The Washington herald., 1917-02-02
Ninety Days.

day is out The only certain thing
is-action must come. Delay would
be demoralizing to the nation. Tenn
porizing with the impudent challenge
from Germany is hardly conceivable.
1t can only be justified by some new
development of which the public as
yet knows. nothing.
The people of this country may as
we'll grid themselves for a trying and
disastrous experience. War is too
big a word to be used as a football
in the present situation 1t is folly
to deny what a rupture with Germany
means. 1t is equal folly to make
lurid with half-baked jingoism the
realities of the issue confronting the
nation.
If war or the shadow of war comes
it will not be undertaken with any
vengeful, bitter feeling toward the
German people. Pity and not hate
will dominate America. Those who
know Germany know that this is her
hour of travail-know that gall and
wormwood are her lot. The real
tragedy of her condition has never
been painted. No journalist in Ger
many would be allowed to paint it.
No man outside of Germany knows
enough of the actual facts to deal
with the subject adequately
The fact is that Germany is only a
step removed from the "hand-to-
mouth" living that characteFizes the
hapless peoples she has trod under
her heel. Austria-Hungary, her ally,
proudest of empires, has millions in
abject starvation. Food shortage is
the ghastly spectacle that stalks in
every corner of the central empires.
The prediction is freely made in this
city that they cannot hold out until
the next harvest.
"The collapse of Germany is COM
ing within ninety days" says one au-
thority in Washington, a publicist
of international reputation.
He may be right and he may be
wrong. Germany's desperate policy
lends force to his prediction. For
what other reason would the admi-
ralty sanction a ruthless submarine
campaign now, almost in midwinter,
when the Atlantic and the North Sea
are stormy, and when conditions are
highly unfavorable for subs? Would
it not be the normal, logical thing to
open such a drastic policy in the
spring1
Germany could not wait, not even
for the peace leaven to work. She
gave no opportunity for that pacific
feeling which (she says) is strong in
France and Britain to exert its infu-
ence with the home governments.
She acted like. a man breaking out
of leash when the strain became
too great.
1t is significant that both sides now
predict that the war will come to a
quick end. There is a unanimity of
opinion on this point in ally and Teu-
tonic circles. The Germans think the
Oriental method of strangulation"
will do its deadly work on the en-
tente within a month or two. The
allied spokesmen think Germany is
at the end of her rope; that a few
months will tell the whole story.
Neither side is talking in a mere
spirit of vainglory. The war has
long passed the flamboyant stage.
AS for America, a break with Ger
many will draw the blood to our
checks and cause our hearts to beat
a little faster, but we will go into war
If we go into war at all-with a
touch of admiration for an heroic
people who may with our aid break
free from the control Of insolent Ho-
henzollernism and the most vicious
military caste of modern times.
Let us not think of war until Ger
many has shown she will have it no
other way.