Washington Journal., 1917-02-09
ALLIANCE OF BRITAIN, FRANCE
GERMANY AND THE UNITED
STATES.

UIlG NICIlIldHN.
OF course we can not do this now, but we
can say that we are willing to do it after the
war.
In the gladiatorial fights Of ancient Rome,
when one Of the combatants was down, the
victor looked up to the spectators for the sig
nal of life or death. 1t they waved their
handkerchiefs, it meant Spare him" If they
turned down their thumbs, it meant Kill"
we Americans are spectators OF the most
horrible fight in history. Fate looks up to US
for the signal OF life or death. 1t rests with
us to say whether the war shall stop, to DC
followed by perpetual worldwide peace, or
whether it shall be fought to the bitter end,
TO be followed by still more horrible wars. Is
it conceivable that our people will turn down
their thumbs?
No one can doubt that a league of Britain,
France, Germany and the United States, the
-Four Great Democracies, the four great pow
der-rnaking. gun-making, machine-using, coal
mining, ship-huilding, money-owning, educated,
technically trained nations, representing prob
ably nine-tentls of the worlds industry, would
be strong enough to forbid war forever. 1t
would not involve a greater increase in oui
ornaments than we seem already resolved tc
make. Britain, France and Germany, if united
would be amply able, even with considerably
reduced ornaments, to keep the world al
peace. All that is required of us is that we
take the initiative coward their union, al
initiative which for them is almost impossible
while for us it is simply a matter of waking
up to our own transcendent opportunity-tho
opportunity to become in the finest sense OF
the word the leading Misunderstanding humanity
to a new era, when war shall be as inconceiv
able to our descendants as gladiatorial fight.
are to lis today.
An Anglo-G German Agreement. =
Why should the mere prospect of the Offer
of our alliance suffice to stop the war ant
establish permanent peace? Because it would
enable Britain and Germany to cone to terms
For ten years before the war, thoughtful
and candid Englishmen, especially Sir Harry
II. Johnston, had been addressing their c~.su
trymen thus: Let us try, as gentlemeKa;tn
imagine how we would feel if we were stu
ated as the Germans are. Let us imagine tina
we were the best educated nation in the world
with only 0.05 per cent of illiterates that We
were the leaders i'll almost every branch o.
science, with the most scientific, most honest
most efficient government, which had sue
ceeded in banishing pauperism Utmost com
pletely, in reducing unemployment to a mini
mum, n government more successful than any
other in so adjusting the claims of capital anG
labor as to make both contribute to the fullesl
extent to the common welfare, a government
which best deserved the name of democracy
because it took best care of its people, by plac
ing every function in the hands of those bes
fitted to perform it. Let us imagine tina
through the superior wisdom of that govern
ment, enabling the mental powers of the ma
ton to exert themselves to the fullest extern
we were advancing faster in industry, CON
mercc and wealth than any other nation. Let
us imagine that we numbered 67 millions, in
creasing at the rate of 0 $1,000 a year, but
having at home only 208, $50 square miles,
less than the area of Texas, and III the tropics
a million square miles of colonial land, almost
wholly unfit for white settlement: Now lei
us imagine that the nation thus situated were
confronted with a combination of three ma
tons owning half the land surface of the
globe, with 50, 4 and / per cent of i~lliterates
respectively, and that this combination ad-
dressed us as follows: You shall not have
another inch of land. Whatever territory re-
mains to be occupied, we intend to divide
among ourselves, without consulting you
For a few years you may keep on increasing
then you will have to resign yourselves to tht
prospect OF becoming a seeond-class, third
class, fourth-class nation, the obedient vassa
of your ~illiterate eastern neighbor. All your
education, all your social machinery can no
compensate for your lack OF land, which will
soon mean lack of numbers, while your illit-
crate neighbor has room for 500 millions
That is exactly what we have been saying to
Germany. The Germans tell us that they have
no ambition to acquire an inch of Britain's
ID million square miles; all they ask is that
we give them a free hand in Turkey, their
only possible field of expansion. Turkey meas
ures only about a million square miles, more
than half of it covered by the deserts of
Arabia. Surely that is a very modest sphere
OF influence compared to the Is million square
miles OF Britain, the 8 million square miles of
Russia, the 4H million square miles of France.
1t we try to fence off the Germans even from
this modest ambition and thus condemn them
to atrophy and vassalage, they would have to
be abJect towards if they did not strain every
nerve to break the fence. Since they maks
better use of their land than any other ma
tion, nothing gan be palmer than that they
should have all the land that can still be &C
CURED. What would we do If we were wedged
IN between two nations, one OF ITO, the other
OF 40 millions, both inexorably determined MOI
only to prevent our growth but also to despoil
us at the first opportunity? Would we not
feel compelled to remain armed to the teeth
as the only means of safety? Let us be rea
sonable. If the Germans will agree that Brit
ish influence shall predominant in Palestine
and koweit, let US in turn agree not to inter
fere with them elsewhere in Turkey. That
VIII make them our firm allies, content to let
us enjoy the supremacy of the seas, anc
eager to join their forces. to ours for the pro-
lection of Ipdia,'
Such was Sir Harry Fl. Jellnston's attitude
In the Nineteenth Century for December, 1910
Had not the Balkan troubles interviewed. lead
ing to the Russian mobilization. it is almost
certain that the differences between Britain
and Germany woud have been adjusted. Mr..
Asqulth In 1913 declared that Britain had
enough land and did not intend to acquire
more. and that Germany was welcome to take
the remainder while Germany had practically
agreed to a limitation of naval ornaments on
the basis of British naval supremacy.
At the same time those Germans who tried
to imagine themselves in Britain's place were
well aware of the causes of her hesitation
The British emDire with lie "a million snt,are