Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-12-26
OUR TRUMP CARD

t31fEt'
pan is reported by the Partisan weekly
3 gossip paper On Dit "'Tis said" this gossip
says. that Mr.. Wilson told Colonel Houses
8 mission before 1t left Washington that
when he had big enough army on the
western front he would send an ultmatum
et to Germany. II the ultmatum wasn't
q accepted within forty.elght hours he would
Y ask for a law TO bar German citizens and
! goods from the United States for fifty
pears
B Herein is a paradox, but "A paradox
4 which reveals a fundamental truth about
the delicate business OF making peace. For
while nothing could be harder to imagine
3 than Mr.. Wilson talking like that in pri.
IS vate. he has nevertheless said pretty much
the same thing in public, but in very
!. different words and in very different
spirit Everything depends upon the spirit
In which overtures or threats are made
II Is all the seven wonders OF the modern
world rolled into one that so few Germans
Z secm able to see what the trump card is.
and that we hold it-our trade, our friend.
ship in the years to come. And add to
that the trade and friendship of the Orient
and South America. Every new success OF
f the German Governments arms in Europe
closes automatically another gate of trade
to Germany's future. This is so fagrantIy
obvious fact that it tempts one to be
& optimstic and feel that the worlds horror
+ cannot go on indefinitely. because it is
almost impossible to conceive of a ruling
u clnss, even in Germany, being so blind to
~ welfare Of its own sons. Picturlng a
q Germany emerging from the war still under
Hntocracy, the President said that it might
4 ~ impossible "to admit Germany to the
kree economic intercourse" OF nations but
trust, would in the very nature of things
sooner or later cure itself by processes
4, which would assuredly set in"
II What are the processes that would as.
surediy set in? A gradual prying off of the
autocratc yoke by German business inter.
ests There is shrewd realism in Mr..
Wilson's representations. lie knows that
everything must come slowly, impercepti.
! bly,. One bullying note in his messages To
Cermany's business men would spoil all
He must appear to the most far.seeing of
y them as the only reliable advance agent OF
the German trade that will be starting out
on its painful effort to regain lost ground
y two or three years from now. Some of
them must even now be slowly and subtly
+ working on the imperial imagination to.
ward parliamentary reform.
NJ In too well organized State like Ger.
y many. where the newspapers are yir.
Z eually State-controlled. the first real signs
B - revolt against Kaiserism can be expected
4 from business interests rather than from
the body polite in general The German
4 people are docile. but such a vast economic
! etructure as the German industrial lead.
ers have erected cannot have come into
being without the existence of a great
\ humber of imaginative. daring, individual
}hinkers and organizers. Herr Ballin, the
1ehipping king, Is said to have gained the
KAlser's enmlty by more or less publicly
fretting over the three years idleness OF
me German transatlantic liners These
German business men cannot act publicly
r ~ oehance OF autocracy. They must pull
{tugs. They have long been IL. league
- xl.~ Uas.
Dpriaiism. adding new slices Of territory
their trade area every few years,
<>1omed linked with commercial success.
\ {opt once let Imperialism show signs Of
* lRiIure. what have they to hope for? What
the North, and .South American ports
~ closed to the German liners and
rohantmen? What IL British and Ameri.
ships would not carry German goods?
tunkers have an answer for this
declare that Germany cannot con.
Deace that does not insure her COM
y future. This surely is the widest
~ that even a junker could talk.
D9R Government be coerced into
= It's people 10 buy German goods?
the tunkers have an answer
ne markets of all the world to
~ fay, 'and let US dominate Aus
- Balkans and Russia. and we shall
flu>s empire on land which win
>rn nom the Rhine TO the
" have dsvsIepsd