Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1917-04-24
TUESDAY, APRIL "a, 1917.
THE ENDS FOR WHICH WE SHALL
FIGHT.

thalNesJ9n News
1t has been stated in a dispatch from
London that one of the proposals TO be
made by the. British and French commits
sioners soon to arrive is hat the United
States pledge itself 10 continue in the war
until a victory complete enough to enable
the allies to dictate the terms of peace
shall have been won.r All the enemies of
Germany save ourselves have renowned
the right to make a separate peace, a cir
cumstance which would in itself make this
report altogether credible.
1t might be difficult to give that pledge
in a formal, documentary way. Ii would
have to be expressed in treaties, and these
would be subject to the ratification of the
senate, and ratification means the consent
of two-thirds its members. Ii might be
possible to bring the senator's to that de-
gree of concurrence; it is rather probable,
indeed. But it could hardly be done within
the time that these commissioners will re-
main in this country. Ii should seem,
therefore, that they would have to be con
tent with such assurance "a the president
can give them that the United States is re-
solved to fight for a complete victory.
There is no reason that they should not
be content with that form of assurance.
The resolution of congress declaring a
state of war also directs the president To
prosecute the war 10 a complete victory
The phrase ~scomplete victory may be
accomplishment of these purposes requires
definition to be found in the presidents
address TO congress reduces the meaning
TO elemental simplicity, and it is compre-
hensive enough to embrace all the purposes
which the allies have declared.
All of them intend To exact territorial
c~essions from Germany and its allies. and
some of them, Belgium chiefly, intend 10
demand indemnities. We seek neither in
IDENTITIES nor territorial cessions. But we
seek the destruction of autocratic power
everywhere and the establishment of the
right of small nations to a free and indeA
pendent life, all to the end that the peace
TO come may be permanent and that the
world may be "safe for democracy" The
accomplishment of these purposes %requiers
the defeat of Germany and its allies; re-
quires their defeat so decisively that their
victors shall have the power TO prescribe
whatever terms of peace may seem expedi-
ent to them, pnder no other limitations than
their sense Of justice shall impose.
The terms which satisfy those require
ments must be heavy ones. Frances de
mand for the return of its lost provinces
falls as easily within the scope of our
purposes as does the restoration of Bel
GUM TO its people, with whatever poor in
demnity can be given them for the i'm
measurable wrong that has been done to
them. The satisfaction of our purpose,
too, requires, if not the complete dismem-
berment of The Austro-H Hungarian empire,
at least some dismemberment and the
actual liberalization of what remains. The
principle that people are entitled to free
and independent nationaal lives would not
be satisfied $50 long as Bohemia remained
subject Ia Austria, and so long "a the
Poles are separated and under the rule of
three empires. ltaly's aspirations are
have avowed in entering the war and those
Of Roumanih and Serbia are consistent
with the principle of freedom and national
independence
These are the chief demands of the
allies, as they have stated them. If the
lesser claims, such "a those which, 'if
granted, would deprive Germany of its colo
MES and confine the Turkish power to a
circumscribeh area of Asia Minor, do not
fall within the expressed terms of the
presidents formula, they come easily with
in its implications. Insistence on them could
offer no embarrassment TO the purposes
which we have declared, afford no reason
that we should withdraw from a war that
was continued for the object of enforcing
them. We should find abundant warrant