The Washington herald., 1918-09-10

Two kinds of peace may follow this
war-after the Germans are beaten.
That is. one kind or the other may
result, or parts of each kind.
The kind of peace we hear much
about these days is dictated" peace,
the kind the Germans will have to
accept no matter how much they may
rebel in their hearts against it.
The other kind is the negotiated"
peace. Negotiated peace may be die
tated to some extent, but on the whole
il Is supposed to leave the enemy in
better frame of mind than the
other.
Just now the impression prevails
at the Capitol that the Republican
party is very much committed to the
dictated kind. This impression gath
ers force by careful perusal OF SEN
ator Lodges speech and Representa-
| tive Fess' statement
The Democratic party has not COM
mittcd itself definitely save as its
leader. President Wilson. has spoken
! on peace matters. But the Repub-
licans think the Democrats favor
| negotiated peace. At least they pre-
! fer to credit the Democratic party
with favoring this variety.
However right or wrong the politi-'
cal leaders are in the Republican
ranks, the fact remains that no such
charge can lie long against the party
in power. The Democratic party is,
committed to a vigorous prosecution
of the war to victorious end. And
! not until victory is attained, so the
! Democrats insist, can any peace pro-
posals be accepted-and when that
time comes, they argue. the enemy
will be glad to talk almost any kind
| of peace. dictated or otherwise and
may not be able to resent byArnls
| any proposals that may be made
toward peace.
The danger is, though, that a half
defeated enemy may make pTopos-
ais seriously, on behalf of the peo-
pie OF Germany and Austria, which
will warrant US pausing a moment
to consider them. The Republicans
think the arch pacifism" in Presi
dent Wilson will crowd itself to the
surface then and that he may work
toward a peace which will not be as
conclusive as they want.
This leads us straight to the
heart of the possible difficulty of
peace making-the fundamental diff
: ficulty (which may be encountered
some day sooner than we realize.
! The whole question Is will the
! Central Powers be less apt to set
the world aflre again il every term
of peace is forced upon them?"
| If not. some of our Lawmakers
! think. the peace that comes had
better be negotiated" to some ex-
tent
If the enemy Is compelled to ac-
cept the dictated" peace only to
nurture a viper in his bosom to
| some day twin loese upon the world
when he has recovered from this
war. it would be wise to bring about
negotiated peace. these law
/ makers maintain.
In other words. they insist the one
\ big thing to keep in mind is the pre-
vention of wars for all time to come
/ They say this can be best ac-
! complished through some other means
! than the dictated" peace route-and
/ they do not give in one whit to the
enemy in adopting this viewpoint
There are those at the Capitol who
think this very matter will be put
/ up to the people eventually-the
! people of this nation and Of other
nations among our co-benigerents. In
our own nation they believe it will
be a national issue. perhaps an issue
/ between the two old major parties.
/ The question is interesting ard i'm
portant. II has possibilities. It is
| worth thinking about-and we need
/ not take our mind OF the task of
| whipping the enemy. to give it care
| full though.