The Washington herald., 1917-02-03
Marking Time.

The President remains Sphinx-like
to his plans The nation is not in
his confidence. He seems to- be seek
ing some of the overtones OF public
opinion through some canny process
of analysis that is exclusively his
own.
Should the German Ambassador, by
ne grace of some mystic intellectual
process originated by Woodrow Will
son, be allowed to remain in Wash
ington at time when he himself is
confident his recall is only matter
of hours, we would be at loss to
know whether to condole with or to
congratulate him. The whole situa-
ton as it stands this morning-if it
really is as doubtful and chaotic as
it appears to be-is cruel jest for
Americans.
Should the President force Count
Won Bernstorff to remain in this Cap
ital when the country he represents
has made an outlaw of herself in the
company of nations, the grotesque
humiliation of the thing would lay no
less upon himself than upon Ameri-
can pride. To ask him to stay until
an American is formally and with due
ceremony murdered on the seas as
the result of the new U-boat edict is
the most picturesque form of torture
that any diplomat has been obliged
to undergo in recent history.
Confidence remains, however, that
the President will act before it is too
late. We believe the bolt will be shot
very soon. To our minds delay is
deadly.
"Note-writing to Germany" The
very suggestion is Quixotic. fitting
at windmills would be a splendidly
utilitarian practice compared to it.
Reading Nietzche in an old ladies'
home would be the essence of practi-
cality in contrast. Even the New
York Evening Post, the leading paci-
fist newspaper in the United States,
is so bellicose these days over the
German admiralty proclamation that
it has severed relations with Ger
many on its own account without
waiting for the government to take
action.
Despite inspired cables from Ber-
lin, it is we'll understood that the Ger
man foreign Office has discounted the
whole situation from the American
point of view and fully expects the
break" II is part of the German
diplomatic game Bethmann-Hollweg
called attention in the Reichstag
Thursday to his word of last March
when he said: Every means that is
calculated to shorten the war, even
the most ruthless methods, consti-
tutes the most humane policy to fol-
low" Apparently he speaks of short
ening the war only through decisive
victory. The words are open to the
construction that Ruthless methods
may shorten the war by quickening
the realization among the German
people that nothing. not even des-
perate bararism itself, can stavc of
inevitable defeat.
The present moves of Germany arc
merely part of the deliberate "cduca-
tion" of the German nation in the
present crisis, the preparation for dis
illusion and disaster. The dynasty and
the Junkers will save their necks if
they can. By arraying the neutral
world against them they can raise the
white flag, perhaps, without a dcluge
of anarchic wrath from their own
people. From this point of view the
United States can make its surest
move for world peace by rising in
calm but decisive mood to meet the
insolent challenge of inferior Prus-
sian bureaucrats. 1t would hasten the
final word from Germany.