Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1918-11-15
FRIDAY......NOVEMBER Is, 1918
THE COMING PEACE
CONFERENCE.

The thought of the world naturally
turns toward the peace conference
certain to he called within n few
weeks at the most. IT will have far
more on its hands than merely de-
filming national boundaries and asses
sing indemnities. 1t will be con-
gress of Vienna, Hague conference
and Geneva convention rolled into
one.
1t will be recalled that the congress
of Vienna settled the boundary lines
of Europe after they had been rudely
broken up by the Napoleonic wars.
The Hague conferences We're for the
purpose of dcvisng means for the
prevention of wars, while the Geneva
convention was intended TO render
war more humane in its operations.
If the coming conference is to be of
any value ii must not only settle the
several nations of the world on a
tranquil footing with a just considera-
must provide some securities against
such another war.
And war is to be, there must be
some provisions more effectual than
those we have at present, to prevent
war from relapsing into mere savag-
cry.
1t would lie a crown of sorrow for
the world is this war--a war for the
horrors of which no epithet, or string
of epithets, is sufficient-were to end
in a transient or hollow peace, some
thing little better than an armistce.
Already there is another sort of
German peace propaganda at work.
The ain. now is to prevent the terms
of the armistice from being carried
out Germany does not mean to sur
render five thousand cannon. She
has no idea of giving up her subma-
rines and airplanes and battleships.
She does not mean for the allies to
occupy the fortresses on the Rhine.
many's purpose to ask the pity of the
world on her helpless condition and
to threaten the world with a reign
of Teuton Bolshevism. She is now
having neutral countries send out
warnings that Germany must not be
pressed too hard
Let is be said here that the allies
would just as soon kill German Boil
shevists, as to kill German soldiers
when commanded by Hindenburg or
Ludendorff The job must be a COM
plete one.
If the sentimentalists and pro-Ger-
mans should win through diplomacy,
then the governments of the world
would be compelled to go again into
armed camps, only on a vastly greater
scale than before, and destruction
instead of production would be the
chief aims Of their industry and
policy.
There must be some result worthy
of all the courage and endurance
which stands forth as bright points
of light against the darkness and
gloom of the past four years of
misery.
Unhappily, during the past three
hundred years there have been many
attempts to insure peace among the
nations, some of them entire failures,
few with more than transient success.
Now the nations must try again.
We want a lasting peace. But we
want q just peace, because no peace
that is not just can be regarded as
lasting. There must be retributive
justice and there must be distributive
justice.
Penalty must he exacted that will
act as deterrant and prevent pow
erful states from attacking weaker
ones without just cause for doing SO.
France must be freed from the dread
Of powerful and inscriptions
neighbor. SO must Italy and the
Balkan states.
But we must understand that we
are no longer dealing with monarchs.
We have to deal with peoples, and it
is not the policy today to take races
from their natural affinities and in
corporate them into a government
where the language and thought are
alien.
The best retribution to be exacted
is in money, in munitions of war, in
ships and airplanes and in the de-
struction of fortresses and war ma
terialc.
For example. the Krupp works and