New-York tribune., 1916-05-24
Wilson and Bethmann-Hollweg.

A few days ago, in speaking TO the Ma
tional Press Club, Mr.. Wilson emphasized
the belief that the Great War was a piece
Of collective madness of all European
mankind. Speaking still more recently in
Charlotte, ~ c., the President carried the
argument one step further and indicated
his conviction that the end of the war
would bring a new impulse toward CO.
operation and fusion throughout the
world. Now It is the German Chancellor,
-Holweg, who takes up the word
and discusses the organization Of peace
which should come and come at once,
Mr.. Wilson speaks with the authority
of the President Of the United States; he
speaks also as one who holds to view
very generally held in the United States,
both as to the nature Of the war itself
and as to the probability that mankind,
when it begins to see reasonably again,
will turn from arms to brotherhood. The
German Chancellor speaks with authority
and voices a German view that now there
must be q readjustment on the basis Of
the facts Of the war, and thereafter the
war and all that it has meant must be
forgotten.
But it is essential for Americans TO
remember now, when American and Ger
man official utterances are approaching
an agreement which may tempt Mr.. Will
son into some offer of mediation, some
definite effort to bring peace, that the
American view, so far as the President
voices it, and the German view which the
Chancellor utters are not in the smallest
degree like the views held in any Of the
countries allied against Germany.
Let us examine the suggestion Of fu-
sion and federation after this war lit
tie more closely. Two years ago nearly
eight million Belgians dwelt in peace and
prosperity without other ambition than TO
pursue their own lives, nationally and IN
dividually. Then came the German on
rush. It brought battle. Then it brought
arson, murder, rape; it brought the de-
struction of cities, the violation of women,
the massacre of civilians. Later came
slavery, an intellectual and moral slavery,
that has endured for more than twenty
months, together with industrial paray-
sis that has followed military usurpation.
Does any one suppose that now, when
the German troops withdraw from Bel
GUM, there will be anything but enduring
bitterness, hatred, resentment among the
Belgians? Does any one suppose that a
generation will erase from Belgian hearts
and memories the shame, the suffering,
the brutality Of German tyranny? Is it
not patent that between the Belgian and
the German a gulf has opened that will
endure during the lifetime of all those
now alive?
Look at the case Of France: France
has known war and invasion frequently in
her long history. But never before has
she known the thing that has written it.
self all over her northern departments.
Scores of her towns have been destroyed,
not as an incident Of war, but as an eX-
preston Of "terribleness." Her cathedrals,
her churches, her homes have been put 70
the torch. Her women have been out
ragged, her children slain, not because of
military reasons, but out Of blind fury
and as the expression Of this same terri
bleness"
No one who has been in France since
the days Of the invasion can fail TO per
ceiye that there has entered into the
heart and soul of the French people no,
50 much a sense of bitterness and resent
ment at what has been done by Germans
as a cold, emotionless, enduring determi-
nation to drive the Germans out Of France
and to make the frontier a permanent
boundary between the violence of Ger
many and the civilization Of France. The
brutality of Germany is the thing that
has entered into the common knowledge
Of millions of French men and women it
is the fact Of the war.
Take the case of Britain: More than a
million and half of British men have
known I'm France and Belgium exactly
what German "terribleness" has meant.
They have seen the ruins, they have heard
the sufferers, they have seen and suffered
from the gas attacks, apd about them
have lived the women and the children
who have suffered at German hands. AT
home there has been the Zeppelin assault,
killing women and children; the subma-
rine Staying the weak, the helpless and the
innocent.
Does any one suppose that when this
war is over Great Britain will be ready
TO meet Germany on the basis Of what
was before the war, that Germans will be
permitted to live i'm England as before,
that the gulf will be closed by the mere
signature of treaty Of peace? To be
Nnun Ahi- u. a. rni-,l,. Lnralan tho N-hnIa