Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-06-28
The Shadow of Eagle Wings.

German leaders are admitting at last that they
cannot conquer tie world. at least not in their
present adventure. DR.. Won Kuehmann, the For
eign Secretary. significantly says the Reichstag:
I'm view OF the magnitude of this and the num-
Der of powers, including them from overseas that
engaged, its end can hardly be expected
through military decisions alone and without
course to diplomatic negotiations" This smacks
strongly of a, plan to prepare the German people
for graver admissions later The Foreign Secre-
tary speaks flamboyantly enough, it is true, of
''our enormous military resources" "our strong
position the battle field" and of 'the determine
ton at home" Yet there is a marked and truly
prophetic difference between the voice that now
pipes of peace by negotiation and that which was
wont to thunder of German victory and world do
minion
The change is ascribabIe partly to linden
burgs failure thus far to attain any of his major
detectives the western front, and partly to the
disastrous outcome of the latest Austrian drive.
Obviously. too, the formidable and ever in
creasing number of Americans at the front has
something to do with the altered tone from Ber-
lin. DR.. Won Kuehmann Interestingly includes in
the powers that make for the magnitude of the
war those from overseas" it was not many
months gone by when German leaders secuted the
idea of Americas playing any considerable part in
the conflict Nov they evidently begin to realize
that if the war is fought to a finish they will be
crushed and forever cast down
Quite naturally then they are coiling their
schemes for a negotiated peace. After one or two
more desperate attempts to break the Allied line
in the West, they may be expected to start de-
termined and insidious movement with view to
ending hostilities before defeat overwhelms them
and leaving the settlement to some such Prussian
skin game" as the Brest-Litovsk conference
proved to be. Despairful of winning by arms they
will turn 10 chicane. They will assume any virtue
make any promise. stoop to any perfdy to escape
a lasting and righteous decision. Furthermore,
their position is such that they make apparent
~ large concessions and still emerge from the war
immensely more powerful that at its beginning and
far better prepared for another raid upon civiza-
ton. They could well afford, for example, to re-
Hnquish Belgium and northern France and even
to give back Alsace-LOrraine IL at the same time
they might hold their vast conquests in Russia and
their dominance in the Balkans; for such
rangement would enrich them beyond all reckon
ing and would leave their militarism triumphant
instead of chastened.
The German Foreign Secretary declares that
of the preliminaries to exchange of peace
views between the belligerents must be certain
degrees of mutual confidence in each others hon
esty and chivslry" What a mockery are those
words in a German leaders mouth, Surely he can
not expect the world to put any trust in the hon
esty and chivalry of Hohenzollern Germany quail
ties that foreign to that autocracy as to a
rattlesnake. There be safe dealing with
Prussianism until it is beaten into unconditional
surrender. There be concessions from
the Potsdam gang any more than there could be
concessions from burglar and murderer seeking
to escape Justice There be just and dur
able peace with Germany until her militarism lies
broken and powerless, forever discredited in the
eyes OF ner own people well in the conscience
of mankind
II IS to achieve that glorious and benef-
cent end tnat nearly a million American soldiers
are -ow - trenCe. their ranks continually swell
ing with fresh and eager arrivals. II is to win the
peace OF justice, rot a treacherous German truce
that brave France and England and Italy have bed
and suffered through these fiery years. The day
draws near when their long sacrifice and their
faith so heroically kept will find fulfllment in the
wings Of the unwearying Eagle from the West.
The Huns themselves foresee the victory which
American power assures the Allied arms and begin
to talk accordingly of negotiation But the peo-
pies who fight for freedom AID humanity will not
dishonor their noble dead and betray their right
eous cause by parIeyng with the criminal whom
eventually they conquer.