Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-10-14

President Wilson Must Sponsor German
Sincerity or Refuse to Farley


status of the Imperial Chancellor's peace
proffer, forces him to the necessity Of
making the most tremendous decision
any man could face. That decision is
whether he shall accept the offer as
bona fde and use his great influence
with the Entente Allies for immediate
peace negotiations or whether he shall
refuse it and permit the war to proceed
uninterruptedly under the successful
direction of Generalissimo Foch and the
Allied military forces. The issue is
squarely up to him and the situation is Of
has oiCn making.
This is not at all to imply that the
| President alone can establish peace. The
| Allies can still block that. But the re-
| sponsibility of deciding whether he shall
even submit Prince Max's offer is solely
his and he alone can decide it. The mere
implications and consequences of the de-
cision are appalling and it is this fact
which will cause the American people to
hang with anxiety upon his action.
Foreign Secretary Solf has done the
obvious from the German point of view.
Using no more words than the President,
this subordinate minister of the Chan
cellors has answered the Enquiry"
affirmatively at every point, and, so that
there shall be no charge of equvocation,
adopts the Presidents very own lam
guage in accepting the fourteen condi-
tions" and subsequent addresses, and
quite as unreservedly offers to comply
with the proposal for evacuation "cvery-
suggesting the meeting of a mixed COM
mission to make the necessary arrange
ments. If this be trickery, the President
is put upon the defensive to show it.
The one question still left open to
doubt is that concerning the character of
those authorities making the offer. Here
Solf also puts the President to the neces-
sity of hard answer if he would con-
fute it. The Foreign Secretary declares
that the Chancellor is supported in all
his actions by the will of the great ma
jority of the Reichstag and speaks in the
name of the German Government and Of
the German people. This stressing of the
majority of the Reichstag is significant.
Solf is again answering the President in
his own words, although he goes further
back than the Enquiry" message to do
so. 1t will be recalled that in the jan
uary s speech, after laying down the
fourteen conditions" the President said:
"Ncithcr do ice presume to suggest TO
her [Germanyl any alteration or iodi-
fcdtion OF her Institutions. But it is
necessary, we must frankly say, and
necessary as a preliminary to any intell-
gent dealings with her on our part that
we should know whom her spokesman
speak for when they speak to us. whether
for the Reichstd0 majority or for the
military party and the men tChosc creed
Is imperial domination"
See how cleverly Solf and his masters
reply to the President in his own
phrase?
And this is not all. Immediately after
uttering the fourteen conditions" the
President said:
In regard to these essential rectifca-
tons of wrong and assertions of right we
feel ourselves to be intimate partners of all
the Governments and peoples associated
together against the imperialsts. We
cannot be separated in interest or divided
in purpose. We stand together to the end.
That is what Solf is referring to when
he says "The German Government be-
lieves that the Governments of the Pow
ers associated with the Government of
the United States also take the position
tafan by President Wilson in his ad-
Dress"
- The danger of parleying with German
autocrats is apparent in this adroit use
they make of the Presidents expressions.
That they are now sincere in seeking
their armistice cannot be doubted, since
they so eagerly concede these prelimi-
nary points. But they are merely pre-
liminary points and these notes bind
them no more than the original PROPOSE
tion of Prince Max, unless the President
can exact further guarantees and host
ages-something more than an unmo-
Tested extrication of their imperiled
armies from the grip of Foch in France.
Although they have answered with
such parrotlike repetition of the Presi-
dent, they have not given the one proof
which the Allied world will accept as
conclusive of a change of heart in Ger
many-the overthrow of the blood guilty
Hohenzollern tyrants and the placing of
the reins of government securely in the
hands of the people. If that is what is
meant by the Imperial decree to which
Prince Max referred in his Reichstag
speech, no details of these radical re-
forms have been allowed to reach be-
yond the borders of Germany. Is it any
wonder that the world is skeptical?
| IL pracidaat Wilsa, iS ho+ta. info,..,a "A