The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1918-10-07
UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER.

Germany and Austria should promptly
be granted an armistice-on exactly the
! same terms given Bulgaria, which is IN
conditional surrender, rehabilitation OF
their armies, evacuation of all occupied
territory, and granting Of complete con-
! troll over their railroads to the Allies with
| all rights of free occupation pending
peace.
They should not be accorded a peace
barley ION the basis of President Wilson s
terms" They should be notified that
those are the terms they must accept, and
that the allies will place their interpreta-
! ton on them, no bicker over German in
! terpretation We don't want the kind of
Hsself determination Germany gave Rus
! STA.
For weeks and weeks the American peo-
! pie have been expecting German "peace
offensive" They have been warned
against it; and told by everyone who has
| made a close study of the war at first
hand that Germany would offer better and
better-terms as defeat drew nearer, In the
hope Of drawing the Allies into a peace
conference, where it might be possible to
create friction between them, or wean one
or more of them away from the common
cause.
Now" Il has come.
The offer of Germany and Austria may
be complete surrender, but we doubt it.
It has a much closer resemblance to the
'tpeace.offensive" It is an attempt by the
Hohenzollerns to save their precious hides
by giving up part or all Of the loot.
Here is a greater danger to the Allied
cause than the advance to the Marine. That
German advance was uniting the Allies for
defense. Here is a blow that is calculated
to separate them.
Before the Allies act upon this move as
complete surrender, they should make
certain that it is such They should grant
an armistice only on the terms given Bull
garia, and sign the peace treaty in Berlin.
Anything short of that would be be-
travail Of the millions who have given their
lives for liberty.
We Americans have gone into this war
on the understanding that we were fight
ing for the complete overthrow of the Ger
man military idea-to make the world
safe for democracy. Everything else is
subsidiary to that Alsace-Lorraine, Bel
GUM, Armenia all of them are but Incl
dental to that one big ideal. That ideal
predieGtes the righting of all these indi-
vidual WRONGS
Now complete victory is within our
grasp. If we weakly accept anything short
Of it we will betray the men who have
fought and died. We will have swindled
the menpand women who have given their
dollars eheerfully. We will have fooled
the men and women who have labored and
sacrificed. We will have compromised
with our consciences and our ideals. We
wal1aavetsGved a few more lives and few
more dollars now, at the probable risk Of
having to repeat the whole horrible per-
furmanee- five or ten. years from now.
Of eouESe Germany wants an armstice,
bU6gthat in itself is no reason for giving it
tother.
She iszfacing defeat and perhaps annihil-
b.&tiOns on every front.
The longer she postpones the armstice
the more certain does disaster become.
To give her an armistice now on any
terms short Of unconditional surrender,
would be to stab Marshal Foch's armies in
the back, and snatch from them the vic
tory Germany can no longer withhold.
An armistice with unconditional sur
render, and peace dictated in Berlin on
President Wilson's terms should be the an
swer to the German whine, and it should
come as promptly as we answered Austria
before.