Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-09-03
ENGLAND REJECTS
WAR AFTER WAR"
Little Faith Now in Paris Con-
ference, Which Mr.. Will
son Condemned
By GILBERT VIVIAN sELDEs

| N fEAh ago the hoarse cheers for Mr
Hughes, Of Australia, were Just dyins
out In England. Today England, which
has found a really great man. is wondering
now she ever was so bemused and bedazzled
/ by the cheap fervor Of Mr. Hughes. The
great man is General SHUTS. And the
measure Of what England has passed
through In this year is the distance between
these two men.
Mr.. Hughes was the idol of Horatio Bot
| tomley. and Mr.. Bottomley who is as right
as trigger about winning the war, is about
as offensive to the average decencies as any
man out of jail can be. General SHUTS
must certainly be the idol of The Round
Table, IL that group of stern and realistic
and far-seeing men can allow themselves
the luxury of idolatry. Mr.. Hughes won
fame because he seemed to be swinging the
country in favor of the Paris Conference |;
General Smuts has made one speech, an
eloquent and simple speech, in which he
told what the British Empire--he prefers
to speak of the Commonwealth--can mean
to itself and to the world after the war.
Mr.. Hughes emgrated from Wales to Aus
tralla General SHUTS emigrated from the
Transvaal to the world at large.
1t would hardly be necessary to make this
contrast were 1t not for the fact that the
people who have remained at home In Eng
land have so definitely rejected Hughessm
and are so clearly accepting the broad mind
and the generous heart of General SHUTS
1t is true that many people here are still
keen for the Paris Conference and for the
cutting off of Germany from world trade, no
matter what sort of peace we make. no mat
ter what sort of Germany issues from the
war. But those are people whom nothing,
not even a world war. can wake up to the
fact that the world is moving and that
they are not even important enough to clog
the wheels. / speak now of middle-class
people, not fnanciers and eXploiters, not
politicians with constituencies to gain. Tho
ordinary intelligent citizen of England has,
made more progress in the last year of the
war than in the two years before. AND he
is struggling along a pathway which We
know
The Stockholm Fiasco
It may, perhaps. seem cynical TO say this
just after the intolerable fiasco of the Stock
holm affair. in which the casual observer
could not decide whether candor had alto
gether departed from Cabinet Ministers or
far too much candor had appeared in per-
sonal debates. Yet in the vast confusion of
statements, in contradictions and befuddle-
ments. the people of England held near to
the straight line they had plotted for them
selves. While the pacifist group shouted for
a march on Stockholm and spoke of our
German friends" and while the jngoes
stood ready to curse Kerensky and all his
tribe If need be. the people who hardly ever
get a chance to speak for themselves really
wanted to know whether they would be help
ing to achieve the elementary objects Of the
war by going or by staying away. They
are not yet persuaded that Stockholm Is not
German maneuver; they see no sign that
Harden and Liebknecht and the Vorwaerts
group, which was driven from control, will
represent Germany at the conference. The
only persuasion which Germany has been
able to invent has been another air raid
And still IT would be wrong to say that
the mass of those who are opposed to the
stockholm conference are opposed because
they are afraid that It might lead to peace
before they had got something" out Of the
war, The Germans will say so. but it is
not true. A year ago it might have been
true.
The war is many degrees more terri
Bile today than 1t was then. It is in one
sense, less hopeful, because a year ago the
power OF the British armies was still un-
known. Now, when the word knows al
most to An ounce how great that power is
the problem of using 1t is tremendously Sc.
known.
And naturally as the war grows more
terriple It's objects must grow grander. Just
as the entrance Of each new country ex-
tends the area upon which the Allies can
depend, so 1t extends the area over which
the results or the war must be spread A
small war may have mean result. IL
the Allies had crushed Germany in front OF
Paris they might have been content to
snatch away a few provinces and end it So
III the Somme had been the decisive victory
OF the war the Allies might have been con-
tent to make peace with reformed" Ger
many But the terms Of peace mount I'D
with each day OF sacrifice. They are hIrh
Ideals and hard to live up to, but the
people5 OF the Allies grow stronger each
day to carry the burden.
Reconstruction" the New Idea
Restoration" has ceased to be a magic
word People hers demand that Germany
offer that at least; but reconstruction Of
the world order Is far clearer in their<
minds. II may mean to some federated
Balkans. left to pursue its way without
the damning interference Of Germany and
Austria; to others 1t may mean a league
OF nations. To most it presumes a Germany
RID or kaiserism. But, In whatever terms
reconstruction Is conceived, It is out of
doubt the main thing In many minds which.
year ago, thought chiefly Of winning back
territory and getting big indemnity to pay
expenses. ''
l have no intention of painting the Eng
lish middle class as a thoughtful. generous
rnresentful body which Is willing TO end the
war as soon as Germany sends round a
neat note OF regret for the unfortunate mis-
understanding There are bitterness and
hatred in plenty, and with each skilifllly
executed private atrocity of the Germans
that hatred is bound to extend to more and
more OF the German people. still find that
most people are not enthusiastic about
bombing expeditions over large German
cities without military detectives. What 7
do find is mild wonder in peoples minds
They want to know how much of Germany
needs to be eradicated before the poison is
out of the system. And that is a question
which is growing progressively harder TO
answer.
Yet the mere fact that people think about
1t is a sign Of their fierce instinct for fair
play. The British aviator who dropped his
lifebelt to a German whom he had shot into
the sea is the everlasting symbol of this
attitude. 1 have fancy that he dropped
the belt not particularly to save an enemy:
he dropped 1t because the man in the water
was not having a fair chance TO fight for
his life. And the people Of England are
still anxious to grant a fair chance to the
Germans.
LEARNING by Mistakao