New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-11-13
The President

can point of view with reference to the
war more succinctly, more clairvoyantly,
than all that has been said before, officially
or unofficially. The President said
"YOu will notice that sent friend Of
mine, Colonel House, to Europe, who is as
great a lover Of peace SIS any man in the
world; but did not send him on peace
mission. / sent him to take part in con-
ference as to how the war was TO be won,
and he knows, as know, that that is the
way to get peace, If you want 1t for more
than few minutes"
Mr.. Wilson's full address should be read
with care by his fellow citizens. 1t sets
forth conditions both Of war and of peace
as they exist. Those who seek to attain
a peace by negotiation in advance Of
decision upon the battlefield, whatever
their motives, are servants of German
supremacy now and hereafter in this
world. Those who seek TO interrupt the
language of the guns with the chatter of
the pacifist and the futility Of the idealist
are more valuable to the German autoc-
racy than Hindenburg and Mackensen
combined.
The time to discuss the terms Of peace
is when the German menace has been de-
stroyed. So long as German military
power can point to victories and posses
sions the German spirit Of domination in
the world will endure. Until the world
can prove TO the Germans that the dream
of world domination Is idle and empty
they will cherish it, and their policy will
be founded upon the bedrock Of foreign
conquest and German supremacy.
Mr.. Wilson has done well in calling to
his own countrymen's attention the condi-
tons not Of European peace, but Of world
peace; not Of peace in Europe, but of
peace in all the world. Between the Ger
man idea and our American idea there can
never be permanent peace, because the
German idea is destructive Of all that we
hold to and believe in and have sought to
establish-the gospel of liberty, which per-
mits the people to choose their own form
Of government and nominate their ale
glance.
Not less we'll has Mr.. Wilson spoken to
Europe, to the Allied nations now fighting
Germany, who have grown weary with the
struggle. The voice Of America is the
voice of the President. 1t calls for new
effort and it gives fresh assurance that all
the power, all the resources, Of this great
Republic are enlisted, not for day or a
year, not to attain white" peace or a
negotiated adjustment, good as long as
German strength is inferior to German
ambition, but to achieve a peace which
shall endure because 1t is founded not upon
SCRAPS of paper" but upon the fact Of
German defeat.
There is only one end to this war posi-
bic. There is only one peace that can
endure. Just as long as a strong German
military power holds to the doctrine that
its sword is the ultimate power in the
world, that its appetite and its ambition
are the moral law and gospel, all peaces
will be illusory and every interruption Of
hostilities mere truce.
Whatever Of suffering, of sacrifice, Of
endurance there is before US, we have no
h choice. There is one thing and only one
y thing that we can do, and that is to join
with the other civilized nations Of the
world in fighting German barbarism so
long as German barbarism assails with
arms IN It's hands the liberties not of one
nation, not Of one continent, but Of man
kind.
In one Of the greatest crises Of human
history, at a time when temporary de-
preston is creeping in and the German
agent is seeking 10 use the spiritual weak
ness Of the foe 10 serve his own material
ends, the President o; the United States
has done gupremely well in speaking for
his country 10 Europe, In speaking as the
leader Of his country1nen 70 them, and in
stating the sober, unmistakable facts Of
the present hour. His speech il a call 10
battle. It will be heard not merely in