The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-03-21

strangled Austria, if it, goes directly against the spirit of President Wilson and against one of his important dic- ta, the responsibility is as much the British governments as anybody's. Do you suppose that if President Will son had himself been present at the Conference the resulting manifesto to the enemy and to the world would not have been very different from what it actually was?
 Behind the Times.
 The fact is that no European Allied government has yet freed itself from the domination of ideas which are already superseded. All of them are behind the times. And they are be- hind the times because they are held back by secret treaties, whereas | President Wilson is no party to the secret treaties. I do not wish to be too hard on the secret treaties. They were for the most part thep ro6Uct | of imperious necessities. But time and the march of events, both ma terial and moral, have rendered the secret treaties ridiculous. True, we ] entered into them, and we must abide by them until all parties are willing 1 to abrogate them. But we could at any rate use our influence to annul | them, and we are not doing so. Con- sidering that Italy depends upon us 1 for essentials of war, considering that, while rationing ourselves more strictly l than France is rationed, we are di- yerting food to France without which which she could not live, we might not improperly claim the right to | support those great bodies of opinion i in France and Italy which are against the secret treaties and which recog- nize their futility. The secret treaties are costing seven millions day, not | to speak of lives. Until they are re- .pudiated we cannot talk honestly of a League of Nations; we cannot hon. l estly range ourselves with President l Wilson; we cannot admit the self | evident proposition that the main 1 term of peace is the complete eVacE- ation of territories invaded during the | war, and that all other conditions whatsoever are of a secondary nature. The secret treaties belong to a de. parted order. They are bound to go. When they do go, their going will be a terrific blow to Prussian militar. ism and terrific impetus to German
 democracy and to Austrian states 1 manship. Until they do go, we can
 not use the whole of UT foroces, moral as well as physical, against the
 Prussian militarists In other words,
 we cannot thoroughly carry on the
 war.
 The Danger of Feebleness.
 No government that lags behind its
 own public can wage war efficiently
 for successful war depends quite as
 much on ideas as on guns. Our gov
 ernment, reactionary, nti-democratic
 at heart, and enfeebled by medieval
 political prejudice, is bound to waste
 ac considerable part of the national
 will-to-win. And just as it cannot
 efficiently make war, so it cannot
 make peace. It can do neither the
 one thing nor the other. This truett
 will become more and more clear as , the months pass I am continually
 being told. especially by members ot Parliament, that we must keep oul
 government because we cannot int an alternative to it. But the notior
 that we cannot find an alternative tC
 MT. Lloyd George and Lords Milnel and Curzon strikes me as one of tht
 widest that have ever heard. How
 ever, we shall see. One day the gov
 ernment will meet with an accident
 and it will lose either it's life or sev' , eral limbs That nobody is fireplace
 able will then be demonstrated. The
 next result will be the tearing up b! mutual consent the secret treaties
 and we shall have made a real steI towards victory. (By the Interna
 tional News Bureau, Inc, Boston.)