Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-09-29

man returned TO the military IuotnOu
once more and won the battles OF FL
cardy. Flanders and the Aisne.
By lying, by proposing negotiation
he did not desire, by exploiting the
credulity- of the liberals, tho war
WEAKNESS of the masses, tho selfish
gained in 1915 the same sort Of ad-
vantage he had acquired in 1914 BY
invading Belgium He secured the
moral initiative and he used this until
he regained the military initiative. at
which point he dropped the mask and
became the Prussian, and not the
angel of peace, once more.
1t seems to me nothing is more
obvious now than that the German is
again maneuvering for the moral
initiative. l do not believe his peace
gesture is any more unrelated to his
war plans than was that of December.
1916. 1 do not believe that the Ger
man people are defeated in their own
opinion and eager for peace at any
price. On the contrary, / believe they
Will fight long and desperately to es-
cape the only kind of settlement the
western nations can or will accept. 1
do not believe that the peace proposal
is a sign Of weakness any more than
the shifting of an attack from one
flank to another, in battle, is an evil
dence of panic or the collapse Of the
will to win the battle
"Peace" Move a "War'' Device.
On the contrary. there is every rea-
son to believe that this German ma
neuver is a war device, a method for
winning the war on German terms, a
deliberate effort to exploit war wearf-
! ness once more, to get our liberals
and idealists to talking again about
mi Of ia6 ND ha
need for a restatement of allied war
aims. 1t is an effort to exploit the
fears of both capital and labor for
the. future, it is a desperate attempt
to break down allied morale behind
the firing lines, in the hope that this
collapse will be felt at the front, as
similar collapse was felt in 1917,
that the German may have a chance
to return to the offensive as Luden-
dorf returned to the offensive last
spring. And believing these things I
confess to a very great apprehension
at this time lest blindness or igno-
rance on the part of the allied leader
ship, allied publics and allied press
may enable the German to repeat his
achievement of 1916. and escape from
the evil military situation in which
he now stands by exploitation of
the advantages derived from re-
gaining the moral initiative.
From the very outset of this war
we on the allied side have been cursed
by an ever-ready willingness to see
things in Germany as we wanted them
to be and on this ridiculous form Of
optimism to build solemn edifice of
early victory. This is our peril now.
when new successes in the field have
given rise to new and. in part. unrea-
Soning optimism. We have stopped
the German advance. we have driven
the German back to the lines from
L, .~l. L.
victory. We have inflicted a terrible
loss in men upon him and We have
reasonable ground for hope that We
shall drive him to the Belgian frontier
before snow flies. Moreover. the arri-
val of America has given Foch an ad-
vantage which is considerable and will
be enormous.
Chance to Win Just Developing.
The danger of losing the European
phase of the war, which was acute
last March, has passed, the opportu-
nifty to win the war is beginning to
develop. But it is only beginning to
develop. We are excited because our
long-range guns are firing upon the
forts of Metz, but the German armies
are still only seventy miles from Paris.
and the Germans still occupy ground
along the Aisne from which they had
been driven four long years ago. Los
ing battles the German is, losing
ground. men and guns. but in this sit
uation he turns to the strategy which
he used with complete success two
years ago, after he had been defeated
at Verdun and driven backward at the
Somme.
The Austrian proposal is only the
opening move of the German peace Of
fensive. just as the note addressed to
the allied governpentS by Germany in
December, two years ago, was only
the first move in that earlier opera
ton. There seemed to be then the
same unanimous rejection of the pro-
posal on the part of the allied peoples
that we perceive now. But out OF the
maneuver there developed thereafter
the greatest peril to the allied cause,
now become our cause, which had eX-
listed since the first battle of the
Marine. We have. then. every reason
for fearing that there may be great
dangers resulting from a new maneu-
yer.
There is no escape for Germany from
approximate economic ruin, no delfv-
erance of the dynasty and the ruling
elements from impending ruin on the
political side. apart from military VIC
tory. Therefore. by all means, mill
tary and otherwise. all Germans are
bound to seek that military victory.
and there is not the smallest chance
that we shall be able to accomplish
those things to which we have dedi-
Gated our youth and our material re-
sources until we have broken the
military power of Germany by deci-
sive defeats of the German army and
the occupation of German territory.
Meaning of German Reforms"
The apparent agitation now going
forward in Germany for liberal re-
forms was carried on by the same
men and for the same purpose in the
summer of 1917. We heard about
1eichstag reforms and peace without
annexation or indemnity" all through
the period when our own morale WAS
being undermined by these same de-
vices. But we had n sudden end to all
this revolution" in Germany when
there was a new chance to attain
military victory. when the maneuver
had achieved its desired end in allied
countries. We have to face now, as
then. an attack upon the home front
It is a matter of life and death for us
to perceive this fact and not again TO
fall the victims of German campaign
which swept into its course the ideal
ism and the selfishness Of the enemy
nations alike. which renewed the al
lance between the Puritan and the
blackleg." which almost broke our
nome front. our HTlHs line anu oui
power of morale and military resist
ance to the enemy
Victory will not be won by negotia-
ton or by the discussion of peace
terms We had an ultimate demon
stration of what the German really
means by peace at Brest-Litovsk and
again at Bucharest. The great Ger
man military teacher. Clausewitz,
once said that '.war was only an ex-
tension of policy" A German orator.
Herr David. a socialist member of the
reichstag. said last year: Germany
must squeeze her enemies with pair
of pincers. The German armies must