Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1918-03-21
Thursday, March 81, 1918.
A good intention clothes itself
with sudden power.-Emerson.
Have the Central Peoples Lost Hope?


J. civilians, I; gassed, 6-Boston Globe.
II nine men die of disease in our
army for every two killed in action.
what may be our reasonable estimate
Of the total losses in the forces of Ger
many and Austria Hungary? Suppose
their losses are no greater per thou
sand engaged than ours, what must be
the awful toll in all these AZ months of
war? For every man we have in
Europe, Germany and Austria must
have at least 80 on their combined war
fronts. How would 80 times our pres
Ont casualties come homo to the people
Of America today?
And yct We have only begun to fight.
The Teuton forces probably lost in
1917, 500 times as many as our total
casualties up to date. What would it
mean ~ us if one in every 100 of our
population were sacrificed to war in a
single year?
Long contemplation Of these qucs-
tons gives us only It glimpse of what
war is. And Europe has had three and
half years of war. Are we surprised
that the humble masses of the central
empires long for peace. or. might we
not expect that by this time the people
had become dcadencd to mental
anguish, had lost all care for life or its
natural cndoarmonts. were long since
moving on automatically under the
propulsion of Il single generation i'm
bcddcd. continuously drilled idea"
Is there not a stage in such war of
great nations, at which whole peoples
tottcr numbly along as Napoleon left
tho field at Waterloo?
Sometimes We wonder if the homes
Of Europe feel the going of the faith
ers, brothers and sons in the spring of
1918 as they did in the autumn of 1914.
Then tho world had hope. and life was
sweet in the plans for future. Who, in
Europe. is now laying pans for happy
sNuiS NlliI lJNtu ones.
And what a feeling of-lct us not
define it as "hatrcd,' but leave it as
feeling what a feeling must well up
In the hearts of millions of bereft. in
Germany as much as in France. when
they consider the cause of it all wncn
they realize that it was the greed and
ambition of a few that brought this
thing upon the world.
Are VIC. then, entering conflict with u
normal people or are we meeting a
feelncless, unreasoning automaton Of
war, a hldcous thing conceived and
norrished by Prussanism; a thing that
Is TO give up its misspont existence in
dumb woe with the destruction OF its
creator?
Is it not HOPE. then. that we should
offer to the people Of Germany and
Austria? Can we offer it by the same
grim manner in which Count Won
HcrtlinG faces the world? can we fan
tho spark of hope in German and Aus
trian breasts by abandoning our open
offer of liberal terms to tho people
themselves. if they will rcnouncc the
war masters who have BETRAYED every
confidence and contract of civilized IN
dertsandingn
The PrusSan rulers cannot be trust
cd by the nations OF the world not
even by the people of Germany. them
selves. for we have evidence of the
growth of diStrust, fear. loathng, of the
monster that in1icts immortality upon
its womanhood in promotion OF mill
tarism generation ahead We have
evidence Of the growth of bitterness
and revolt in the homes bercft. de-
graded. stripped. 10y the hands of con-
sciencelcss lust for power. We have
evidence that these feelings would
spring into an Irresistible force. if
icrtili2ed by hope that peace lies be-
yond the wall of the Kultur system.
In the British House of Lords on
Tuesday significant discussion of the
prospect OF League of Nations"
arose. Lord Lansdowne said he be-
lieved omens were entirely favorable to
the formation of such a league, one of
the most hopeful omens being the in
terest taken in it in the United States,
without whose adhesion the consum-
nation of the idea would be beyond
reach. Considering Americas great
world trade. he said. there was no
country which could use the economic
weapon so ctfectually.
Regarding the suggested impossible
tty Of admitting Germany because she
could not be trusted. he said nobody
proposed to rely upon the German
pledge or the German signature. The
essence of the proposal was that the
powers admitted to partnership would
to some extent part with their sover-
eign rights and enter into a compact
TO conform to whatever code of inter-
national law was laid down by the
league itself.