The daily commonwealth. (Greenwood, Leflore Co., Miss.) 1916-1919, 1916-12-08
WHEN THE WAR WILL END.

No people in Europe except the Poles and the
Serbians have yet suffered one-half the physical
hardships aud privations that the people of the
South endured in the Civil War.
Nor has any part of Europe except Poland and
Serbia been devastated as Sherman devastated
the Shenandoah Valley or Sherman devastated the
broad zone through which he marched from At
lanta to the sea.
Europe has wasted blood and treasure on a
scale never before approached, but none of the
principal belligerents has experienced was as the
South knew it in the last year Of the Confederacy.
Nor has any country made such sacrifices as the
South made before it yielded to ruthless necessity.
If we remember that, it is the easier to under
stand why there is no serious movement for peace
in Berlin or Vienna, in London or Paris or Petro-
grad or Rome. Neither the military nor the eco
nomic resources of either side have been eX-
hausted, and this is not a war out of which an
academic peace can be constructed. There is no
craftsmanship in Europe equal to the task.
Germany is ready to discuss peace, but not to
discuss a possible peace, nor is there good faith
back of the German suggestions. They are in
tended for home consumption more than for for
eign consumption.
COI TedSOuS u uOuleStlC pOuLlCS, IL was ueCeS-
sary at the outset for the Imperial Government to
justify itself to the German people by proclaming
the war to be a defensive war undertaken only to
protect the Fatherland from jealous and unscru-
pulous enemies. For dynastic reasons, that fiction
must he maintained to the end. In accordance
with it, official Germany has protested a willing
ness to discuss peace ever since the Battle of the
Marine shattered the dream of Teutonic domi-
nation. But the only kind of peace that Ger
many is prepared to consider is one based on the
status quo ante, and that is a peace which the
allies will not accept. Nor can they be blamed.
However obscure the original sources of this
war and in whatever manner history may appor-
ton the blame, one essential fact remains. Ger
macy were exhausted. In view Of the sacrifices
macy were exhaused. In view Of the sacrifices
that they have been compelled to make, neither
the French nor the British people could permit
their Government to accept at this time any terms
that Germany would accept. In that they are
right. Acceptance of such terms would be an &C
Acknowledgement of defeat.
Nobody can foresee the end of this war, but it
has plainly passed out Of the hands of Govern
ments and into the hands of peoples. To that ex-
tent it is a popular war, and it must continue
until there is a dominating popular sentiment on
one side or the other in favor of peace on the most
merciful terms that can be obtained. There is no
such sentiment today anywhere in Europe, and
any Government outside of Russia which pro-
posed a peace unacceptable to public opinion
would face revolution at home.
European Governments are no longer masters
Of the situation. Third-rate craftsmanship and
third-rate diplomacy can involve the world in a
war that even frst-class craftsmanship and first
class diplomacy cannot terminate.
Our Civil War ended when the South, driven
by hunger and restitution and death, was pre-