Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1916-08-17
The Long Road to Peace.
From the Lon don Spectator.

the world. The king. Infamous for stolen
states and plundered provinces. had tri-
umphantly disproved his own anti-Mach-
iavel. He had shown. or seemed to show.
the whole world that his honesty was the
paying policy, that faithlessness to your
in a king was the best substitute for
conscience. Never had there appeared to
be a more signal triumph of evil over
good. and the world at large was con-
Indifferent enough to acquiesce in Freder-
ick's claim to a victory for the negation
of God erected into q system"
The allied powers are not going to fol-
low the example of Maria Theresa and
her supporters for several good and suf-
flcient reasons. In the first place, they
are a great deal NOR, frightened than was
any continental power which took part in
the Seven Years war. BY the time the
war came to an end no power any longer
really dreaded Prussia. The powers We're
with a wounded but still formidable tiger
| who has retrcated into a cave. The hunt
er CALCULATES that in the case of a beast
so badly injured it will be better policy
to leave him manned in his cave than to
endure the very disagreeable risks of CO.
ing IN and giving him the coup de grace.
may be said to have proved that they
We're right, that they had so completely
sterLized Prussia that there was no dam
ger OF the war breaking out again. But
- 80 ANSi NiiLil III lliS - CASE.
we Know We'll that to discontinue the war
on any terms except those we nave
sketched would merely mean giving the
Germans the opportunity to prepare for
yet stronger attacks on the freedom of
mankind. Besides, we live in a democratic
age and democracies when once reused
are far more reSolute in policy and far
harder In war than autocratic or aristo-
cratic governments. 1t takes a democracy
to deal the hammer. strokes required to
fight a war to a finish. 1t may be that
| leTlOrracleS are never Vioj1art in
ton, that they are indolent in peace, that
they are supine in protecting their inter
ests; snt when once they get under way
aside from their purpose by diplomatic
n~iceties, or by farfetched Considerations
that it may not be sound political strategy
set, they endure to the end. But the peo-
pies of Britain, France, and Italy are
democraeles, and 50 for war purposes are
Though, for the reasons We have given.
we must expect the rulers OF Germany
to fight tin their very last ounce Of
who have no alternative, they can only
p~rotract the war for a few months. They
eannot prevent the ineyitable. end. And
finding that when the final catastrophe is
reached the settlement will be easier. not
harder. Blu before the catastrophe comes
we must steel our hearts for the hardest
fight of all. Macaulay, in describing the
end of the Seven Years war, speaks of
the desperate bounds of the hunted tiger
which occurred at the moment when 'the
circle of pursuers was fast closing round
him" We are just beginning to see those
desperate bounds, and We must be pre-
pared to meet them. We must remember
that in all probability the German army
and the German people will in the last
month or two of the war develop a
strength and energy which will seem mir
a%culous. But the exhibition OF such de-
moniac power will be a sign not of renewed
strength but of approaching dissolution.
We shall suffer, and in all probability suf-
fer greatly, in this last struggle; but we
must and shall hold on, remembering that
it Is always the last pull on the rope
which is the hardest, and that it must he
endured even If it cuts the fingers to the
bone. The energy of faith and good will
must In the end beat the energy of despair,
1t is the allies whose cause is good. and
who are preparing, not for the renewal
of a system which weuld make human life
a hell. but for one which, whatever may
be its faults-and of these there will no
doubt be plenty-will give some place in
the world to truth and justice, and above
all to liberty.