The Nashville globe. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1906-193?, 1918-04-12
Nashville, Tenn, April II, Is
ABSOLUTE DEFIANCE,

NDOOGO TlFNNSCs
The address of President Wilson
in Baltimore was by all odds the best
he has made. 1t ripped the velvet
neatly off and revealed what Germany
alone is known to respect, the iron
hand.
Germany" concluded the presi-
dent, has said that force and force
alone shall decide whether Justice or
peace shall reign in the affairs of
men. whether right as America con-
ceives it or dominion as she con-
ceives it shall determine the desti-
MES of mankind.
There is therefore but one re-
Spouse possible from us! Force, force
to the utmost, force without stint or
limit" Small wonder that the crowd
that heard him cheered itself hoarse
when he had finished. The president
indeed had interpreted the American
soul.
The principal contribution of the
Baltimore address is a restoration of
the high tone of resolve and deter
mination to our public diplomacy.
That tone had been unfortunately
weakened by the address of February
IL, to the disadvantage of Americas
cause at home, in the countries of
her allies and in Central Europe.
America had been put in the position
of a nation that might or might not
fight it through, that might or might
not cooperate unreservedly with her
allies, that might at any time by a
few specious words be led into de-
moralizing debate to her own grave
injury. There can no longer exist
any impression of that sort. The
presidents words admit of not the
slightest misconstruction or doubt.
They represent, not in heat but in
absolute fairness, the conviction of
America that we may rely on force
and force alone 10 save the world
from submitting to a German joke.
They represent, too, the solemn
willingness that is not wholly re-
mote from eagerness to prove to the
tyrant the quality of our force.
Though the president reiterates
his readiness to talk peace whenever
there is any reason to believe a
peace of justice is sincerely desired,
he makes wholly clear his compre-
hension that not an ocean of words
could make Germanys desire for
peace seem based on justice now.
Though he draws what appears to be
a wholly vain distinction between
German statesmen and German mill
tarists (the statesmen are merely
more foxy than the generals), he
omits altogether any reference to
war against the imperial German
government, and speaks instead of
Germany. He quite deliciously ig-
nores Germany's jumping jack,
Count Czernin, and looks neither to
Vienna nor Berlin, but to Brest-Li-
tovsk for his facts.
The president will find he has ac-
complished more toward uniting the
country back of him by one plain
spoken and unqualified defiance than
by all the talk of a pacifist millen-
mum that has figured in certain earli-
er statements.
With the Woodrow Wilson who
accepts Germany's challenge as he
accepted it at Baltimore, and who
calls for the execution of democra-
cy's will by force, force and yet more
force The Journal is ready to go the
limit. If II was deemed worth while
to circulate previous addresses of the
president behind the enemy lines as
propaganda, surely that delicate at
tention ought not to be omitted now.
This thing is beginning to look like
a fight.