New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-04-07
Signs in Washington Indicate
America Already Plans to
Exercise All Her Might
President S Peace
Illusion Is Gone
Destroyed by Actions of the
Teuton Powers in the
East
By C. w. Gilbert

BALTIMORE, April 6.-President
Wilson has made his speech laying
aside diplomacy for the sword as the
means to win the war; 1t is the speech
that has been expected ever since Ger
many revealed her cynical imperialism
IN Russia and Austria showed her true
self IN her treatment of Rumania.
BY their actions in the East the Gen.
trail Powers destroyed Mr.. Wilson's
illusion of the lion and the lamb of
Europe lying down together. The
President says himself that his illu
sion is gone. 1t is an illusion which
has possessed him since he talked, be-
tore our entrance into the war. of
peace without victory; it has led to the
belief that mere military gesture
would be all that would be required of
this country before peace should come;
it has recently kept Berne full of Gun
otf'clar allied and American represen-
tatives, talking terms with representa-.
tives of the willy Czernin, who now
laughs openly at the game he played.
1t is formidable illusion that is
gone.
With its departure, the President
processes his adhesion to force. as he
never has before since the war began.
"There is" he says in that last sem
tence in which congresses all the force
there is in his entire speech, "there is
but one response possible from US
force, force to the utmost, force with
out stint or limit, the righteous and
triumphant force which shall make
right the law of the world, and cast
every selfish dominion down in the
dust"
That sentence is the most unqu.li-
fled acceptance yet come from the
President Of the doctrine that the onlv
way to obtain such a peace as he
defines and as America wants is bv
defeating Germany with arms. If it
means what it says, and the signs in
Washington for the last month have
tended to show that it does, this coun-
try will at last prepare to take up to
the full extent of her powers the bur-
den of defeating Germany. That, up
till now, she has by no means done or
planned to do.
Rattle of Sabre
Ended Illusion
Back of the declaration for Force.
force without stint Or limit" lies the
reasoning that has led the President
to his utter establishment. The men
ne was talking to in Germany when he
talked across the ocean were not the
real rulers Of Germany, even if they
meant what they said, and the Presi-
dent, in spite of the ironical face of
Czernin. still persuades himself that
they did so in their vague and indefinite
adhesion to the terms for the discus
sion of peace which he laid down. The
military masters Of Germany were its
real rulers, and they revealed by their
actions the real purposes of the enemy.
The rattle of the sabre" of General
Won Hoffman at Brest-Litvosk began
the end Of the great illusion.
I'VE cannot mistake what they (the
military masters) have done," says Mr..
Wilson, I'm Russia, in Finland, in the
Ukraine, in Rumania. The real test of
their justice and fair play has come.
From this we may judge the rest. They
are enjoying in Russia q cheap triumph
in which no brave or gallant nation
can long take pride. A great people.
helpless by their own act, lies for the
time at their mercy. Their fair pro-
fessions are forgotten. They nowhere
set up justice, but everywhere impose
their power and exploit everything for !
their own use and ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, and
the peoples OF conquered provinces are
invited to be free under their domin-
ion!"
Would they not do the same thing
nsk "sstarn f thav caS nuTGpe a., the Pre- President
III the East? And will they, if only
in the West, make peace
that does less than give them q free
hand in Russia and the Orient?
Prospect of German
Dominion in East
But the prospect that does most to
pect of German dominion in the East.
1t is this which more than anything
else makes Mr.. Wilson declare that
nothing short of the employment Of all
our force will make the future safe
for this country. The nation, too,
since it has seen Germany reaching out
for the East. promising to become an
empire greater than the Roman EN-
pire itself ever was, threatening to
the whole modern world, Las
"
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