New-York tribune., 1916-05-29
MIR. Wilson as Peacemaker.

Saturday evening TO the League to Enforce
Peace.
If Mr.. Wilson expected to be the inter
mediary through whom the belligerent
powers were to be brought together in
peace conference it was tactless on his
part to say-as he said in his National
Press Club speech and on various prior
occasions-that the European nations are
mad" that they Cannot be held to ordi-
nary standards of responsibility and that
the United States is to-day the only coun-
try of the first rank in the world in which
anything like real sanity of thought still
prevails.
How supercilious such an attitude must
have appeared to the warning nations in
Europe, each one of which knows that 1t
is fighting for something Of vast impor-
tance-something which it considers essen
tial to its present and future safety! How
especially offensive this air Of superiority
must be TO countries like France and Great
Britain, whose people feel that they are
battling for their very existence. for their
civilization, for their democratic institu-
tions and for the preservation of some
semblance of faith and honor in interna-
tional intercourse!
Europe could not but be irritated at the
self-riehteousness of Mr.. Wilson's moral
disapproval. Yet that irritation was IN a
measure mitigated by the fact that he had
repeatedly disavowed all interest In the
causes or outcome of the European quar-
rel-that he had ostentatiously washed his
hands of it and treated it as an unhappy
conflict between groups Of nations tempo
rarily insane" How much more astound-
ing it must be to the governments at war
to hear new that as condition TO his
acceptance Of the role OF mediatorshlp he
will insist on debating the terms of peace
and establishing through the peace COM
pact certain principles hitherto unaccepted
by the society Of nations and at present
absolutely unacceptable to either of the
belligerent groups!
The speech to the League to Enforce
Peace is only another fragrant illustration
of Mr.. Wilson's instability as statesman,
his fluid sentimentalism, his servltude TO
winged phrases which carry him far be-
vond the boundary lines of his matured
Thought. He was consistent with himself
so long as he stuck to the idea OF non
concern with the causes, objects or out
come of the European war. In his mes
sage TO Congress in December, 1914, when
the character of the war and its bearing
on the future Of civilization were as plain
as thev are to-day, he said that it was q
war with which we have nothing to do
and "whose causes cannot touch u.s. In
the National Press Club speech, made pub
lie only ten days ago, he said again that
Americans "have nothing to do with the
n present quarrel"
That was an ineligible attitude, though
overcautious and parochial from the point
of view of modern American statesman
ship, which must take into account the
fact that the United States has become a
world power and has as big a stake as
any other country in the settlement of
questions in which the interests of the
whole society Of nations are involved.
Yet Mr.. Wilson stuck to that view for
sons which are wrapped in mystery, ex-
cept in so far as they may be connected
with domestic politics, he suddenly bur
geons out as an advocate of active partici-
patton by the United States in the settle
ments which are to follow the war-par-
ticipation not merely as counsellor of
those who have appealed to the sword, but
as the practical arbiter of the issues which
the war raised and then left unsettled or
only partly settled.
Mr.. Wilson lays down as conditions of
peace a guarantee of the right of every
people mot every existing nation) TO
choose the sovereignty under which they
shall live Such a guarantee would rend
the political system of Europe. 1t is
hardly conceivable that any power now en-
gagged in the war would be willing to sub
scribe to such guarantee. 1t would mean
the detachment from Great Britain of
Egypt and India, of her African empire
from France Of Posen and large parts of
West Prussia from Germany. the dismem-
berment of Australia Hungary the loss of
Poland TO Russia. 1t would sow the seeds
of new animosities and new wars.
Next the President asks for the creation
of an association of nations TO secure the
territorial integrity and political inde-
pendence Of all existing nations and, pre-
sumably, of all nations TO be created under
the preceding guarantee Finally, he de-
mands the maintenance by the federated
nations of the freedom of the sea. Yet
these three revolutionary notifications of
the existing world system are 70 be pre-
ceded by peace settlement based on a
composition by the belligerents of their
own immediate interests"
Could any such agreement by the ma