Bisbee daily review., 1918-10-09


 emptory rejection of the offer nor bluntly demand an unconditional sur render now, because the American government did not propose to fall into the trop of supplying the Ger man militarists with a means of bol- stering up their argument that the Germans are fighting a defensive" war and that the announced objects of the allies are only to destroy them.
 ThaS is precisely what President Wilson has avoided. He has me- what the allied diplomats regarded as q trick with a move which wlG expose it, if a trick it be- He has called upon the German government for evidence of it's good faith and should it not be forthcoming he has left with German leaders the problem of explaining to their own people, already clamoring for peace, why they are not willing to accept it.
 From that point, the president passes to another which will develop, as the exchange proceeds, whether the United States and the allies will deal except on the battle field with the German government as at present con stituted. The president tells the chancellor he is justified in asking whether the imperial chancellor is speaking merely for the constituted authorities of the empire who have, so far, conducted the war"
 This will develop whether Maximil- ian speaks for the German militaists whom the president has denounced as unworthy of any trust and who re. garded treaties as "a scrap of paper" or whether he speaks with the force of the people of a nation. This is re- garded as probably the most import ant part of the presidents communi- cation, fraught with potent possibili- ties of the most far reaching effect in Germany, where an active allied has been making rapid headway in awakening the German people to the necessity of assuming the responsibilities of their own gov ernment and making their own peace.
 It is regarded as possible, if not in- deed likely, that the German mill tarist leaders hoped for a curt and defiant answer with which they could rally their people to give their last drop of blood flor the protection of the fatherland" and with other rolling phrases in which the German official announcements abound.
 The unanimous opinion among dip lemats is that the president by a care fully studied, most skillful reply has robbed them of that opportunity if they desired it, and has sent to the German people themselves a new mes sage that the United States and the allies desire nothing more than "a reign of law, based upon the consent of the governed and sustained by the opinion of mankind"
 It was freely conceded that nasty reading of the presidents answer might not at first satisfy some who hoped for flat rejection of any terms but an unconditional surrender. But the government is condifent that as the presidents communication is care fully digested, it's full import grasped, its almost inevitable effect realized, and its possibilities for weakening the German military party on it's home grounds comprehended, it will be seen that the president chose a very deep, but direct method of developing an answer for all time to the question, do the German people want peace?
 An armistice while the invaders re- main on violated soil is already re- jected. Germany now must state she accepts "a reign of law, based on the consent of the governed or whether she wants to negotiate about one; she must say whether the appeal for peace comes from the beat en militarists who began a war for world domination or from a war rid den people ready to make a peace lasting.
 A reading of the fourteen points of the presidents speech before congress on January 8, 1918, makes clear the terms on which peace can be made.
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