New-York tribune., 1918-07-15
Surrender!

By the spell of an exalted Gott COM
pick Germany has succeeded in impos-
ing upon a great many people a certain
reservation of thought as to the out
come.
We speak and we think of winning
the war, of beating the Hun, of peace
by victory, of aims and terms.
We neither speak nor think of the
Huns unconditional surrender Yet
that is the only logical end of war with
a people who have no faith to keep, no
word to pledge. Shall the freedom of
the world be written on scrap of
paper? Shall Germany be allowed to
say on what terms she will keep the
peace?
In all countries people are saying,
more or less, that you cannot destroy
100000 people, and that short of de-
struction you cannot expect the Germans
to surrender.
That is what the Germans say 1t is
the reservation we speak Of
Won Hertling speaks. Hear him. They
are willing to hold out their hand to "an
honorable peace" but
President Wilson wants war until we are
destroyed, and what Mr.. Balfour, the
British Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs, has said must really drive the
flush of anger to the cheeks of every
German. We feel for the honor of our
Fatherland, and we cannot allow our.
suited in this manner.
What President Wilson declared for
in the Mount Vernon speech was ''the
destruction of every arbitrary power
anywhere that can separately, secretly
and Of it's single choice disturb the peace
of the world; or if it cannot be presently
destroyed, at least its reduction to Writ
ual impotence"
1t is possible herein to read distinc-
ton between the German power and the
German people. The destruction of one
does not necessarily imply that of the
other also. Won Hertling sees no dis
tnctlon We think he is right-that
there isn't any
All that President Wilson insists upon.
however, is the surrender of that Ger
man power, of the people or apart from
them, which has plunged the world into
this CHASTITY vortex. And this, says Won
Hertling, is an insult to which Germany
cannot submit!
1T is an ominous and forbidding
thought, we regret to say, to some
among us, to some in every country.
who when they think of victory imagine
set of tipulations-party of one part
the Allies, party of the other part the
Central Powers-signed "Von Some
thing" for the Kaiser. Heaven forbid,
If it had been possible to deal with
Germany by diplomacy, or, that is to
say, by the usages Of civilization, we
should not have had to go to war. The
sword is the last resort. You shall not
take up the sword against man until
you have justified to yourself the neces-
sity of his surrendering Internationally
TO you to save his life, or of your killing
him outright to save your own.
When we went to war with Germany
1t was with the resolve to destroy the
German war power. If that power is in
separable from the German people. as
Won Hertling means to say, then we are
resolved upon the destruction of the Ger
man people. The alternative is in their
hands They may surrender.
Having put civilization to the sword,
having committed themselves headlonp
to their barbarous faith in force alone.
now by what right do the Germans
claim for themselves immunity from the
just and ineXorable consequence? By
what audacty of self-exaltation are
they insulted when they are required to
choose between surrender or destruc-
ton?
Who put that choice upon Belgium.
ppon Serbia, upon Rumania? BY whom
we're 75,oOO,ooo people required to sur
render at Brest- litovsk? Is Berlin more
sacred than Paris? The Germans would