New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-01-23

should renew the pledge that when pe'-
ter opportunity arrived the United States
would join any international league to en-
force peace which other neutrals and the
bellgerents might be ready TO create as a
safeguard against more world wars.
If the, President had confined himself
Yesterday in the Senate to some simple ex-
preston Of that sort, modestly keeping
alive the hope of American participation
/ in the final peace negotiations, the incident
Of his abortive Intervention of last month
might have been considered happily closed
But that apparently was what was fur
thest from Mr.. Wilson's mind. He seems OBJ
sessed with the idea that the issues of peace
are in his hands-that the belligerents
must come to him. whether they want to or
not, before they can lay the foundations OF
new peace order in Europe and in the
world.
Having been gently rebuffed in the role
of peace mediator, he now suddenly bios
SONS out in the role of peace dictator he
laws down to the nations at war the condi-
tons on which the United States-mean-
ing himself-will participate in peace
conference or a making-over-the-world
conference after peace is declared.
If the nations of Europe were capable
any longer of being astonished or annoyed
at what Mr. Wilson says, they would be
lirritated beyond words at the extreme
complacency with which he filings off his
few happy notions of the terms ON which
peace ought to be restored TO the world.
First there is TO be "peace without
victory" This genial suggestion, which
he confesses "is not pleasant" TO make,
ought to appeal to the Entente powers as
charming exhibition of neutral tact.
They have just been arguing (the add
tional Balfour note having evidently been
drawn up chiefly for its effect on him.
that they are justified in hoping and fight
ing for a victory which will mean the es-
Establishment Of reign Of peace and Sc
'curity not only in Europe, but throughout
the world. They are willing to make fur
Their untold sacrifices for a cause Of whose
they are convinced cause
which they cannot discuss without rising
to heights of whitehead emotion. But to
Mr.. Wilson such moral intensities are ir-
rational. Neither side ought to hope for
victory, he calmly announces. For the
good Of humanity each should be at once
victor and vanquished
The President has repeatedly said that
with the causes of the war in Europe we
have nothing TO do and that we ought not
to concern ourselves with the terms on
which the belligerents settle their quarrel.
Yet now he interjects as an American de-
mand on the belligerents specific solu-
ton Of the intricate and nearly insoluble
Polish question.
There should be a united, independent
and autonomous Poland" says Mr.. Will
son. What does that mean? Poland is to
be recreated. But the Poland of what
century and of what geographical limita-
tationsf Is Galicia TO be added to Rus
sian Poland? Is Prussia to surrender
Posen TO the new state also the Polish
parts of West Prussia, with Danzig, the
old Polish Baltic seaport, at the mouth of
the Vistula?
This is a very technical problem, not to
be disposed of in few offhand sentences.
Why wasn't Mr.. Wilson either more pre-
else or less precise about it? And how
about the further statement that "hence-
forth inviolable security of life, of worship
and of industrial and social development
should be guaranteed to all peoples who
have lived hitherto under the power Of
governments devoted to faith and pur'
pose hostile to their own?
Any attempt to carry out such a pro-
gramme of reconstruction would tear Eu-
rope to tatters. The British Empire would
be dissolved. Even Ireland would be de-
tached from the United Kingdom. India,
Ceylon, Egypt and all but the self-govern-
ing British colonies would go. France
would have TO surrender most Of her colo
MES. Prussia would part with Posen and
large areas of the province of West Prus-
STA and with the Danish parts of Schles-
wig Holstein, and the German Empire
would lose all or part of Alsace and Lor-
raine. Austria Hungary would be dis
solved. Hungary would lose Pennsylvania
and the Slovene provinces. Austria would
lose Bohemia, part Of Moravia, Galcia,
Bukowina and the Italian-speaking sec
tons bordering on Italy. Russia would
be stripped Of Finland and many Asiatic
possessions.
A Encouragement Of the map of Eu-
rope in accord with Mr.. Wilson's principle
would not produce harmony and stability.
1t would produce political and geograph-
ical chaos. No European congress which
convenes after the war will ever make
such a map. The thorough segregation