Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-02-26
Hon. the United States Would Fare
lit ParLeyed With the Huns.

II there was ever a doubt of how foolish and
dangerous it would be for the United States and
IT'S Allies to parley with uneonquered Prussian-
ism the present state of affairs in Russia dispels
II The Brest-Litovsk peace conference was
initiated upon solemn assurances from the Ger
man representatives that negotiations should be
conducted upon the principle OF no indemnities
and no annexatfons. The Bolshevih were per-
shaded to put all the greater trust in that prom
ise because the Reichstag majority had declared
In favor OF a settlement without annexations and
indemnities. That policy Reimbursed more
over, in general terms by the head of the Ger
man delegation, at the beginning of the confer
ksnce- As far as fair words were omen. the
Russians had every reason to expect an honest
deal
But no sooner we're proceedings we'll under
way than the Kaiser's ENJOYS began showing their
real purpose. Their early pose of Cancellation
stiffened into the typical German strut. Their
demands upon the astounded SIavs grew more
and more peremptory, more and more outrageous
until finally (when the desired transfer of leu
ton divisions from the Eastern to the Western
front was completely they dropped all pretense
and flung forth their demand for a wholesale an
nexation OF Russias choicest provinces, together
with a staggering indemnity. The so-called
ukraine TepUOuC appears 10 DC merely q OeIuidA
contrfvance for taking Russa's richest agri-
cultural lands; at any rate, the Ukraine is under
German domination. That would have satisfied
an ordinary conqueror. But it did not satisfy the
Junker's greed far from it. There should be no
peace for Russia, Won K1ehlmann eoldly declared,
until she had signed away her Baltic territory, in
cIudtng her most valuable sea outlets, and had
undertaken to pay four billion dollars into the
HohenzoIlern war chest. Such was the German
way of peace without annexations indemni-
ties;" such the German sense of justice and
honor:
Who can doubt that the Potsdam gang. as the
Kaiser and his militarists have been aptly called,
would play equally false if they could, with the
United States or with any other member of the
Allied group. Their total lack of moral respon-
sibiIity has been demonstrated too often and too
gIaringy for US to enter into parleys with
them save at the point of victorious bayonets.
Repeatedly they have sought to decoy into
Just such a spurious peace conference as that into
which hzpless Russia was betrayed; and IL we
had been so gullible to have followed in the
path Of the Bolsheviki experience. far as
honor and basal interests concerned, would
have been no different from theirs. We should
have found at the crucial moment that ne
gotiafng not with responsible statesmen, but with
red-handed outlaws who had an overwhelming ad-
vantage in the fact that while others believed in
fulfilling pledges ana aoldIns Dy treaueS, they
themselves were quite unrestrained by any such
convictions scruples-
Our shores would not have been overrun by
vandaI troops forthwith as Russia is, but soon
or late the attempted invasion would have come,
reeEing with brUtalities such German mill
tarism alone produce. Imagine, too, the in
demnity which the POtsdam Gang would exact
from the United States If ever they had the on
portunity! Four billion dollars would he beg
gar's aims beside the tremendous tax they would
pile upon America if they could. Let have no
deIusions concerning this savage and greedy foe.
Hohenzoilern Germany is bent upon dominating
the world in general and upon Iooting the United
States in particular. II is to land and our
people that Prussianism looks the ultimate
object of its fiercest cruelty and the ultimate
source of its richest spoils. There be par
leying with this thug among nations; its word is
without honor value. Not until its brutal
power is broken and a repentant Germany sues
for peace through morally responsible Spokesman
win there be hope Of security for law-abidng
peoples. To the Fastening OF that good day
every atom of American energy must be applied.
Trotzky didn't realize till too late that ideals
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