Evening journal., 1917-02-01

enceS that separate, Great Britain ana
the United States; and also because
every Englishman is equally per-
suaded that on the cooperation OF
these two countries rests the best
hope of future peace. There are
some factors, too. that are manifestly
tending in the direction Mr.. Wilson
: is eager to take. The very genuine
aspiration for peace which is now
part Of the American consciousness,
the many new ties OF commerce and
finance which the war has manufac-
tured between the United States and
the outer world, and the strong and
sound instinct of the American peO-
pie, which leads them on almost all
( questions of foreign policy to stand
/ by the President these are forces
which Mr. Wilson knows supremely
well how to turn to account. But
when one thinks Of how largely Amer.
lean foreign policy is a one-man pol.
icy and subject therefore to tangen
tial surprises and reversals; when
one reflects on the general incurious
ness OF the American people on ex-
ternal affirs and the difficulty OF weld
ing them to any common unity OF
thought or action; and wnen one at
tempts TO estimate the power Of those
precepts and traditions that hitherto
/ have for the most part restricted
American interests to the American
hemisphere-one cannot but conclude
that Mr. Wilson's pledge 10 the bel
ligerents, to Europe and indeed to
the world, is rather an expression of
personal opinion than a declaration Of
fixed national policy
One Mans Aspirations.
When, therefore, we are invited to
conclude a peace on certain terms,
and when as an inducement to do so
there is held out the promise that
the peace so made will be maintain
ed. not only by the moral and diplo-
matte but by the physical power Of
/ the United States, and when. on ex-
amining this promise, we find that
| II represents the aspirations Of an
individual rather than the settled
purpose Of a people, we feel-I mean
we In England feel-that a guarantee
of such uncertain validity is not one
on which we can safely rely. Too
much is at stake TO trust TO anything
but an ironclad bond. And we feel
/ this to be particularly the case when
the peace that we are urged to make
is one on which nothing lasting can
be built 1 frankly do not know who
the President had in his mind when
he talked of a peace without vic
tory" But am sure that cOnsci ously
he would neither say nor do any
thing which would stay the march of
democracy in Europe or buttress
what still remains of the power of
Prussian militarism That Mr.. Will
SON would deliberately set out to in
sure a longer lease OF life for Hohen
zollernism and all its hateful and
anti-American implications is to me
inconceivable. Unhappily, as Mexico
has abundantly proved statesman
, ship has to be judged, not by its in
tentiOns, but by its results; and the
result Of the Presidents recent moves
toward peace is to encourage Prus-
sianism and to ALLEVIATE the United
States from the sister democracies of
, France and Great Britain.
The governing facts in the Euro
pean situation are that the ruling
caste in Germany want peace and
Nthat the Allies do not; and that be-
tween Prussianism and democracy
there can be no collprOmise. One or
the other must go under; and there
/ has never been ia my mind the slight
est question as to which side Mr..
Wilson, and the vast majority Of the
American people with him, wish TO
see prevail. His hopes and SYM
pathies and theirs are instinctively
and inevitably on the side Of de-
mocracy. But just as President VIII
sons genuine desire to be of service
to the Mexican people seems scarce
ly as yet to have benefited that dis
tracted country, so l confess to a fear
that his action in the infinitely more
tangled and hazardous situation in
which Europe now finds itself may
unwittingly assist the enemies and
the would-be murderers OF that very
cause of liberty and democracy which
he undoubtedly desires to see tri-
umphant everywhere. II there Is one
thing that is now infiexibly imbedded
in the consciousness OF Europe IL is
that the Prussian military system
must be uproOted before the ground
can be prepared for any scheme of
future peace The war will go on.
and ought to go on, till that end is
thoroughly and completely achieved.
But every suggestion Of an early
peace CT a peace without victory, or
Of a makeshift settlement by so much
hinders its achievement, by so irri-
, tates the Allies. and by so much en-
courages the Prussian warmakers to
hope that they may still by diplomacy
save their skins. escape the penalties
Of their unparalleled crimes and
avert the downfall that otherwise
most surely awaits them Therein
lies the danger OF Mr.. Wilson's peace
activities. IL is the danger that
America may find herself unknowing-
~ aligned with the powers whose
principles she detests and estranged |
from the powers with whose ideals
and scheme OF government and So
clety she Is in the closest sympathy
II is the danger that she may be put
in the position of supporting mill
tarism and betray democracy. And /
that would he a tragedy almost as
great as the war itself.