The Washington herald., 1917-04-29
DanEerou. pelusion.
tPhiladelphia North American.

| PhlladelpmA North Amel1can.l
In explaining their mission. the illustri-
Gus representatives OF Great Britain and
France who are now In Washington lay
the greatest stress upon their desire that
the United States should profit by the
mistakes those countries made in the
early period of the war. I'VE have
ltrunksful OF bIunders to show" re-
marked one of the experts cheerfully
! Obviously. there is a good deal more Of
design than of mere politeness in these
I continents. The foreign envoys are not
conressing national errors and miscal-
culations in order to fiatter American
self-esteem, nor even in haphazard warn
ing against remote contingencies. They
are uncomfortably aware. however diplo-
matically they conceal their apprehen-
sion, that a formidable minority in con-
gress Is bent upon committing the most
costly and dangerous and fnexcusable
i blunder a nation could commit on enter
! ing this war-a resort to the folly of at
tempting to raise a great army by volun-
teer enlistments.
/ For this reason the visit Is especially
Iopportune. II the mischievous opposi-
ton fomented against obligatory service
| Is decisively defeated, that result will DC
due In no small measure to the presence
here of delegates from nations which have
| put to the ultimate test of war the two
systems and have utterly discarded that
one which has been revealed as worse
than worthless Under the circum-
stances, the influence of foreign opinion
upon American legislative action is not
an evil to be deplored. but a benefit to
be appreciated, since 1t is exerted only
| by the silent and inexorable logic of DEM
onstrated facts.
II there were any evidence in history.
any array OF expert knowledge or any
plausible arguments to justify reliance
for the national defense in this titanic
conflict upon the false, feeble and futile
principle of volunteer military service.
there might be some excuse for the de-
bate in Congress. But the whole record
of the United States condemns the in
efficacy of the system, while the entire
experience Of the present war proves 1t
an infallfble factor of defeat.
Those of its advocates who are not
consciously serving the enemy remain
seem. that this is a struggle of armies,
and that America need do nothing more
than create a huge force OF brave troops.
On the contrary, this is a conflict of ma
tions, OF resources, of skill and determi-
nation in utilizing economic power as
well as military strength.
The French Gift.
CNsu York Tmes)
| There Is an Incompatible grace about
the French way of saying things, a quail
| ity that eludes others. Mr.. Viviani packs
Everything that can be said about our
entrance into the war in a sentence that
contains not a word too much or too lit
tie and that could not be amended. He
says that the Presidents message Eek
presses the virtues of your. race-"Iong-
suffering patience before appealing to
force. and force to avenge that long-suf-
fering patience when there can be no
other means" So. too, he goes to the
heart of the American relief work in a
searching sentence whose truth may not
have been apprehended by all Ameri-
cans before he spoke 1t:
Your inexhaustible generosity was not
the charity of the fortunate to the dis
tressed; 1t was an affirmation Of your
conscience. a reasoned approval Of your
judgment"
The true meaning OF Americas entry
into the war. its weight in the decision
ard its definition of the issue. is illumi-
mated in n sentence as brilliantly as 1t
could have been by columns OF speech:
From today on, all the forces of free
dom are let loose"
IAN the forces" no longer Is the bur
den of saving democracy laid on few
OF the democracies; and. what is more
important. no longer can the silence of
the American democracies give color to
the pretense of autocracy that It is not a
war of autocracy against democracy, but
merely an internal European strife.
Others have said these things in thou
sands of words, but 1t takes a French
man to say them best
Americans on the Firing Lines.
! CBufalo Evening Nevs)
The first war council OF the allies
shows clearly that Europeans, with
whom we have accepted common cause.
take our entrance into the war very SER
iously.
| Not only do they wish to see the