Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-10-09
WILSON NOTE TEST
OF HUN GOOD FAITH
Social Revolution Also May
Arise Through His Thrust
at Military Machine.
POWER WITHOUT HEROES
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.
Copyright, 1918, by the New York Evel
Post Incl

Copyright. 1918. by the New York Evening
Post, Inc.)
President Wilson has just done
either of two things-and possibly
both-he has set out adroitly to test in
conspicuous fashion the good faith of
the imperial German government and
squelch once and for all its deceptive
peace propaganda, or he has sowed the
seeds of social revolution which must
inevitably overthrow the Hohenzol-
lerns and gain for the world a COM
plete triumph of democracy over autoc-
racy.
Some See Force of Ultimatum.
Signs of disappointment by those
who cannot or will not understand,
superficial criticism by those who are
not aware of the true conditions in
side the German and Austrian en-
pireS, the view of those who honestly
feel that the note may be miscon-
strued in America and that the PreSi-
dent should not have had any deal
ings whatsoever with Germany-this
represents the dissent in Washington.
while many fair-minded observers
discern today in the Presidents in
quiry or preliminary answer to Ger
many a skillful retort which has all
unconditional surrender with none of
the empty defiance or hysterical raw
ings of the extremists, indeed none of
that very braggadocio and thought
l.: l.
staff has been so anxious to extract
from allied quarters so as to rally the
German people against the supposed
menace of complete annihilation.
The Presidents brief message of in
quiry. asking three simple questions.
was unaccompanied by an official ex-
PLANTATION for the American people,
unaccompanied by any of that ring
ing defiance which so many folks in
and out of Washington have thought
was necessary to bolster up our own
people and make the enemy peoples
effective for American and German
consumption at the same time was
Impossible. There never was a state
ment from the government therefore
which required more careful inter-
pretation, more careful reading by the
American people and more painstak-
ing analysis by those who read it
than the message just sent to Ger
many.
Results Of Threats in Past.
Because America is in a belligerent
mood and has not yet learned, as did
the British and French statesmen after
two years of defiant speech-making,
that the morale of Germany cannot
be moved, but strengthened, by threats
of annihilation. there were still many
people in the National Capital today
who regretted trat the President
hadn't consigned the kaiser and his
cohorts to the warm places and de-
creed that the German race be wiped
off the face of the earth.
But the President of the United
States has not speck of sympathy
in his heart-nay, great deal more
of bitterness, for he knows about this
war in great detail-with the crimi-
nails who began the war and foisted
the military system on the world with
all it's atrocities and ruthlessness Mr..
Wilson is as anxious - any man in
America to see the guilty in Germany
punished. But his methods are not
those of the braggart who wastes his
words and his energy. His is the
diplomacy of new school and a new
battlefield. He reaches with straight
forward, plain-spoken words to the
masses-far beyond the autocratic
government of Germany, which self
sufficiently makes an offer of peace on
the theory that the allies will slack
their speed and consent to an abate-
ment of hostilities while the quitting
is still good for autocracy and its
possessions.
Mr., Wilson's Three Questions.
Mr.. Wilson asked three questfans,
which, if stated in the affirmative in
stead of the interrogatory form,
amount to this:
/. Germany must accept literally and
put into effect the fourteen peace
terms laid down in President Wilson'S
message of January 8. which includes
the Fighting of the wrong done to
France in 1871" in Alsace-Lorraine
the creation of an Independent Polish
Continued an Gsven:eaath oage.)