Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1917-01-19
WHAr THE GERMANS ARE
FIGHTING FOR.
New Yor,; Worldly

the sentiment of the allies is so in
hospitablc to peace let them read their
kaiser's New Year proclamation to
his army and navy.
The Kaiser tells the German people
that they have been victorious in
all theatres of war on land and on
sea- The campaign in Rumania is
described as our "reccnt triumphant
march" THE greatest naval battle
this year was our victory in the Ska
gerrak," i'll which the German fleet
retired to its base and left the Brit
ish III command of the sea. "The gal
iant deeds of our submarines have
secured FOR my navy glory and ad-
miration forever" "God also in the
future will be with us"
The Kaiser could hardly say more
II the British navy were at the bot
tom Of the sea and the German ar
my were i'll possession of London,
Paris. Fctrograd and Rome. That
sort of rhetoric may be admirably
adapted to the business of fooling all
OF the Germans some of the time and
some of the Germans all the time, but
is is not Il preliminary to peace con-
fcrenCcS.
For dynastic reasons it is ncces-
sary to make the German people be-
lieve that they have won the war and
that any peace which. Germany may
propose is IL victorious peace; but
there will be no peace on that basis.
France sill die first.
Assuming that there is an honest
; desire for penc in Germany, no pro-
"rcss will be made until the Kaiser
and the responsible statesmen of Ger
many begin to talk the language of
peace and stop talking the language
OF conquest. No nation can brag it,
self into victory. There must be Ger
mans of sufficient sanity to know
that che Kaiser's proclamation is Il
piece of imperial dcmagogy; that
Germany is not victorious, and at
hest can achieve only Il statement mt
incalcu!ablo sacrifices of blood and
treasure. They must know that the
NaiscrS boasts are Il form of trca-
son to Germany, in that they give
nd and comofrt to the enemy by
making the allies more determined
than over to see the war through to
.hc bitter end
Yet the Germans tolerate il, and
The fact that thy tolerate il is the
strongest justification that the allies
can present for their refusal to enter
peace conference. Great Britain
and France have not yet been asked
10 make peace with the Geramn peo-
pie but with the Hohenzolern dynas
ty and with Jungcrtum. Such a peace
can be ut best only truce.
1t may flatter German pride to be-
lieVe that Germany has been "vic-
torious in all theatres Of war on land
and sea-" but that sort of pride must
he paid for and it will be paid for
What the German people are actually
lighting for is not German victory
hut a means of so placating their
own vanity that they will not be
tempted to revolutionize their govern
ment when the war is over. They do |
not know it. but they may rest as
sured that the Kaiser knows il and
the Chancellor knows it and all Jun
kcrtum knows it.
The imperial government would
Immediately offer most liberal terms
OF peace if it could he certain that |
when the rccation came there would
he no change i'll the German attitude |
toward the throne and the dovtrine
OF divine right. This is not the first
time that Il great people has battled
desperately to insure its own politi-
cal scrvtude and to save itself from
freedom and it may not be the last.
But there can be no basis for per-
manert peace until the Germans them
selves begin to understand what they
arc really fighting for, which is not
freedom for Germany, but their own
continued political submission to the
medieval system that plunged them
into this war.