The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1917-12-22
German Peace Effort Forced By Economic Alliance Written Blood

has lost Bagdad and Jerusalem.
Mesopotamia and Palestine, but they
have lost nothing and on the military
side are threatened with no immedl-
ate disaster.
But on the material side the Ger
man position is infinitely worse than
a year ago, and IL is to the material
side that the world viii look more
and more henceforth for the solution
of this greatest OF wars. In the last
year Germany has not lost more men
than her French and British OPP
ponents, conceivably, but she has
borne the loss alone, while the
French and British have divided 1t.
In two years the British may have
lost 100000, the French 10000
but the Germans have lost 100000,
including their casualties in the
Russian and Italian fields. This
means that the German industrial
machinery, the human machinery, is
being burned up almost twice as
fast as the French or the British,
while we, the other great rival have
as yet lost nothing in man power.
And at the same time the year has
seen the United States enter the
war, Immediately turning over its
great resources in money and credit
to the allies and preparing to turn
over its millions of men. In 1913, IL
the war endures that long, we shall
take over a portion of the human
losses Of the allies, while the drain
on German manhood will remain
constant. And with our entrance
into the war we have taken up new
relations with the enemies Of the
Germans, which will endure after
the war and, together with our fin-
ancial commitments to Britain,
France and Italy, will insure close
relations after the struggle. When
the war ends our investments in
Britain and France will be tremen-
dous; merely to protect them, If for
no, other reason, we shall have TO
bend our efforts to aid in rehabilit-
ating these countries.
Thus, in fact, although not by any
treaty written or likely to be writ
ten, there is forming great econ
omic alliance against Germany which
will endure after the war. Its cement
win be the blood of the soldiers OF
the allied nations shed in a common
cause and against a common foe.
All the negotiations, arrangements,
interchange of men and ideas among
the allied countries will contribute
to erecting an alliance not less real
because it has no 'scrap Of paper" to
guarantee Il.
All this commercial Germany sees
Much of it this commercial Germany
recognizes is now unavoidable, but
out. OF the ruin much may perhaps
stiIl be saved If the war does not GO
on for a year or two more and com
plete the organization Of the world
against the Fatherland. But each
month the war goes forward this al
lance, this mutual understanding
this community of action among heI
enemies menaces Germany's future
! and the more successful her armies
are in the field, provided they do moi
| accomplish an absolute triumph
and no German expects this-the
closer this alliance becomes and the
more closely united are the French
the British and the Americans, TO say
nothing of the Italians and all the
smaller nations now allied with the
anti German group.
Hence, it is essential to Germany
to have peace. Each day the war
continues. is a lost battle, even though
il is marked by no captured trench
or city. This is why the Germans
talk peace. This is why the German
agent talks peace; this is why every
German intrigue is directed toward
procuring peace. We on the allied
side believe that in time, and when
America arrives on the battlefield
the victory can be won in the field
The German, equally honestly, be-
Iieves that he can never be defeated
and conquered by the opposing ar
mics, and his arguments have their
value. But what the German does
recognize more clearly than the allies
in the fact that short Of the sort OF
victory which escaped him at the
Marine and at Verdun he will lose
the war IL it is protracted, even If his
armies are unconquered, because his
whole commercial and industrial fu-
ture is being destroyed, while his
armies remain unbeaten and his
lines mistaken.
Now. in this situation and temper
the German is going to propose
peace again. What will his sugges-
lions be? He wants peace and he
must pay a price. but his foes desire
peace and are also suffering from
war-weariness. In this situation
there is an irreducible minimum
that he would not recognize last
year and must recognize this year
as unacceptable. Until he is prepared
to evacuate Belgium and northern
France, as well as recently conquered