New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-05-22

would be an end or a postponemen"
Germany has lost the present war. she
is shouting the fact from the housetops'
She is ready for peace on terms that give
her next to nothing for her great sacrl-
fees. But why? Because she desires
to preserve the possibility of resump-
ton of her attack subsequently, when her
diplomacy shall have separated the ma
tons which, united, have baked her. she
desires to preserve the glory of her army
and to be able to enlist her people by as
serting that what was almost accomplished
in 1914 can be accomplished, say, IN IVA
The men who are fighting the Ger
mans are just as anxious to get them
selves out of the trenches as men can be;
hut they are little more anxious to keep
their owns boys out of these trenches
few years hence. Therefore they are
willing to go on. Germany has lost a
war, but her enemies have only in part
won war; they have blocked, not con-
yinced. Germany. They are fighting now
to establish the fact that German at
tack upon European civilization can never
succeed. and that the cost of 1t Is be-
yond all conceivable profit. This, and
not peace terms, is important; this, and
not peace terms, is the thing that prolongs
the war and will prolong it until the Allied
purpose is realized or Allied strength fails.
1t is of the utmost Importance that
Americans should not permit themselves
to be taken in by the present German
campaign for peace or by their own hor-
ror of slaughter. If we are to have a
durable peace after all this struggle and
sacrifice it can only come when Germany
renounces her determination to upset the
balance in the world. She has not re-
nounced. Peace now means new war
at no distant date, because the Germans
still believe, and they have every reason
to believe, that what they have almost
accomplished this time they will accom-
plish next time.
This spells continuation Of anna
ments, a prolongation Of that situation
which before the war had become only
an armed truce. 1t means that the East
ern Question will be embalmed in the
treaty of peace and the problem Of Al
sace-Lorraine perpetuated. 1t means
that we shall have Europe still divided
into alliances. 1t means all this because
the real issue of the war has not been
settled. 1t has been proven that Ger
MANY cannot destroy European clvillza-
ton and the settlements of European
congresses on the battlefield this time
But no German has the smallest rea-
son for doubling that he can do 1t in the
future. if his diplomacy makes the work
of his army one whit less impossible
If Napoleon had made peace before
Leipzig it is probable that the Napoleonic
peril to Europe would have endured for
another decade. His ambition and his
blinded his judgment. The
Germans are seeking to profit by his mis-
takes. 1t was only at Chaumont that
the Allies at last grasped the real Ma
poeonic problem and determined to abol-
ish it. The peace of the world depends
upon the final destruction Of the Ger
man idea Of world power built on the
ruins of other nations. Germany seeks
peace now to preserve the idea; she re-
coils, to leap forward later. The dag
will come when there will be no one in
Germany who holds this idea, because
the exhaustion of war will carry the mes
sage, even if no hostile soldier crosses
the German frontier 1t is for this time
that those who really would serve the
cause of peace must wait.