New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-09-02

Lord love you, there can't be too much
'orce for us! insinuates the benignant
New Republic" drumming up Acquain-
ance Subscribers in August, 1918. But
t was singing quite different tune in
August, 1917, when the nation was only
half at war and it was still safe to talk
frank defeatist propaganda. Here is
he tune of a year ago, from a leading
article called "Taking Stock"
page 81, issue of August H.
1t is one thing, however. to close the
door to German victory. 1t is another to
open it to a military victory for the
Allies. Tho American nation Is
fully capable of preventing Germany
from winning. 1t is not capable of as
surfing a military decision to the Allies.
The two million men which the
War Department is now preparing to
train would be utterly inadequate. The
size of the new army would have to be
increased to at least six million men; and
at least as many more million tons OF
new shipping would have to be built in
order to carry the soldiers to France and
keep them supplied and munitioned.
Neither is it desirable that military de-
cision should be obtained by an Ameri-
army. The American nation
should not be asked to guarantee a mill
tary decision in favor Of the Western
Allies. If it did so it would be using the
resources Of the New World not to re-
dress the balance in the Old, but to up
set it disastrously and perhaps irretriev-
If the war is ended and the
treaty of peace written as a consequence
of a decisive military victory over Ger
many, the governments and ruling classes
in all the nations, except Germany, would
be strengthened and vindicated. but if
the army and navy are used only for de-
fensive purposes and the effective victory
is obtained through some measure of re-
pudiation Of their own government by the
German people, then the soil would be
prepared for those domestic reforms in all
the belligerent countries which form an
indispensable condition of the organiza-
ton Of international peace.
Now, there is no fiat lie in the present
1nctuous praise of force by "The New
Republic" But there is the meanest
lind of intellectual deceit. The involu-
ions of intelligentsa are legion, and the
writer of this present plea for dollar
bills may, probably does, deceive him.
elf. That does not excuse the trick at
empted. All the while that the coun-
ry would stomach half-hearted talk of
Using the army "for defensive purposes"
THE New Republic" prated with much
of the impossibility Of VIC
DRY, of the dangers of victory. 1t even,
n an earlier passage, on May 10, 1917,
quoted by us recently, declared that the
nation would not stand for an army Of
100000 soldiers, and prophesied that
the result would almost certainly be a
evolution in America far more bloody
md drastic than the revolution in Rus
ia" Force to the least, force
With every limit, was the consistent cry
# ''The New Republic" in the DAYS
when one could still preach compromise
With Germany and get away with it.
And this is the virtuous and superior
Intellect which now smirks forth to "Bit
er Ender": "You are entangled in the
lelusion that those who disagree with
you are somehow against the use of
force!
Such trickery by minds of education
and ideals is not good for the stomach.
Tho univ oOnCn1o+iDo +o
his charming circular would be received
n trench. Let US assume an Ameri-
IAN soldier reading these sentences, for
choice: "Your boiling blood may be in
ilspensable to the soldier in the charge,
out it is of little help to that soldier in
he counsels of his people at home. What
ne expects of us is the cool judgment
hat shall keep his boy and our boys out
IT the trenches generation hence That
S our part of the job: to translate his
sacrifice into lasting victory. He will
attend to the knockout part of it-of
hat he has already given the sign. 1t is
Up to us to back him up with the power
IF rational political purpose"
Any American, three thousand miles
from trench, whose blood does not boil
at such intellectual snobbishness ought
to "The New Republic"
For calm impudence and unconscious
We have not seen it's equal.
Dur men in France are good enough to
light. They are good enough to hold
boiling blood and spill it. But they are
not good enough to think. Thinking
must be done by endowed editors push
ng pens back home.
What is there to say in reply to such
stupidity and cheek? Not much. It