Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-05-14
Germany's Nert Peace Offensive

There are easily recognizable signs that Ger
many is preparing a new peace offensive. From
neutral capitals the very few that are left, float
those haxy rumors which the pacifst mind always
welcomes and which Prussian craft always con-
trfves to get started prelude and disguise to
its diplomaey~s poison gas. How many times in
the past three and a half years have we heard by
way Of Switzerland or Scandinavia Holland or
Spain that serious and disinterested efforts bring
the beIhgerents into some form or other of nego-
tiation might be expected; that WEAKNESS
among the peoples Of the Central Powers was
reaching q desperate stage; that the rulers OF
those peoples, If given the chance might prove
quite eoneiliatory; and that there deepening
conviction on the part Of dispassionate observers
that the military deadlock never could be broken!
How many times too, have heard the Hohen-
zoIIerns themselves profess, just after or just be-
fore some especially ferocious lunge to get more
territory that they devoutly wished for peace but
that the thirsty statesmen of the Allies were
viekedIy proIonging the conflict And then would
come peace proposal from the Vatican truly noble
in sentiment and motive. or from the high-minded
but short-visioned idealists of Petrograd-not in
COLLISION Of course, with Berlin, but nevertheless
adroitIy turned by Berlin to the purposes of Ger
man propaganda The signs easily recogniza-
bIe We say that fresh maneuver of this kind, and
probably the most ambitious yet undertaken, is in
the forefront of Germany's plans.
Whomever else this strategy may deceive, IL
win deceive no American, no Englishman, no
Frenehman. no Italian who has his wits about nun
and his countrys cause at heart. 1t is highly i'm
portant however, that even the most alert and the
most loyal be on guard against the cunningly dis
guised and sometimes temptingly plausible props-
ganda which German peace offensives put torth
It is highly important to bear constantly in mind
that these periodic onsets of the Hohenzoerns are
In purpose and in fact peace 0FFENSIVES; not sim
csre efforts to stop the tragcal destruction OF hu-
man life; but essentially and primarily an OFTEN
SIvE directed against the morale OF the Allied
peoples; not the movement of chastened and
eonciIiatory foe but of desperate, deceitful and
wholly dishonorable foe. 1t is deeply hostile
movement is the loosing of poison gas which
the Huns now turning with especial hate
against the Americans the western front. As
writer in the New York Times tellingly puts it:
lust as the Kaiser struck Amiens with the OBJ
ject of dividing the French and British armies so
he and his associates organize peace offensive
with the object Of dividing and demoraIzing the
suirit of the people at home in America, England,
France and Italy Both campaigns are ordered,
not by the Chancellor or the Reichstag, but by the
General Staff and is military movement ex-
actIy to the same extent the other" 1t is the
mart of true Americanism therefore, to treat this
spurious peace propaganda precisely our men at
the front would treat a German attaek-not as
subject for Ieisurely tolerant discussion but as
a stroke from the enemy designed to weaken and
destroy
The HohenzoIlerns know that if the Is
tonight TO finish on its present lines they will
be crushed along with their schemes of world dom
nation and crushed for all 1t is quite prob
able that they have given up hopes of winning a
decision on the western front against their present
array of foes. Certainly they realize that if the
conflict continues as ii is until Americas
strength comes fully into play, their defeat is fore
doomed Hence their peace" strategy; their plan
TO accomplish by psychology what they have we'll
nigh despaired of achieving by arms; their scheme
to breaL, d swerve the united and determined
spirit of the Allied peoples and thus prevent the
decisive victory and the true which the Allied
armies fighting resolutely ON, are certain to win
The German militarists knowing that all the
Allied peoples naturally peace-loving, would
bait them II they could, with apparently liberal
concessions to divert their wills from the all
important business of war-making- That trick
worked in Russia. The Germans brought about the
Brest-Litovsk peace conference a promise of mo
fndemnities and lamentations" But today the
major portion of Russia's vast in the
German clutch Similarly there might be tempting
proposals from Berlin for the restoration of the