Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-04-06
GERMAN CHAxCELLoR's SPEECH

Tn a remarkable address before the
Reichstag yesterday Chancellor Won
Bethmann- -Hollweg denounced re-
ports that Germany contemplates any
aggression against the United States
after the war in Europe, that the I'M
perial Government has any designs on
Canada or that the Kaiser is looking
toward Brazil or any other South
American country.
This may be reassuring to those
who care TO take the chancellor at
his word. But it must not be forgot
ten that even while the chancellor
was in the midst of his speech the
American Government was placing the
good faith of Germany to a very
severe test in the U-boat controversy.
Even now it is very much to be fear
ed that Germany has been playing
fast and loose with American lives
and property through the inability of
the well-meaning but weak-kneed
gentlemen who now constitute our ma
tional administration at Washington.
Beside, there is Belgium.
Germany has not so conducted her
self during the past few years that
her word should he taken at its face
value. Rather, her diplomacy has
been of a variety which requires that
we look back of the spoken or the
written word for it's hidden meaning.
Nothing would give the average
American greater pleasure than to be
able to believe unqualifedly that what
the chancellor says reflects the true
attitude of the government he repre-
sents, but, in language not generally
used in international conversations
I'VE are from Missouri" Likewise,
actions speak louder than words, and
il Germany cares naught for the lives
of American women and children or
for American property on the high
seas, why should we believe that she
has any regard for American rights
on land?
The best safeguard against German
or other European aggression in the
United States is an army and a navy
big enough to back up our position.
Almost as interesting to Americans
as the assertion that Germany has no
thought of American conquest is that
part of the chancellor's address hav-
ing to do with what he represented as
"Germany's wish for the future" :"
which he summed up in this language:
This new Europe. in many re-
SDectS cannot resembl the past. The
nshi wi
never be repaid and the wealth
which has been destroyed can only
slowly be replaced. But. howso-
ever, this Europe may be. 1t must
be for the nations that inhabit it
and land of peaceful labor.
The peace which shall end this
l. war shall be lasting peace. 1t
must not bear the germ of new
wars, but must provide for all
peaceful arrangements of Euro
pean questions.
But, the chancellor adds, almost
in so many words, the terms of that
peace must rest with Germany. And
right there the dream of millennium
ends abruptly. For the action of
England yesterday in planning her
financial program for another year of
war on a more extensive scale than
ever is proof conclusive that the Allies
are even more determined than
previously to carry the war to the
conclusion of a peace in which they
shall have the major voice. Ger
many's talk of peace can be based on
one promise and one promise alone,
which is the abolition of the Prussian
military policy, and at this time Ger
many apparently has no such thought
I in mind.
4 The chancellor's speech is interest
ing. but it is not convincing. The war
will go on and America will not cease
+ one iota 10 prepare for whatever
/ eventuality the future may disclose.