New-York tribune., 1918-12-24
Allies Can Settle
Fate Without US.
Aid, Says Harvey
Editor Tells New England
Society That the League
of Nations Will Enforce
War and Not Peace

Colonel George Harvey ventured the
opinion last night at the 18th annAal
dinner of tho New England Society in
( the City of New York, at the Waldorf
Astoria that the Entente Allies could
settle the destiny of Europe without
recourse to the "supernal wisdom" Of
the United States. Tho "anaemic aitru-
Of yesterday, Colonel Harvey said, as
sured the world that the United States
wanted no indemnities.
SO why we should sail to France
Colonel Harvey could not for moment
imagine. Then he suggested that it was
"for an ideal-a glorious ideal; for a
league, q mighty league of nations, to
enforce--what? Peace? No To en-
force war-war upon every people, who
refuse to bow to the cdicts Of a self
appointed tribunal"
"Not for ourselves, assuredly," he
said. "are we venturing upon untrod-
den and hitherto forbidden paths. For
whom, then? For the Allies, with
whom we. persist, not wholly appar-
emily to their liking, in being academi-
cally and judicially associated? True,
they are human realists. They could
hardly be other after having been
subjected for four long years to the
bestial ravaging Of the Huns. But is
their case SO desperate and their men
al
dejectedly and helplessly upon our
supernal wisdom?
The Knife Has Saved
"Indeed it cannot be. For fifty long
years all Europe sat in the shadow of
death. For fifty long years the can
Ger of national lust gnawed at the very
vitals of her civilizing existence.
Palliative remedies were vain. The
knife alone could save But the knife
has saved The operation, praise Godl
with our assistance at the critical mo-
ment, has ended successfully. The
cancer is removed The menace no
longer exists. Germany lies prostrato,
helpless-a skulking, whining suppliant
at the bar Of righteous judgment. What
her penalty shall be is no concern of
ours. II must and should be fixed by
those whom she has most previously
wronged.
"But does any one imagine that
France and England and Belgium and
Serbia are incapable of fixing the guilt
and exacting the penalty? Is it in
cumbent upon US to point to them, the
ravshed remnants of their races, the
way of a peace that shall endure?
Even though, as all must realize, no
conceivable severity of punishment
could match the atrocity of the crimes
committed, it is not for us who have
been injured least TO bewail the verdict
of those who have suffered most. No
more, then, for the safety, aid and
guidance of our friends than for the
we'll being of ourselves do we wander
far atield in needless disregard of pre-
cepts crystallized by time and crowned
with unexamped success.
Pursues EntangIing Alliances
Why, then, do we go? What was
our impelling motive in setting sail
upon ship made in Germany and mis-
named with unconscious irony the
George Washington, not in scrupulous
avoidance, but in eager pursuit, of en-
tangllng alliances? America. We are
assured by our former pacifsts. now
become anamic altruists, wants nothing
not dollar Of the money which we
were forced to expend and whose col
lection to the last penny is warranted
by law and custom, not even such in
adequate compensation as money can
afford to the families of the innocent
and unoffendng men, women and chill
dren who were murdered in cold blood
upon the high seas. NO indemnitiesl'
we are told with a sternness almost inn
plying that we, and not the fendish
Huns, are the real criminals.
Kaiser Must Be Hanged
"We are told that Germany cannot
pay. Cannot pay? With nine-tentbs
Of her productive labor under arms.
she furnished seven billions a wear
Tor four years in her dastardly ATTEMPT
TO conquer the world. Surely in times
OF peace she can provide three billions
a year tor fifty years. At any rate. She
can and should be made to trv. And
the infamous scoundrel now living and
plotting at ease in Holland who.
whether he gave the order or not
pinned the iron cross upon the breast
OF the captain who sunk the Lusitania
must be brought to the bar of justice
and tried, convicted and hanged for
the murder of the Frohmans, tie Huh
tards, the Pearsons and the kiddies
whom " Alfred Vanderbilt vainly gave his
life to save. MS
But it is not for any of these rioht-
eous e purposes that we have gone to
farls. America wants nothing'Hwants
nothing so badly that even her CHIEF
Magistrate hies himself across the sea
to get It. Truly, a marvellous spec
tacle Five American commissioner
at the great conference to sneak
avowedly for the world, but il one