Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1917-02-22
Is It Merely a Sordid Land Grab2

The German colonial possessions that Great
Britain has already conquered are to be the
lions share. The grand total is 10000 square
miles. Great Britain's total war expenditures,
to date, are estimated at twenty billions dollars.
II that vast amount of money were to be spent
in paying for the new domains that have been
seized, it would come to almost exactly $27 an
acre. The prospects are that in generation or
two of development the lands thus acquired
would be worth nearer 500 an acre and, in
that event, the war would have proved the most
profitable ever waged in human history. Here
is booty of incalculable value and well worth
fighting for. An inconclusive peace would mean
virtual restoration Of the entire possessions
and boundary lines as they were before the war.
So the British government was confronted with
this alternative: End the war now and get
nothing to pay for all that has been sacrificed,
or fight on to complete victory and an imperial
compensation .-World-Herald.
1t is plain that this comment Slightly con-
densed) predicated upon statement attributed
to British cabinet official is insidiously designed
to make thoughtless people believe that so far
as the people of Great Britain are concerned,
there is nothing at issue in this war except a
sordid land grab and that the only obstacle to
immediate peace is their determination to profit
financially by the war;
We hate to believe, and we refuse to believe,
that the bloody conflict in Europe with all its dire
destruction of wealth and loss OF priceless lives
is being waged solely for monetary considera-
tons to drive bargain in acreage property,
If the Central Powers, instead of the Allies,
were yet to be victorious and to keep the con-
ouered lands which they hold in Belgium, France,
Poland Russia and the Balkans, or to exact an
indemnity for giving them up, it would be just
as reasonable, or unreasonable, to figure the cost
by the acre and insist that this was the booty"
for which they had drawn the sword We have
heard it intimated that in our own civil war the
south was fighting solely for the money invested
in their slaves but no one of ordinary intelligence
ascribes such mercenary motive. Just as the
slaves in the south could have been peacefully
freed by compensated emancipation, but the union
could not be preserved without shedding blood
SO, now, undeveloped lands in scattered colonies
could doubtless be bought at price, even as we
have just bought the Danish West Indies, but
the acute issues of national preponderance, the
independent sovereignty OF small states and the
balance of power in Europe could not or at least
would not be adjusted without the consuming
FIRE of war,
No, there must be something more basic in
volved in this terrific struggle of giant armies
than land grab on either large or small scale
Both sides must be convinced they are engaged
in combat for self preservation, for the estab-
shment OF principles and rights all-mportant to
future generations and of such inestmable value
as to be worth any present cost And, right OF
wrong they are unfolding the faith that is in
them. To measure the life blood that is being
poured out on basis of so much an acre fol-
Jungle land in South Africa or tropic islands in
mid-ocean is an insult to all the brave men If
the trenches and all the brave women behind
them--an insult to everyone who has responded
to the call of patriotism on either side.
Rear Admiral Chadwick, retired, comes into
the limelight with an analysis of the fracture.
of the national backbone. The present absenc,
OF fighting bumps the admiral traces to the ener
waiting influences of base ball. tariff wrangle.
and the Termination Of the schools with particu
lar emphasis on the latter. The grizzled Sc;
warrior failed to prescribe remedy for hope
less case of feminitis, contentng himself, jus
| Iike n man in handing o,,t the did Adam,