Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1916-12-27
A PRO.AMERICAN POLICY.
(From the New York World,

(FrOm the New York Worldly
President Wilson's note to the bel
ligerent governments asking them to
define their terms Of peace is neither
pro-German nor pro-ally, but pro-
American.
Secretary Lansing, Notwithstanding
subsequent notifications OF his orig
inal statement, issued no idle warning
when he said yesterday that eve are
drawing nearer to the verge of war,
and are therefore entitled to know
what each belligerent seeks in order
that we may regulate our conduct in
the future
The note itself said as much, al
though in more diplomatic language.
In the first paragraph the President
made it clear that he was speaking as
"the representative of a neutral ma
ton whose interests have been most
seriously affected by the war and
whose concern for the early conclu-
sion arises out of manifest necessity
to determine how best to safeguard
those interests if the war is to con-
tinue." Still more emphatic was the
warning Test the situation of neutral
nations now exceedingly hard to en-
dure, be rendered altogether intoler-
able"
That danger is real danger, and
an intolerable situation admits of only
one line of action.
A majority of the American people
in the east at least, have ceased to
think about the war in terms of the
United States. They are pro-British
or pro-French or pro-German, and
non-American. They have forgotten
that their country has any. direct re-
lationship to this conflict or has any
rights that it is bound to protect UNI
less those rights happen to coincide
with the aims of one set of beIliger-
ents or another. The Presidents note
is definite assertion that the United
States has something of it's own at
stake, and that it's standing in court
is not to be ignored. The time has
come, in his opinion, for the United
States to insist upon clear and pre-
else definition of the aims and objects
of the war from both sides. When we
have that, it will be the less difficult
to determine the future policy of the
United States in respect to the war
itself. If we are, in danger Of being
drawn into it, we certainly have
right to know what we are being
drawn into.
This war is unique in many re-
spects. 1t has ceased to be war of
governments and has become a war
OF peoples. The men in the trench
es have taken charge and they are the |
final arbiters of peace. No govern
ment would dare make peace which
did not square with the demands of |
the public opinion upon which it's ex-
istence depends, and that applies to
Germany and Austria-H Hungary quite
as much as to Great Britain and |
France. To lesser but certain de-
gree it applies to Russia as well.
No government has defined in pre-
else terms the concrete objects of the
war and the concrete terms upon
which it would make peace, because
every government is afraid of it's own
people and is ignorant of their min
imum demands. It seeks refuge in
extravagant generalities, because ex-
travagant generalities are safer than
definite policies.
The complications are increased by
the fact that each belligerent is fight
ing for a different thing. The objects
of France are not the objects Of Rus
STA nor are the objects of Italy the
objects of Great Britain, nor have
Belgium and Roumania anything in
common. On the other side, Germany
is fighting only incidentally for what
Austria Hungary is fighting, while
Bulgaria and Turkey have purposes
Of their own which are wholly unre-
lated to the purposes of their allies.
q