war or steeled them to the endurance of its hard ships and losses.
 Yet in the rumors of impending peace negotiations which have had currency of late there has been too little recognition of the fact that the same mutual dstrust which plunged the nations into war makes peace extremely difficult so long as the strength of both sides is intact. Nor is it too much to say that the greatest single obstacle is the concentration in Germany of so great part of the military strength of Europe Before the war it was admit ted that Germany was by far the strong est of the military powers. yet even Ger man miltarists have been surprised by the demonstration in the field of what had ! been worked out on paper. At the time of the crisis of 1912 the two great alliances ! were treated as of approximately equal strength; this war has showed how the entente would have been overmatched if at the outset Italy had taken part with | its allies.
 I The tremendous military power devel- opend is naturally matter of pride tc | Germans, but it has an unfortunate re- verse side. If it takes pretty much all
 Europe barely to hold the German armies I in check, how can the allies make peace
 until they have won victory or until they
 are sure that Germany sincerely desires Ipeace for the future as well as for the
 moment? Any of her neighbors taken sin. | gly would be hopeiessly overma tched, and 1 if the coalition were once dissolved il might be no easy matter, while the bur- den of the war was still sore to revive | it for the defense of any nation which might be attacked. The superiority in
 armies which Germany has shown helps to explain the ill-success of German diplo- macy: the menace which has made the
 weaker countries draw together for pro. | tection has been a very real menace and the difficulty is to persuade them tha it has been removed while German powe, is intact
 l This is a very grave impeachment to diplo- matic efforts for peace, for quite naturally
 none of the allied powers cares to stor
 the war and face the risk of having tc fight another single-handed. The question then is what Germany could offer that
 would show an honestly pacific intention
 and not merely a desire to get in the hay
 already cut. In the first place 1t would doubtless he necessary to surrender tn,
 territory occupied in France and Russia
 for neither Of these countries is so hart
 pressed as to be ready to cede territory al
 the price of peace It b rather to b'