New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-12-15

To the Editor Of The Tribune
Sir: A few weeks ego many Of your readers
had the satisfaction Of seeing their judgment
Of the conduct Of Germany In this war accu-
rately expressed In your notable editorial en-
titled "The Mark Of the Beast" II what you
wrote then is truo-and IL i8-how can II be
reconcied with what you write to-day?
To-day you plead for a peace based on the
status quo as OF 1914, with notifications as to
Alsace-Lorraine and tho Trentino. and call
upon the Allies to Gay aside certain purposes
which are "to abolish German miltarism, to
overthrow the domination Of Prussia within
Germany and destroy the Hohenzollem
throne" You treat those purposes as en-
titled to the condemnation which history Wis
tied upon the purposes Of he coalition
against republican France In 1893. Taking
the two greatest extremes Of modern history,
you turn them into parallels, thereby griey-
ing every friend Of The Tribune who knows
French history.
What will be said abroad Of such utter
ances? Some will not believe that the
newspaper which only lately saw in Ger
many the bloodthrsty beast at large
in Europe to-day urges that this same
beast be treated as a civilized nation.
Others will see IA this change Of atti-
tudc another evidence Of the mercurial quail
ty ascribed TO Americans, often by them
selves, which makes them inclined at times
TO blow hot and cold on matters of principle.
Others still will call 10 Generalization, due
to a protracted neutrality in "a struggle on
the outcome Of which depends the future Of
civilization, Generalization which gradually
makes one obiyious 20 the difference be-
tween right and wrong. But whatever may
be said in criticism Of your new position
will not equal the answer to what you now
say found in your own forceful characterize
ton of the power upon whose naked promises
for the future you would have the Allies rely,
despite the bitter lessons Of experience-for
that is what you ask when you urge the
Allies to give up their purpose of curbing
German miitarism, for which treaties are,
and would remain, soaps Of paper.
You refer to your active support Of the
Allied cause, which on the whole has been
admirably expressive of the sentiment Of
those Americans whom this war found faith
full to the traditions and ideals Of their coun-
thy. Do you not realize that support of a
cause carries with it the duty not to falter
at critical moments? Yet such faitering Is
painfully evident in what you write to-day.
It has led you to overlook the difference be-
tween "a crusade against the German system
of national existence (which the Allies have
not undertaken and the Allies purpose Of
wrecking the German war machine. thereby
tanning the beast whose mark is seen wher-
ever German armies have passed.
The moral advantage which flows from
the possession Of just cause" will not be
lost because the Allies insist upon the pun
ishment of those responsible for the war and
for the horrors perpetrated by the Germans
in the name OF "Kultur." On the contrary,
it would be lost if the Allies desisted from
that purpose for they would thereby be
showing themselves unworthy of defending
so great a cause.
But there Is no danger Of this. Their task,
Of course. will be made somewhat harder by
the dissemination of such views as you now
express, and which derive their potency for
harm from the fact that they emanate from
an organ which has heretofore upheld their
cause with marked effectiveness. After ALL
a little more or a little less done by this
country in a struggle for Civilizations
struggle without precedent, except in the
fight for freedom IN Europe which republi-
can France made during the last years OF
the eighteenth century, and which The Irib-
une now regards as having its parallel In
Germany's fight for "Kultur"-will not mat
ter much in the end. And no doubt The
Tribune's second thought on the subject viii
be an improvement on the first. At least
this is the hope Of one of It's admirers
Meanwhile the Germans will rub their hands
and feel that stroke has not been vain
which elicits such response from such
newspaper as The Tribune. 1t IS a striking
instance Of the poisoning Of opinion" against
which Premier BRAND gave warning yester-
day. MAURICE LEON.
New York, Dec IA, 1915