Evening journal., 1917-02-01
A BRITISH VIEW OF THE
PRESIDENTS PEACE MESSAGE

There was one point in President
Wilson'S address to the Senate which
struck me immediately mean the
completeness Of the contrast Il pre-
sented TO his message OF thirteen
months ago. II is contrast not mere
ly OF policy but OF spirit and funda-
mental attitude. Like all other men
In whom the capacity for growth is
not atrophied, the Presidents views
have developed rapidly and have
changed radically under the pressure
or the war. A little more than a year
ago, in his Presidential message of
December z, 1915. he was emphasizing
the fact that the American people had
no part or interest" In the policies
that seemed TO have brought on the
European conflict, He was congratu-
lating them on their "studious neu-
trality" II was a neutrality, he de-
clared, imposed upon them "by their
separate life and their habitual de-
tachment from the politics of Europe"
He was eXpatiating on the necessity
OF great merchant marine. not only
for the United States, but for the
American hemisphere as a whole. "if
1t Is not to be drawn into the tangle
or European affairs" And as an ap-
parent alternative to participation in
world politics he was preaching the
gospel OF Pan-Americanlsm and hold
Ing up the Americas" as the true
scene OF American interests and ac-
tivities
Today il is a much wider compass
that the President is fetching. He not
only contemplates. he urges, a new
dispensation, a concert, Of all the
powers for the preservation Of future
peace, a federation OF the universe.
on terms that will make a recurrence
OF the present cataclysm impossible: !:
and to this world state of his hopes.
providing certain conditions are full
hlled, he pledges the active co-opera-
ton Of the people and government OF
the United States. That as I under
stand 1t, is the kernel Of his proposals.
1t is a noble vision 1t is also a IA
miliar vision. One could talk for
ever both OF its grandeur and OF its
staleness. Since the peace OF the
Antonines was irrevocably broken up
dream has so insistently tormented
mankind, no mirage has so often de-
luded II. as this ONE ola enforced
and universal cessation of war. His
tory is strewn with the weckage OF
Just such schemes as President VIII
son now commends to the attention OF
the universe. But. happily for hu-
manity. faith and hope are stronger
than skepticism or experience. There
Is always an insurgent conviction that
our fOrefathers failed because thev
were of the past and that we Of the
present, in our fuller day. with our
new instruments. among our more
plastic conditions, can succeed where
they went astray.
There can be no question. then. OF
the response to the Presidents lead.
Europe needs no incentive from Mr.
Wilson or any one else to take up
once more the Sisyphean task OF in
surfing a worldwide peace. She knows
and IL is far beyond the power OF
any looker-on to conceive-what war
is All the belligerents have proclaim
ed, and with equal sincerity, that the
latest war must also be the last, and
that this lis a war to end all wars They
are fighting. one and all declare, that
neither they nor thir children may
ever be called upon to fight again. II
is not the words, however moving, OF
any one man. but the waste and hOr-
ror that have come upon millions OF
men that have sown the seed OF what
unquestionably must prove the most
sustained effort that the world has
yet seen to organize an enduring and
endurable peace. To President VIII
sons ideal, as an ideal, the whole
universe subscribes, and no section Of
IL with a greater passion OF enthusi-
asm than the section which is now
at war.
Things to Be Dealt With.
But there agreement ends. Be
tween the Endorsement of an abstract
proposition and the fashioning OF a
scheme for its fruition there is In
this instance an almost infinite gulf
OF hates, uncertainties and Jealousy
opposing views. And one OF those
uncertainties very closely concerns
the United States The President in
his address to the Senate stated,
what hardly indeed needed saying,
that the United States would have
no voice in determining the actual
terms Of peace between the belliger-
ents. At the same time he endeayor-
ed to influence their character by
promising that II they commended
themselves to American judgment,
and were in line with American prin-
ciples, and held out a fair prospect
of permanency, the United States
would be ready to join with the rest
OF the world in guaranteeing them
and in expanding the immediate set
tlement into a universal covenant.
Practically ne said to the belliger-
ents: Make just peace. and We, the
American people and the American
government, will help you with all
the resources at our command to see
that never again il it broken
Now, for the moment, ! am not con
cerned with Mr.. Wilson's ideas of
what would constitute a just peace
But I am very much concerned with
his assurance that. given just
peace the United States would enter
a federation of the powers in order
10 make II lasting and inviolate.
want to know what this assurance is
worth. l want to know whether the
President, or any President, by a
mere ipse dixit. has the power thus
to commit the United States to a
course Of action that seems on the