Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-04-08
THE BEAST MUST NOT
TRIUMPH

TNHE peril that confronts all free
4 nations today is not the continuance
of the war for one, two or three years
longer. The real menace is a German
peace, against which the Liberty Loan is
directed. The President made this clear
in his Baltimore speech, and Secretary
McAdoo talked in the same vein when he
told the Five O'clock Club that we have
only begun to spend money, and that we
must be prepared to make great financial
sacrifices before peace comes.
Germany is plotting for peace now and
has been plotting thus for the last two
years. She has been talking of peace
based on the war map, and the Entente
Allies have been objecting because that
would mean that Alsace Lorraine would
remain German, that northern France
would be lost and that Belgium would
cease to exist. They are only just begin
ming to understand that Germany could
withdraw entirely from the territory she
has occupied and could cedc Alsacc-
Lorraine to France and still be victorious.
They are only just discovering their stu
pendous blunder at the beginning of the
war in failing to recognize the signil-
canoe OF Jne balkan SITUATION.
The vital point was and has always
been in the Balkans. 1t was there that
Germany wished to extend her power.
The destruction of Serbia was necessary
in order that her plans might be carried
out. But the rest of Europe allowed
Serbia to be destroyed and bungled in
its diplomacy and in its military activi-
ties until it was too late to prevent the
extension of German sway through the
Balkans and thence into Asia Minor.
Germany has already won the great
things for which she started the war.
The Central European empire, extend
ing from the North Sea almost to the
Persian Gulf, is already an accomplished
fact. The war map shows it, with the
league Of nations including. under the
hegemony of Germany the Austro-H Hun
garian empire, Serbia, Bulgaria, Rumania
and Turkey. These nations arc depend
ent on Germany at the present time, and
if peace is made now on the German plan,
they will be so dependent for generations
that they must obey the dictates of Ber-
lin. Plans are already perfected to put
the sons of the Kaiser on the thrones of
new Kingdoms to be created and absorbed
into the German empire.
Any peace made now would be Ger
man peace. 1t would confirm the Ger
mans in their belief that they belong TO
the race destined to dominate the world
by the operation of the evolutionary law
of the survival of the fittest. They have
been taught for two generations that the
law of the brute world, in which the
most powerful beast dominates the pack,
is the law of human society. They have
deliberately cultivated the beastly quail
ties. Frightfulness and ruthlessness in
warfare are the products Of this cultiva-
tion. Victory would assure them that
frightfulness was right. 1t would con
firm them in their determination to take
the first seats at the table of the world
and let the other races have only what is
left. They have boasted that they will
leave nothing to the conquered nations
but eyes 20 weep with.
Civilization cannot stand for this sort
of thing and endure. The military power
of the other nations must continue to
hammer at the German lines until there
is no Prussian left who believes that
German might is invincible. The theory
that the German is fittest to survive
must be smashed till there is nothing
left of it. Then peace commissioners can
gather about table and arrange for the
establishment of free governments by
free peoples unthreatened by any future
menace of ruthless warfare or by any
danger of the application of the law of
the jungle to human relations.
The first thing to be done when Ger
many is defeated is to break up the
Central European empire as it lies on
the war map today. Serbia must be
re-established in the path which Ger
many has sought to tread toward Asia.
The non-German races of Austria must
be made autonomous. Turkey must be
driven from Europe. Palestine and
Mesopotamia must be taken from Turkey
so that there can be no possibility of the
establishment of German power in the
great center OF ancient world empire
located at the point where the east and
the west meet
Negotiated peace will accomplish none
of these things. A negotiated peace is
what Germany wants. But such a peace
would be only prelude to future wars
in which Germany would seek to extend
her dominion over the nations still
unconquercd. The purpose of the Lib