New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-12-07
Real Peace Impossible


behalf of Boishevi5m ia certain "ah
cral quarters am not IN the lest
impressed. BolShevlsm seems to mo
doctrine subversive OF all on,
western civilization That the Rus
SLAMS are entitled TO B0lsAevlss.c H.
stltutlons, if they desire them. con.
cede, but the very essence of the
Bolshevls,ic doctrine is conquest ~
the word for the idea, therefore
making peace with the Bolshev s.sis
impossible, because ali the peace Is
on one side and all the peril remains
on the other.
On the other hand, it is Gear thai
the world is at present too tired ia
fight, and that nothing but hard
fighting, far harder fighting than
would have been needed a year ago
will suffice to destroy Bolshevism in
Russia. Meantime, the miserable
compromises adopted through ne
cesslty have failed. Not on.y have
they failed, but we are ose to tbs
situation in which we shall see the
border races of Russia conquered
and destroyed, after having been en-.
couraged to fight by us and our as
sociates, if they do not make peace
with the Bolshevists and if we do not
help them to make peace, even to the
extent OF making peace ourselves.
cannot Disguise from myself the
fact that such peace viii be peril
Gus in the extreme, and probably.
ike the Peace Of Amiens, a century
ago, Only truce. But, on the her
hand, we sh-ll never be able to
deal with the Bolshevists in the one
way possible until the majority Of
he people of Great Britain, France
and the United States recognize the
real m~nace TO them of 30 shevism
N Russia, and, recognizing il, arc
willing to make the sacrifice neces-
5ary to crush it.
Beyond all else it seems to me
that the time for humbug giag peo-
9le about the Bolshev st situation
is about over The truth is that
we have failed in all our half meas
ures, our failure has resulted in the
sacrifice of those elements in nuss.a
on which might have been built
hopeful government, and. if we per-
list IN our present policy, we must
expect, first, the sacrifice of the
border states, then the coalition Of
Russia and Germany, and, presently,
lew wars, b airing some hing IF ths
same relation TO the last hat tbs
Napoleonic struggles did to ths wars
Of the French Revolution.
The solemn truth, excessively
hard to bring home TO the American
people, still concentrated upon the
e-onestic battle over the league Of
nations. is that war has not enled
II peace in Europe: that if Ger
manlsm was the danger of yester-
day, dissipated by the victory In
the Word War, Bolsnevism is the
danger of to-day and tomorrow. no.
where yet even checked 7" be-
lieve Europe can exist half BOl'
Shevist and half democratic ls to
subscribe to the fol'y fan ar in
our own history before tie Civil
War.
lust Fight Bolshepisrs
In my judgment we shall ulti-
mately have to fight Bolshevism But
It seems equally plain that ii Is bet
ter to consent TO a truce now than
to permit Bolshevism to overrua
Eastern and Central Europe and
gather incredible momentum. vale
we continue to pretend that i
being contained BY an il.usory cor
don sanitdire, or crushed by armies
which are regularly shown to DC
many miles bch nd the scene o.
heir successive victories few days
after the battle.
Exactly the same illusion was
nourshed in the world in the open
ng days of the recent war; when
German armies were daily renortea
to have been decisively defeated
until the hour when the tru' h eeaa
no longer be concealed and the
western world awoke to the facs
that the Kaiser's troops were wlsnih
sight of Paris.
The danger is no longer Germany,
but Russia. Unless Germany ana
Russia cooperate We have no real
reason to fear Germany for many
years to come, bat fate seems 10
have ordained that the world snan
continue blind to the RUSSIAN men-
ace, exactly as it did to the Ger
man, until that hour when SELL
deception is no longer possible ana
self-preservation only little less