The daily Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1916-1917, 1917-09-13
GROUNDS OF LASTING PEACE

Inc united oldleS went Ai'o 'iAiA
war to help make the world safe FOL
democracy" Citizens of the United
States are interested in knowing what
are the grounds of lasting peace. The
American Review of Reviews points
them out. The world can only be
made safe for democracy, according
to the Review of Reviews, by ending
excessive militarism in the form of
vast land ornaments, and excessive
navalism in the sense of fighting
power on the common seas exercised
by individual nations in their own in
terest. Furthermore, there can be no
stable peace in the world until the
colonial system-that is to say, the OBJ
solete empire business"-is brought
to an end. 1t is true enough that Ger
many's struggle for an imperial place
in the world brought on this war. But
it is only less true that the imperial
conquests, ambitions, rivalries and
selfish aims of Great Britain, Russia,
Austria, Italy and France had very
much to do with creating Germany's
false and belated imperial programs.
Russia now sees these things in a new
light. The people of the United States
have seen them clearly, and will con-
tinue to do so unless their judgment
is warped by the constant tendency
to direct public opinion from London
and Paris. Americans should not for
a moment fail to see that if the larger
aims of this war are accomplished
the lesser details can be worked out
along lines of sound principle. The
Allies are now in some danger of
yielding to the guidance of the same
false principles that dominated Ger
many and Austria at the start. That
is to say, they are demanding the
mere spoils of victory. The fairest-
minded man in the world is the En-
glishman. But it may not be con-
ceded that his fair-mindedness enti-
ties him to the dominant place in the
world. The English mind cannot al
ways entertain-in matters of world
wide policy-the unwelcome view
that the same rules and standards
should apply to different countries.
Thus England declares she must keep
Germany's colonies for their own
good. The British Empire may in
deed be said to furnish a working
model. One way out of the present
agony might be an insistent applica-
tion for membership in the British
Empire on the part of numerous 9TH
er countries. That an indefinite con-
tinuance of the present insane Euro
pean war is likely to spread ideals
of British justice through the earth,
may well be doubted. Liberty and
progress are not propagated by force.
Behind the scenes, the peace talk
and peace efforts in Europe are inces-
SAINT. If the United States had not
gone into hte war, France and Eng
land would almost certainly by this
time have made peace with Germany
on. terms not sufficiently advantageous
to France. The facts have been kept
from the American people because it
is the official view in Paris, London
and Washington that the people can
not now be trusted with the truth.
When the whole truth about the war
is known in future, the discredit will
be variously distributed. Meanwhile,
all people who are able to keep their
heads cool in exciting times, and who
are not affected by selfish interests
or ambitions. are keenly desirous to
have peace made without one mo-
ment of needless postponement. The
United States regards the cause of
the Entente Allies as incomparably
more just and righteous than the
cause of Germany. Our country be-
came belligerent in order to help end
the war on sound and lasting princi-
pies. President Wilson has stated
those principles repeatedly, and they
must not be waived. The danger is