New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-05-03

must perish. You can no more compro-
mise with this idea than you can make
friends with rattlcsnake. The thing Is
destructive of all that France and Britain
love, and if they do not Danish 1t all tha'
they love will die, as much has already
die by a shameful death.
France has lived amidst her ruins Tor
twenty months; she has heard and she mas
seen. She knows and so do her Allies.
The things that Germans hav. done IN
Europe will be remembered as those OF
Attila. 1t will become an enduring mem
DRY, this German invasion, as that oil
other barbarians that have come down
from the north. There is no question OF
peace or war, no question of compromise
or adjustment; either the Germans Will go
home or France will die. But the desire
to destroy Germany, the belief that 1t is
possible to destroy Germany-this does
not exist, and where it did exist 1t has
been removed by what Germany has done
in recent months.
As far rs France is concerned there IS
universal conviction that the war must go
on steadily and without interruption for
negotiations until Germany accepts the
common humanity that has hitherto bound
all mankind that believed itself civilized.
"These things have got to stop; this the
Frenchman says and this the Englishman
saws. "These things" are not rumors, not
imaginary wrongs. Any one who wants to
know about the reality Of "these things
can 20 tc France and see for himself.
They are there and they will be there for
many years to come; unmistakable, not to
be destroyed by casuistry or abolished by
words They are fact, the only fact in
the world war to-day.
You will no longer find general or even
considerable conviction that Germany IS
to be rebuilt to suit the ideas of conquer
ors. No one thinks of that. Germanys
right and capacity to rebuild herself are
recognized; she will be master of her own
fate at the end of the war; she has proven
this by a splendid military achievement
and an internal solidarity that command
general admiration. But she must go
home out of France and out of Belgium,
out of Serbia; she must concede the right
of other nations TO live their own lives,
and above all she must recognize that
rape and arson and pillage are not agents
by which it is possible to dominate Eu-
rope or conquer nations.
In sum, there is no prospect of peace in
Europe, but there is plain evidence of
the clearing Of the way for peace. The
enemies of Germany, that is, the nations
which she attacked two years ago, have
put aside most Of the foolish notion they
had of conquering Germany or eliminating
her from the rank Of great powers. This
was the natural desire Of those who had
suffered from the madness of the Germany
Of 1914. But it is vanished idea. Quite
in the same way these same nations, all
their peoples, have laid hands on the solid
purpose for which they will fight until
they perish or conquer. The German
thing must not endure; It must not live by
gathering profit in territories, in prov
inces, in indemnity. 1t must be thrown
back bleeding across the German from
tiers; unless this happens there can be 10
real peace. and all the previous sacrifices
will have been vain.
And in some fashion this change and
clarifying of purpose makes for ultimate
peace. We arc beginning 10 perceive far
more clearly what the true issue Of the
war is, the issue that means to mankind
enough TO recompense for the sacrifice.
There is a growing readiness TO dismiss
the question of colonies, of new places in
the sun, of commercial expansion. The
Allies are coming back to the perception
of the principle, not the minor detail and
the uncssental and selfish circumstance.
When Germany is ready to 20 home, when
she is ready TO recognize that the world is
not amenablc TO her discipline or her
method, and that the effort to apply it
costs approximately 100000 casualties
per month and earns only debt of
S5,OO0,OOO,0OO per annum, then there will
be peace.
Oddly enough, however, it is hard not to
feel that Germany is moving toward this
end, moving toward it while the Allies are
putting aside what was never possible AMI
hardly desirabe-their early impulse to
destroy the Germany that so cruelty and so
brutally assailed them. The German idea
remains to be crushed, but it is already
something far different from the idea that
Bernhard told his countrymen about a
few years ago. Every one Of his major
propositions has been answered on a bat
tlefeld. and the answer has been conclu-
sive or nearly so.
In 50 far as the opponents of Germany
have fought for spiritual values they have
won their fight; we are going on after this