New-York tribune., 1918-12-07
Andre Cheradame ON
The Wiles of the Huns
By Willis Fletcher Johnson

IN which Germany has stolen enor-
mously. As she could buy nothing
outside. she could not run into debt,
save to her own people. and the war
cost her almost immeasurably less than
it cost the Allies. "It stands to reason
that a she'll made of stolen French
IRON. with stolen Belgian coal, costs
Germany less than she'll costs the
French government which is made
from the United States" The conclu-
sion is that Germany is to-day prob
ably in a better fiscal condition than
the Allies and would. il peace terms
advantageous to her were adopted, be
much better prepared than they to re-
new the war a few years hence.
That Germany is seeking such terms
of peace there can be little doubt.
That it is the chief duty of the Allies
and of America to avoid such terms
and to insist upon those which VIII
make Germany's effective renewal of
the war impossible is obvious. In
such course the Allies must not be
deceived by the organization of a re-
public in Germany. nor let that fact,
if it is a fact, affect their attitude
toward and their dealings with that
country. When an assassin is tried
his saying to the court IL am repub-
iican" does not diminish his punish
ment in any way. Moreover. the very
men who are now pretending 10 or
ganize republic were Pam -Germanists
under the Kaiser. and they have now
turned against him not because he led
them into an unjust war, but simply
because he failed to win it for them.
We must hold the German people to
be just as responsible for the war and
lust as cupablc as the Kaiser. Did
not the "Chrstian Association of
Metal Workers. at Duisberg-empha-
sis on the "Christian." please-a few
weeks ago adopt resolutions calling
for retention by Germany of all the
coal districts which had been stolen
from France?
The Allies. moreover. must insist
upon such terms Of peace as will in
capacitate Germany from renewing the
war, Prominent among them must be
the dissolution of the Austro- Hunga-
rlan realms and the established of
chain of INDEPENDENT and non-German
states, which will be barrier be-
tween Germany and Russia. These
must include a Poland, comprising the
Prussiau and Austrian as we'll as the
Russian provinces. with an ample
frontage upon the Baltic; Czecho-
SlovaAia, a greatly enlarged Rumania,
and a strong Serbian Jugo-Slav state
at the south. There must be eXacted
from Germany the fullest compensa-
tion for all the damage she has done
to other countries and also for the
war expenses which she has compelled
them to undergo. Such compensation
she will be we'll able to make at the
rate OF several billion dollars a year.
The whole payment might be. how
ever. extended over a period of forty
or fifty years, during which time Ger
many would, of course, be occupied, at
her own expense, by Allied armies, to
compel regular payments of the an
nual intalments and also to see to
1t that she does not renew and in
crease her armaments and prepare for
another war.
AS for pacifsts. Mr.. Cheradame un
hesltatingly declares them to be as
dangerous to the establishment of a
durable peace as the PAN Germanists
themselves. Those who would admit
Germany to the proposed League of
Nations as soon as peace is made he
regards as incorrigible lunatics, acting
contrary to elementary justice and
common sense, and discrediting the
whole idea of a league of nations,
which, formed on a realistic and not
a Utopian basis, might be of immense
value to the world. If Mr. Cheradame's
conclusions, as we have briefly hinted
at some of them, seem severe, we beg
the reader who thinks so to consider
the severity of the war conditions
which Germany has imposed upon the
world. We beg him, too. and we uro