The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1917-02-02
(Springfeld Republican

SIccully upon d Single PHASE anu III
loading upon it the burden OF their
denunciation. ut must be peace
without victory" said the president;
but that was not all he said. Yet
suppose the words could be fairly
made to stand alone; they would
mean, first of all, the complete wiping
out of the war map" upon which the
Kaiser has based his claim to victory
in arms.
What follows, in the case of the
Germans, from a peace without VIC
tory? Reference is usually made to
German militarism as being the great
offender, and not the German people;
what, then, is the moral significance to
German militarism Of peace without
victory? Consider the history of Ger
man militarisn, it's war ideals, it's con-
ception of diplomacy and empire; can
anyone conceive of a peace without
victory as anything but staggering
blow to the n1ilitarism of the Hohen-
zollerns? No conquests secured, no
indemnities gained from fallen foes,
nothing to show for the anticipated
profits of the enterprise of war but a
debt that must bend the back of the
nation for generations and an empire
filled with widows and orphans and
manned and sightless men. Contrast
such peace with the peace which
the present Kaiser's grandfather car
ried back home with him from Yer
sailles and which also the German
people of to-day were led to expect
when the later drive on Paris began;
surely, the German militarism that
has been credited with the lust of do
minion and the set purpose to domin-
ate the, world could not find in Mr..
Wilson's peace without victory any
thing but the sting and the rags Of
downfall and ruin. II
But the most vocal partisans of Eng
land and France ignore that aspect
of the situation. We are asked if
in the American Civil war Lincoln was
satisfied with peace without vic
tory" the plain implication being
that if Lincoln was not satisfied,
England should not be to-day. The
answer is that our Civil war was Of
/ such a character that the political
slave power, as organized into a new
and independent nation - the nation
Mr.. Gladstone said had been created
Iby Jefferson Davis-had to be abso-
lutely crushed and exterminated. The
job was done. But, in the present
war, the purpose to crush Germany,
or to exterminate the Independent po-
litical entity of Germany as a great
power is explicitly disclaimed. Those
two facts, seen side by side. make the
comparison between the present stu
alton and the American Civil war too
strained and futile for serious consid-
Grafton.
Mark the fact that Germany is not
| to be annihilated, that Germany is to
endure as great power, according
| to the official admission Of her enc
mics; and mark, too, the fact that the
tentente nations desire a durable or
Tasting peace; and still again mark
the fact that the rival alliances at
war proclaim their approval of a. last
| ing peace which in cooperation
could be guaranteed by a future peace
| league of world powers. 1t is upon
| those facts. that the president has
1,sted his peace without victory.
For he says The terms Of the imme-
date peace agreed upon will deter
| mine whether it is a peace for which
] such a guarantee can be secured
especially whether an American guar
antee for it could be secured. What
are the terms on which a peace must
be made that shall be lasting il an
| American sanction for it is to be OBJ
tanned? That is the simple question.
And the president has answered. first:
s8"It must be peace without victory.
H. -. Victory would mean peace
forced upon the loser, a victor's terms
imposed upon the vanquished. II
would be accepted in humiliation. I'M
| der duress. at an intolerable sacrifice
and would leave sting, a resent
ment, a bitter memory upon which
1 terms of peace would rest, not perma-
nently, but only as upon Quicksand.'
The meaning is clear, for the idea
| is that there shall be in the conyen-
tional sense neither victors nor van
quished, that there shall be no die
/ tated peace, that it be a peace made
by and for equals in the family Of ma
/ tions.
If the entente powers will not make
such a peace then the peace they do
finally succeed in making in conse-
lquence Of the application of superior
force, will never be guaranteed by the
United States. They would make ii
to suit their own ideas and interests,
but they would be the only nations in
the world pledged to maintain it. And
1T would be no more durable or
Lasting than was the peace of Wen
ma, which ended the Napoleonic wars
Half the opposition in the United
States Senate to Mr.. Wilson's propos-
ais comes from men who resent, any
departure whatever. under any cir
cumstances whatever, from our tradi-
tional policy Of isolation. Their OPP
position to the movement toward a
broader and more highly organized
internationalisn can never be over
come unless Europes peace be
N AnEnDD