The Washington herald., 1917-02-11
Only the Expected.

climaxing succession of cheap and
cheeky things with one which is by
long odds the cheapest and the check
iest-addressing an unctuous final
peace note" to Washington.
Such delightful cffroutery comes
only once or twice in generation, and
we who may witness it should re-
member that the abnormal national
psychology producing such an aber-
ration has only one or two parallels
in modern history. If Prussia had
not revealed such eccentric parabolas
of logic since she broke faith with
civilization it would doubtless be re-
garded as an insult by the White
House; but the President is far above
the reach of insult from the astig-
matte bureaucrats of Berlin. He may
we'll be grateful for this unexpected
aid in unmasking the ingrained du-
plicity and chicanery of the German
foreign Office.
In making even tentative and fur
tive overture for a conference with
the United States in the hope of
avcrting war, Germany is revealing
moral bankruptcy in its purest
form. Having spurned the friendship
of America and goaded it into what
is a state of war in law if not in fact,
the Prussian oligarchy perhaps will
assume the sanctimonious vestments
of pacihsm and ask the United States
to defer hostilities until negotiations
of some sort are conducted via the
Swiss government; in the meantime
doubtless purposing to continue sub
marine crimes with unabsted vigor
and to keep American ships out of
the blockade zone.
There will be plenty of cynics to
say that the administration has rich
ly deserved such a rebukc for it's
temporizing policy. Germany may
have plucked up courage as she saw
the President avoiding the follow
through" after he broke off all diplo-
matte relations with her. She ap-
praised the extreme reluctance of the
American government to take the
initiative in a situation which essenti-
ally demanded initiative. And she
has acted accordingly.
A few more days will develop this
piece of erraticism to its real pinnacle
of absurdity and Americans will have
an opportunity of checking off an
other heavy item to the debit side
of German diplomacy. The Washing
ton government will make a mistake
If it even replies to the expected over
ture, which is conceived in the purest
mendacity. Had Germany desired
peace with the United States she
knew the way to maintain It. If she
desires peace now she knows the way
equally we'll; and that is "to immedi-
ately declare and effect an abandon
ment" ofthe form of U-boat warfare
which she has invoked to postpone
the day of ruin.
In the meantime we are told that
the President sees no war mandate"
apparent; that he is resisting the
clamor of the jingo element and the
argument that he is losing time" that
''his whole nature rebels against war"
The American people as a whole rebel
against war and deplore it with an
intensity which might be matched
against the Presidents. But all that
is beside the point. The present week
has literally seen the whole question
at issue-including national honor
placed in cold storage by the adminis-
tration; in pawn, so to speak. Another
week of dallying and the Presidents
battle will be not with the jingoes,
but with the pacihsts; with the
Bryans, the Vierecks and others of
their ilk who will take their cue from
the new move predicted of Berlin.
Perhaps that is the secret of the
German overture. A final plea to
American pacihsm; last desperate
resort to the forces of alienism.