Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-05-31
Where All True Liberals Stand.

Where AU True L20erGLS SLGBG.
1t is a particularly impressive and assuring fact
that staIwart progressves and thoughtful radicals
AL stand for an unainching prosecution Of the war
until German militarism is crushed. We say stall
wart' progressives and "thOughtfu' radicals.
There are certain brittle intellectuals,' to use
Kipling's graphic phrase certain ratte-brained
Bolsheyid who seize every possible to pre-
dict and inferentially to advocate a negotiated
peace They have been most observed amongst the
disciples OF Lenine and TrOtzky, whose policy of
negotiating with Prussianism can now be clearly
judged in all its tragical consequence. America,
too, has had her share of deuded cyclists seeking
10 obstruct or enervate the nations will; and
so have England, France and Italy. What counts,
however, is that the common heart and common
mind of the Americans, the English, the French
ana the Italians offer haven TO this paciiism.
On the contrary, they steadfasty against it, and
d. ec.aIl. are the more democratic elements of
them against it.
\ scasonable instance appears in the recent
announcement of the American Labor Mission to
s,.1..e ana England. Upon their departure from
Paris those delegates, representing the working peo
pie of the United States declared the unshakaDle
determination of our country never to swerve until
the task has been accomplished and accomplished
thoroughly" 1t should be noted that pacifst poll
ticians in this country well in Europe had
exerted the utmost pressure they could bring to
bear the American Labor delegates to get them
10 support the idea of a conference with Germany.
Their firm refusal and the heartening influence Of
their position led the editor of that emphaticaIly
liberal French journal The Rights of Man" to
declare I'm sending this delegation as much
has been done for the salvation of France as in
dispatching an army to our front. They have
strengthened the backs of the war-weary and have
caused the defeatists to hide their faces" This
answering determination to see the task thorough
ly accomplished is the attitude of representative
British labor The Seamen's Union of Great Britain
refused fatty to have any hand in transporting
pacfist delegations. Mr. Havelock Wilson, presi-
dent of that Union, has long been known, says an
English correspondent, "as one of the hardest
fighters for radical theories, but he has the com
mon sense to realize that the overshadowing
tyranny of Prussianism must be beaten before the
relatively minor ills of the world can be attended
to-" OF the many instances and utterances attest
ing the contempt with which the sturdy popular
mind regards proposals for a patched-up peace,
none is more trenchant than these words of ROyd
Morrison. leader in the American Alliance Of
Labor and Democracy:
"Out in the desoate reaches of No Mans
Land of public opinion are the pitiable types
which guessed wrong about the Fight for
Democracy. YOU oh vanity-brained
radical men, must some day stand at d bar of
Judgment and for your contemptuous
dongs You oh blatant ]. w w. fool must
some day answer for the foul deeds you hatch
ed in your Shiny nests. You, oh soft-faced,
soft-minded pacfist must day reap the
contempt of the world for your well-meant
idiocy"
The professional pacifists not the only ones
who guessed wrong about this fight for democracy.
Do you recall the politicians and journalists
who in attempts to divert notice from German
crimes sought to engender prejudice and hatred
against England? And those who sought to defeat
the Selectve Service bill and who cried against
sending American troops to France? Had lis
tened to their foolish counsel we should be in
a plight as disgracefu and as dangerous as ii we
had listened to the "soft-mnded" pacifist or to the
outright pro-German. The fact is ''pro-German" is
a fitting description for the whole species of those
who try to delay or limit our prosecution of the
war to a point short of complete victory over Prus-
sianism. They may be unwittingly pro-German.
but that does not alter the effect There can be
no middle-mindedness in this struggle Tor freedom
and civilization against the Huns. The who is
not Fundamentally for the American cause is
against it. The who is not Unqualifedy
against Prussianism is for it, The man who would
not give his ali for the winning of the is IN
worthy of a place beneath the Stars and Stripes.
The pacifist and the compromiser is friend to
the cause of peace and humanity, but in effect an
agent of Germany's autocratic and brutal mill
tarism From the true progressive. the true patriot
the true humanitarian. he will receive not a mo-
ments countenance