Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-11-03
Must Keep Huns in Check.

This Mitteleuropa has been broken;
Bulgaria has surrendered. Turkey is
on the point of capitalization. Austria.
in the happy phrase of German ora
tor. sis disbanding." On the negative
side, we, the nations = in alliance
against Germany. have prevailed.
We have broken the German concep-
ton, but this is obviously only the
first step. We have now to finish the
fight with Germany herself; to achieve
that victory which must be achieved
before there can be real peace. But
beyond this step lies the next, which
is of appalling magnitude. We have
attack of megalomania, of lust for
world empire.
Aow shall We achieve this end? OBJ
vioasly. it is not possible to destroy
any considerable fraction of the Ger
man race, even were there moral JUS
tihcation for such Il course. We can
not in any considerable measure par
tition or enslave the 100000 menu
bers of the Teutonic race inhabiting
central Europe. To do this would be
merely to create Il new Alsace-Lor
raine OF new problem such as that
OF Italy in the last century. That this
great mass of German people would
ultimately regain it's unity, and until
1t did regain that unity Europe would
is patent
By contrast. it. is not now possible
to conceive that the $1,000, 900 Ger
mans would, in the past have under
taken their gigantic attack upon civ
lllzation had they not exercised COM
plete control over an equal number of
people, only small percentage Of
whom were willing subjects or allies.
An alliance between $1,000, 900 Britons,
100000 French. $4,000 900 Italians.
together with the 1870 100000 Russians
of the days before the Russian reyolu-
ton. would have constituted an OBJ
stacle too great to be passed. Ger
many risked her frightful adventure
solely because of her mastery of other
races.
Must Free Sixty Millions.
If we can break the hold of Ger
many upon subject races. if We can
transform this war into real war
of liberation, if we can free some
60.0oo,00U of men and women from
the yoke of Germany. we shall have
created an obstacle too great to tempt
the ambition of the most avaricious
and empire-hungry German. BY con-
trast, if we fail to do this all his
tory points to the probability that at
some other time Germany will return
to the charge. as France, in the days
before the unification of Italy and of
Germany. placed similar obstacles in
the pathway of her imperialism.
In its simplest terms the problem
OF those who are to redraw the map
of Europe is to erect such barriers
to German expansion at the expense
of the rights and liberties of other
races that Germany herself will rec
ognize the impossibility of the I'M
dertaking. and become what used to
be described as "a good European"
We cannot do this by taking German
territory. Here. again. history is elo-
quent and unmistakable. The unity
of the German people is a permanent
fact, doubtless to be extended in the
future by the entrance Of the Aus
TRAN Germans into the Teutonic fam
lily establishment.
Our solution must ineXorably be
found in the just and proper recog-
milton of the rights and aspirations
of those millions of people who were
yesterday Germany's helpless slaves,
whose men supplied the cannon fod-
der. whose fields yielded the food,
whose factories furnished the ma
chinery for the present war. whose
collective contribution to the Ger
man side alone made this war pos
sible. We must set them free. we
must provide them with the neces-
sary resources for separate national
existence, and we must guarantee
them our protection during that rela-
lively short period necessary to their
organization.