The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1918-04-19
A MASTERY DISSERTATION
WHY PEACE is IMPOS-
SIBLE NOW.
Germany Must Be Whipped or She
Will Whip the Whole World IN
the Next Generation.

On the eleventh day of last month
the President addressed To Congress
an answer to declarations Of wsr aims
made previously by Hertling in Ger
many and Czernin in Austria Next
day the Evening Post of New York
appeared with q large headline on
the front page: Peace Negotiations
BEGUN. At the same time nearly
every newspaper in America carried
q Washington dispatch indicating
that the President had insugursted
a new kind Of peace negotiations by
interchange Of speeches at long dis
lance. Heaven forbid that we
should hold Mr.. Wilson responsible
for what the newspaper editors and
correspondents read into his speeches
but in this particular case the dedne-
ton was so unanimous that there
must have been some good reason
for the general belief in the com
inr of peace. Public feeling vesrs
from one extreme 70 another in such
matters, and it is within the bounds
of possibility that before this page
is issued from the press, something
will have happened 70 make the
country reject the very thought OF
peace. At the moment Of writing,
however, that seems unlikely. Peace
is IN the air. We are constantly
told by people in authority that this
is to be the decisive year and that
peace must come before next winter.
That may be true. President VIII
son may or may not have intended
to begin peace negotiations 81 long
distance, as the press declared 1t
is certain that we can begin negotia-
lions any day we please with Ger
many and can have peace as soon
as we please. But let Us not fool
ourselves or be fooled. Any peace
made today will be victorious peace
for Germany.
Any peace made this year will be
a victorious peace for Germany.
To our mind the man who is will
ing 70 make peace on such terms is
an enemy of the Allies, an enemy Of
humanity, and an enemy Of the
nited States. We do not blame
RoumRnis If she is forced TO such
a peace, or the Ukraine, which has
already made such q peace. A
small country cut off from all COM
rnunications with the outside world,
unable to arm itself or get supplies
enough to wage a war Of any kind
must choose between utter destruc-
ton or q compromise with criminals
But no such dilemma faces US. We
are not a small country; we have q
population far greater than that Of
Germany; our resources are Of IN
finitely vsstsr proportions. We can
arm ourselves and we can feed our
selves for an indefinite period. We
are entering upon the war with q
nation whose armies have suffered
terrific losses during three and a
half years and whose civil population
is already hungry. Our adversary
has three allies, only one Of which
is q first power; the other two are
not to be compared in power or re
sources with any Of our big States
like New York or Illinois OF Penn
sylvznia. We are not alone in this
controversy. As Allies we have
three first class powers, 70 say moth
ing Of host Of small friends. One
Of our Allies commands the seas
so that we can place our troops to
day on German soil and fight there
and can send our aeroplRnes al
over Germany. But not a single Ger
man can come within three thousand
miles Of America, nor can our cities
be bornbarded by German aeroplanes.
Is II conceivable that IN such cir
cumstances the United States viii
do what poor Roumania, absolutely
at the mercy Of the enemy, is still
ashamed to do; acknowledge our
selves defeated by Germany. and
acknowledge defeat before we have
nobilized two per cent Of our popu-
lation or struck blow in the helds
Is that the kind Of 4 nation we are :
Hundreds Of thousands Of ordinAr-
ily sane American citizens are con
stantly telling Us that tins Is just
the kind Of a nation We are, that