New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-12-08

less we guarantee the French againsttho
Germans, they will have to protect them
selves, and the British will have to stand
ready to aid them again if Germany eoss
off the reservation. Are we ready to fgbt
Italy to protect the right Of the jun.
Slavs, or to fight the Jugo- Slavs to nro.
tect Italy? We shall have to be ready
too, if the League of Nations undertakes
to regulate world affairs and we under.
take to supply portion of the police.
We have had the Holy Alliance-and
it lasted effectively for less than fifteen
years. We have had the Concert Of
Europe, and it never was effective. Tur.
key, Bulgaria, Serbia, even Greece. &C.
fed it with impuhity. We have had in
ternational commissions in Macedonia
which spent most of their time visit
ing the ruins Of towns destroyed and
studying the scenes of massacres, inuo-
tent to prevent or to protect. We have
had the Hague Tribunal and the Geneva
conventions, but the German has used
poison gas, not arbitration, and bombed
not avoided, the mark of the Red Cross
The more one examines the question
Of the League of Nations the more often
one comes back to the point of view Of
the Europeans. If all nations were
equally bound by the ordinary conven-
tons Of good faith and humanity no
League of Nations would be necessary.
But as long as any nation holds to the
ideals and morals Germany has held to
for more than q century no League of
Nations can protect any nation against
German assault, because with Germany
a member of that league the league will
be obliged to accept German pledges as
honest, when they may prove as worth
less as before.
We have to make peace with nation
which has committed mnumerabe and
unspeakable crimes against civilized
mankind. We have beaten Germany by
arms and by concerted effort But we
have not changed the German At least
we shall need some good and sufficient
proof that he is changed before we can
believe it, and for that time is necessary.
Notwithstanding this, notwithstanding
the injuries which our allies have suf
fered and the long and intimate ac-
quaintance with German methods which
they have had, we are now coming dan
gerously near to an attitude in which We
at least appear to demand that our
friends disarm in the presence of their
enemies and ours. We are running the
risk of quarrelling with those who have
fought shoulder to shoulder with US, hay
ing held the line against our common
enemy over the years before we could
make up our minds to fight Why?
Last of all there is one thing l would
say to the readers of my articles, for
whom | have been writing now for many,
many months, and that is that the great
est conceivable misfortune that could
befall US all, Americans, Frenchmen and
Britons, is that the Peace Congress
should create new atmosphere of mis-
understanding and resentment among
the Allies. We have seen in recent days
deliberate effort made, for what rea-
son | do not pretend to say, to excite
American resentment against the British
and the French by rehearsing old scan
dals and manufacturing new structures
upon our allies by asserting that the
French and British dislike US, that We
should distrust them, and that German
morals are the dominating forces with
the French and the British
Now, this is all false; but it is more
than false, it is poisonous; it leads
straight to quarrels with the French and
the British, and quarres of our own max
ing. 1t seems like an attempt to dis
credit our allies in advance, that Ameri-
can sentiment may be aroused against
them IN the event that they decline to
accept as commands American sugges-
tons at the Peace Congress. 1t is in
stInct with the idea that we Americans
nave the right to impose our ideas upon
our allies and that any difference of
opinion is proof of lower morality on
their part.
Such spirit is the beginning of dis
cord. 1t leads straight to the destruc-
ton of that friendship which the war has
created between America and the rest of
the civilized nations. 1t brings US back
to the position of 1914 and 1915, when
we pretended to be superior people,
too proud to fight" and above the
smoke of the European, struggle. 1t
abolishes all the lessons learned slowly
and bitterly in the past two years and
paid for by the best blood of our youth
1t is one thing to go to Versailles as an
equal, with plans to propose and ideas to
suggest, with principles to advocate
Loyalty, but with readiness to accept
the decisions of those who have made
greater sacrificas ord Ln.r. e.. ..-.a DC.