The Washington times., 1917-01-11
THE ALLIES PEACE NOTE
AND AFTER

The reply Of the entente nations to
President Wilson's peace note is
somewhere in the processes of trans
mission to Washington, and the
world will be privileged to read its
text within a very short space. The
statement by one journalist. that it
will prove "ultra-sensational" is
hardly significant Of more than the
public confidently expects. All the
expressions Of public sentiment and
governmental purpose that have
come from the nations fighting Ger
many, have been of the one purport:
no peace until peace can be forced
on very different terms than those
which Germany could possibly be ex-
pected to tender now.
Without much doubt, the reply will
be sensational to the extent that it
will reject any German advances now
or. under approximately the condi-
tons that now prevail. 1t will mean
shat the entente proposes to double
the stakes and take its losses till it
can at length win a throw, and win
the supreme stake. That is big
and dangerous game; to win it re-
quires the ability to keep on doubling
until fortune shall favor. But it is
the game at which the capitalist has
advantage as against the table. The
unlimited bank roll backs the game
of the entente.
There has been perhaps some mis-
apprehension about the position the
entente will occupy when the war is
over. Suppose the war at last ends
in stalemate; with which side will
the advantage lie in that case? 1t
would seem that Europe would have
won great victory in merely avoid
ing defeat. 1t will have brought its
resources to state Of high organi-
cation and availability, for use in the
contest after such a war. It will
have disciplined its people, trained
armies, and retained its commercial
touch with the world. 1t will, in a
fashion, have annexed the worlds
opportunities for industrial expan-
sion; for Germany will have been,
meanwhile, elbowed out of the
markets.
1t is interesting in this connection
to observe some remarks attributed
to the German undersecretary of the
interior, about economic conditions
in Germany after the war. He warns
the German people that they will
not have the money to buy and i'm
port much food, or indeed much of
anything else, after the war ends;
their poverty will compel them to
continue living almost entirely with
in themselves. They must not hope
too strongly for immediate relief
from present privation.
The peace note from the entente
will mean, doubtless, a quite definite
postponement of serious peace con-
siderations until after, at least, the
campaign of another season. That
campaign will hardly produce deci-
sive military results; but there is in
creasing testimony that it may bring
the economic crisis that the entente
has sought by its blockade to force
upon the central powers. So the
world may expect return to the
serious and exclusive business of
making war.
A stalemate peace would be re-
garded, no doubt, as the preliminary
to another war. But it may be
doubted whether that other war
would come soon. The entente, with
the machinery of their world rela-
tionships oiled and moving, will be
ready to recuperate faster than Ger
many, with machinery rusty or dis
mantled, with commerce lines long
closed, with financial power gone,
with antagonism created in places
that were formerly the best markets.
If Germany, after peace, persists in
policy of saber-rattling, it will
force its enemies to keep their hand
on the hilt; but they will have a
sharp blade ready, and all the ad-
vantage in the effort at further
nrenaration will be on their side