Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-10-15

An Effort to Save Germany From Her Gov.
ernment-Pcsce No Nearer
DRESIDENT WILSON'S reply to Ger
many does not bring peace nearer.
It does not bring an armistice nearer.
II leaves Germany where she was
before, upon her knees. subject to con-
tinued punishment and humiliation, men,
aced by disaster.
Germany is informed that as the first
precedent to an armistice she must
change her Government. There Is fiat
intimation that the Hohenzollerns must
be eliminsted-but it is only an intima-
tion. Perhaps the President was as ex-
plicit as he felt he had a right to be.
since he does not aim to be dictator of
forms of government. But the note has
this sting:
The President feels bound to say that
the whole process of peace WILL in his
judgment, depend upon the definiteness
and the satisfactory character of the
guarantees which can be given in this
fundamental matter.
Having reformed her Government to
the satisfaction Of the Allies, Germany
may sue again for an armistice to be
arranged-and this is one of the pro-
foundly significant provisions of the
reply-on conditions "which must be left
to the judgment and advice of the mill
tary advisers of the United States Gov
ernment and the Allied Governments"
1t is not difficult to imagine the condi-
tions which General Foch would devise
for this eventuality. The occupation Of
the fortified cities of the Rhine and even
an Allied expeditionary force in Berlin
would approximate the method sug-
gested by precedent.
The note will clear the air. That it
might as fittingly have been dispatched
in reply to the first appeal from Ger
many does not concern US now. AS it
stands the document is more than reply
to Germany. 1t is a reply from the
President-and in a sense an epochal
one-to all that anxious world here and
abroad that has been trying to read the
fate Of Germany through the reactions
at Washington since the appeal for an
armistice arrived from Berlin. Mr.. Will
son has done none of the things that his
more passionate critics wanted him to
do. He did not curtly rebuff the Ger
mans and demand unconditional sur
render. He has seen fit, rather, to talk
reason to a beaten enemy. He has not
closed the door to peace. He has chosen
to recognize what many people often
forget-that there are in Germany about
sixty millions of people who did not par
ticipate in the invasion of France and
Belgium, who contributed only passively
to the Hohenzollern influence. 1t is not
compassion that seems to have animated
the President in the consideration of the
German people. II may be the knowl-
edge that these sixty millions will have
to be reassimilated into the scheme Of
civilization when the war ends. 1t is to
them, not to their Government or their
army, that he addresses himself. And
in this respect the Presidents note will
be a profound disappointment to all
those who have felt that the ends of
morality and elemental justice and the
elimination of the military egoism Of
Germany demand the beating down of
the nation and the visitation upon Ger
man soil of some of the horrors that the
invading armies carried into France and
Belgium.
For the President makes definite prom
ises to Germany by implication. The
suggestions he has advanced may yet
preserve the enemy's country against the
forced invasion that large part of the
world has prayed for. In its other
clauses the note does not lack the ring
Of iron. Germany, for instance, has de
liberately tried to range the forces of
terrorism behind the appeal for an
armistice by renewing program Of vio-
lation and destruction in French cities.
The Germans obviously wished to sug-
gest that in the absence of an armistice
the great cities in the occupied territory
would be laid waste during an enforced
retirement The Presidents note icily
refuses to accept the threat. The pas
sage relating to recent atrocities is cool
insulting, final. Then:
The nations associated against Ger
many cannot be expected to agree to a
cessation OF arms while acts Of inhu-
manity. spoliation and desolation are
being committed
Thus the challenge of terrorism is
taken up curtly enough.
But the great challenge to the German
people and the essential provision of the