The Brunswick news., 1919-02-25

war. They not only break the good
German sword" but only sternly strike
its jagged haft from the professerly
pacific hand of the new republican
government at classic Weimar.
1t was intimated at the time that
President Wilson heartily agreed with
these stiffer terms. He was all for
making it so sweepingIy impossible for
Germany to resume hostilities that
it would be an act of preposterous in
eanity for her to contemplate it. This
is exactly in line with the whole VIII
son policy from the moment the Brest
Litovsk treaty convinced him finally
Of the robber ambitions and the in
durable treachery of the old Germ II
&c gime. Then he declared for force
force to the uttarmost" and he swift
ly and irresistibly applied that force"
until German lines were hurled back
r.ever has been an hour from Brest-
Litovsk to the present moment when
President Wilson has doubted the i'm
perative necessity Of depriving Ger
many of every fragment OF hope that
she might yet appeal from reason to
force
He is ready for reason. He believes
that reason and justice and self-d,e-
termination are the only bases of por.
manent peace. But he learned from
German treatment of helpless Russia
there was no use trying to reason
with Germany while she still believed
that she could enter that pagan 3ppea'
from the reason to force. So although
the French have apparently feared
for some time that our president wAs
w sympathetic or uniformed regard.
ing the grim need that confronta th,cm
to make doubly sure that Germany
cannot saEagely strike again when
their allies are demobilized and dis
rersed, they found when it came to
a showdown that he was wholly sym
pathetic toward the view that Ger
many must be left without the shadow
OF a chance to reopen the war.
The presidents passion for per
manent peace does not blind him to
the need of relentessly throttling to.
day every threat of immediate war.
But, Of course, he has the essential
foundations of any permanent peace
ever in view while he is doing the
throttling. 1t will be just as well ta
keep this test of the probability of
any rumored Grmistica conditions IN
mind when weighing the chances be.
tween the several reports. Any aecn
that can rlralyze German militarv
action for the present without leaving
Germany to easy prey to Boghe
ViSm either domestic or imported all!
without putting a sincerely pacfi~
German pcople-should such appear
in such a position of intolerab,2 wrcne
IS almost to compel Il war revanclc
is quite within the Wilson policy; bU'
any step which would perilously we3,5
en- the new German state in the ia c
of foes within and without Or imljc
i'll Germany a permanent irritaut like
her own seizure of AIsace-Lorrainc is
very likely not to have received the
presidents imprimatur.
One report suggests the cutting If
C2rmany's army to 250,O00. Herr FIR;
berger had already told q corresnon. l.
ent that Germany now has only zoe,
coo men under arms. and had point
ed to an alleged proof Of its in.rf.
ficiency in tie reported Polish inyaa
ion in the east. But rumor Ii s DIT
the German strength in the east mucl
higher atnd credited it's command t.
the redoubtable Hindenburg. In any
event. it would be remarkable alb.
dication of power over their own pc1
pies on the part of the allies for then
to permit Germany to maintain 2 larg
CT army for the express purpose q
preventing invasion by an Allied force