Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-03-19
When to Trust Germany.

If Germany puts forward a peace strategem,
as diplomatic authorities suspect she is preparing 10
do she will meet stOner response than here
tofore possible that she will intimate DISPOSE
ton to give up her ambitions in France and Belgium
provided she be left undsturbed in her grip on plum
dered Russia and the Near East Such terms would
appeal to the pacifA who would endure fifty years of
slavery to ESCAPE five minutes of PAIN but they would
never appeal to people who wish peace that Will De
honorable, lasting and just. More and more does II
become a settled conviction that there can be no
safe or effective diplomatic dealing with the enemy
much less satisfactory agreement with him. until
PrusSianism is crushed on the battlefield
Germany could well afford to give back the land
she has invaded in the West If at the same time she
could keep her gigantic spoils in the East, for IN
those circumstances she would find it easy to prepare
for the next great war-whch she is already planning
in her scheme of world dominion. In the Baltic
provinces of Russia the Ukraine and the better part
the Balkans all of which Germany now grips, she
would have resources and strategic advantages In
comparably greater than anything she could hope to
gain and hold in the West-just the resources and
lust the advantages needed to fit out her next raid
upon civilization. A settlement that allowed her to
retain those treacherously got conquests would
amount to an overwhelming German victory and
would be the prologue to another terrible WORLD
Not until Germany ceases to consider herself vic
torious and realizes that her predatory ambitions
are defeated once for ALL will the world be safe for
democracy or safe for any of the higher interests OF
mankind. Not until the German people cease to
consider themselves nation of dem-gods, privileged
to tyrannize and plumber other peoples, will there be
any living with them in security and concord There
is no to hope that they will repudlate or re-
form their criminal Government as long as it can
point to the booty of conquest or offer them any
prospect, however dim, of ultimate victory. The
mass of the people of Germany Socialists along with
the rest are HohenZolern subjects and are true to
their masters voice They will become democratic
amongst themselves and toward others when they
find that their war-plotting autocracy is costly
failure. They will be minded to keep treaties and
TO respect the rights of others when they brought
to realize that faithuness and outlawry do not pay
They will recover their conscience when they are
- hairc tnlpu vii
moral sense when they are purged of their Satanic
egotism.
Meanwhile, as keen observer aptly puts it.
Diplomacy is about serviceable in bringing the
Huns to a Just settlement las a bent-pn hshhook
would he to catch whales This is not to imply that
our Government the Allies should lose any Oppor-
tunitv for turning the weapons of diplomacy to &C
count even though the results of particular stroke
be long time in developing. 1t does mean that we
cannot trust honor of nation that still applauds
the ravaging Of Belgium and the murder of women
and children: it does mean that we dare not stack
arms to enter into pareys with Prussian outlaws
fresh and exultant from their plundering of be-
trayed Russia.